CEDAM blog

[This post is written by Megan Kursik, Coalition Coordinator of CEDAM's Asset Building Policy Project.]

Gary Heidel speaks at Smith Village ground breaking

On July 22, CEDAM Manager of Membership and Communications, Tiffany Lemieux-McKissic, and I, CEDAM AmeriCorps member, Megan Kursik, traveled to Flint to meet with two of our members and catch up on great community development happenings in the city.

We started with coffee at the Good Beans Café with recently appointed Executive Director of Salem Housing, Bill Hammond. (Congratulations Bill!) As always, Good Beans was filled with people and buzzing with news about recent city happenings and other Flint business.

After our coffee (or Mango Jet Tea in my case), Mr. Hammond took us to the ground breaking ceremony of Smith Village. Mayor of Flint, Dayne Walling and MSHDA Director, Gary Heidel, addressed a large crowd at the ceremony. The Smith Village development will be a community of 83 three and four bedroom houses located just north of downtown near University Park Estates. Smith Village was originally planned to be developed more than 13 years ago as part of the same project that included University Park Estates. Years after this development was planned, a strong push from the Flint Mayor’s office, Flint residents and organizations like Metro Community Development finally secured the resources to execute the project. Many of the homes will be available to low income buyers through down-payment assistance programs. Smith Village promises to be an affordable, beautiful community within walking distance of the exciting downtown business district.

Hats and shovels lined up for ground breaking

From Smith Village we met up with Ravi Yalamanchi, CEO of Metro Community Development for lunch at Churchill’s. Lunch was filled with great conversation and we were able to learn about the many programs and services Metro Community Development offers as a Community Development Corporation and a Community Development Financial Institution. One of the highlights of our talk with Mr. Yalamanchi was learning about their Flint YouthBuild program, which helps young adults in Flint to access education through earning a GED and then completing a construction trades training and certification program. Participants get on the job experience with projects in Flint and then job placement assistance after the program, learning valuable life skills and leadership abilities along the way. Metro Community Development was recently recognized for its successful YouthBuild program with a large funding grant from the U.S. Department of Labor. Tiffany and I look forward to engaging with Metro Community Development in future CEDAM efforts.

Finally, we headed to Court Street Village for their summer open house and spent time with Executive Director, Norma Sain, and some young men from Court Street’s neighborhood lawn care program. The program engages high school students to help older neighborhood residents with their lawn care and other needs. Through the program, youth in the community are able to get to know seniors living in their neighborhood. We enjoyed our time at the open house (great cake!) before heading back to Lansing.

Thank you Flint CEDAM members for a great summer member visit!

-          Megan Kursik, CEDAM AmeriCorps Member, Asset Building Policy Project

Urban Neighborhood Initiatives farmscape mural

Tiffany Lemieux-McKissic (CEDAM Manager of Membership and Communications) and Jessica AcMoody (CEDAM Office Manager) went to Detroit recently to visit CEDAM members and hear about the inspiring work they are doing.

The visit started at Abayomi Community Development Corporation in Northwest Detroit.  Unfortunately the power was out at their offices, but the Executive Director Tawnya Morris gave a tour of the service area and talked about the programs Abayomi offers.  Abayomi currently has an after school youth program, a youth sports program, counseling for youth offenders, tutoring, and life and leadership classes for families in the area.  Abayomi also offers a foreclosure counseling program and MSHDA certified home ownership counseling.

The next stop was Amandla Community Development Corporation, where we met with Executive Director Felicia Turner.  Felicia gave us a tour of the office and told us that Amandla has been expanding their foreclosure prevention counseling and has recently added new staff.  Amandla is also working on an extensive real estate development; stay tuned for more information!

Urban Neighborhood Initiatives mural

Our final stop was Urban Neighborhood Initiatives, where we met with Executive Director Dennis Nordmoe.  Dennis told us about UNI’s programs, which focus on moving the entire population (both children and adults) to a higher level of educational attainment.  Some of the programs include Head Start, after-school and summer programs, transitional support services, bilingual GED programs, English as a Second Language classes, and bilingual computer training.  Michael Boettcher of UNI gave us a tour of the area, and showed us the murals generated by UNI’s 2009 summer youth program.  Over 50 murals were commissioned by neighborhood residents and completed by students. The students were paid through CityConnect Detroit with stimulus fund dollars and trained by College for Creative Studies artists.

Dennis also showed us the Woodmere/Springdale Neighborhood Improvement Strategy, a comprehensive neighborhood strategic development plan recently completed with funding from Local Initiatives Support Corporation (LISC).  The Strategy details a grassroots redevelopment plan for Southwest Detroit. View an online PDF of the Strategy here.

From left to right: Kim Tyler (OPP Fund), Tiffany Lemieux-McKissic (CEDAM), Rachael Sanford, Jessica AcMoody (CEDAM), Lisa Nuszkowski (MFTF)

We wrapped up our time in Detroit at the Michigan Interfaith Trust Fund 25^th anniversary gala held at the Detroit Yacht Club, where the Fund unveiled their new name (the Opportunity Resource Fund) and logo.  The night’s theme was a film premiere, and guests walked the red carpet while “paparazzi” snapped pictures. The culmination of the evening was the big reveal, which took place during dessert. Cakes with the new logo were presented to gala attendees, as well as a three foot tall ice sculpture.  The Opportunity Resource Fund promotes social and economic justice by making resources available to entrepreneurs, property owners and others in need.

Thank you to everyone who took the time to meet with us, we look forward to working with you in 2011!

Witherbee's Market

At the end of September, Tiffany Lemieux-McKissic (CEDAM Manager of Membership and Communications) and Megan Kursik (Coalition Coordinator for the ABPP) traveled to Flint to meet with CEDAM and Asset Building Coalition members.

The first stop was Flint Neighborhood Improvement and Preservation Project (Flint NIPP), where we met with Executive Director Bitha Tucker. Bitha gave us a tour of some of the homes that they have renovated and also took us to Witherbee’s Market. Witherbee’s Market is an amazing new deli/grocery store in downtown Flint that stocks convenience items, fresh produce and local Michigan products. Flint NIPP partnered with other community stakeholders to complete the development of Witherbee’s Market.

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Hoffman's Deco Deli & Cafe

Next we met Jane Richardson and Bill Hammond of Salem Housing CDC at Hoffman’s Deli for lunch (the food was great and the antique store was really cool!). Bill gave us a fantastic tour of Salem Housing’s service area neighborhoods and gave us information about the challenges and bright spots in the city. We also got to see the tremendous amount of work that Salem has done rehabilitating homes and their work in the Max Brandon Park and the KingsWood/Metawanenee Hills Neighborhood.

We then stopped by Court Street Village Nonprofit Housing Corporation and met with Norma Sain and Nicole Rodden-Brown. Nicole took us on a tour of two newly completed ADR homes at 1108 and 1110 S. Grand Traverse. As you can tell from the picture below, the homes are beautiful. Please contact Nicole if you are interested in purchasing one of these homes.

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Home completed by Court Street Village Nonprofit Housing Corporation

Last and certainly not least, Megan met with Carlos Cisneros, chair of the Genesee County Tax Assistance and Financial Services Coalition. We discussed the potential for bringing Save to Win and other product access to VITA sites operating in the city of Flint. The potential for the coalition to host an asset building day in late January was also part of the discussion. The asset building day would inform Flint residents of the availability of free tax preparation services and how/why they should save to build financial security. We are pleased to report that both initiatives are moving forward.

Thank you to our Flint members and partners that took time to meet with us. Keep up the great work!