Asalam Alaikum!<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Last week I introduced you to Dawud Clark. Dawud is a dedicated, kind, and respected member of this community, and his established \u201cWelcome to the Muslim Center\u201d is a hallmark of what makes this community center such a wonderful and hospitable place to be. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Dawud is the house manager for DREAM\u2019s Project Homecoming transitional home, and this has been a labor of love for Dawud for the past several years. Project Homecoming is a transitional home for men returning home from prison, and the goal is to provide an environment where formerly incarcerated men can safely and effectively transition back into the free world and build up the skills, knowledge, and support needed to thrive. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
For Dawud this home is extra special, \u201cBefore I moved in, I was living in a hotel. I’m working, I’m trying to find a place to live. And I’m just exhausting myself every day going in circles. When I got in touch with Dream of Detroit, they got in touch with me, it made sense. It saved my life.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Dawud, himself being formerly incarcerated, found it almost impossible to find anywhere to stay due to the fact that he didn\u2019t have a credit score and he had a history. It was the transition home and the DREAM community that allowed him to get back on his feet and it’s his gratitude and love for the project that drives his work. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Recently, DREAM of Detroit was featured in ABC news and portrayed Dawud in a negative light choosing to focus on his past and portraying him only as a recipient of DREAM of Detroit\u2019s services. We were all really disappointed with the portrayal of Dawud in something that would\u2019ve otherwise been a decent article. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
This whole experience has emphasized just how important the portrayal of someone’s narrative is. And seeing this experience firsthand and how it frustrated and saddened Dawud, someone whose cheerfulness lights up the entire community, stressed how important it is as a researcher, journalist, and just anyone who plans on entering a community to make sure that your work empowers and educates. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
As community-based researchers, I truly believe that it is our job to empower and learn about the communities that we enter, and it all starts with listening. It\u2019s not our job to weave the narrative, but rather to receive and amplify it. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Asalam Alaikum! Last week I introduced you to Dawud Clark. Dawud is a dedicated, kind, and respected member of this community, and his established \u201cWelcome to the Muslim Center\u201d is a hallmark of what makes this community center such a wonderful and hospitable place to be. Dawud is the house manager for DREAM\u2019s Project Homecoming […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3875,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","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":[605],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-17761","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-dcerp-2022"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/courses.lsa.umich.edu\/dcerp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17761","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\/3875"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/courses.lsa.umich.edu\/dcerp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17761"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/courses.lsa.umich.edu\/dcerp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17761\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":17762,"href":"https:\/\/courses.lsa.umich.edu\/dcerp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17761\/revisions\/17762"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/courses.lsa.umich.edu\/dcerp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17761"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/courses.lsa.umich.edu\/dcerp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17761"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/courses.lsa.umich.edu\/dcerp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17761"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}