The organization I have been so fortunate to be placed with this summer is Voices 4 Earth Justice. V4EJ is an interfaith non-profit that intertwines urban agriculture, ecology,and sustainability education to help foster community development and stewardship of the planet. I sat down to talk to director, Patty Gillis and she explained how V4EJ came […]
Week 2: Voices 4 Earth Justice Read More »
I am working with the Detroit Public Schools Office of Energy and Sustainability. They manage energy usage and cost, auditing, rate optimization, vendor negotiations, and energy savings initiatives, such as the DPS Go Green Challenge. Most of what I do is divided into two areas: researching alternative funding methods for school efficiency upgrades, and analyzing
Week 2: Detroit Public Schools Read More »
This summer I am working with Friends of Parkside. FOP is a small nonprofit organization dedicated to supporting and bettering the community in The Village at Parkside, a public housing project in East Detroit housing around 275 low-income families. FOP collaborates with residents, board members, volunteers, businesses and community partners to empower residents through resources such as after
Week Two: Friends of Parkside Read More »
This summer I’ll be spending my time working with FoodLab Detroit. FoodLab is a small non-profit that started as a few food entrepreneurs around a kitchen table, sharing advice and trying to work together to learn how to advance their food businesses and has now grown to an organization with over 145 members and counting.
Week 2: Bringing Good Food businesses to Detroit Read More »
I am about two weeks into the program now! I have switched internship sights and have started to really explore the city in the past seven days. I have gone to the Eastern Market, enjoyed Motor City Pride and the Pride Parade, went out to dinner with friends and enjoyed a new restaurant, explored the
This summer I am working for Metro Matters, an organization which is making the shift from their former identity as the Michigan Suburbs Alliance. Under their previous name, they worked to create collaborative programs with the governments of inner-ring suburbs. Now they’re working to become the organization that brings together public, private, and community leaders from across metro-Detroit to create smart
Week 2 – Our Metro Matters Read More »
Environmental justice, as defined by the Environmental Protection Agency, is ” the fair treatment and meaningful involvement of all people regardless of race, color, national origin, or income with respect to the development, implementation, and enforcement of environmental laws, regulations, and policies.” Or course, people of color and/or low-income individuals are underrepresented in legislation and
Week 2: Environmental Justice and Detroit! Read More »
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
Week Two: DHDC and Detroiting Read More »
My placement is a non-profit, Metro Matters, previously known as the Michigan Suburbs Alliance, located in Ferndale, Michigan. Metro Matters is a policy research and advocacy organization in metro Detroit dedicated to creating a more equitable and sustainable region. They’re an evolution of the Michigan Suburbs Alliance, which was founded in 2002 to unify urban communities around a
Just as one week was checked of the calendar, another one starts to edge it’s was closer and closer to the past time frame. Working at Southwest Detroit Environmental Vision for little over a week now has allowed me to realize all of the potential of our own efforts. Simply looking at out projected timeline for
