Franklin County Funds Design Program for Teens

Franklin County Board of Commissioners

Last summer, Riahna Jackson was a recent high school graduate with no clear picture of what she wanted to do. She knew she was interested in design, but had never had the chance to explore it. Then she spent seven weeks on Columbus's South Side, designing real improvements for All People's Fresh Market on Parsons Avenue. 

By fall, she was enrolled at The Ohio State University studying architecture. This spring, she returned to the program as a coordinator. 

On May 5, the Franklin County Board of Commissioners approved a $150,000 grant to expand the Neighborhood Design Center's Youth CoLab program, the same initiative that put Jackson on that path. Jackson and fellow coordinator Kaleb Duarte testified before the Board in person. 

Youth CoLab is a paid internship and mentorship program that recruits teenagers, primarily ages 14 to 18, from neighborhoods including Linden, the South Side, and Eastland. The program runs in three phases: a spring workshop series that introduces students to careers in architecture and planning; a seven-week summer studio that pays interns to work on real community improvement projects; and a fall cohort providing continued mentorship and career guidance. 

From 2023 to 2025, 42 youth participated. Three community projects were completed and 18 community partners engaged in the work. Five participants secured internships with design firms. Four are pursuing college majors in design-related fields. The Knowlton School of Architecture at Ohio State now counts several CoLab alumni among its current students. 

Duarte, who coordinates the program while studying architecture at Ohio State himself, was direct about what the program is actually solving. Design and architecture are not meritocracies, he told the Board. Access to education, professional networks, and capital determines who enters the field, and that determines who shapes the built environment. 

"How can we expect the future purveyors of our built environment to serve our neighborhoods if they aren't representative of the neighborhoods themselves?" Duarte said. 

This summer's project will focus on the Cleveland Avenue corridor near Columbus Metropolitan Library in Linden. The program also partners with Dipped Custom Prints and Race to Space on cross-program learning and community exchange. A final celebration is scheduled for July 24. 

The Neighborhood Design Center, founded in 1982, aligns this work with the county's RISE Together Poverty Blueprint goals for workforce development and community engagement.