My community placement is HOPE Village Revitalization, a community-led, community-driven non-profit organization focused on creating a sustainable, equitable, and healthy neighborhood with a high quality of life for all. They are a relatively new organization, as they broke off from Focus: HOPE last year in order to become more community-centered. Their mission is to move the HOPE Village neighborhood forward in a way that mitigates disparities in wealth, privilege, and educational resources. They pledge to collaborate and be part of the collective working toward equitable and sustainable development in Detroit, ultimately making every HOPE Village resident a stakeholder in their community. Their main projects include a weekly Farmers Market, revitalizing four parks and three brownfield properties, creating affordable sustainable housing, and maintaining a community garden. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
My summer research project is to evaluate the fresh local food systems in the HOPE Village neighborhood. This includes increasing the impact of their Farmers Market and community gardens, with a central focus on the Farmers Market. HOPE Village is running their first independent market this summer, which is to be a hub of community connection with neighbors, health resources, art\/cultural expression through performances and showcases, and an opportunity to support local business owners and purchase affordable produce. Due to COVID-19, HOPE Village has to limit the park capacity to 100 people, so there will not be as many art exhibits and community activities as previously planned. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
My first few weeks with my placement have not been what I expected, but nevertheless wonderful! I love being able to talk to community members and local organizations, even from a virtual setting. I was able to join community Zoom calls, meet community members, and support their concerns, especially with the emotional trauma from George Floyd’s death. My supervisor also let me join calls with HOPE Village partner organizations and vendors, such as Wayne State, UMich, Eastern Market, and Detroit Community Markets. I have also been using Canva A LOT to make flyers, information pamphlets, and booklets about the Farmers Market. This week, I have been helping the website manager design HOPE Village’s new website to accurately feature community events and Farmers Market information and create a Facebook and Instagram (go follow @hopevillagedetroit !). In the coming weeks, I will probably be analyzing Farmers Market numbers using a couple of surveys that I created in my first week.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Connecting with the DCERP fellows has been wonderful so far. I love everyone’s kind messages in the GroupMe and engaging with some fellows on 1:1 calls. I didn’t realize there would be a lot of overlap, but HOPE Village has been partnering with some of the fellows’ organizations and it’s been great to talk with fellows who are working on projects similar to mine (shoutout to Saida and Ecoworks)! I feel like we would all be able to get to know each other better in person, but hopefully we can meet together sometime in the fall \ud83d\ude42 I am looking forward to continuing to hear about your stories and work in our placements!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
My community placement is HOPE Village Revitalization, a community-led, community-driven non-profit organization focused on creating a sustainable, equitable, and healthy neighborhood with a high quality of life for all. They are a relatively new organization, as they broke off from Focus: HOPE last year in order to become more community-centered. 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