The Tuesday seminars have all been pretty neat.\u00a0\u00a0I learn about different issues related to Detroit\/communities\/non-profits, plus have a shorter work-day. \u00a0Thought-provoking weeks\u00a0are\u00a0Lynna Kaucheck and\u00a0Angela Abiodun. (Food and Water Watch and Detroit Food Academy)<\/p>\n
This week\u00a0with\u00a0Evan Markarian (Southwest Detroit Environmental Vision) sparked a lot of thoughts. \u00a0I am fascinated by issues about\u00a0Southwest because that is what I work with on a day-to-day basis. \u00a0The projects at SDEV relate\u00a0to work at SDBA. \u00a0Our discussion led to the question, is top-down or bottom-up change better?<\/p>\n
I took a class devoted to that exact topic this past semester. \u00a0I\u00a0WOULD\u00a0recommend it,\u00a0UP 532- Sustainability and Social Change: How to Change the World. \u00a0The content of the class focused on and went in-depth with\u00a0the theory of change.\u00a0 We read case studies,\u00a0discussed change agents, bottom-up change, top-down change, institutional change, culture change. \u00a0We deliberated on every aspect of change you can think about. \u00a0My conclusion is that change is difficult and complex. \u00a0Each case of change is unique and has many layers.<\/p>\n
I witness change and progress firsthand at SDBA.\u00a0\u00a0I have never been in\u00a0a\u00a0neighborhood\u00a0that\u00a0is as independent\u00a0as Southwest. \u00a0SDBA put in the bike lanes, the street lights, the trash cans, and the benches. \u00a0SDBA locates vacant or under-utilized properties and matches them with small-business owners. \u00a0We provide business assistance and help start businesses.\u00a0 We pressure the city to clean up contaminated sites. \u00a0We attract and secure developers and new businesses. \u00a0We track and monitor crime. \u00a0Our sister organization does community policing. \u00a0They also\u00a0hold\u00a0public meetings\/forums about any issues related to SW. \u00a0All this work only skims the surface of what SW does for itself. \u00a0It is\u00a0inspiring to be around the people who make it\u00a0happen.<\/p>\n
That\u00a0course and work at SDBA lead\u00a0me to the conclusion that\u00a0positive, inclusive change needs to be top-down & bottom-up.\u00a0The key is the scale of these efforts. \u00a0SDBA and other organizations made up of community members who stepped up to do what the city could not. \u00a0These organizations are closer and more aware of their community. \u00a0They know the need for incremental change and how to implement it. \u00a0Would we want neighborhood moms putting in streetlights? Most likely no. \u00a0But I would want them to be part of the decision-making process.\u00a0At the same time, we need to enact city-wide policies to make change. \u00a0Tiny community organizations are not powerful enough to institute and enforce policies themselves. \u00a0For example, the current Community Benefits Agreement is up for debate on City Council. \u00a0Work like this is not accomplishable at a small scale.\u00a0 City government serves as an overarching power while community work is an inclusive power.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The Tuesday seminars have all been pretty neat.\u00a0\u00a0I learn about different issues related to Detroit\/communities\/non-profits, plus have a shorter work-day. \u00a0Thought-provoking weeks\u00a0are\u00a0Lynna Kaucheck and\u00a0Angela Abiodun. (Food and Water Watch and Detroit Food Academy) This week\u00a0with\u00a0Evan Markarian (Southwest Detroit Environmental Vision) sparked a lot of thoughts. \u00a0I am fascinated by issues about\u00a0Southwest because that is what […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1669,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10688","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-dcbrp-2015"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/courses.lsa.umich.edu\/dcerp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10688","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/courses.lsa.umich.edu\/dcerp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/courses.lsa.umich.edu\/dcerp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/courses.lsa.umich.edu\/dcerp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1669"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/courses.lsa.umich.edu\/dcerp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10688"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/courses.lsa.umich.edu\/dcerp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10688\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15880,"href":"https:\/\/courses.lsa.umich.edu\/dcerp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10688\/revisions\/15880"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/courses.lsa.umich.edu\/dcerp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10688"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/courses.lsa.umich.edu\/dcerp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10688"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/courses.lsa.umich.edu\/dcerp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10688"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}