It’s only been a week with Nortown Community Development Corporation (Nortown CDC) and I know this is the place I should be in this summer. I’ve had quite a week here and I am excited to see where this goes.
A little bit about Nortown — their big ongoing project right now is called RESTORE NED. The vision is to restore northeast detroit and rebuild its reputation through the ownership of their residents. Due to the high frequency of vacant lots around, they want the residents to dream of what they can do with those large areas of land.
Imagine going into your first day of work anticipating to work for 12 hours (sort of optionally?) Well that was my case. I walked into Nortown at 8:15AM Tuesday morning, just in time to run into my supervisor Pat Bosch. What I saw once I entered the office was quite a site — nothing close to luxurious. The space is shared and it didn’t take long to understand that they did their best to work with what they had. Manpower is low as well. After seeing the low staff and the determination of my supervisor Pat, I felt really empowered to help out the whole entire day. I mean, that’s why I’m here this summer — to learn. I was thinking if this lady can work who knows how many hours a day, I am young, I can definitely do it too. And it was well worth it.
So my first day, I went to 3 different meetings catching up just on what this organization was all about and taking notes. I enjoyed being present at one of the meetings which was a nonprofit collaborative debrief and hearing all the different pilot projects other people were working on. Shortly after, I attended the community planning meetings which was why the day ran until 8pm. The community planning meetings are meant to invite residents of the community to come out for some refreshments and talk with one another about what they want their neighborhoods to become. I understand why vision is so important now. About 20 residents came out that night which is not bad. There was a lot of food at the meeting and it was encouraging to see how there are residents in the community that do care and want to see change by taking initiative.
Pat Bosch is a phenomenal lady. Seeing everything she does is impressive — how sacrificial dare I say, her life is. She works hard night and day and she is also a great supervisor! She never forgets to check in on me. It’s been eye opening to see the non-profit world in Detroit; they don’t have a lot of money or funds, yet they do things that are so purposeful and truly desire to help the people no matter how tough it gets. I don’t mind working longer hours because I feel like if I can be an extra set of hands to someone, why not.I’ve got a lot to process from this whole week.
