Architects can strengthen their communities through strategic volunteering

Just as architects build structures that connect our cities, civic service builds social structures that connect our communities.

As federal funding resources that support social programs evolve, the need for civic service in our communities grows more critical, along with architects’ opportunities to expand professional visibility through outreach, impact, and value to society. As our cities grapple with complex challenges of equity, resiliency, and sustainability, volunteer action at the grassroots level can yield substantial results. Architects are uniquely equipped and positioned to engage in both support and leadership roles to bolster communities.  

Many terms are applied to categorize such service efforts:  civic advocate, community volunteer, social activist, servant leader, and citizen architect. In 2008, AIA defined a "citizen architect" as someone who: 

• Uses his/her insights, talents, training, and experience to contribute meaningfully, beyond self, to the improvement of the community and the human condition.
• Stays informed on local, state, and federal issues, and makes time for service to the community.
• Advocates for higher living standards, the creation of a sustainable environment, quality of life, and the greater good.
• Seeks to advocate for the broader purposes of architecture through civic activism, by gaining appointment to boards and commissions, and through elective office at all levels of government. 

In 2018, AIA published the Citizen Architect Handbook as a guide to elected, appointed, and volunteer positions utilizing their professional expertise for the betterment of society, improving living standards and quality of life, plus contributing to initiatives that serve the greater good. 

There are no lack of local organizations focusing on social, educational, and environmental issues needing professional expertise. For purposes of this article, community volunteerism and civic service are catch-all terms for a wide range of endeavors beyond standard professional work in service to broader public benefits. Such commitments can directly and/or indirectly address issues of civic values, social equity, quality of place, and quality of life. Opportunities abound to join advocacy groups, associations, boards, causes, coalitions, commissions, committees, councils, and task forces, each with a unique focus on public needs.  

In addition to creative problem-solving, teamwork and leadership, architects bring direct applications to situational analytics, organizational complexities, strategic planning, and budget management. Such skillsets developed in building design share many parallels to addressing the myriad of social, operational, and performance challenges in the non-profit sector. Crafting bold, innovative programs that yield incremental, hard-won progress on entrenched, generational problems requires diligent, hands-on, action-oriented teamwork. As in the realm of architecture, pursuing collective impact requires the following combinations to best realize optimal potential: 

• Aspirational vision and dedicated commitment
• Strategic collaboration and creative synergies
• Authentic energy and abundant patience

My personal network in Baton Rouge, La., of a dozen organizations served over the years can be broadly categorized into those with a community, educational, and municipal focus, each offering a distinct lens into pressing needs, complex issues, and significant opportunities. They include the multi-state The Walls Project; the local Young Entrepreneurs Academy; and the Baton Rouge Planning Commission, among others. 

Getting started

I initially joined various committees of the local AIA, neighborhood residents, the chamber of commerce, the parks department, and school and church groups. This grew to weaving together twelve organizations covering a spectrum of community issues broadly divided between quality of place and quality of life issues. Such local groups also bring connection to national organizations such as NeighborWorks America, Trust for Public Land, and the Urban Land Institute, providing prime access to expanded contacts, enhanced resources and best practices.

Just as design projects bring us deep into each client’s specific world, volunteering opens many doors into aspects of our communities by working directly to address citizens’ daily aspirations and obstacles. 

These non-profit organizations greatly benefit from the design thinking, process innovation, and project management skills architects use every day and can apply to a myriad of  civic needs. Community volunteering offers a rich palette of key opportunities for stretching both personal and professional capabilities, plus the rewards for helping guide tangible, catalytic impacts to areas of public need.

Balancing participation in both emerging startups and well-established service entities, such community activism can provide eye-opening insights into conditions, issues, and challenges to join in concerted steps towards significant progress, benefits, and value. Experiencing the contrast of organizational scale brings fresh energy, and best practices can be applied back and forth between each program.

Experiential vignettes entail both one-on-one encounters and group collaborations through either short-term interactions or years-long initiatives, such as follows: 

• From introductory architecture for Mentorship STEAM academy students to saving a historic downtown building from imminent demolition
• From weatherproofing and painting an elderly neighbor's house to taking a foster child for his first visit to a museum
• Planting produce gardens at Howell Community Park in a historically disinvested district of the city, plus at low-income housing sites in food deserts. 

It's not a job, it's an adventure

What’s there to gain from combining the practice of architecture with practicing civic service for social impact? The rewards vary widely and are surprisingly accessible and creatively expansive. Additionally, it’s both personally and professionally motivating to see significant initiatives, resultant growth, and incremental progress develop throughout the city.

It provides an integrated spectrum of social awareness with a deeper sense of the community fabric we place our building into, as certain aspects of civic engagement only transpire at this grass-roots level. It can be professionally complementary to the rhythm of business dynamics, with vivid experiences of striking social contrasts and visceral confrontations of real lives struggling in marginalized neighborhood conditions.  

Community volunteering to successfully connect with underserved populations requires the best of strategic, systemic, and empathetic approaches to bring positive change and lasting value through both quality of place and quality of life enhancements.   Each time investment offers a window into intertwined human issues and place-based opportunities to contribute enduring public value. Such meaningful contributions can forge deeper social ties that foster new perspectives of awareness and responsibility to the urban village.  

Done well, civic service and community volunteering by whatever name intrinsically augments the practice of architecture, can be exceedingly gratifying and inspiring, plus there’s always more to do! 

Rex Cabaniss, AIA, is a partner at WHLC Architecture in Baton Rouge, La.