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 and families. SOARD was excited to help The Drake House by renovating their main headquarters. This makeover included 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.
The goal of the makeover was to create flexible-use spaces that allow the children to feel at home in a learning and 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 area — previously extremely cramped without a natural flow, inhibiting the ability to smoothly cater to families participating in the buffet line. SOARD created this natural flow through relocation of structural walls and the addition of a large island space.
There was not previously a dedicated space for older children and teens to gather for free time and engage with The Drake House volunteers for tutoring. SOARD converted the upstairs executive offices into that space, providing a leisure area as well as a learning and meeting space.
