An important recurrent theme in our weekly meetings is how to enact change/how to help communities. We have learned that it is important not to impose your view of what us best on a community because it may not be the best for them. At first, we talked about this in a general sense, but […]
The thing I’ve learned most from our events and group meetings is how important it is to get to know the people you are trying to help. At some of our events, I learned about people providing solutions to problems that I didn’t even know were that serious. It really shows how important it is
One thing that has stood out to me is the amount of garbage found in vacant lots in Detroit. This wasn’t one particular experience, but just something I’ve noticed while driving around the city. I always see illegally dumped furniture, tires, and just trash in general. On one street near my placement there is an
Every time I find myself on Cass Street, I remember what we learned on the Black Scroll Tour. Throughput the tour I learned some of the history of Detroit that I probably never would have learned on my own. Visiting some of our work sites has been interesting and insightful. It shows that all our
For the 4th of July weekend I spent some time with my friends that were born and raised in Detroit, MI. We came together to celebrate the four day weekend with a neighborhood block barbecue. At this barbecue, I realized what neighborhood community use to consist of. Living within a neighborhood meant extended family and
Neighborhood Community Read More »
What I have found interesting is the conflicting viewpoints that people have taken when working to better parts of the city. As in my last blog, many people have taken free market or business-like approaches to bettering neighborhoods while others have taken a more community based attitude. While those different viewpoints are not mutually exclusive,
Lately I have been wondering about what has been going well so far in the city of Detroit and where we have not made much progress. One thing that I realized that, for all the work done to bring the city back from where it was before, we are still the canary in the coal
When this program started, I was somewhat overwhelmed by the fact that we had to attend meetings twice a week. But I quickly realized they’re hardly meetings – a lot of times they are things I would do on my own anyway. But I’m glad they are required so my lazy self is pushed to
Week 8 – Already?? Read More »
Of all the different events we have done and been to in our eight weeks in Detroit, some that have stood out to me have been hearing from the people that run the businesses that we are working at. They have been interesting because they have all been so different in the ways that they
I’ve actually learned a lot from the group meetings, two in particular, the Dequidre Cut bike ride and the Black Scroll Tour that we did earlier in the summer. These are simple things that made me think more about certain things that I can explore after this internship. Things that I can do and places
