UKANDU

UKANDU, a nonprofit organization that offers camp programming for people and communities impacted by childhood and adolescent cancer, was looking to acquire space in Southwest Portland to serve as the home for their first Family Resource Center. Gensler provided pro-bono services to help UKANDU align stakeholders on their vision and mission for the new resource center and to assess the viability of different building options based on their unique program needs.

Gensler facilitated a full day visioning workshop with UKANDU’s leadership, volunteers, and families to align on the mission and vision for the new Family Resource Center and discover preliminary program needs for the future space. Using a trauma-informed lens, the Gensler team structured activities to elicit feedback from a diverse group of people with varying emotional and physical needs. Following the full-day workshop, Gensler synthesized and translated the information into a visioning narrative document that includes a single impactful direction for the project.

Using the visioning narrative and feasibility studies, the Gensler team worked in partnership with UKANDU’s leadership to develop a program and test fit in their desired future location, which helped assess whether the building offered enough space to support the program they envisioned.