Community Projects Archives - Sunshine on a Ranney Day

The Drake House

Written by Joe Lane on June 3, 2022. Posted in Community Projects, Randall Paulson Architects.

Founded in 2006

The Drake House provides housing and education programs for single mothers and their children who are experiencing homelessness in North Metro Atlanta. It is a community where every family has the opportunity to recover quickly and with dignity from their homeless situation.

Each year Sunshine on a Ranney Day completes a special community project that helps a large number of children & families. Sunshine on a Ranney Day is excited to announce that we will be helping The Drake House by renovating their main headquarters. This makeover includes redesigning and renovating multiple rooms that serve as classrooms for kids studying, learning life skills, arts and crafts, and safe spaces for them to lounge. The rooms also serve to help moms with relationship building, parenting, health and wellness, and money management.

“Over 40% of Atlanta’s homeless population are women and children.”

The goal of the makeover is to create flexible use spaces that allow the children to feel at home in a learning/activity environment. The spaces also help keep the community of kids engaged with each other, creating an extended ‘family’ feel. The central community space in the basement is the food serving spaces. These spaces are currently extremely cramped and do not have a natural flow, inhibiting the ability to smoothly and efficiently cater to each family that is participating in the buffet line. We will be creating this natural flow through relocation of structural walls and the addition of a large island space. There is not currently a dedicated space for older children to teens to be able to gather for free time and engage with The Drake House volunteers for tutoring. We will be converting the upstairs executive offices into that space, providing a leisure space as well as a learning/meeting space.

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The Cottage School

Written by Joe Lane on January 17, 2022. Posted in Community Projects, Crosby Design Group.

Founded in 1985

TCS is a school that provides an educational environment for students in grades 4-12 with a wide variety of special needs. In addition to struggling academically, socially, and emotionally many of our students come to us broken in spirit. Our program works on building our students’ self-confidence, self-determination and helping each one of them find their voices. The Cottage School prepares individuals for fulfillment of their true and tremendous potential as confident, productive, and independent adults. The number of families that have shared with us how this program has literally saved their child’s life is innumerable. It is not just a school; it is a community; it is a soft-landing spot and launching pad for our student’s futures; it is a family. As one of our middle school students recently stated…”It is our differences that make us a community…but our similarities that make us a family.”

Cottage School (TCS) is delighted to be partnering with Sunshine on a Ranney Day for the upcoming makeover of our main office lobby area. Two Atlanta area non-profits working together to help support children with special needs…we couldn’t think of a better match! We are especially excited that this new relationship is one that we anticipate will go well beyond this project. Helping those in need in our community for years to come as we refer families respectively between our programs for their specific needs makes this an exceptional collaboration.

“It is our differences that make us a community…but our similarities that make us a family.”

This project is so much more than a “face-lift” for us. The design area is the first stop for our prospective students with their families as they search for that soft-landing spot after struggling in prior environments.This initial meeting can be rather emotional as background information and struggles are discussed. We have dreamt of meeting with these families in a warm, comfortable setting where they immediately feel at home. The work that Sunshine on a Ranney Day is providing us with that and so much more.

In addition to prospective families, all visitors (including community partners, donors, prospective sponsors, fellow educators, begin their visit to The Cottage School in the main lobby area. It is the focal point for our entire campus that also sees an average of 150 students and 40 staff members a day traveling through this space.