Last night at Grand Valley State University’s Loosemore Auditorium, seven women graduated from Grand Rapids’ “Healthy Neighborhoods Leaders” program as part of the larger Healthy Neighborhoods Initiative. Organizers Kaytie Robinson of Baxter neighborhood and Olivia Peters of Garfield Park Neighborhoods Association, both of whom are AmeriCorps workers, developed the leadership program as a way of bringing some sustainability to their neighborhood organizing efforts as both women’s terms with AmeriCorps will end in September of this year. The two designed the leadership program to give identified leaders in the neighborhood additional tools and activist skills and during the eight-week course the program participants learned fundraising skills, media relations, conflict resolution, public speaking, and writing grants.
The seven graduates, who were praised by Mayor George Heartwell for their “commitment and dedication to their neighborhoods,” all promoted neighborhood involvement as a way to reduce crime and a way to foster community. Each of the graduates is starting a new program in their neighborhood as a way to address neighborhood needs that are currently going unmet. Shirley Jones, an 8 year resident of Burton Heights and organizer with Godfrey Park Neighborhood Association and Michigan Organizing Project boar member, is working on a project to get curbs separating the sidewalk and street and increasing lights to deter crime. 15-year resident of Burton Heights Betty Gesselman, a 15-year resident of the neighborhood, is taking her passion for working with children and seniors to create a program that would encourage links between seniors and youth. Similarly, Baxter resident Vicky Camel is developing a program to assist homebound senior citizens and to help them realize that neighbors are something that they should embrace rather than fear. 30-year Baxter resident Janice Cross, who is currently working to help signup elders for the Senior Neighbors program for medicine and the Grand Rapids REACH Center for Food, is developing a program that would go door-to-door helping neighbors with healthcare. Cynthia Deans, a 20-year employee of Head Start and Baxter Neighborhood resident, is developing another program for senior citizens called Twice as Nice that will give aid to grandparents raising children. Marla Freeman of Baxter, a former police officer, is planning to continue her Inside Out program that helps gather together residents of the neighborhood to redecorate portions of their neighbors’ homes as a way of getting people outside of the house and involved in the community.
In concluding the event, Mayor Heartwell said that the women had made invaluable contributions to their neighbors and stated that “they serve as an inspiration for others who might do the same,” as the women were “sowing seeds not just for them, but the whole community.”
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