Sarah is a senior associate with our Economic + Advisory practice and holds a master’s degree in city planning from the University of Pennsylvania. As a former employee of the Commonwealth of Virginia and the City of Norfolk, she brings a strong understanding of local planning processes and statewide funding mechanisms for economic development to her work at ArchTam.

During her career at ArchTam, Sarah has had the opportunity to both lead and provide technical support on a wide range of projects, including multiple feasibility and market studies, strategic economic development, recovery and resiliency plans, guidance documents for grantees, environmental impact studies and assessments, joint land use studies, and fiscal neutrality analyses, among others.

Tell us about what inspired you to join the industry.

I enjoyed my work as a public sector planner, but really wanted the opportunity to be a part of the dynamic teams of consultants I worked with who I saw helping to drive projects, plans and processes forward. I wanted to help organizations take the next steps in realizing their visions for a better future, whether it be through strategic planning and analysis to help them make critical decisions about next steps, helping them navigate funding, financing, and permitting processes, or helping them apply for additional funding and resources to implement the next phase of their projects. I love being the person who helps craft the roadmap to project success.

What is your favorite ArchTam project that you’ve worked on and why?

One of the most enjoyable and impactful projects I have had the privilege to work on was as the project manager and technical lead for the development of roadmaps to economic recovery for two Planning and Development Councils (PDCs) in West Virginia. The region struggled not only with the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic, but also with structural pre-pandemic economic difficulties, primarily the continued loss of coal and manufacturing jobs over the past 20-30 years, compounded by population loss and disinvestment in those communities.

As part of the project, we conducted over 40 stakeholder interviews and conversations with residents, businesses and community leaders. I was deeply humbled and awed by their resilience, drive to succeed, and their strong dedication to community building. We started out with a defined scope of work, which we continuously shaped and evolved to best respond to the unique goals and circumstances of the project.

Our stakeholder conversations, initial research and analysis identified issues such as a lack of access to childcare, fresh produce, entertainment and recreation opportunities, and decent, attainable housing were also driving away long-time residents, and deterring new investment and growth in the area.

This led us to focus on strategies which would provide and incentivize more community-serving retail, services, and recreational opportunities that would benefit existing residents, attract new ones, and improve quality of life for all, in addition to the recommendations we made around economic development and diversification.

I am passionate about helping communities diversify and strengthen their local economies, provide high-quality jobs and workforce development opportunities for current residents, and attract new, sustainable investment and growth. I have seen firsthand how difficult it is to break the cycle of poverty and lack of access to opportunity. Most people want the same thing — the opportunity to live a dignified, self-sufficient existence, provide for their families, and feel a sense of belonging and physical and financial security in their lives and communities.

Tell us a story of how your work has positively impacted the community.

It’s very gratifying to be asked to help our clients with the implementation phases of the plans and studies we do for them. Helping our clients make measurable progress towards their goals is one of my favorite things about my job. For the economic recovery roadmaps project I worked on, I was also able to support our client by helping them with the process of applying for a U.S. Economic Development Administration grant to enable them to study more specific opportunities for economic development and diversification in a region.

My role allows me to start important conversations around economic development and opportunity in the communities we serve, and encourage our clients to form partnerships with other community leaders and organizations to drive implementation and maintain momentum. Just the process of bringing stakeholders together during the planning phases helps to spark a deeper commitment and we’ve seen many lasting community partnerships arise out of the initial work that we’ve done.

Share a piece of career advice.

Be curious and never stop asking questions. I know sometimes we are hesitant to reach out to people, especially those we don’t know well. However, asking questions is one of the best ways to learn about the field, the organization, clients’ needs, goals, targeted outcomes for a specific effort, and their overall mission.

Not being afraid to ask questions ultimately helps us become better practitioners, because it allows us to gain a deeper understanding of how we can make the greatest impact through our work.

The post People Spotlight: Meet Sarah Richards appeared first on Blog.

Thanks to ArchTam’s Blueprint Travel Grant, I was able to take part in an outreach project in Uganda — a project near and dear to my heart because I am South African by birth and Ugandan by descent. With five other ArchTam employees, I joined the WeDev NPO team to help an orphanage on the remote Zinga Islands collect, analyze and purify drinking water. The orphanage was one of five sites we visited during the service trip.

According to Drop 4 Drop, a global charity dedicated to alleviating the world’s water crisis, “Almost a quarter of people across Uganda do not have access to clean water and over 80 percent do not have adequate sanitation. Using and drinking unsafe water is one of the leading causes of death and disease across Uganda with 4,500 children dying every year due to having no other option but to drink this unsafe water.” This is a critical issue that the people of Uganda are facing.

Our team set out to tackle water sanitation-related issues in the most needy and remote areas of Uganda by using local, simple methods. Our goal was to build systems that could be used continuously and easily by the community. Our professional backgrounds ranged from hydrogeology and environmental technicians to cost, hydraulic and civil engineers. Our understanding of infrastructure, its workings and the associated costs helped us ascertain the best and least expensive solutions to the problems faced in the community. Teaching one another aspects of our jobs helped our collective effort to get as much done in the little time we had.

Over the course of two weeks we traveled by car, boat and even in the back of a small loading truck to five sites that included orphanages, schools and a home. Our group visited and analyzed these sites to create simple solutions for each unique situation. For example, to reduce the walking distance required to fetch water, we installed a pump into a well, set up gutters to collect rain water and added pipes so that water from springs would run into tanks. We also tested the water to ascertain the types of bacteria picked up in water pre- and post-purification using homemade chlorine. We helped provide a community with the resources needed to collect a basic necessity for themselves by:

• Connecting spring water to a tank using a gradient
• Making chlorine from salt with a solar powered battery to clean water from tanks and other water sources
• Connecting a pump to an 11-meter-deep borehole to ease the process of obtaining water

This eye-opening process highlighted the magnitude of challenges Ugandan communities face in accessing clean drinking water. Even if you can access and transport the water, it still needs to be purified in order to avoid contracting cholera and typhoid, which are deadly illnesses that impact residents and surrounding communities.

This experience was inspiring, but seeing my people in Uganda suffering was not easy. I’m fortunate to work for a company that empowers us to make a meaningful impact on people’s lives around the world through these types of projects. The response from the communities in the form of love, appreciation and keenness to learn and participate gave every one of the volunteers the feeling of being home. We call it “eka” in our language. Simple systems and a few hands go a long way, and this principle can be applied in so many areas of our lives.

In a world full of political unrest, social injustice and environmental depletion, this project inspired hope, not just to the people of Uganda, but to our team as well. We can make a difference — no matter how big or small — to the lives of others in the most beautiful way. I walked away from this experience with a new outlook on life and an appreciation for the humble, happy people and children of Uganda.

A massive thank you to Michael Ottensmann and the WeDev NPO team who allowed me to be a part of this wonderful trip.

“Webale Nnyo.”

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