Putting this into Perspective – Detroit Community-Engaged Research Program

Putting this into Perspective

This week with my placement I have been doing further research for the housing market research study I am doing. I used PolicyMap to make several maps about the changes in demographics for the population of Woodbridge as well as the housing market changes over time since 2000. It was interesting once I got together with my boss because she made valid points about how this data did not seem to align with what she has observed in Woodbridge. I think this is am extremely important point to make because when we work so closely with data its easy to take whatever the data points point towards as bible, but its even more important to know that data points are valid in conjunction with reality. Especially with census data, there can be a lot of mistakes because of the wide range of values being collected. She reminded me to take a step back and make sure that we are taking community perspective into account. In the next few days we spent a lot of time in the neighborhood knocking on door to spread awareness for the Minor Home Repair project. For this project, citizens of Woodbridge can fill out an application for minor home repair projects for up to $5,000 in value.

 

This picture is one that my boss took of me knocking on a door to give a flyer to a homeowner in Woodbridge and let them know about this project. This was a great thing for me to do this week because it emphasized that all the maps and all the data collected does not define Woodbridge. Woodbridge is full of beautiful homes, unique small businesses, and most importantly amazing people. Last week I went to the WCC (Woodbridge Citizens Council) meeting where I met a lot of the community leaders in Woodbridge. These people care a lot about their neighborhood now and they care about it’s future. I am excited to learn more from residents of Woodbridge.

1 thought on “Putting this into Perspective”

  1. That’s super cool that you were able to see the real Woodbridge with you own eyes and meet the community members that make up the neighborhood instead of just looking at them as data and numbers on a map!

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