For my placement I have been selected to work for Focus:HOPE. Founded after the Detroit Race Riots, the goal of the organization is to end systemic poverty and racism throughout metro Detroit. The program does this through various programs ranging from early childhood education to GED programs and training courses to providing food to needy families in the surrounding area. Focus:HOPE also works to attain this post through the project I am working with: the HOPE Village Initiative.
Started in 2011 the goal of the HOPE Village Initiative is so that the surrounding neighborhoods around Focus:HOPE, also known as HOPE Village, will be a safe, sustainable community by 2031. Components of this goal include making sure that children are ready for kindergarten, adults are ready for post-secondary education or training, and that fewer adults are in poverty. My responsibilities include preparing for and helping initiate a biannual survey that is distributed towards community members. This community survey intends to analyze the progress made in the community as well as issues that need to be addressed.
Post spending my first week in Detroit through the program I enjoy the fact that I was able to see more locations by just walking around the nearby areas. There is a different feel by walking through the city versus driving through, and it allows me to see the changes made in the city up close and personal. From visiting local bookstores and karaoke places to seeing monuments up close. I feel more connected to the city in a way that makes me look at the city with both awe and uncertainty for the future.
Wow, Focus:HOPE seems to be doing really amazing things! Since Fresh Corner runs a pop-up there I was able to see inside one of the buildings and meet some of the people who work there or were participating in the training programs, but I really had no idea what the organization did as a whole. Now when I go back I feel like I’ll have a better understanding of what is really going on there. I like the comprehensive approach that they are taking and it’s cool that neighborhoods as a whole are being included. Also, you killed it at karaoke!