Presented at the 2010 Aging in America Conference. In 2009, the Detroit Griot Collaborative recorded and disseminated stories of “Volunteering in Detroit: Seniors Make the Motor City Run” through radio and community listening parties. Simultaneously, older adults took leadership roles in neighborhood-based change and livable community initiatives on Detroit’s near-east side. Learn the implementation processes the respective collaboratives utilized and examine the roles older adults play in creating social change and maintaining the cultural fabric of Detroit. Narrative reflection and multigenerational relationships will also be discussed.

1. Recognizing the Impact
Civically Engaged
Older Adults Make on our
Communities
Detroit Griot Collaborative:
Rachel Hewitt, Hannan Foundation
Donald Vest, Arts League of Michigan
Pointers Sustained and Villages Neighbor to Neighbor:
Sharon Maier, Services for Older Citizens
Natalie Zappella, Community Foundation for Southeast Michigan

2. Agenda • Introductions
• What is civic engagement?
• Two civic engagement programs
• Detroit Griot Collaborative,
“Volunteering in Detroit” Process
• Community Foundation for
Southeast Michigan, Pointers
Sustained & VillagesN2N Process
• Listening PARTY! & Reflection
• Evaluation

3. Civic Engagement
Defined • “Dear Detroit”
• What is Civic Engagement?
• What older adult civic
engagement projects do you
work with?
• What do you want to get out
of this workshop?

4. People aged 65 and over make up 12 percent of the
population in Southeast Michigan.
• Detroit Griot Collaborative
Volunteering in o Arts League of Michigan
Detroit: o
o
Charles H. Wright African American Museum
Detroit Renaissance Lyons Club
Partners o Fred Hart Williams Geneological Society
o Luella Hannan Memorial Foundation
o Walter Reuther Library
o WDET
By 2035 this will be 1 in 4 people Community Foundation for Southeast
Michigan

5. • Identify and record 50 older Detroiters who
Volunteering in have made service to community an integral
part of their lives.
Detroit Objectives • Examine and discuss meaning behind historic
and ongoing commitment volunteers make to
civic institutions in Detroit.
• Define and validate roles older adults play in
the community through project activities,
thereby decreasing the perception of personal
development declining in later years.
• Disseminate stories to broader community
through multiple media types.
• Preserve collection in Walter Reuther
Archives.

6. • Development of Detroit Griot
Process Partners
• Defining “Service to Community”
• Creating Questions
• Recruitment
o Interviewers
o Interviewees
• Recording
• Coding and Editing
• Dissemination
o Gift
o Listening Parties
o WDET
o Exhibit Panels
• Evaluation

7. Service to community is a widely
Service Defined inclusive definition of volunteering
and includes:
o Informal and formal volunteering
o Neighborhood, block group and
community service work
o Labor unions
o Church committees
o Work with traditional civic
organizations
o Activism
o Caregiving within and outside of the
family
o Other similar efforts
o Note: volunteering and “service to
community” are used interchangeably.

8. People aged 65 and over make up 12 percent of the
population in Southeast Michigan.
Volunteering Pre and Post Surveys
o 7 Questions regarding feelings
in Detroit: on volunteerism
o Surveys tabulated for subset:
Results “Speaking our Stories”
Positive Change Regarding Roles
o I am satisfied with my level of community
involvement over my lifetime.
 Pre: SA and A = 22%
 Post: SA and A = 100%
o I am satisfied with the success
I have achieved as a volunteer.
 Pre: A = 67%; D = 33%
 Post: SA = 35%: A = 65%
o I “made a difference” as a volunteer.
 Pre: SA = 56%; A = 33%
 Post: SA = 100%
By 2035 this will be 1 in 4 people Community Foundation for Southeast
Michigan

9. • Why use the narrative reflection
Volunteering in format?
Detroit Objectives • Quality of Life
• Role Definition
• Programming
• Management
• Public Attitudes
• Other?

10. Pointers
Sustained

11. Partners
With support from

13. CEP Goal Increase opportunities for
the growing number of people over
60 who seek to devote
time and energy to community
improvement and social change.
© copyright Alex Harris

14. Community
Foundation Goal Utilize community assets, including
the talents of older adults, to create
affordable, desirable places for all
persons to age and live healthy,
empowered and productive lives
where whatever one has to contribute
makes a difference.

15. People aged 65 and over make up 12 percent of the
population in Southeast Michigan.
Detroit
Neighborhood Fund
By 2035 this will be 1 in 4 people Community Foundation for Southeast
Michigan

16. DNF Community Partners

17. • Identify 10-14 community residents to participate in
Objectives a planning committee for 4-6 months
• Co-develop Community-Based Participatory
Research process
• Co-learn about innovative community-based
approaches to aging in place
• Provide technical assistance and support to 2
planning teams through an empowerment
framework
• Assess the feasibility and provide recommendations
for a home and community based support system
sensitive to the community
• Host a community forum and develop short report
© copyright Alex Harris

18. Community-Based Participatory
Research (CBPR) Defined
Alters researcher-community relationships
• Collaborative & Equitable Partnership
• Reciprocal Appreciation
• Builds community capacity
• Bridges knowledge and practice gap
• Action and social change = fundamental
CBPR is NOT:
• Basic research
• Community-placed research
• Sporadic or symbolic community
inclusion

19. Beverly Burns
Pointers
Susan Chapman
Bridget Christian
Betsy Creedon
Sustained
Sharon DeHaven
David Dieter, Christ Church Grosse Pointe
Sharon Maier, Services for Older Citizens
Anita Salustro
Kathy Beltaire, West Village
Diane Van Buren, Indian Village
Sheu-Jane Gallagher, Gold Coast
Sharon Garret, West Village
Tamika Hamilton, Church of the Messiah
Jerry Springs, Adult Well-Being Services
Shanetta Stanley, Greater Christ Baptist Church
Rev. Barry Randolph, Church of the Messiah
Veronica Randolph, Church of the Messiah
Kenyetta Walker, Community At Large
Sheree Walton, Islandview, Mustard Tree Coop

20. CBSS Process, Phase 1
CBSS Roundtable
9 Focus Groups
and Nominations
Initial Planning
& Exploration

21. CBSS Process, Phase 2
Research, Analysis
and Co-learning
Develop Survey
and Conduct Survey
Outreach
Create Joint Ownership
Design Research &
Planning Process

22. CBSS Process, Phase 2 (cont.)
Visioning, Planning Develop Report
Hold Community Forums
and Additional Outreach

23. CBSS Process, Phase 2 (cont.)
Collective Reflection, Evaluation
And Defining of History

24. Implications • Quality of Life
of Narrative Reflection • Surfaces:
• Role and Personal Meaning
• Social importance
• Impact on the community
• Skills and capacities used or gained
• Power accrues to those who are able to:
• Create knowledge
• Access systems of knowledge that name the problem,
• Organize people and resources around the problem,
• Mobilize solutions.
• Public attitudes
• About older volunteers
• Value of program, volunteers
• Programming and Management
• Evaluation

25. Listening PARTY! & Reflection
“I thought, well, I can make a
phone call while I’m
having my coffee about
the potholes in the street.”
- Patricia Carter
“The neighborhood we came
from we thought was
different, but maybe it was
not.”
- Suesetta McCree

26. CBSS Process, Phase 2 (cont.)
Pointers Sustained &
Villages Neighbor to Neighbor
Collective Reflection, Evaluation
And Defining of History

27. Contact Information
Rachel Hewitt, LLMSW Sharon Maier, C.F.R.E
Community Social Worker (Certified Fund Raising Executive)
Luella Hannan Memorial Foundation Executive Director
4750 Woodward Avenue Services for Older Citizens
Detroit, MI 48201 17150 Waterloo, Grosse Pointe, MI
313.833.1300, x24 (313) 882-9600
rhewitt@hannan.org soc_director@yahoo.com
Donald Vest, BA Natalie Zappella, MSW, MUP
Detroit Griot Collaborative Program Associate, Community
Investment
Chairman Emeritus, Arts League of
Community Foundation for Southeast
Michigan
Michigan
7700 2nd Avenue 333 W. Fort St., Suite 2010
Detroit, MI 50613 Detroit, MI 48226
donaldvest@sbcglobal.net 313.961.6675
nzappella@cfsem.org