Environments Promoting Wellness and Resilience (EmPWR): An Initiative to Promote Better Environments in Domestic Violence Shelters
Starting in 2019, nine City domestic violence (DV) shelters began participating in Environments Promoting Wellness and Resilience (EmPWR), a collaboration between the NYC Department of Health and Mental Hygiene (Health Department) and the NYC Department of Social Services-Human Resources Administration (DSS-HRA), with support from the Mayor’s Office for Economic Opportunity (NYC Opportunity). This initiative was one of the selected projects from the Call for Collaborative Innovations issued by NYC Opportunity in 2018: City agencies were invited to propose ways to improve resident outcomes through new collaborations to address poverty-related challenges.
Inspired by Mental Health by Design, an earlier Health Department initiative focused on the built environment, and Building Dignity, an initiative of the Washington State Coalition Against Domestic Violence, EmPWR applies human-centered design to DV shelters in order to make them more restorative and recuperative for residents, and to further support staff and residents’ well-being. Building Dignity identified five “aspirations” for DV shelter design characteristics: promoting empowerment, security, [re]connection, parenting, and harmony. With a team of architects — Urban X Studio Architecture and Oficina Design — that engage DV shelter residents and staff in the design planning process, EmPWR uses design changes to a shelter’s communal space to support those aspirations and other social-emotional needs of survivors and their children.
Photographs illustrating conditions before (top) and after (bottom) the design changes at a participating shelter: moveable, weather-proof seating encourages socialization in a shelter’s backyard, where a new mural, created with resident input, depicts themes of strength and renewal. [Photographs by Gina LeVay.]
The initiative seeks to address mental health through a meaningful and inclusive built environment redesign. EmPWR implemented a participatory approach to successfully engage residents and staff of DV shelters to learn about opportunities for creating more supportive spaces. Some of the activities included room assessment surveys so participants could anonymously share their thoughts on limitations of the community space, “feelings posters’’ in which residents shared how the space makes them feel, and design workshops where staff and residents collaborated with architects to brainstorm ways to improve the space by evaluating current strengths and weaknesses.
After collecting the information, architects developed a set of schematic designs to share with residents and staff for a second round of input on the proposed design plan. The EmPWR team enlisted contractors to install the final, approved design plans at each shelter. Staff and residents of sites where a mural was planned collaborated on the design with ArtBridge, an organization that empowers local artists to put art at the center of urban spaces.
Photographs illustrating conditions before (top) and after (bottom) the design changes at a participating shelter: A wooden panel creates a sense of privacy in a communal dining room. [Photographs by Gina LeVay.]
NYC Opportunity is currently evaluating EmPWR, working with NORC, a research organization at the University of Chicago. NORC is committed to incorporating participatory principles in the evaluation process and has mirrored some of the design planning practices in their evaluation plan. NORC, the EmPWR team, and NYC Opportunity expect the evaluation to (1) provide insights on how and how much built environment changes in DV shelters help promote the healing and well-being of residents and staff; (2) gather learnings from the process of implementing EmPWR; and (3) develop an implementation guide to share learnings and encourage the adoption of the EmPWR approach in other shelters. The reports from this evaluation are expected in mid-2024.
Photographs illustrating conditions before (top) and after (bottom) the design changes at a participating shelter: A mural co-created with residents celebrates themes of family, community and renewal in a shelter’s childcare and multi-purpose space. [Photographs: Gina LeVay.]
