Interior Design students lend helping hands in the community

February 11, 2016

The Hearts & Hands Clinic of Statesboro is getting a helping hand from Georgia Southern’s interior design students.

The students will create a conceptual design to move the clinic into the historic Van Buren building. The Van Buren building dates back to 1918 when Dr. Harvey Van Buren opened the Van Buren Sanitarium in Statesboro in order to fulfil a great need for African-American health care in the area. Though the project is still conceptual, students have been working directly with Mrs. Glenerra Martin, owner of the Van Buren building, and Mrs. Urkovia Andrews, director of Hearts and Hands, on the project.

“The idea behind the project is to provide an opportunity for Hearts & Hands to expand their space while also maintaining the Van Buren building as a community medical facility,” stated Associate Professor of Interior Design Amy Boyett-Whiter.

Students have already toured Hearts & Hands and been inside the Van Buren building to take measurements. The Interior Design students will spend the semester creating design solutions to show the building could be put to use again as a medical facility.

The Hearts & Hands Clinic’s mission is to promote healthy living and health education by providing free primary health services for citizens of Bulloch County who are medically uninsured and have an income at or below 200 percent of the federal poverty guideline. The Interior Design Program at Georgia Southern is part of the School of Human Ecology, which is housed within the College of Liberal Arts and Social Sciences.