Bridging Communities
When was it organized?
Our organization started in 1980 as Project Save. (Seek And Visit the Elderly) In 1999, it became Bridging the Communities.
Who is completing this survey? Name and role with organization:
Phyllis Edwards, Executive Director
Choose one category that best fits your organization:
Community Development Organization (not sponsored by a church or agency or company)
Does your organization have paid staff?
4 full time staff and 3 part time staff
What is the annual budget of your organization?
$365,000
Describe the streets or locations that define your organization’s overall focus area (north, south, east and/or west):
- Ford Street — S
- Wyoming — W
- I96 — E
- Grand River — N
- Serves all of SW
Describe in detail the work your organization does, within the role categories below, along with the specific geographic area in which the work is done. Refer to the definitions below of the community development roles we are inquiring about. Include any partner organizations you work with, and how the work is funded or otherwise resourced. Use extra pages if necessary. If your organization doesn’t do work in one or more of the role categories, just skip that portion of the survey.
Convening/Facilitating/Collaborations: General Description
- We convene multiple community meetings.
- We’re part of the McGraw resource stop collaboration, which is made up of 11 community organizations. This is a group of people who come together to revitalize 48210.
We collaborate with the Springwells Collaborative (four other organizations) to ensure there is affordable housing in the community. We’re working on 560 units of new or rehab housing within the next five years.
- We collaborate with the Springwells Collaborative (four other organizations) to ensure there is affordable housing in the community. We’re working on 560 units of new or rehab housing within the next five years.
- We work with the Michigan Avenue Business Association to do economic development along the Michigan Avenue Corridor from I96 to Wyoming — the border of where Detroit and Dearborn meet.
- We meet with other local community organizations to do clean ups, park development, gardening and placemaking.
Convening/Facilitating/Collaborations: Partners
- Chadsey Condon Community Organization
- Friends of Bieniek Park
- Michigan Avenue Business Association
- SW Environment Visions
- Unity in the Community Time Bank
- McGraw Resource Stop
- Urban Neighborhood Initiative
- Congress of Communities
- SW Business Association
- Greening of Detroit
- SW Housing
Convening/Facilitating/Collaborations: Funders
- Chadsey Condon Community Organization
- Flagstar Bank
- Huntington Bank
- UAW Local 600
- UAW National
- Chase Bank
- Kresge Foundation
- Detroit Area Agency on Aging
- Comprehensive Logistics
Convening/Facilitating/Collaborations: Lessons/Outcomes
Outcomes:
- There’s housing development.
- We’ve rehabbed homes and done park renovations.
- There’s been information and resource sharing.
- We have a community revitalization plan that we’re still working on for this area.
- Our community is safer through the safety initiative.
Lessons:
- Culture plays an important role in development and it should be infused in the area that you’re developing and celebrated.
- The community has a voice whether you hear it or you don’t, best that you hear instead of someone hearing it for you.
- If you engage the community, then work goes a lot smoother.
Resident Engagement/Empowerment: General Description
- Our geographic boundaries for resident engagement/empowerment are in our immediate area (boundaries listed above), but also reach further SW in Springwells Village.
- We come together for clean up and park renovations.
- We hold outdoor events in the summer such as themed nights around different cultures (Arab, Latino, and African American) where that cultures’ food, dance, etc. is celebrated. These nights help dispel myths about each culture.
We hold outdoor events in the summer such as themed nights around different cultures (Arab, Latino, and African American) where that cultures’ food, dance, etc. is celebrated. These nights help dispel myths about each culture.
- We’re promoting intergenerational relationships. Accesses to resources are a problem for both senior and youth. We try to infuse and intergenerational approach to the work that they do so it will last throughout a person’s lifetime.
- We serve as hub for information and connecting residents to various resources and problem solving. We have residents are on our board.
- We have a youth program for youth in the neighborhood.
- We do housing development and own properties.
- We’re involved in quality of life as it relates to housing and senior transportation.
- We host “Movies on the Green.”
Resident Engagement/Empowerment: Partners
- Chadsey Condon Community Organization
- Carter Church
- Bailey Temple Church of God in Christ
- 48217 Block Club
- Foundation of Love Church
- Save Detroit
- PAL
- City of Detroit
Resident Engagement/Empowerment: Funders
- Skillman
- Kellogg
- USW Local 600
- CDAD
- LISC
- City of Detroit
- CDAD
Resident Engagement/Empowerment: Lessons/Outcomes
Outcomes:
- We’re a trusted entity in the community and people come to us if they’re not sure if something they’re hearing is true or not.
Lessons:
- If you engage residents in the beginning, you don’t have problems at the middle and end.
- If residents believe in the work you’re doing, they help you out as well. You give and they give and there’s a mutual respect for the work.
Economic Development: General Description
- We’re working with Michigan Avenue Business for the Michigan Avenue Corridor.
- We’re working with SW Business District to do work on the Vernor Highway Corridor.
- We’re doing beautification projects for Bennett Park.
- We’re working on Bieniek park, but we are stalled.
- We’re doing clean ups through some of the other projects along various corridors.
- We collaborate with Springwells with four other organizations to do housing development. We’re working on 560 units of new housing within the next five years.
- We’re involved in quality of life as it relates to housing and senior transportation.
- We work with Greening of Detroit.
- We work with Grow Detroit, who provides seeds that were planted in the garden.
- We’re meeting with the City of Detroit and adding additional housing for the Yemeni community.
Economic Development: Partners
- City of Detroit
- Motor City Makeover
- Chadsey Condon Community Organization
- University of Michigan
- UNI
- CDAD
- Greening of Detroit
- Grow Detroit
Economic Development: Funders
- Funders are still up in the air. For housing you have to find investors; and, if it’s just the parks, you have to work with the City of Detroit because they own the land.
- CDAD (for a placemaking grant)
Economic Development: Outcomes or Lessons
Outcomes:
- More businesses are along Michigan Avenue and Vernor Highway.
- Increase community green spaces for residential engagement.
Lessons:
- People really want to be outside, but people need a place to be. Benches are outside so that people can use them all the time. They were put up last year.
Resident Support: General Description
- We serve as the liaison for community residents to essential resources.
- We serve as proxy for community residents seeking to become homeowners through the Detroit Land Bank.
We have the resources that residents need to remain in the neighborhood and have a good quality of life so that they can continue to be involved.
- We host a community dialogue about housing.
- We support community blight removal.
- We provide adult diapers for seniors with incontinence problems.
- We work with Focus HOPE to deliver Focus Hope monthly food boxes
- Serve as a community partner delivering Meals on Wheels for Labor Day, Easter, Thanksgiving and Christmas.
- Preserved 80 units of affordable senior housing through a 2018 LIHTC
- Secure a building for the Yemeni community for their resource center.
Resident Support: Partners
- Detroit Area Agency on Aging
- Focus HOPE
- City of Detroit
Resident Support: Funders
- LISC
- CDAD
- Prevention Network
- Local 600
- Fundraisers (We have three huge fundraisers: a golf outing, a walk for senior independence and bowling with a silent auction.)
Resident Support: Lessons/Outcomes
Outcomes:
- We have the resources that residents need to remain in the neighborhood and have a good quality of life so that they can continue to be involved.
- We hope that block clubs will come out of the work.
- Green spaces and blight reduction has come out of the work.
Lessons:
When residents get involved some of the illegal dumping has stopped and some of the illegal activities have stopped because people are more involved in the reporting.
Community Planning and Advocacy: General Description
Community Planning:
It takes a village to have a village. You can’t operate in a silo in a community and expect to have a great outcome.
- We have community plans for Springwells Village.
- We have a master plan for Clay Town.
- We have a master plan for Chadsey Condon.
- Our plan for the area further south is to build or rehab 560 units of housing.
Advocacy:
We advocate for senior services, for transportation, for affordable housing, affordable healthcare and immigrant rights (especially because some of our families have been torn apart due to President Trump’s initiatives.
Community Planning and Advocacy: Partners
- Elder Law
- Congress of Communities
- Welcome in Michigan
Community Planning and Advocacy: Funders
We use general operating funds from fundraisers.
Community Planning and Advocacy: Funders
Outcomes:
- We’re able to give information to people whose lives have been changed by politics.
- We can provide additional resources and services to seniors so they can remain in their homes as long as possible.
- We engage residents and give voice to residents who didn’t have a voice so that they can see what they want inside their communities.
Lessons:
It takes a village to have a village. You can’t operate in a silo in a community and expect to have a great outcome.
Convening/Facilitation/Collaborations:
2
Resident Engagement/Empowerment:
3
Economic Development:
5
Resident Support:
4
Community Planning and Advocacy:
1
Information current as of 4/26/17