Tiny WPA’s mission is to grow and support a diverse multigenerational community of civic change agents—Building Heroes—who want to learn how to design-build great things, make a difference in their community(s), and through design lead others in making Philadelphia a better, safer, healthier, more equitable, and prosperous place to live, work and play. The organization is committed to building equity, better designed spaces, and stronger places in Philadelphia by supporting citizen-led improvements throughout the city as well as creating more opportunities for residents to learn, earn and lead in the design and making of their city.

Named after Franklin D. Roosevelt’s Works Progress Administration, Tiny WPA was conceived in 2012 as a program of Public Workshop with a focus on youth led community design improvement projects. Projects included creating a tree inspired shade canopy for a farmer’s market in North Philadelphia, transforming a vacant lot into a popup skate park in Camden, and design building a community message board with People’s Emergency Center (PEC) in West Philadelphia, among others. Due to the growing interests in these small creative interventions and the need to connect, grow and support a movement of community design leaders, Tiny WPA expanded and evolved into a nonprofit organization in 2015. With formation of this new entity, The Building Hero Project, which also was conceived in 2012 and piloted by Public Workshop, was folded into Tiny WPA and is now one of its main programmatic activities. The Building Hero Project provides youth and adults from diverse social and economic backgrounds with innovative year round training in design, collaboration, leadership, fabrication, and entrepreneurship.

Tiny WPA

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