Hello all! I\u2019m Owen. Next fall, I\u2019ll be a junior in LSA with a double major in Organizational Studies and Environmental Studies. I\u2019m professionally interested in issues relating to urbanism, public\/shared space and public transportation. My hometown is Ann Arbor, so I\u2019ve grown up living next to and hearing all about Detroit, but I haven\u2019t actually spent much time in the city itself. It is for this reason that I was thrilled to hear about the DCERP program and find an opportunity to live in the city and be guided by people (in my non-profit organization and others) who care about and are familiar with their community or corner in Detroit.
Community can mean different things to people based on their backgrounds and values, but to me it is about sharing. You can share glances, smiles, waves and thoughts. You can also share resources, food and information. I think communities are built in large part from the act of sharing because when we share with one another, we\u2019re demonstrating our interest to look out for one another. A book I\u2019m currently reading (it\u2019s called Palaces for the People) is just one long novel advocating for more public spaces because it is these spaces that allow people in neighborhoods and cities to meet and form the bonds that will lead them to share and form communities. The benefits of strong communities create healthier and happier communities, according to this book. I\u2019m only half way through it, though, so I\u2019m sure I\u2019ll learn about many more benefits too.
As I will be working with the Nortown Community Development Corporation in Northeast Detroit, I hope to learn about the community that exists there now and acquaint myself with the work of my non-profit organization to support and further this community. I expect to spend these first two weeks simply learning about the community, but I think this is a strength of mine. I have documents to read, a history to understand, maps to examine and a neighborhood to tour. In time, I hope to merge my own experiences with the knowledge I gain from this \u201corientation\u201d period and the knowledge my mentors at the non-profit have gained all their lives. I am excited to see what will come out of it all!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Hello all! I\u2019m Owen. Next fall, I\u2019ll be a junior in LSA with a double major in Organizational Studies and Environmental Studies. I\u2019m professionally interested in issues relating to urbanism, public\/shared space and public transportation. My hometown is Ann Arbor, so I\u2019ve grown up living next to and hearing all about Detroit, but I haven\u2019t […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4430,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","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":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-18136","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/courses.lsa.umich.edu\/dcerp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18136","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\/4430"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/courses.lsa.umich.edu\/dcerp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18136"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/courses.lsa.umich.edu\/dcerp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18136\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":18485,"href":"https:\/\/courses.lsa.umich.edu\/dcerp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18136\/revisions\/18485"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/courses.lsa.umich.edu\/dcerp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18136"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/courses.lsa.umich.edu\/dcerp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18136"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/courses.lsa.umich.edu\/dcerp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18136"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}