January Update
Hello from the Casino Road Initiative! We’ve had a very busy January, and are happy to share the following updates with you.
Casino Road Community Hub
Plans are moving forward quickly for the transformation of Children’s Village into a true Community Hub. The Leadership Council officially voted to contract with the Pomegranate Center earlier this month, and we have been working closely with them to establish a preliminary timeline. While all 4 buildings of the Children’s Village complex will be dedicated as a Community Hub this spring, we will be remodeling the buildings in phases. This year, we will focus on Building A. ChildStrive, who owns the complex, has offered to move their administrative offices to a new location in order to free up that space for community use. We are so thankful to have partners like them to move this vital work forward!
The Initiative has hired the architecture firm Environmental Works to lead the remodel of Building A. Environmental Works has worked with the Pomegranate Center several times in the past, and has over 30 years’ experience with community-led design. Take a look at their website (above) to learn more about projects they’ve worked on in the past. We are so excited to work side-by-side with folks that hold community at the core of their values.
While things are changing fast, we can share the following preliminary timeline with you for this project.
January-June
Capital fundraising (around $500,000)
Move administrative offices out of Building A
March – June: Pomegranate Method
Community Meeting and Design Workshop in April
Programmatic planning in May-June
Design concept complete by June
Summer / Fall: Construction
“Early Win”
Remodel Building A
Update courtyard
Fall / Winter: Grand Opening
If you haven’t seen it yet, we encourage you to read the article The Herald ran on the Initiative and one of our incredible members of the Leadership Council, Ruth Bermudez. Click here to read it!
Pomegranate Center Training
As part of our work with the Pomegranate Center, we had the opportunity to bring a 2-day training on the Pomegranate Method up to Snohomish County. On February 26th and 27th a diverse mix of 35 organizational staff and community residents will learn how to use the Pomegranate Method in their own communities, with additional mentoring available after the training to support them. We are so grateful for the opportunity to build capacity for authentic community engagement across our city and county.
Thank you for your continued support, and as always, feel free to contact me with any questions!
Sara Boyle
Casino Road Initiative Coordinator
P: (425) 343-8984
E: sara@cf-sc.org