In the past three weeks I have noticed that Brilliant Detroit makes an effort to put the ‘community’ in community organization. For example, the Co-Founder and CEO, Cindy Eggleton, takes walks around the community everyday. Also, Brilliant Detroit tries to hire people within the community to run their sites and attends community events.
The actions taken by Brilliant Detroit are important for any community organization because you cannot make change within a neighborhood without being apart of the neighborhood. The communities that Brilliant Detroit serves have trust in the organization, leading them to reach out to Brilliant when they are in need of resources. This relationship is mutually beneficial to Brilliant Detroit because they have an understanding of the community’s needs.
A great example of this bond is North End. North End will be Brilliant Detroit’s newest site and the community asked them to come there. When Brilliant Detroit bought their newest site, a neighbor even sat out and guarded the house- in the middle of a Michigan Winter. In fact, community members are renovating the house. The house prior to their renovations is pictured below. (Renovation pictures coming soon!)
My observances at Brilliant Detroit correlate with my experience within the city. I find that the city of Detroit is one of pride. People here care about their community and want to succeed. The only thing missing is the resources necessary to see that vision threw. Thankfully, their are great organizations like Brilliant Detroit trying to solve that problem.
