Design Scheme Interiors, LLC, DANA Member Sherry Ways and her staff along with The Ward 7 Arts Collaborative is working in partnership with the Unity Health Care’s East of the River Health Center to improve literacy rates among children aged six months to five years old living in Ward 7 of Washington, DC. The clinic currently works in partnership with Reach Out and Read of Metropolitan DC to combine pediatric literacy with pediatric care. Artists from the Ward 7 Arts Collaborative, and designers from Design Scheme Interiors, will work together to turn the space in which the program operates into a stimulating, functional, universal and organized environment which will encourage the growth and development of the 2,000 children who visit the clinic for their well-child visits each year.
Currently, the project site is situated in the midst of a bustling waiting area of the health center. This presents challenges in effectively implementing the program. By creating a beautiful and functional space conducive to literacy and learning within the clinic’s walls, we hope to increase literacy among the children, ages six months to five years that visit the clinic each year.
Last year, Unity Health Care served more than 80,000 DC residents (over 18,000 were children), and approximately 2,000 children were served by their East of the River Health Center in Ward 7. The communities in which these children live are challenged by poverty, homelessness, poor education, unemployment, substance abuse, and an increasing number of new HIV/AIDS cases. However, Unity provides primary healthcare and supportive services to these residents through an outcomes-based community healthcare model, regardless of their ability to pay.
Information from the 2000 Census revealed that Ward 7 was second only to Ward 8 when it comes to the largest percentage of families (21.6%) and individuals (24.9%) living in poverty in the District. These wards are also home to a large percentage of children under the age of 18 (44,884 out of the District’s 114,992 children live in Wards 7 and 8). A 2007 article in the Washington Post revealed that the State of Adult Literacy Report found that Ward 7 had the highest percentage of residents over the age of 16 who were functionally illiterate (50.4%) (“Illiteracy Aid Found to Lag in District,” March 19, 2007, B01). Many of these individuals are the parents of the children served by Unity Health Care’s East of the River Health Center.
Through "green" design, combined with early learning and child care design, a visually creative learning space will be achieved for children ages six months- five years old. Through design, art and education pediatric literacy will thrive in a vibrant, stimulating space designed for, around and about children. Quiet and manipulative play will be achieved through division and space planning.
Currently, Design Scheme Interiors, LLC is developing the conceptual portion of the project. Preliminary space planning, colors, mural concept and furniture selections have been made. A design board to be presented to officials at Unity Health Care and the Ward 7 Arts Collaborative is currently being developed. A presentation of the plan will be made in June.
The DC Project Home/Unity Health Care Project is in need of the following donations of environmentally friendly paint products, lobby seating, environmentally friendly rugs, books for children ages- 2-10, environmentally-friendly children's furniture and volunteers are needed to implement the project this summer. In addition, any monetary donations will be welcomed. All who donate will be formally honored with a plaque with your name or company on it. The plaque will be permanently placed in the space as an adopted sponsor of the Unity Health Care Center's reading corner.
For more information contact, Sherry B. Ways, DANA member and Design Principal of Design Scheme Interiors, LLC at sherry@designschemeinteriors.com or (202) 582-5555.
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