Howdy Y’all!<\/p>\n
The Bell Building resembles a lighthouse as it stands erect amidst a sea of boarded homes, overgrown lawns, and makeshift worships spaces. Likewise, a vivacious flame radiates from the within the building. It’s quite difficult not to catch onto the affable spirit. Everyone is smiling, especially on “Turn It Up Tuesday.”<\/p>\n
This summer, I have the pleasure to call the Bell Building my workplace. The Bell Building burns brightly because of the Neighborhood Service Organization (NSO). The NSO is a non-profit organization that provides a home to 155 individuals who have experienced homelessness. In conjunction with providing permanent housing, the NSO offers\u00a0tenants with a variety of support services (mental health, suicide prevention, substance abuse, etc.).\u00a0The NSO’s Supportive Housing program\u00a0provides people who experienced homelessness\u00a0with housing quickly, and then provides them with needed on-site services. On-site supportive services help residents connect to primary and health care, addiction treatment, counseling support and Illness Management and Recovery. \u00a0Additionally, in-house training and classes help residents with life skills and connections to GED preparation, community college, and job training. The NSO Bell Building is the largest supportive housing development in the state of Michigan.<\/p>\n
NSO’s mission: “Changing lives through innovative social services that harness the power of choice”<\/em><\/p>\n I am working on a spectrum of different projects at the NSO, but my main task is to work with tenants to design a rooftop garden for the Bell Building. I am working to make to the rooftop garden blossom into a reality. I have been speaking with tenants about the rooftop garden, generating interest, and conducting research on logistical aspects, such as\u00a0structural analysis, irrigation systems, plants, containers, etc. Focusing on community urban design, I am also working with tenants to create proposals for underutilized spaces in the Bell Building. Starting a recycling program at the NSO is also on the to-do list. While I have concrete projects, my supervisors are open to new ideas and programs, which I love! Thinking outside of the box is one of a few of my favorite things. Building relationships with staff and co-workers is a fundamental component of working at the NSO. Consequently, I am helping with a street soccer team, hosting a four square tournament, playing bingo, and a whole bunch of other fun social activities.<\/p>\n Like my work, I LOVE Detroit. There is something new to discover around every corner. Between Avalon Bakery, Slow’s BBQ, Cliff Bell’s, Campus Martius, the New Center+dancing with highly skilled swing dancers, running around Midtown, playing soccer, working at the NSO, and volunteering at the NSO\/Focus: HOPE’s block party, meeting new people, and making delightful friendships, Detroit is a beautiful place.<\/p>\n Ta Ta for now!<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Howdy Y’all! The Bell Building resembles a lighthouse as it stands erect amidst a sea of boarded homes, overgrown lawns, and makeshift worships spaces. Likewise, a vivacious flame radiates from the within the building. It’s quite difficult not to catch onto the affable spirit. Everyone is smiling, especially on “Turn It Up Tuesday.” This summer, […]<\/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":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3562","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-cbrp-2013"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/courses.lsa.umich.edu\/dcerp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3562","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=3562"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/courses.lsa.umich.edu\/dcerp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3562\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":16418,"href":"https:\/\/courses.lsa.umich.edu\/dcerp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3562\/revisions\/16418"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/courses.lsa.umich.edu\/dcerp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3562"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/courses.lsa.umich.edu\/dcerp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3562"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/courses.lsa.umich.edu\/dcerp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3562"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}