Week Two: Bridging Neighborhoods

Dear Angel,

Last week, you broke and shut down as everything seemed to happen all at once. You wondered if the work you were doing was pointless, but through the support of your cohort and coworkers, you got back up. They reminded you that you weren’t alone and taught you how significant the work is. Mindfulness activities, no matter how silly, offered peace to the storm raging in your mind and heart. Breakout rooms offered a sense of camaraderie, trust, and that long lost word, “community”.

This week is where the real work has begun. You are working in your program called Bridging Neighborhoods. You help relocate and aid people who live in Southwest Detroit, specifically Delray, by I-75. These families who deal with constant noises from vehicles, a lack of resources and maintenance due to industrialization, and pollution thought the city forgot about them.They have a deep distrust of the ones who are supposed to support and protect them. In this position, you help support these people and also face the same frustrations and common feelings that occurred when your city let you down. Through participant interviews and analysis of data, you will learn how to make a house feel like a home. You will be the hand that reaches across the divide and offer caring hands. You also will learn how to implement ways to create long lasting relationships and how to help the community, help their-selves. You will also gain research skills around stimulating the economy by helping Detroit based businesses with people of color find work and create relationships with the program and residents. From here on, you will begin to the fight the next battle in the war you thought you lost. We got this. Until our next post…..

Angel