Hard to believe that it’s coming to an end, but those 10 weeks flew by. Looking back at that first week blog post, it’s cool to see all that I intended to do, and to feel that I did a pretty solid job of fulfilling those goals. I feel really comfortable working and interacting at my placement, and the past two weeks have been especially bittersweet reminders that you often realize how good you’ve got it right before you don’t have it anymore. My favorite part of the placement aspect of this summer has been the opportunity to get to know my co-workers, fellow interns, youth workers, and kids that frequent the FOP office space and community room. It’s truly been a gift to spend time talking with and developing relationships with people from a ton of different perspectives and experiences, and I really think that helped round out my understanding of people and the way their lives fit into the Detroit narrative as residents, visitors, students–people living and working to make it better. Connections with other people are so meaningful, even if they consist of a series of little things built up over time. Even small talk with the free lunch program delivery man, the every morning greeting and heartfelt hug goodbye exchanged between myself and the receptionist for the Parkside Rental office next door, talks with Janet at the Source bookstore, and running into and being recognized by one of the landscaping and maintenance worker guys in midtown as I left an event at the UM-Detroit center feel like little gems in a lifelong pursuit to connect with and appreciate as many people as humanly possible.
I had the chance to chaperone two different summer camps with the FOP kids and summer youth workers, and really enjoyed the break from office work and change of scenery. I got to spend time with the kids I had watched and helped from a little bit of a distance all summer, and had fun– playing soccer, racing, getting my hair braided, figuring out why I have so many freckles, etc.
In regards to my desire to spend every last drop of my free time exploring the city and furthering my learning, I feel good about what I was able to accomplish and see and experience. While there were some times that I had to make exceptions, I am really satisfied with the blend of outings, concerts, museums, tapas, veggie fare, community meetings, walks, soccer games, beach days, movie nights, eastern market trips, and volunteer opportunities that I now have under my belt. I tried to consciously push myself to experience new things and venture out of my usual zones of preference when the opportunities arose. And with all of the learning and stories and experiences and criss-crossing of neighborhoods, I can say that I have a pretty solid start on that mental map of Detroit. The emphasis is indeed on start— I know I have a long way to go before I can claim to be any kind of expert. I am, however, comfortable with proclaiming myself a Detroit enthusiast. And I hope to keep this city in my life for the long run, in whatever form that may manifest itself.
****Below this line is an unacceptably long string of blog posts that I vowed to complete after missing them in the hectic weeks that were the culmination of my health fair event planning. I apologize for being human garbage and also for any carpal tunnel syndrome developed as you scroll down.*****
Week 8: Twice-a-Week Seminars and the case for mandatory learning and team building
The work days were long. The 9-5 schedule sucked more of my soul out than I ever thought it would, in spite of the fact that I loved what I was doing and felt it was really rewarding work. And the last thing anyone felt like doing was funneling straight from work into another 2-3 hour block of lecture time. But am I glad that we did. For me the seminars, in addition to all of the free time and weekend experiences, served as an educational and interpersonal grout that filled in the cracks around the larger pieces of learning and immersion that my placement provided. I appreciated the time set aside to talk to and get to know other people in the program, especially those who commuted. And I really, really appreciated getting an information-packed, condensed perspective of current Detroit issues. In the rare case that these topics were not already something I was interested in learning about or keeping current with, the hour or two of presentation was all I needed to motivate me to continue researching it personally.
There were a lot of particularly engaging topics– the DECIDERS project game about public health research funding priorities sparked some interesting dialogue, the water shutoffs added urgent and somewhat disheartening undertones to what I already knew about preciously, and the discussion of Community Benefits Agreements in the context of Del Ray was very interesting after having attended the city council meeting about the second Maroun span. I find myself with a respectably long reading list at the end of the program. I am a big proponent of big picture thinking; everything is connected, and it’s so important to know as much about as many facets of life and human construct and environment and history as you can, especially in the context of a city like Detroit. These are not isolated issues, and no matter how pointed your niche of interest or call to activism is, it’s naive to think that there is a tangible bound to what you need to know to be successful in your efforts. Soak it all in, and when you’re done, start again. Keep it moving along. Seize these opportunities to develop new ideas and recalculate your perspective of things with this new information. An informed, active mind’s work is never done.
Week 6: About a Health Fair
After weeks of planning, hectic rearranging, delegating, and coordinating, it was finally here: The 7th Annual Friends of Parkside Community Health Fair. Or something like that. The banners were up, the flyers were out, the tables were set, the signs were printed, and vendors were arriving– an hour and a half early. The parking lot filled, the signs were mixed up, the music was loud. The people were here, the children were dancing, and surprise– the police patrol and several vendors who never responded decided to show up after all. And in spite of its ups and downs, setbacks and small victories– the mean slope of this event was way positive– a definite success and job well done that I can say I feel proud to have helped make possible. It wasn’t my first event planning experience, but with 29 health professional agencies and over 400 registered guests, it was definitely the largest.
As I’ve surely mentioned before, I am a big picture person. I love event planning because it works well with the way I think– broadly, with vision, and then zooming in on the details as the timeline creeps closer to The Day. Give me a desired outcome, and I can get you there. But perhaps the best part of gaining experience with this sort of thing is the inherent lesson in it– you just have to roll with the punches. Things will inevitably go wrong, and you just have to accept that and be ready to adjust course. You can’t dwell on things or be wedded to absolutely having something occur to according to a rigid standard– because it just won’t happen. And this is so helpful to for handling anything you encounter in life. If you can get to event day, run around putting out small fires and smiling charmingly
at sponsors and participants, you’re golden. If your feet hurt by the end of the day, you’re doing it right.
The best part of the fair was that the positive impact of the event on everyone involved was readily visible. Vendors chatted and networked with each other as they waited for the doors to open, Parkside residents poured in and filled the community room in a constant flow for the full 4 hours of the event, people laughed and socialized outside as they ate lunch and watched the kids do the hustle and old couples tango to Mo-Town classics. And people genuinely appreciated the opportunity to educate themselves on health topics relevant to them and the people in their lives. One woman told me she was new to the area and had no idea what resources were available for her family until she saw the banner and decided to stop by. A long line of people waited for the free HIV testing provided by AIDS Partnership Michigan. The fresh produce supply, paired with food demos from Gleaners food bank and the American Fitness Association, was quick to be depleted. Women filtered through the mobile mammogram clinic. And numerous people signed up for medical insurance and other programs through the represented vendor agencies, allowing them a start to sustainable health care options and education. I’m happy to have had the opportunity to contribute to the legacy of this ever-growing and improving annual event, and I hope to come back for the next as a visitor, to see what the future DCBRP intern has done with it.
Week Five: Home is where the heart is.. but what about your house?
I have always had an interest in the subject of housing, and the inherent related topics of housing accessibility and affordability. Having moved 11 times in my childhood, (I’m sure I’ll notch off many more in these next few years), I had a chance to experience a variety of housing situations and community vibes. I have come to feel that my sense of home is much more attached to the people I surround myself with than any geographic or tangible place. But I will attest to the incredible value and increase in quality of life that having a stable, clean, and safe place to live can offer– and I have always been extremely privileged and fortunate in this regard.
In Ann Arbor I volunteer at the Groundcover News office, a street newspaper that employs homeless and low-income people and allows them to build sales and interpersonal skills while earning an income. I have had the opportunity to hear about the incredible difficulties of daily survival from people with chronic homelessness, as well as a more specific facet of the issue of when I used a Groundcover contact for a feature story about veteran homelessness. Now, in Detroit, I work at FOP, which is directly inside the bounds of The Village at Parkside housing project. Built in the 40’s, Parkside was actually intended to be a complex for the families of returned white soldiers, while the Brewster project was built for black families. Eventually, as white flight drew the original audience to greener, GI-Bill-funded pastures, black families were able to fill in the spaces, and remain the majority demographic in the area to this day.
This has been a great opportunity to understand more of the housing issues relevant in Detroit– incredibly rooted in a history of racial segregation and stigmatization of poverty–and to see how the national trends and difficulties implementing HUD policies apply to these communities in particular. It also has particular relevance as the topic of gentrification enters the spotlight of Detroit hot topics– certainly affected are the families and property owners who are displaced by the incoming gentry, and face a shrinking pool of affordable housing options. I decided to enclose this Atlantic article about Section 8 Housing because I feel that it does a good job of dissecting the particular flaws of the way our public housing system is set up– and how, instead of lifting people up and providing the stability needed for social and economic mobility, it becomes a permanent reality and perpetuation of poverty for so many.
http://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2015/06/section-8-is-failing/396650/
