Week Two: DHDC and Detroiting

Well I’m a week and a half in at this point. The past week and a half has had its ups and downs, but overall, I’ve started adjusting to life here in Detroit. I went to the Eastern Market, attended my first Tigers game, went to Motown pride in Hart Plaza and saw the Heidelberg Project. I keep hearing negative things about the city, but all I see is the positive. Maybe I’m too naïve or optimistic? I truly have hope that Detroit can become a safer, more cosmopolitan city, but I think that change should emanate from the neighborhoods, not the gentry. And that’s exactly what my organization is trying to accomplish in Southwest Detroit (with a focus on the large Hispanic population of the area).

The Detroit Hispanic Development Corporation is a decently sized non-profit located in the Corktown neighborhood of Detroit. DHDC’s mission is to create a stable and safe community where youth and families have quality opportunities for self-empowerment, education, and personal wealth. The staff mainly consists of people born and raised in Southwest Detroit and/or from low-income communities of color. By hiring in this manner, DHDC bridges the gap between the organization and the recipients of its services. Although I am neither from Southwest Detroit nor from a low-income community of color, the staff has been extremely welcoming of me.

DHDC has provided both an engaging and academically stimulating work environment for me: engaging due to my love of Hispanic culture and stimulating because of the amount I’ve learned about the Southwest communal issues, such as immigration legislation and pollution. I have gained a lot of respect for my co-workers and the work that they do with community outreach and encouraging the people of Southwest Detroit to act on the issues that bother them. DHDC does so many great things for this community from the $25 tattoo removal service program (James is awesome!) to the empowering Padres Unidos workshops; this organization continues to impress me with its services. Part of me wishes that I had a more nurtured understanding of the Hispanic community of Detroit. It’s somewhat of a barrier that I don’t come from this community and thus lack the knowledge and experience of a Southwest Detroiter. On the other hand, maybe it’s good thing that I’m not from here since I can bring a fresh and outside perspective into DHDC and communal issues. So far, my tasks consist of helping out with parent workshops as well as researching community organizing and parental engagement. In particular, I’m researching how to better organize the Hispanic American community in Detroit and methods of both recruitment and retention. The other aspect of my research focuses on Hispanic father engagement. So far I love the work that I do, and I really hope that it will help out my organization.