Bancroft Architects + Engineers Join Leading Disabled Veteran Charity

January 30, 2013 –

Bancroft Architects + Engineers have volunteered to serve as the architects and engineers of record for the national charity, Designing for Veterans. The group, founded in 2011 by Ms. Carol Way Cisco, is dedicated to the notion that the built environment can have a tremendous impact on the physical and psychological life experience of disabled Veterans when returning home from the Iraq and Afghanistan wars.

The charity’s mission is to aid and assist disabled Veterans through pro-bono interior design services that address their individual needs and to create fully functional, barrier-free and aesthetic environments that offer Veterans the opportunity and ability to live independent and active lives.

“When I spoke to Paul (Jenkins, Bancroft’s President and CEO), it was immediately obvious to me that I’d found the perfect fit for Designing for Veterans. As a disabled Veteran, from a family that has served for generations, he and I clicked immediately. His offer, to provide any of the myriad architectural and engineering support we could possibly need, pro bono, absolutely overwhelmed me. I was moved to tears by our first conversation,” said Cisco.

Designing for Veterans harnesses the support of the interior design community via volunteer work service by design professionals and interior design students who donate their time and expertise to create environments that eases the lives of Veterans. In addition, through the support of industry suppliers and manufacturers donating their products they not only assist in creating functional environments but do so at no cost to the Veteran.

According to Bancroft’s Lead Interior Designer, Professor Patricia Bailey, “It’s a perfect fit.” Bailey, who is the Illinois President of the American Society of Interior Design (ASID), points to the particular skills within Bancroft that made the connection so natural. “We have a half-dozen disabled Veterans among our staff, and nationally-licensed architects and engineers. Though we generally do much larger projects than simple residential, there really isn’t another Service-Disabled Veteran Owned A/E firm like us. The same expertise we use to design $30 million renovations for private clients will be applied and directly beneficial to the Veteran projects headed up by Carol’s group, Designing for Veterans.”

“We’re in this for the long-haul,” said Cisco. “We view this as a growing need and wanted to partner with a firm that not only gets it, but also lives it. Nobody understands better than Bancroft the idea that in military service, your life can change in an instant. Designing for Veterans is dedicated to mitigating those changes and improving the long-term quality of life for Veterans and their families.”

Designing for Veterans’ projects range in scope from homes, to condominiums to other housing units in which Veterans live. The organization accepts monetary donations for the purchase of equipment, appliances, furniture and furnishings as well as the manufacture of custom furnishings in order to meet the specific need of the Veterans concerned so they can live the lives of dignity and respect they earned in service to country. Designing for Veterans accept volunteer interior design services from industry professionals, product donations from suppliers and manufacturers as well as volunteer professional services in the broad spectrum of trades, including electrical, plumbing, carpentry, flooring, painting, custom window treatments.