Osborn Neighborhood Alliance (ONA) is a neighborhood organization that works to organize the communities of Detroit’s northeast side. We are a team of service and government organizations, schools, churches, businesses, and residents who are dedicated to community pride! Our goal is to maintain a high quality of life where we can work, play, shop, and live in Osborn!
ONA’s culture consists of a team of innovative individuals who are truly dedicated, and passionate about the continued growth of their community. Functioning as a small team, ONA’s executive director, program director, outside staff, and the Osborn Business Association (OBA) director cohesively tackles issues within the community through cultivating a variety of approaches designed to create a higher quality of life in Osborn. As a more mature organization, the age range consists of me and a couple of other interns for the summer, to the secretary being up to age 65. Also being a predominantly Black/African American organization, ONA serves as an organization that understands the needs of the community as well as the population on the Eastside of Detroit. As the executive director, my supervisor serves as the visionary of the organization, capturing the voice of the community by being receptive to innovative programs, events, initiatives that service the community. Enabling the program director, and OBA director to have control over how they wish to carry out the vision, acting as the overseer, the executive director gives the directors autonomy to get the job done.
From witnessing the day to day operations of the organization, ONA’s physical environment is composed of a one mid-sized conference room with everyone’s desk facing one another, with tables arranged in the middle of the office in a U-shape. With an office at the Matrix Human Services; a hub in the Osborn community with many other entities operating out of the building, ONA is perfectly placed and designed in a way that embodies an organization that is a vital resource to the community. After have been working here for almost a month, ONA’s office doors are always open, so that they can be in constant communication with the other services operating out of the Matrix Center, and residents who are seeking out additional support.
Working at ONA has made me realize what exactly it is I may want to do in the future. Interested in learning more about how people interact with one another at the workplace, I believe I will begin to look more into studying the role of human capital, and its influence on the productiveness of organizations. Through observing how people communicate and work together in order to host an event, presentation etc. I have noticed ONA, similar to other organizations need talented individuals on their team in order to function as one for the sake of their community.
Although ONA is an organization open to fresh ideas, and continuously driving change, the community at large may be resistant to becoming involved in recent change initiatives, thus causing friction in Osborn’s overarching culture. Moreover, ONA’s culture is to revitalize the culture of the Osborn community.
