Genesis Harbor of Opportunities Promoting Excellence (GenesisHOPE)
When was it organized?
2008
Who is completing this survey? Name and role with organization:
Jeanine Hatcher, Executive Director
Choose one category that best fits your organization:
CDO sponsored by a church
Does your organization have paid staff?
2 FTE
What is the annual budget of your organization?
$150,000
Describe the streets or locations that define your organization’s overall focus area (north, south, east and/or west):
Gratiot to Jefferson — Mt Elliot to Maxwell
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
- Our primary work is youth development. We provide youth with employment and leadership training.
- We focus on health and nutrition. We convene around food because food is an issue in areas with large pockets of poverty. We provide fresh and healthy food to residents.
People who have the least have the stronger bond in terms of their focus on people. People who are from higher income and a higher educational background seem to be more bottom line driven.
- We convene residents and youth so they can have a voice in the planning process, community clean ups and meetings.
- We convene businesses, churches, other nonprofit organizations, public officials, police, social services and banks. GenesisHOPE is a meeting point for a lot of different efforts.
Convening/Facilitating/Collaborations: Partner Organizations
- Keep Growing
- Eastern Market
- Detroit Food Policy Council
- MSU Extension
- Gleaners
- Businesses
- Churches
- Other nonprofit organizations
- Public officials
- Police
- Social services
- Banks
Convening/Facilitating/Collaborations: Funders
- Self-funded
- Religious organizations
- General operating support
Convening/Facilitating/Collaborations: Important Outcomes or Lessons
Outcomes:
- We get a lot more done than we could do on our own because there are only two staff.
- Collaboration is how we do what we do and we’re able to make a bigger impact with our food work, planning, maps creation and clean ups/getting tools.
- We’ve convened other resources from other areas where they are missing.
- We’ve watched the evolution of residents having a bigger voice.
- Having different types of interactions with people is new.
Lessons:
- It comes down to money; with adequate resources, collaboration has such a high or strong impact that with an adequate amount of funding a lot of the problems in the neighborhood could be eliminated, but in the absence of that funding the residents are really resilient.
- People who have the least have the stronger bond in terms of their focus on people. People who are from higher income and a higher educational background seem to be more bottom line driven.
Resident Engagement/Empowerment: General Description
- Our primary work is youth development. We provide youth with employment and leadership training. Our community development work started with youth and looking at land.
- We focus on health and nutrition. We convene around food because food is an issue in areas with large pockets of poverty. We provide fresh and healthy food to residents.
We’re working to empower the residents and the associations by building capacity. Our objective is to have at least one representative on a block.
- In addition, to providing fresh healthy foods, youth go out into the area and get residents to come to the market.
- We have two youth groups — Young Sprouts and Green Core Food, Land, Ozone, Water and Waste (FLOWW).
- We did land use planning work with Lawrence Tech after youth were overheard talking about what they noticed in the neighborhood so they decided to focus on land. This also came from Bring Back the Boulevard. We used this title because that was the street that youth were talking about and that they were really afraid of. We hired two interns for the summer to work on the project. We started this initiative at the same time that the residents mentioned about the city’s planning; this mushroomed into a larger study with Lawrence Tech. It’s being plugged into LEAP now so that it fits with the city’s planning work.
- We’re working to empower the residents and the associations by building capacity. Our objective is to have at least one representative on a block.
- Our goal is to have a voice vis-à-vis what the city is doing.
- For youth empowerment, the youth run the farmers market and they have a garden.
Resident Engagement/Empowerment: Partners
- Keep Growing Detroit
- Gleaners
- Eastern Market
- MSU
- Lawrence Tech
- Public officials
- Councilwoman Sheffield
- ECN
- Church of Messiah
- Charlevoix Village Association
- Messiah Housing
- The Villages
- MACC Development
- Genesis Lutheran Church
Resident Engagement/Empowerment: Funders
This is self-funded because of the need.
Resident Engagement/Empowerment: Lessons/Outcomes
Outcomes:
- There are stronger community leaders.
- Youth are business minded and strong community leaders.
- We’ve trained over 600 youth.
- Lessons:
- It’s challenging working with people, but also rewarding.
Economic Development: General Description
- Our food sector has a youth entrepreneurship flavor.
- We Support local vendors which is how we support the economy on a larger scale, but also expose youth to the industry.
We’re working with West Village and Ecoworks on neighborhood entrance improvements where every entrance will be something different. The streets were chosen by Lawrence Tech (who provided input) and the residents advanced it.
- We’re working on open space development and public art installations.
- We do clean ups.
- West Village and Islandview are coming together on solar energy and art installations.
- We’re installing solar lighting where lighting is lacking. Alleys are key.
- We’re working with West Village and Ecoworks on neighborhood entrance improvements where every entrance will be something different. The streets were chosen by Lawrence Tech (who provided input) and the residents advanced it.
- Some alleys need to return to the city because they need to be made use of. Alleys need to be used to direct traffic.
Economic Development: Partners
- Ecowork
- Solardarity/RCI (make solar lights)
- LTU
Economic Development: Funders
- Religious institutions
- Individual donors
Economic Development: Lessons/Outcomes
Outcomes:
- We get a few 1,000 dollars a year from the market and a couple thousand visitors.
- We sell what we grow, which is a few thousand worth (about 3,000).
- We give $1,000 worth to community and $2,000 worth is sold.
- We’ve harvested a larger number of food
Lessons:
It’s expensive and it’s hard to make money.
Resident Support: General Description
- Home improvement grants are needed in this area, but are a challenge for people in this area so services are brought in. U SNAP BAC brought in the home improvement grants.
- We want to do brick and mortar development and affordable housing.
The financial piece is important because we want to insure that people in this area can remain in this area so we provide home buying counseling, which helps to build relationships with people.
- The financial piece is important because we want to insure that people in this area can remain in this area so we provide home buying counseling, which helps to build relationships with people.
- We do health and nutrition education such as cooking demos. We demonstrate how you can eat healthy on a limited amount of money. Financial planning and support services come in in the food area.
Resident Support: Partners
- U SNAP BAC
- Other partners provide support for residents
Resident Support: Funding
- Eastern Market (for food)
- Wheatridge (for food)
Resident Support: Lessons/Outcomes
Outcomes:
The amount of health and nutrition education provided.
Lessons:
The financial piece is important because we want to insure that people in this area can remain in this area so we provide home buying counseling, which helps to build relationships with people.
Community Planning/Advocacy: General Description
Community planning:
- We started community planning with kids. The city was in such a flux that we wanted to know what plan they were going with. We started with Detroit Future City, LEAP, debt planning and greenway planning.
- Our current planning includes land use planning/housing development and economic development/streetscape improvement, green infrastructure, sustainability and workforce development.
Advocacy:
- We’re light on the advocacy side, but we advocate for plans for the neighborhood.
- W advocate in the food sector when policies made it too hard to do food work.
A key role for the community development corporation is to be not only a liaison, but a translator. You need to be good at it in order to facilitate and convene and be successful. You also need to be able to articulate what you’re demanding.
- We just got a MFMA license for the farmer’s market. We got a food license that you can get at the state level and the city level. As a farmer’s market, we’re getting a license so we can do cooking demos and be legal. Working with the city and its licensing process is very difficult and it kept flipping back and forth from being privatized. We advocated with the state and got the license.
- We’re advocating for the Urban Act Ordinance.
- We’ve participated in the Michigan Food Charter.
Community Planning/Advocacy: Partners
- West Village Association
- Lawrence Tech
- Solardarity
- MFMA
Community Planning/Advocacy: Funding
In-kind support
Community Planning/Advocacy: Lessons or Outcomes
Outcomes:
- We advocated with the state and got a farmer’s market license.
- We received the City of Detroit Green Taskforce Award for recycling.
Lessons:
A key role for the community development corporation is to be not only a liaison, but a translator. You need to be good at it in order to facilitate and convene and be successful. You also need to be able to articulate what you’re demanding.
Convening/Facilitating/Collaboration
5
Resident Engagement/Empowerment
4
Economic Development
3
Resident Support
2 (3 — goes hand in hand with economic development)
Community Planning/Advocacy
5
Charlevoix Village Association, Helen Street BC, Field Street BC, Field Street Collective, Parker-Maxwell Street Block Club, MEBCA – next step is to form block clubs
Other Information:
- The Islandview tentative boundaries are from Maxwell to Gratiot. Our official boundaries are Mt Elliott to Van Dyke, Mack to Jefferson and proposed extended boundaries from Gratiot into Maxwell. GenesisHOPE represents the Islandview neighborhood. Messiah Housing is an affordable housing and property management organization that little community development type work, however, The Church of the Messiah does do some community development type work as an expression of their faith so if you combine the church with the housing corporation then GenesisHOPE would do similar things.
- I don’t feel that The Villages CDC represent our best interest. There’s no boundary confusion, but The Villages CDC wants to expand. There are different neighborhoods and people don’t identify with everything that’s going on. People are afraid of gentrification. We vowed to provide capacity building for Charlevoix Village Association (Toyia Watts). We may organize in Indian Village with LEAP, which goes all the way to I94.
Information is current as of 4/24/2017