The Los Angeles chapter of Project H has launched their first project, Abject Object, and is looking for new chapter members to join the design team!

Abject Object will assist the homeless individuals in Los Angeles in finding healthy, creative, and educational ways to move towards self sufficiency. Working directly with the Downtown Women’s Center and members of the homeless community as co-designers, the chaper design team will collaboratively develop and produce functionally simple, easily made objects from inexpensive, recycled or readily accessible materials.

Moving from a “hand out” to a “hands on” model of rehabilitation that can easily be adopted by other organizations, the project offers opportunities for the homeless to acquire lasting skills, positive leadership experience, and prospects for self-sustaining economic growth by selling products back to local communities.

**Chapter meetings are held Sunday afternoons, from 2-3 in Culver City or Hollywood. Email Kim Karlsrud, LA Chapter Head at kimkarlsrud (at) yahoo (dot) com to join the chapter or for more details.

Project H’s New York chapter is designing educational math toys for developing and US retail markets, based on the Kutamba AIDS Orphans School in Uganda (an Architecture for Humanity building).

AND WE JUST WON $10,000 from IDEABLOB! Their monthly contest awards $10K to the best small business idea, and Project H is the September winner. Thanks to all who voted for the project! Read the press release via Ideablob here.

Our design team consists of Heleen de Goey from Eindhoven, Holland (she just arrived September 1 and hit the ground running), Dan Grossman and Kristina Drury, New York Chapter Heads, Neha Thatte, and a team of Pratt Design Management graduate students whose strategy expertise we’re lucky to have!

More about the project: Project H worked in collaboration with Architecture for Humanity earlier this year at the Kutamba AIDS Orphans School (sister school to the Nyaka School, also in Southern Uganda and funded by the same organization, gathering case study research regarding the education system, in-classroom needs, curricula, etc. The design team will develop a locally-produced version of the math toy for Kutamba with broader distribution in the developing world, in addition to a sister US retail version based on the same system. View photos of the Kutamba school case study here.

STAY TUNED IN THE COMING WEEKS FOR PROJECT UPDATES, PHOTOS, AND MORE.

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Following our fund-and-deliver Hippo Roller trip to South Africa, the new San Francisco chapter of Project H is taking the reins and re-designing the Hippo Roller for improved shipping efficiency for wider distribution and a lower price point. In partnership with the Appropriate Technologies Design Team/Engineers Without Borders, we’ll work with Hippo Roller to find design and engineering opportunities that will make the Hippo Roller more widely manufacturable, less expensive, and potentially more functional with additional attachments.

If you’re interested in joining the Project H San Francisco chapter, we want your design expertise! Come to our next meeting if you’re interested- please email Ryan Duke, SF Chapter Head, for details: ryan@projecthdesign.com.

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Watch Emily Pilloton’s lecture at this past May’s Metropolis Magazine’s “Make Good and Prosper” conference at the International Contemporary Furniture Fair in New York. Emily discusses her recent projects and travels to South Africa and Uganda, Project H’s humanitarian design mission, and the Project H “anti-manifesto,” published on Core77, which serves as a call-to-action for product designers to “stop talking big and start doing good.”

VIEW THE FULL VIDEO VIA SCRIBEMEDIA HERE>>>