Focus: HOPE Earns Prestigious

Award for Community Development

Detroit -- The Detroit Local Initiatives Support Corporation (LISC) and Community Development Advocates of Detroit (CDAD) recently awarded Focus: HOPE with the prestigious 2007 Partner Award for its support of and contribution to the nonprofit community development industry in Detroit .

This honor recognizes community development corporations that push the envelope and successfully move forward their community development agenda, through partnering with others in the industry. It was awarded at the at the seventh annual Detroit Community Awards ceremony in September.

Focus: HOPE's Community and Economic Development department was selected for its work in building partnerships and rebuilding the neighborhoods around Focus: HOPE. Particularly noted at the awards ceremony was Focus: HOPE's willingness to partner with a wide range of residents, nonprofits, and for-profits to make a difference. Focus: HOPE was also commended for its community building efforts, and for working hand in hand with many volunteers on projects to improve the community, such as boarding up vacant properties and eliminating brownfields. The department consists of two colleagues, Debbie Fisher and Stephanie Johnson-Cobb, and two volunteers, Mary Simpson and Adrienne Zeigler. It is small, but it is making a big impact!

Fisher, community development manager, is honored that their efforts have been rewarded and thanks everyone who helped to make it possible.

“We are tremendously proud to be the recipient of this award from LISC and CDAD, two excellent organizations with high standards for community development,” Fisher said. “But more importantly, we are thankful for the hard work of our many partners in and around the community. Because of them, our neighborhood is being revitalized, one block at a time. And without them, we would not have received this award.”

This strong relationship with its partners is why Focus: HOPE was deserving of the award, said Karen Tyler-Ruiz, senior program officer for LISC.

“Focus: HOPE has been a great partner, particularly in the Central Woodward Communities, which includes the North End,” Tyler-Ruiz said. “It has constantly provided leadership and been a great collaborating partner. The organization doesn't just make a decision based on what it thinks or believes. It always checks in with its constituency. Focus: HOPE is very clear about who they represent and what's in the best interest of the community.”

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Focus: HOPE Neighborhood Wins Cool Cities Designation

Community Development staff (from left) Laura Bozgo,
intern Kelsey Johnson, and Debbie Fisher stand in
front of the senior housing complex that is under
construction in the Cool Cities neighborhood.

The community around Focus: HOPE's campus has been designated as a “Cool Cities” neighborhood by the State of Michigan.

The civil rights organization's longstanding efforts to redevelop this Detroit neighborhood was recognized recently with a $100,000 catalyst grant from the Governor's Cool Cities program.

The grant will help fund construction of a “cool” new park at Oakman Boulevard and Woodrow Wilson in Detroit. The park, which is close to the Detroit border with Highland Park, is expected to become a focal point for the community and for emerging development in the area. Immediately south of the park, a 55-unit senior citizen residence, called the Village of Oakman Manor, is under construction.   Across the street, an abandoned 80,000 square foot industrial building was torn town recently as part of a plan to encourage new development in the area.

Designated a Cool Cities Neighborhood under the “Neighborhood in Progress” program, the area is expected to have additional new housing and perhaps an office-retail-residential development down the road.

“We're very excited to have received this highly competitive grant,” said Debbie Fisher, manager of Community and Economic Development for Focus: HOPE. “It shows the power of community organizations working together to revitalize the city. This grant will be a real catalyst and will open doors for other funding opportunities and revitalization.”

Focus: HOPE was one of six organizations in southeast Michigan to receive Cool Cities grants this

year. The grants are awarded to projects that have potential for revitalizing the state's economy and creating jobs through innovative new developments and partnerships.

“ Michigan 's economic success is directly tied to our ability to attract and retain jobs and opportunities that will keep our young adults here in Michigan,” said Governor Jennifer Granholm. “The Cool Cities initiative is a critical tool for achieving vibrant cities, which attract job providers who in turn provide the opportunities that will grow our economy.”

A Cool Cities designation brings with it a variety of “tool box” items provided by state agencies to help Michigan cities and neighborhoods achieve the projects outlined in their grant applications.

Fisher sees the park as becoming a future site for outdoor movie screenings, theatrical performances, entertainment, neighborhood picnics.

Such visions are nothing new to Focus: HOPE. The organization's campus along Oakman Boulevard evolved by acquiring abandoned industrial buildings and renovating them into training facilities, a child care center, and a food center. A pocket park in the center of the Focus: HOPE campus also was developed on the former site of abandoned buildings.