Economic and Community Development

PLEASANT HEIGHTS

Economic Development

Corporation COMMUNITY

DEVELOPMENT

PLEASANT HEIGHTS COMMUNITY

DEVELOPMENT Who We Are What Problems We Address Imagine living on less than $2 per day, with no money for food, healthcare, education,

shelter, or even a cup of coffee. This is reality for nearly half the world’s population living below the internationally defined

poverty line of less than $2 per day.

Despite billions of dollars spent on development assistance, progress in raising living standards around the world remains very

slow. Poverty is complicated. According to the World Bank, poverty is powerlessness, lack of representation and freedom. 1 It

is a lack of access to services, exposure to unsafe environments, and exclusion. Poverty occurs in all countries and economic

conditions: mass poverty in developing countries and pockets of poverty in developed countries. Economic recession, disaster

and conflict result in losses of livelihood.

Poverty has social, psychological, as well as economic dimensions

At Pleasant Heights Economic Development Corporation, we believe that many projects are ineffective at making long-term,

sustainable changes because they only focus on the material aspects of poverty, leaving out social and psychological

considerations. The poor experience restrictions and limitations in three areas of their lives:

Economic

The economic aspects of poverty are the easiest to identify and include tangible assets such as capital, material, food, energy,

roads and other infrastructure, and the skills to utilize them, are needed to solve many problems.

Social

The unequal social status of the poor results in unequal access to power, equity and resources. Groups wishing to maintain

their privileges subordinate those who have no power. Processes, systems, and structures perpetuate the system of inequality.

Psychological/mental

Psychological aspects are often underappreciated because they are less tangible than economic or social inequality. Living in

poverty can sometimes cause a poor self-image, complete with the belief of being incapable of escaping poverty. With this

mindset, it is impossible for impoverished individuals to take control over their lives and break the cycle of poverty and learned

helplessness.

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Principles and Values At PHEDC’s, we ask questions and then we listen. We seek to understand the community’s objectives and what difficulties they are having. We then help them discover the best way to solve these difficulties and come up with their own solutions.

To create and foster a sense of independence, we don’t give participants handouts. We teach them the skills to help them figure out how to solve their problems by managing their own resources. After all, that is what empowerment is all about - giving people the skills and confidence to solve problems without relying upon outside help.

Our principles and values

Our first priority is to help people in rural communities – not to build a large organization.

We will constantly learn: Every experience will make us wiser and better at what we do.

We will explore all ideas and approaches to solving problems.

We believe in the truth and acting with integrity.

We cannot provide all the answers: We will guide participants to find solutions for themselves.

We will work to break the cycle of dependency, not just replace one dependency with another.

We will let communities and participants set their own objectives: We will not force our interests on them.

We will avoid pushing our own cultural bias on those we serve.

We are committed to excellence and to maintaining these values in the field and in our workplace, and we expect our partners to uphold these values as well.

PLEASANT HEIGHTS COMMUNITY

DEVELOPMENT What Makes PHECD Unique? Empowering Communities by Building Self-Reliance

A number of aspects make PHEDC unique among development organizations. Many organizations go into communities and say things like, "Here's your problem: You are spending all your time producing the wrong crop and can't earn enough money in today's market to buy everything you need. Here's how you can solve that." PHEDC feels that we shouldn't be dictating to people. Instead we give them training and resources and get them thinking about how to improve their lives. What we want to do is equip communities to be able to make their own decisions

Our approach to development sets PHEDC apart from many other nonprofit organizations. PHEDC offers a long-term solution for eliminating poverty around the world by helping individuals and their communities become more self-reliant. The majority of development initiatives build infrastructure or provide material resources, but don't prepare residents with the skills and mindsets they need to address problems that inevitably arise after the project teams go home. Some initiatives provide technical or business skills, but fail to address critical thinking, discipline and other skills and frames of mind that are essential for long-term sustainability. As a result, many development projects fail to sustain their gains over the long term. PHEDC utilizes an extensive, hands-on learning process called FORESIGHT to build self-reliant thinking, which in turn renders residents' achievements and solutions as self-sustaining and long-term.

Learn by Doing: the FORESIGHT Learning Method

We cultivate self-reliance by building a strong foundation of basic skills and mindsets that support self-sufficient thinking, such as critical thinking, problem solving, discipline and an "I can" mentality. We do this by engaging participants in personal projects that strengthen these and other basic skills and mindsets. Also, unlike many other organizations, which teach skills and business practices primarily through lectures or readings, we help our clients master skills by learning and applying them in the context of their personal projects.

Once participants have mastered these skills and approaches, we help them build upon this knowledge by providing a range of services that improve access to sustainable income generation and the ability to properly bring these opportunities to market. We also collaborate with a wide range of organizations to remove external obstacles, such as lack of energy or limited access to capital, that would otherwise prevent residents from building sustainable livelihoods and improving their quality of life.

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Core Capabilities In order to empower individuals and rural communities around the world to become more self-

reliant, PHEDC employs a variety of core capabilities. The development process can be better advanced by focusing on certain

core areas of competency, and assembling and managing partnerships with other organizations. These organizations we partner

with have demonstrated the ability to execute best practice solutions through specific geographic, technical or disciplinary

specializations.

Soft Skills

The key to a strong foundation for self-reliance within individuals and communities is strengthening basic skills and shaping new

mindsets. We empower individuals and communities through our Brightest Star mentoring process that builds important soft skills

such as problem-solving, discipline and critical thinking. This process fosters self-confidence and self-sufficiency, traits that lead to

sustainable community development and sustainable livelihoods.

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Community-Based Tourism The regions where PHEDC works offer tremendous natural

beauty. The communities are rich with local knowledge and a strong appreciation of

natural and cultural heritage. Tourism offers economic opportunity, generating a

continuous flow of investment and visitors – contributing to overall regional

development. When practiced carefully, responsible tourism can also help the

communities preserve their culture and environment. With community-based tourism,

residents of the local community are significantly involved in developing and executing

tourism plans.

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Grassroots Community Development We use a grassroots community

development approach to develop basic skills and create mindsets that lead to

success. To ensure that the visions and aspirations of the communities are

incorporated into the development process, we mobilize communities and

ensure that local community members are the key players in the process. We

also build the communities’ capacity to develop from the bottom up. Through

this process, the communities strengthen their capacity to help themselves and

develop the ability to break the cycle of poverty.

PLEASANT HEIGHTS COMMUNITY

DEVELOPMENT What We Do

Our Development Approach

Overview

PHEDC empowers individuals living in rural communities around the world by providing them with

the opportunity to improve their quality of life on their own terms. Our approach to development

begins with the building of a firm foundation of basic skills and mindsets that encourages residents

to be proactive in controlling their lives and futures. Upon this foundation, our partners, the host

communities and PHEDC work closely together to access new resources and training. In doing this,

we strive to remove obstacles of development and work to improve education, income levels,

environmental policy and health care.

At PHEDC, we believe that learning is a lifelong process. With this in mind, we assist the

communities we serve to understand that there is still much to learn even after they finish their

formal education. If they hope to stand on their own two feet, access to new information and the

understanding of how to apply it is necessary - this is what we aim to help them discover. Through

an extensive mentoring process, we hone basic skills and mindsets, such as problem solving,

discipline and critical thinking, that establish the foundation for self-reliant thinking and action.

Our role in all stages of empowerment is that of a mentor. We rarely step in by giving material aid,

such as grants or materials, since this often reinforces dependency. Instead, we provide

opportunities for residents to overcome obstacles using their own hands and minds.

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PHEDC Development Model

The above model illustrates the heart of

PHEDC's approach: strengthening the basic skills

and mindsets that pave the way for sustainable

development. These skills establish a strong

foundation for self-reliance by breaking the

cycle of dependency that many rural

communities fall prey to. Learn more

Upon this foundation, we build higher-

level skills that participants need to

become self-reliant, such as vocational,

entrepreneurial and business skills and

information literacy. Learn more

Self-reliance also requires reducing

systemic obstacles, such as that keep

people poor and marginalized such as a

lack of economic markets and capital for

local entrepreneurs, unresponsive

governance structures, and undeveloped

local capacity to deliver necessary goods

and services to those in need. Learn

more

Other Components of

Our Development Approach

•Strengthening Basic Skills

and Mindsets

•Building Skills

•Reducing Systemic

Obstacles

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Our Impact Building self-reliance doesn't happen overnight. Until now, PHEDC has primarily focused

on creating the tools for building a strong foundation for development by strengthening the basic skills

and habits of a small group of participants in three communities in the City of Detroit. We are

addressing one of the root causes of poverty and not just the symptoms.

One of the most significant accomplishments of our work to date is the development of our

comprehensive approach to building self-reliance in communities, as well as our unique learning

approach called FORESIGHT, which sets PHEDC apart from the work done by many other development

organizations. Our pilot project in the City of Detroit has succeeded, and more than eleven years after

it ended, community members continue to apply the strengthened critical thinking and problem solving

skills they developed during the pilot to address challenges faced by their families and communities.

The following are examples of the impact of our work to date:

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Individual Level The initial impact of our work is best seen by changes in the behavior of the participants, such as by:

• Demonstrating stronger critical thinking and problem-solving habits

• Showing a clearer perception of their situation and a greater realization that they are capable of realizing their goals

In addition, an increasing number of residents we've worked with:

• Have a better appreciation of market demand

• Improved their ability to set prices for their products at levels that will enable them to earn a profit

With this increased income, participants:

• Purchase a wider variety of food for their families, thus improving their family's nutrition levels

• Pay for their children's high school education, improving their children's employment opportunities

• Put money away for emergencies

• Pay for materials needed to keep operating their microenterprise

PLEASANT HEIGHTS COMMUNITY

DEVELOPMENT Community Level Our work with the communities in the City of Detroit region has also had substantial impact on

the overall communities there. For example:

Foresight is in a better position to expand.

• Improved products — With our assistance, they have come out with a couple of new designs that are unique, attractive and better reflect their heritage.

• Sales have improved modestly and are more regular. The regular income that workers earn from their work encourages them to keep working with the association, rather than to join the unsustainable flurry of efforts among Detroit residents high market job lost and property repossession.

Increased Economic Activity Income generation activities have expanded since PHEDC began working in the region, which has begun to increase the economic self-reliance of the target communities.

• The entrepreneur association in PAIR Management LLC is operating better and the members are more engaged

• Mrs. Delores Edmond, an early participant in PHEDC’s work, has become an effective change agent within the community of Detroit by sharing what she has learned with others in her community, including a new bakery and a pastry creation. She is now in the Greenfield Market and Eastern Market in Detroit, which allow her to become a strong entrepreneur and generate financial sustainability and encouraging more formal forum for former program participants to share her knowledge with others in the community.

• The production of products by Edmonds pastry participants, including cakes and pies, tourism, and others, has expanded and entrepreneurs are finding new markets for their products and their skills. For example, among the lessons Delores Edmonds, a pastry artist from Detroit, learned while participating in Foresight Program is that she can use her skills to make smaller pastry items, overcoming her struggle to transport large pastry items to markets in the nearby city of Dearborn. Delores Edmonds has forecast a 10% earning in her income from pastry since he started to work with Foresight program.

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In the communities of the City of Detroit, increased economic activity has been created by the festivals in Detroit and smaller

festivals in several other communities. Also, several new family-owned ventures have begun:

Ice Cream Parlor

Locally produced food, crafts, and community developments are regularly available.

Potential developmental traditional lofts and moderate cultivated and eco friendly apartments and residential property.

At the terminal benches have been manufacture and opened up to the members of the community.

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Community Infrastructure The Ida Mae Jones Behavioral Center in Detroit, in particular, is much closer to becoming financially self-sustaining by increasing the variety of services for which we charge, such as the online renewal of the (national ID card). The Ida Mae Jones Behavioral Center also began to provide limited remote behavioral services for outside clients. It is important that the center in Detroit be able to support themselves because they are an important tool for creating the environment and resources for both communities to build self-reliance.

Community Planning The project team held two series of town hall-style meetings to hear from residents in each community in the region about their aspirations for the region. Following each tour of every community, the project team presented its findings in a general regional meeting. This participative planning process has already resulted in the foundation of a comprehensive regional development plan. Learn more about the latest regional action plan.

Community Beautification In 2005 when All Four One started working with the community of the City of Detroit, the Parks and Recreation department, which is the primary public building in the community, was in a state of disrepair, and the grounds were poorly kept. All Four One was successful at organizing members of the community, and especially engaging the youth, to repaint the recreation center, create a little urban gardening and stone walkways and landscape the grounds. Now, every year, the newly Pleasant Heights Community Development group will decide on at least one community beautification project. These efforts have increased civic pride and helped organize the community.

Educational Opportunities

A full eleven years All Four One has develop behavioral educational programming which is now available for members in the City of Detroit. This is important because sending their children outside their communities for more behavioral education is beyond the financial means of most families. Furthermore, many of those who leave to study elsewhere never return home to help their communities. Today, however, there is no need for students to leave their homes to pursue their behavioral education. While AFO cannot take full credit for this success, the building of the Ida Mae Jones Behavioral Centers, no doubt, brought the needed public attention to the area, as well as considerable political pressure to finally expand instruction for three additional years.

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Environmental Stewardship

Grassroots conservation efforts have started to recover and conserve local neighborhoods and improve several local businesses. In

addition, Pleasant Heights Economic Development Corporation began a campaign to clean up litter and remove trash from around the

community.

Future Impact

As we expand into additional communities, establish partnerships with local organizations, and expand the scope of our work to include

the building of entrepreneurial and vocational skills, as well as helping communities remove external obstacles they face, we are

confident our work will have a significant long-term, sustainable impact on individual participants and their communities.

In addition to our direct efforts to help build sustainable livelihoods, the tools we provide communities to become more self-reliant can be

used to address a wide range of other community priorities, such as improved education, access to quality medical care and sustainably

managing their environment.

Additional Resources

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What AFO Does

PHEDC eliminates poverty and breaks the cycle of dependency in the City of Detroit by empowering individuals and their communities.

Our goal is to help communities achieve their own objectives and to sustain these gains over time by:

Raising residents’ awareness that they can resolve the problems the problems they face

Through our successful FORESIGHT methodology, we strengthen residents’ basic skills and enable a can-do outlook that breaks the

cycle of dependency and forms vital building blocks for creating self-reliance.

Building skills

We provide individual and group training and mentor local microbusinesses. This help strengthen business, entrepreneurial and

vocation-related skills and improves information literacy.

Reducing systemic obstacles

We help reduce barriers to development that are too large for individuals or single communities to overcome on their own. Examples of

systemic obstacles include a poor education system, a poor health system, inadequate transportation, a lack of access to electricity, and

many more.

Bring everything together

A systematic approach best meets the specific and unique needs of the communities we help. Our development approach is

self-sustaining, self-managed and locally focused.

PLEASANT HEIGHTS COMMUNITY

DEVELOPMENT We accomplish each of these goals through collaborative partnerships with other nongovernmental

organizations, government agencies, the communities involved, and the private sector, where each

party brings their unique skills, experience, resources and knowledge to the project. Also, whenever

possible, we team up with local organizations that have firsthand experience working in the region,

rather than build up a large staff of our own.

Our Projects

Building self-reliance Healthy Lifestyle

Programs

Building programs for the communities we serve

PLEASANT HEIGHTS COMMUNITY

DEVELOPMENT Overview of Who We Help PHEDC works in communities within developing countries. Even though

these communities face extreme conditions such as isolation, poverty or recent civil unrest they are in

a position to take advantage of the power of information and technology to address the challenges they

face.

The communities where we work are extremely poor by American standards. For example, 45% of the

residents of the City of Detroit-where PHEDC is currently focusing most of its energies-earn less than

US $2/ day. Detroit,, where we’ve also recently started to work, is one of the poorest urban city in

Michigan, and over half of the population over 50 years old is illiterate, including 30% of women.

Economic opportunities in both areas remain very limited.

Unlike most relief organizations that focus on meeting people’s most basic needs, we do not focus with

the poorest of the poor. PHEDC focuses on helping people who are one rung up the ladder of poverty:

people who are still very poor by state standards but who have most of their basic needs met, such as

basic nutrition, improved levels of child mortality, and at least basic health care.

The next “tier” of the poor, which is estimated to number well over 1.2 million people worldwide, are

often overlooked but also have the right to aspirations for themselves and their families and are in a

better position to apply the skills and resources that PHEDC offers. Furthermore, if the majority of the

population is fighting for even its basic survival, few have the energy or resources they need to

improve education or pursue more strategic income-generation opportunities. PHEDC looks beyond

people’s day-to-day survival and helps empower them to make long-lasting and sustainable

improvements to their communities and lives.

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Where We Work Currently, we are primarily working with three communities in the City of Detroit and one community in

Michigan. In Detroit, we work with:

The communities of Detroit, and Wayne County, which lie along the Sate of Michigan.

10 communities block clubs and grassroots, located throughout the western portion of the City of Detroit.

In the past we also have worked with the City of Detroit in Michigan through our participation in the National Youth

Leadership Council Roundtable Conference. For the immediate future, however, we plan on focusing our attention to

communities in the City of Detroit. Once we have been able to establish good progress in this area, we plan to expand

to other parts of the State of Michigan. We invite you to browse through this section to learn more about the people in

these communities where we work, including face and what they are doing to overcome these challenges.

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District 5

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District 5

2010 Population98,100

Population >1877,216

Race & Ethnicity Hispanic1,127 Non-Hispanic White6,706Non-Hispanic African

American87,311 Other Race2,956

Income & Poverty Per Capita Income$16,613Percent of Households in

Poverty36 %

Highest Educational Attainment Percent without High School Diploma22.4

%Percent with High School Diploma31.8 %Percent with Some College24.9

%Percent with Associate's Degree5.8 %Percent with Bachelor's Degree8.3

%Percent with Master's Degree or Greater6.8 %

PLEASANT HEIGHTS COMMUNITY

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Join Our Executive Membership

Board of Director Members

Leadership Council

Advisory Council

PLEASANT HEIGHTS COMMUNITY

DEVELOPMENT STANDING COMMITTEE

Join Our Standing Committee Information Technology Working Group

Operations Working Group Marketing and Fundraising Working Group

Executive Website

Finance Writers

Data and Fundraising Operations

Volunteer Management Team

Programs Working Group

Program Management Team

Translation/Transcription

History of the Community

History of the Community

Congregation Shaarey Zedek’s History

Our Story:

“Open the gates of righteousness – I will enter and praise the Lord.” These words

could be said not only of today’s Congregation Shaarey Zedek, but of the

synagogue’s spirit since its founding.

In 1861, at the beginning of the Civil War, seventeen followers of Traditional

Judaism withdrew from the Beth El Society in Detroit to found the “Shaarey Zedek

Society.” Then, in 1877 the membership constructed the first building in the

Detroit area to be erected specifically as a synagogue, at Congress and St. Antoine.

The membership continued to grow, and in 1913, as the first Conservative Jewish

Congregation in the Detroit area, Shaarey Zedek became one of the founding

congregations of the United Synagogue of America. Since the nineteenth century,

members of the congregation have played leading roles in Michigan, the nation and

in world Jewry.

Over the years, Congregation Shaarey Zedek has been located in a number of

beautiful and picturesque buildings. These include Winder between St. Antoine and

Beaubien Streets, Willis Street E and Brush, and Chicago Boulevard and Lawton

which is still standing. At the 100th annual meeting of the Congregation on April 12,

1961, more than 700 members approved the recommendation from the Board of

Directors that a new synagogue be built on a forty acre site in Southfield Township.

History of the Community

Russell Woods Sullivan Historical Neighborhood

Russell Woods-Sullivan Historical District is comprised

of the area between Livernois, Davison, Dexter &

Cortland. It is a neighborhood comprised of Tudor

Revival homes from the 1920s & 30s. There are a

couple Colonial Revivals & Moderne homes thrown in

as well. Most of the homes are 2 1/2 stories & are

brick.

The neighborhood was on the edge of the Jewish

Quarter of Detroit, which was centered on Linwood

just south of Davison. On Dexter there were three

Jewish synagogues within the neighborhood borders.

History of the Community

The Boston-Edison Historic District is an instantly recognizable address in the heart of Detroit, containing over 900 homes. Most homes were constructed between 1905 and 1925 and range in size from modest two-story vernaculars to impressive mansions. Early residents of Boston-Edison included Henry Ford, James Couzens, Horace Rackham, Sebastian Kresge, and Joe Louis.

Today Boston-Edison is a multi-racial, multi-ethnic neighborhood with people from diverse occupations and professions who share a common appreciation and love of historic homes. It boasts the Historic Boston-Edison Association, the oldest continuous neighborhood association in the City, founded in 1921.

History of the Community

Rich N Spirit Nardin Park and Pleasant Heights Economic

Development Corporation land revitalization will utilize

commonly used forms of land redevelopment, including:

brownfield remediation, commercial corridor redevelopment, and

historic building rehabilitation. As available land within our urban

cores decreases, land reuse and revitalization becomes a critical

strategy for creating sustainable development for the 21st

century. This section contains reports and handbooks that

examine different approaches, which have successfully returned

properties and parcels to productive use.

Legislative and Judicial Support

Community Leaders

Celebrity Support

Community Support

Philanthropic Wayne County and Michigan

Economic Development Corporation

Partnership

Jewish Federation of

Metropolitan Detroit

Michigan Economic Development

Corporation

Wayne County Economic

Development Corporation 10,000 Small Businesses

Goldman Sachs

City of Detroit Parks and Recreation

Partnership

PHEDC Small Business Center New

Location

12710 Dexter Ave Detroit MI 48206

PHEDC Small Business Center New

Design

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The Federal Reserve CRA

The Community Reinvestment Act is intended to encourage depository institutions to help meet the credit needs of the communities in which they operate, including low- and moderate-income neighborhoods, consistent with safe and sound operations.

Community Development Finance

Community development finance is a broad term encompassing the varied sources of funding that support stronger and more resilient communities around the country. Community Development staff at the Federal Reserve promote new and established sources of community development finance for low- and moderate-income (LMI) communities by working closely with financial institutions, community development organizations, nonprofits, research and policy centers, and government agencies.

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community reinvestment percentage

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community reinvestment percentage

Workforce Development & Career

Training

Pleasant Heights Economic Development Corporation Workforce Development program advocates academic and professional advancement through business and industrial training courses. Engage your employees in career training programs to not only strengthen their job skills and mastery of subject matters, but to reinforce their value as an important individual asset to your company.

Employing specialists who have the most advanced education and up-to-date workplace training enhances on-the-job performance, while meeting the specific demands of your business and boosting your bottom line. Whether your organization needs to sharpen the skill set of entry-level workers or expand the expertise of well-established professionals, an in-depth career development plan tailored to meet the needs of your employees and business creates rewards. Imagine creating career advancement opportunities, progressing business initiatives and fostering a competitive edge within your industry.