There is no place like home, right? Because we all love the feeling of comfort and security when face planting on the couch after a long work day, Empowered Homes offers consulting services to businesses so their spaces can too feel like “home”.
While my most recent job was not a business per say, it was a public space striving for increased inclusion. I had the opportunity to serve a local church, and I am so excited to share!!
The Journey Church reached out to ask if I could help make their sanctuary “more accessible”. How could I not!? Second to home “home”, a place of worship should feel like home to anyone that comes through the doors. Even more importantly, everyone should be able to get through the doors!
Utilizing the lens of an occupational therapist, I took a detailed look at the entire exterior and interior of the sanctuary. One thing that immediately stuck out was that the ramp to the only existing “accessible entry/exit” was approximately a 1/8 slope meaning 1 foot of rise for every 8” of run. In layman’s terms this is a small mountain for wheelchair, walker, and cane users.
Instead of knocking this ramp out and pouring new concrete, I brainstormed with my business partners from Compass Build-Design and we were able to come up with a creative solution. We removed the existing 3 steps at a side entry containing double doors, tore out a segment of the driveway and built it up to be flush with the threshold of the door. Viola! Now instead of having one 29” entry way at the top of a mountain, they have a flush, zero-step entry way located at the circle drive with a nearly 60” of clearance thanks to the double doors!!
Come one, come all and join this place of worship as they now have a space that is inclusive for all!
