Chadsey Condon Community Organization
When was it organized?
2006
Who is completing this survey? Name and role with organization:
Amanda Holiday, 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?
Yes
If yes, what is your FTE staff? Within that, what is full time and what is part time?
1 FTE
What is the annual budget of your organization?
$50,000
Describe the streets or locations that define your organization’s overall focus area (north, south, east and/or west):
- N — Warren
- S — John Kronk
- E — I96
- W — Dearborn border (Wyoming)
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.
Please describe the work your organization does in community development:
Convening/Facilitating/Collaborations: General Description
- Our board members deliver work in the community so all of them come together every month and tell us what to do when they come together.
- We are funded through Skillman and were created to have a role as facilitators.
- We work strongly with the other nonprofits in the area, especially Bridging Communities.
Lately, we’ve been working on parks and one of them is a decommissioned city park. It was a big plot of land and we’ve worked with residents to put in raised beds, fruit trees and benches. We also got a grant to put in a soccer field that went in in July. We collaborated with McGraw Resource Stop for that.
- Resource Stop is an organization that serves a certain part within our boundaries.
- Lately, we’ve been working on parks and one of them is a decommissioned city park. It was a big plot of land and we’ve worked with residents to put in raised beds, fruit trees and benches. We also got a grant to put in a soccer field that went in in July. We collaborated with McGraw Resource Stop for that.
- We collaborate with the local schools and the churches.
- Michigan Ave Business Association uses our office as their permanent address.
- Hope Citizens Patrol runs out of our office.
- We have a Christmas event where we have Santa Claus and we give away gifts children. This is done with McGraw Resource Stop partners.
- We partner with University of Michigan and Wayne State and I am a field liaison for internships.
Convening/Facilitating/Collaborations: Partner Organizations
- Bridging Communities
- SW Detroit Environmental Vision
- Congress of Communities
- Unity in our Community Time Bank
- Michigan Ave Business Association
- Hope Citizens Patrol
- SW Solutions
- Other local nonprofits
- American Indian Center
- Urban Neighborhood Initiatives
- Data Driven Detroit
- University of Michigan
- Wayne State
Convening/Facilitating/Collaborations: Funders
Skillman
Convening/Facilitating/Collaborations: Important Outcomes or Lessons
Outcomes:
There’s been a lot of park development, especially with the Mcgraw Resource Stop group.
Lessons:
- Relationships are key and having positive relationships with people who work in other organizations makes things run smoother.
- When you work together, things go better.
Resident Engagement/Empowerment: General Description
- We have a Christmas event where we have Santa Claus and we give away gifts to children. This is done with McGraw Resource Stop partners.
- We do a back to school event and a resource fair. At the event, we give away school supplies. We have 20–25 different organizations there and it’s normally 600+ people there. We do this event with Bridging Communities. These are the two big annual events.
- This year we’re going to have an additional event in the spring because we need to do board elections.
- To be a board member, you have to live or work in the neighborhood. The majority of our board members live in the neighborhood.
There are a lot of misunderstandings and sometimes you have to apologize — not just the residents have to each other, but I have to apologize as well.
- We have two big committees: a safety committee that works on reducing blight and crime in the neighborhood. They’ve created a radio patrol and they do a lot of clean ups and board ups.
- Our other big committee is our youth committee for high school teenagers.
- It’s our mission to make sure residents are involved.
Resident Engagement/Empowerment: Partner Organizations
- Bridging Communities
- McGraw Resource Stop
- ACCESS
- SW Detroit Environmental Vision
- Congress of Communities
- Unity in our Community Time Bank
- Michigan Ave Business Association
- Hope Citizens Patrol
- SW Solutions
- Other local nonprofits
- American Indian Center
- Urban Neighborhood Initiatives
Resident Engagement/Empowerment: Funders
Skillman
Resident Engagement/Empowerment: Important Outcomes or Lessons
Outcomes:
We have positive outcomes from the youth development and safety work.
Lessons:
- Our neighborhood is really diverse. It takes a lot of patience and it’s really tough to have people from different cultures and races working together.
- There are a lot of misunderstandings and sometimes you have to apologize — not just the residents have to each other, but I have to apologize as well.
Economic Development: General Description
- We’ve been working with Michigan Ave Business Association. They use our office for meetings. They don’t have paid staff; but, for awhile, SW Solutions was paying for part time people. That’s not going to be happening for much longer. They’ve been working really hard.
- We helped Michigan Ave Business Association do a mural.
- Lately, we’ve been working on parks and one of them is a decommissioned city park. It was a big plot of land and we’ve worked with residents to put in raised beds, fruit trees and benches. We also got a grant to put in a soccer field that went in in July. We collaborated with McGraw Resource Stop for that.
Our area is slowly starting to bounce back. We’re right on the border of Corktown and I’m seeing a lot of economic development on that end of the neighborhood. There’s a lot of property getting bought on the eastern edge of my boundaries. We want to make sure that all of that development is positive.
- SW Detroit Environmental Division helped us make raised beds for and plant fruit trees in the park.
- We have two big committees: a safety committee that works on reducing blight and crime in the neighborhood. They’ve created a radio patrol and they do a lot of clean ups and board ups.
- We don’t currently own property, but we would like to.
Economic Development: Partner Organizations
- McGraw Resource Stop
- SW Detroit Environmental Division
- Bridging Communities
- Michigan Ave Business Association
Economic Development: Funders
Skillman
Economic Development: Important Outcomes or Lessons
Outcomes:
We have a soccer field that is frequently used.
Lessons:
Our area is slowly starting to bounce back. We’re right on the border of Corktown and I’m seeing a lot of economic development on that end of the neighborhood. There’s a lot of property getting bought on the eastern edge of my boundaries. We want to make sure that all of that development is positive.
Resident Support: General Description
- In our office, we have a wall where we advertise resources and events.
- We have a robel call phone system where we can tell people about what’s going on.
- Every month, we send out emails to our residents about what’s going on. We send this email out to all of southwest.
- We also send out things that will help residents for example we sent out information about where to get pet food.
- We have an active Facebook where we post flyers and resources. We also post on our website.
People don’t always follow through as much as I thought that they would. Sometimes people need their hands held to follow through.
- We have a one-page resource guide where we list children’s programming and housing. My interns are working on expanding this into a database that can be posted on the website. This will be more expansive and have more information about all of the services.
- We do a resource fair event.
- We do a lot of tabling at other people’s events.
- We have a calendar with safety committee meeting times, youth committee meeting times and different events. We hand these out to the residents.
- We do diaper distribution through the Metro Detroit Diaper Bank. We give out diapers to 50 families a month.
Resident Support: Partner Organizations
- McGraw Resource Stop
- Connelly Library
- American Indian Center
- Metro Detroit Diaper Bank
Resident Support: Funders
Skillman
Resident Support: Important Outcomes or Lessons
Outcomes:
- Families have diapers.
- The residents really appreciate knowing what’s available to them. People come to events because of Chadsey Condon advertising the events.
- Residents love the calendar and people frequently ask when it’s coming out.
Lessons:
- People need a lot more support.
- There are all these things available, but people don’t know about them so they don’t use them. People use them right before they’re going to end. For example, the lead abatement program has been around forever and now they just ended it. I don’t know if they’re going to start it up again, but they did a huge push at the end but it’s been around for two years.
- People don’t always follow through as much as I thought that they would. Sometimes people need their hands held to follow through.
- Sometimes, there’s no follow up with partners which is frustrating.
Community Planning and Advocacy: General Description
Community Planning:
CDAD has picked us as the next neighborhood to do a community plan. They’ve done some surveys and they’ve come to one meeting, but we haven’t done the big planning meeting yet.
Advocacy:
- We’re always making sure to advocate. We’ve advocated a lot for individual issues so if someone has been dumping on an empty lot next to a person’s property or there’s an abandoned car, we will push residents to use the Improve Detroit app to rectify those problems.
We’re always making sure to advocate. We’ve advocated a lot for individual issues so if someone has been dumping on an empty lot next to a person’s property or there’s an abandoned car, we will push residents to use the Improve Detroit app to rectify those problems.
- We are an intermediary between the residents and the city. I have a good relationship with the district manager.
- Congress of Communities is at bigger tables for issues around immigration and things like that and we’ve been part of those issues through them.
- I’m a University of Michigan field liaison for Chadsey Condon and Congress of Communities. I will soon be the liaison for Stephanie Chang and Raquel Lopez.
Community Planning and Advocacy: Partner Organizations
- Congress of Communities
- University of Michigan
- Wayne State
- Raquel Lopez’s Office
- Stephanie Chang
- District Manager
- Baptist Churches
- Hope Community Partnership and Development Coalition
- CDAD
Community Planning and Advocacy: Funders
Skillman
Community Planning and Advocacy: Important Outcomes or Lessons
Outcomes:
- The CDAD plan will be a huge outcome.
- I’ve seen a lot of individual outcomes. Trash gets picked up, abandoned vehicles are removed and a trees get cut.
Lessons:
- Planning takes a long time.
- It’s really important to have follow up once the plan is made.
Finally, please rank each role 1 to 5, with 5 being the most frequent role, and 1 being the least frequent role carried out by the organization.
Convening/Facilitating/Collaborations: Frequency Rank
5
Resident Engagement/Empowerment: Frequency Rank
5
Economic Development: Frequency Rank
3
Resident Support: Frequency Rank
5
Community Planning and Advocacy: Frequency Rank
4
This information is current as of 10/26/17