Following a successful partnership with Austin Angels in 2022, Michael Hsu Office of Architecture (MHOA) is continuing its pro bono work to help out Texas-based community programs within the Houston and Austin metropolitan areas. The architecture and interior design firm’s Design for All Partnership has announced it will work with Houston-based nonprofit The Women’s Home, which will receive $20,000 for pro bono design and consultation services from MHOA. These funds will be put toward the design of a new workforce development facility.

MHOA has also worked to better the community outside of its Design for All program; it previously teamed up with Habitat for Humanity to create middle income houses in Austin in 2021.

“We are excited to work with The Women’s Home for this year’s Design for All Partnership. The organization does inspiring work supporting and enhancing the lives of women in Houston,” said Michael Hsu in a press release. “This new facility will help expand their already-robust service offerings. Our team was impressed with the group’s diligence in gathering feedback directly from the community they serve to guide and direct this latest endeavor.”

The Women’s Home was chosen from a pool of two dozen applicants. The forthcoming, planned facility will align itself with the organization’s focus on holistic healing, specifically on its six areas of wellness: emotional/mental, financial, physical, social, spiritual, and vocational. The facility will directly aid in the vocational domain and will offer support in financial and computer literacy, workforce training. It will house a childcare facility.

“Our staff, board and volunteers are unified in our goal to build stronger communities for women and their families,” said Anna Coffey, CEO of The Women’s Home, in a press release. “We are constantly energized by the amazing women with whom we come in contact. The partnership with Michael Hsu Office of Architecture will allow us to focus on one pillar of our program: workforce readiness. Our clients want to work and this new building that Michael Hsu is helping us create will house programs that help the community obtain the skills needed to ensure financial stability.”

The Women’s Home has already acquired a one-acre plot of land in Houston’s Spring Branch neighborhood where its workforce development facility will be situated. MHOA will begin to analyze the site and develop a design for the project within the next few months.