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Living Design Foundation
“I've learned how to prepare a beautiful meal for people I love, and I'm slowly learning how to communicate honestly and compassionately with my mentors, friends, and family. I've learned that there is nothing more rich than that—nothing. This class taught me about the importance of good communication everywhere in life; at home, in class, with friends, with mentors, and in the kitchen.” — Marissa (former Living Design student)
One of the tenets of the Kelly Ann Brown Foundation mission statement is supporting creative education. KABF is happy to support a nonprofit on Whidbey Island, Washington—Living Design Foundation—whose sole mission is about creative education for teens and young adults.
The mission of the Living Design Foundation is “to fund robust self- sufficiency life-skill development through educational programs and organizations which teach, encourage, and support people in creating healthy and productive lives so they may be contributors back to their families and society.”
Co-founders Mary Lou and Joe Whisenand have backgrounds in education and a deep understanding that teaching life skills is as important as math and language arts. As public schools have had to cut back on many of the courses they once offered, Living Design Foundation has stepped in to support the young people in their community in creative education.
Living Design Foundation funds The Learning Lab. Located in the South Whidbey Community Center, the Learning Lab uses several rooms and an outdoor space for their three programs: The Wood Shop, The Kitchen, and The Garden/Greenhouse. Mary Lou and Joe are experts at not only teaching, but finding and utilizing local talent to contribute to The Learning Lab. They discovered that there are an abundance of retired woodworkers on Whidbey, and Living Design has tapped into their talents, along with chefs and other professionals to provide mentorship/apprenticeships to teens. As they state on their website, Living Design uses “an educational platform where community expert and multi-generational knowledge is passed on from one to the next.”
KABF Chair Debra Hannula was introduced to Joe and Mary Lou through a mutual friend whose foster son started taking baking classes at The Learning Lab. He won first place for his coconut cake (a family recipe of Joe’s) in a Whidbey baking contest! That win gave him the confidence to continue his culinary classes, while also branching out into something new. He recently enrolled in the woodworking class.
Debra spent time at The Learning Lab and admired the center itself, a spacious modern kitchen with plenty of kitchen tools, ovens and stove tops, and a huge woodworking center. Mary Lou explained that their core curriculum teaches students in the kitchen, “everything from finance to food to communication.” The same thing happens in The Wood Shop and The Garden and Greenhouse. They learn not only woodworking and gardening, but life skills too—like understanding legal contracts, the importance of healthy nutrition and the significance of volunteerism. As Mary Lou put it, the whole program was “designed to connect head, hands and heart.”
The Learning Lab is best explained through these five simple, but heartfelt sentences on their website: “The community gathers here. We cook. We eat. We create. We build, garden, and grow community.”
Debra spent time at The Learning Lab and admired the center itself, a spacious modern kitchen with plenty of kitchen tools, ovens and stove tops, and a huge woodworking center. Mary Lou explained that their core curriculum teaches students in the kitchen, “everything from finance to food to communication.” The same thing happens in The Wood Shop and The Garden and Greenhouse. They learn not only woodworking and gardening, but life skills too—like understanding legal contracts, the importance of healthy nutrition and the significance of volunteerism. As Mary Lou put it, the whole program was “designed to connect head, hands and heart.”
The Learning Lab is best explained through these five simple, but heartfelt sentences on their website: “The community gathers here. We cook. We eat. We create. We build, garden, and grow community.”
Joe and Mary Lou spent time on the Kelly Ann Brown Foundation website and saw the similarities between Kelly’s compassion and what they hope their students will glean from their classes:
"Let us say that reading about Kelly on the pages of your website is an inspiring insight to a very full life of empathy and joy and describes a ‘full-on participant’ bringing creativity, kindness and goodwill into this world. She was/is courageous, and the smallest glimpse of her mind and personality afforded there is powerful and makes us sorrowful for not having known her.
We believe as E.E. Cummings proposed, that it takes courage to grow up and become who you really are. It takes courage to intercede (as she often did); and, an empathetic understanding of human need in order to approach and give good and wise counsel to anyone, let alone to the stranger or to the least of us. What we might label simply as ‘common human decency’… is all too un-common, and so where did she get it? And from whom was permission granted? It is that very thing: the knowledge of self that our youth need to contemplate, to become clearer, and to adopt a greater sense of personal responsibility... This is the curriculum and programming the Living Design Foundation supports. To some, courage comes naturally; to others, some ‘encouragement’ and practice is helpful."
Joe and Mary Lou shared many heartfelt testimonials from their grateful students. They are both inspiring and raw; the classes have transformed these students because they are so much more than simple instructions on how to bake a cake. They are teaching life skills, conflict resolution and understanding what healthy relationships look like. As one student said, “This class has given me many of the tools I need to start living my life more fully. I'm learning how to deal with conflict, be vulnerable so I can have deeper relationships, be congruent with myself which is the most difficult, and to take initiative in my relationships by inviting folks to my table, with fixing things, with budget, and with making meals for the people I love.”
Kelly Ann Brown was an amazing cook, having learned much from her mother and grandmother. Those of us lucky enough to call ourselves her friends, remember wonderful Saturdays spent in the kitchen with Kelly, prepping, laughing, sharing, cooking and coming together for some of the most scrumptious and memorable meals. KABF is happy to support this amazing creative educational experience.
Click here for more information on Living Design Foundation.
"Let us say that reading about Kelly on the pages of your website is an inspiring insight to a very full life of empathy and joy and describes a ‘full-on participant’ bringing creativity, kindness and goodwill into this world. She was/is courageous, and the smallest glimpse of her mind and personality afforded there is powerful and makes us sorrowful for not having known her.
We believe as E.E. Cummings proposed, that it takes courage to grow up and become who you really are. It takes courage to intercede (as she often did); and, an empathetic understanding of human need in order to approach and give good and wise counsel to anyone, let alone to the stranger or to the least of us. What we might label simply as ‘common human decency’… is all too un-common, and so where did she get it? And from whom was permission granted? It is that very thing: the knowledge of self that our youth need to contemplate, to become clearer, and to adopt a greater sense of personal responsibility... This is the curriculum and programming the Living Design Foundation supports. To some, courage comes naturally; to others, some ‘encouragement’ and practice is helpful."
Joe and Mary Lou shared many heartfelt testimonials from their grateful students. They are both inspiring and raw; the classes have transformed these students because they are so much more than simple instructions on how to bake a cake. They are teaching life skills, conflict resolution and understanding what healthy relationships look like. As one student said, “This class has given me many of the tools I need to start living my life more fully. I'm learning how to deal with conflict, be vulnerable so I can have deeper relationships, be congruent with myself which is the most difficult, and to take initiative in my relationships by inviting folks to my table, with fixing things, with budget, and with making meals for the people I love.”
Kelly Ann Brown was an amazing cook, having learned much from her mother and grandmother. Those of us lucky enough to call ourselves her friends, remember wonderful Saturdays spent in the kitchen with Kelly, prepping, laughing, sharing, cooking and coming together for some of the most scrumptious and memorable meals. KABF is happy to support this amazing creative educational experience.
Click here for more information on Living Design Foundation.