We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Siyanna Mahan. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Siyanna below.

Hi Siyanna, thanks for joining us today. We’d love to hear the story of how you went from this being just an idea to making it into something real.

I started with what I knew: creativity is my love language, and I wanted to use design to serve my community. I’m from St. Louis, and growing up here taught me early that where you live shapes everything – your opportunities, your safety, your sense of belonging. But I didn’t have the language for it yet. Fast forward to a few years ago: I’m running Wild in Bloom, a creative impact studio. I’m doing heritage preservation work, helping nonprofits and community organizations tell their stories beautifully. The work felt meaningful, but something was missing.

Spring of 2025 I enrolled in my online MSW program at Howard University, and everything clicked. Suddenly, I had the framework to understand what I’d been seeing my whole life. Social work gave me the language: spatial justice, systemic inequality, community empowerment. The next issues was I didn’t want to abandon design. I loved the creativity, the visual storytelling, the way good design makes people feel something.

So I asked myself: what if I didn’t have to choose? What if I could merge my love of design with the rigor of social work methodology? That question led to the biggest pivot of my entrepreneurial journey. I realized I was trying to do community-centered design within a creative studio framework that wasn’t built for it. I needed to reposition entirely, not just as a designer who cares about community, but as someone equipped to challenge the systems that create spatial inequality in the first place.

I consolidated everything into Fair Ground Impact, a social design and strategy agency relaunching this January. The concept is simple but powerful: we work with government agencies, nonprofits, schools, and local businesses to design spaces and programming that actually serve communities. And the profits? They fund Fair Play, our community activation arm that provides free programming to the neighborhoods that need it most.

One of my favorite upcoming initiatives is what I call the “apprentice method” , I plan hire local youth as paid Junior Consultants on our projects. They’re not just learning skills; they’re shaping the work itself. Because who better to inform spatial justice than the young people living in those spaces? Right now, I’m juggling a lot, finishing my MSW at Howard, working full-time at a high school, and preparing for the January 12th relaunch. But that’s the thing about entrepreneurship: it’s messy and you figure it out as you go.

The journey from Wild in Bloom to Fair Ground Impact taught me that sometimes the most powerful thing you can do is stop trying to fit into existing boxes and build something entirely new. I’m not just a designer. I’m not just a future social worker. I’m someone who believes that creativity and strategy can transform how we build community, and that’s exactly what Fair Ground Impact is designed to do.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

I’m Siyanna, founder of Fair Ground Impact, a community design agency based in St. Louis. I’m also an MSW candidate at Howard University and a Administrative Assistant at a high school. For a long time, I thought having multiple interests was a distraction. Now, I realize that the intersection of creativity and social work is actually my superpower.

I got into this work through two paths that eventually merged. On one side, I was running Wild in Bloom, a creative studio focused on storytelling and heritage. On the other, I was in grad school studying systemic oppression and realizing that in St. Louis, your zip code determines your life outcomes. The turning point came when I realized I didn’t have to choose between making things beautiful and making things fair.

Fair Ground Impact is the result of that merger. We are a community design agency that helps organizations move beyond performative equity. Whether we are helping a school district design a retention program or helping a city plan a park, we use a social work methodology. We ensure that spaces aren’t just physically built, but emotionally and culturally safe for the people who use them.

What makes me most proud is our business model. We aren’t a non-profit dependent on grants. Instead, we use our agency profits to fund Fair Play, our internal initiative that brings free design tools and programming to youth in North St. Louis.

I want the world to know that Spatial Justice matters. If you are someone who has been told your neighborhood doesn’t deserve beauty or investment, we are here to disrupt that narrative. And if you are a client looking to do authentic work, we are here to help you build it right.

For you, what’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative?

The most rewarding part is watching creativity become a bridge ,between people, between ideas, between what is and what could be. Creativity is my love language. It’s how I connect with people, how I make sense of complex problems, and honestly, how I move through the world. But the magic happens when that creativity unlocks something for someone else.

What makes creativity so powerful is that it bypasses the intellectual barriers we put up. A beautifully designed space makes you feel something before you think about it. A well-crafted program invitation draws you in. Good design creates belonging before anyone explains why you should belong.As someone doing community design work, creativity is also my tool for justice. I get to use design to challenge systems, to ask “who gets access to beauty? who gets to feel seen and valued in their environment?” That’s not abstract, that’s real impact on real people’s lives.

The most rewarding moments are when something I’ve created helps someone see themselves differently, helps a community envision a different future, or helps an organization actually live their values instead of just talking about them.
Creativity isn’t just about making pretty things. It’s about making connection, meaning, and change possible. And honestly? That never gets old.

Can you tell us about what’s worked well for you in terms of growing your clientele?

Honestly? Authenticity.

I know that sounds like a buzzword, but I mean it literally. The most effective thing I’ve done is show up as my full self and build genuine relationships instead of treating networking like a transaction. I don’t do the typical “pitch and close” approach. When I’m talking to a potential client I lead with curiosity. I ask questions. I listen. What’s the real challenge you’re facing? What does success look like for your community? I’m genuinely interested in understanding their world before I even think about how I might fit into it.

This comes naturally from my social work training. In social work, you learn that relationships are the foundation of everything. You can’t create meaningful change without trust, and you can’t build trust without authenticity. So I bring that same outlook to my business development. People can tell when you actually believe in what you’re doing versus when you’re just trying to make a sale. I’m not trying to convince people they need community design, I’m connecting with people who already care about equity and doing things differently. When you find those people, the conversation flows naturally because you’re aligned on values from the start.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.fairgroundimapact.com
• Instagram: @fairgroundimpact
• Facebook: Fair Ground Impact

Image Credits

Jay Wennington