Neighbors Building Brightmoor seeks to mobilize our neighbors to work together to equip families and individuals to improve the

quality of life in our neighborhood.

December 2012
NBB Enters a New Era!
by Riet Schumack With the November 2012 NBB membership meeting, a new phase has begun for our neighborhood organization. We believe that a good community is one where as many people as possible use their gifts and talents to better their neighborhood. That is what we have worked towards in the last three years. Through our block captains, newsletters, meetings and projects we have reached out and invited our neighbors every month to become part of our effort to turn our neighborhood into a great place for ourselves and our children. This has been very successful; we have gone from six active households in December 2010 to 50 in 2012. We have boarded up over 100 houses, done art work, published a monthly newsletter, have started 50 gardens and pocket parks, built a large playground, held neighborhood safety meetings, done childrens programming, and organized teen employment. Although some of this work was done by neighbors and volunteers as a part-time volunteer activity, much of the organizational work was done by a few individuals. This model, however, is not sustainable in the long run. By relying on outside resources and the efforts of a few people for its success, a community is vulnerable: if funding or a few individuals fall away, the organization is in trouble. So it has always been our goal to distribute the administration, organization and execution of all the community work to as many neighbors as possible. For this reason, we established committees headed by chairpersons, and at our November meeting we held a job fair to populate these committeeswith good results! On page 2 are pictured our committees, some of which still need additional members. Please come to our December meeting and consider how you can become an important part of our community organization!

Dates to remember
NBB mtg. and Potluck Wednesday December 12, 6:30-8:30pm held this month at West Outer Drive Methodist Church, 12065 W. Outer Drive (at Acacia). Brightmoor Alliance mtg. Thursday December 20, 68pm at Leland Missionary Baptist Church, 22420 Fenkell. Kids Corner Will resume in January! Bright Teens Every Friday from 5-10pm at West Outer Drive Methodist Church, 12065 W. Outer Drive (at Acacia).

The Abundant Community

By Riet Schumack The Abundant Community is a book by John McKnight and Peter Block, whose ideas on community are very much reflected in the way we do stuff here in our neighborhood. For the next year, a small column will appear in the NBB newsletter with reflections on this theme. All over the world, people are starting to discover that reliance on government, institutions, and big business is not improving our communities and our lives. Instead, we are discovering that a lot of the things that are important can be found in a competent community. A well-functioning community has three basic characteristics: First, there is the recognition that everyone in the neighborhood has some gift, talent or resource to share for the benefit of the whole neighborhood. Second, there is an awareness that the gathering and working together of all these people and their gifts creates positive results. And third, a well -functioning community welcomes anyone who wants to share in its adventure. We make it our business to get to know everyone and we watch out for each other. Over the next months we will use this space to share ideas on how this can work out in our neighborhood.

Special thanks to
St. Christine Christian Services Speedys Gas Station (now accepting EBT!) Environmental Consulting & Technology, Inc.

NBB 2013 Meeting Schedule

Wednesday January 9... February 13... March 13... April 10... May 8... June 12... July 10... August 14... September 11... October 9...

People say, what is the sense of our small effort? They cannot see that we must lay one brick at a time, take one step at a time. A pebble cast into a pond causes ripples that spread in all directions. Each one of our thoughts, words and deeds is like that. No one has a right to sit down and feel hopeless. There is too much work to do. -Dorothy Day NBB Enters a New Era! The NBB Committees

Left: Physical Resources Right: Planning & Land Use

Left: Finance Center: Volunteer Right: Safety

Left: Youth Right: Communications

Kids Corner by Katharina Walsh November was an exciting month for Kids Corner! We built lanterns and processed down Dacosta in a lantern parade. At the Treedome Park, we lit and set off hot-air balloon lanterns into the night sky with our wishes for the future. We also built volcanoes and watched them erupt, painted lots of pictures and, best of all, made new friends. As the year comes to a close we would like to acknowledge all the children, parents and volunteers who have helped us throughout the year. A big THANK YOU to Billie, Bill, Annmary and St. Christines, Scott, Lakeita, Michelle, Cindy, Riet, Elanna, Pat, Charlie, Sam, Megan and many more. We couldn't have done it without your helping hands, imaginative ideas, care and especially love for the children of our neighborhood! Kids Corner was generously supported by the Wayne County PASS Grant, Neighbors Building Brightmoor, St. Christines Christian Services and Downriver CARES AmeriCorps. This program was also funded by a grant provided by a collaboration between The Prevention Network and The Skillman Foundation as part of the Good Neighborhoods Initiative. A goal of the Good Neighborhoods Program is to increase the ability of residents to address critical needs in their neighborhoods and communities on behalf of children. We will only have one Kids Corner in December (Monday December 3). Kids Corner will resume in January 2013.

BrightStars Early Learning Centers

Mondays
Parent Book Club (ECFRC) 10-11:30am Storytime (DCI) 10:30-noon Transportation Available What is Art? (ECFRC) 11:3012:30pm

Tuesdays
Parent Roundtable (ECFRC) 10-11 am Discovery Time (ECFRC) 11-12:30pm Nature Explorer (RCC) 12:30-2pm

Wednesdays
Music & Movement (DCI) 10:30-noon Transportation Available Father & Child Playgroup (EFCRC) 11-12:30pm Music & Movement (RCC) 6-7pm

Thursdays
Play and Learn with Technology (ECFRC) 1-2:30pm Music & Movement for Babies (RCC) 67pm

Fridays
Just for Fours (ECFRC) 10:30-noon The Lunch Bunch (ECFRC) Bring your own lunch 12-1pm Just for Fun Kids Book Club (ECFRC) 1-3pm

Field Trip: The Henry Ford Museum Monday Decem- BrightStars offers a variety of FREE resources ber 10. and programming for families with children Family Music Night (ECFRC) Thursday December 13 from 5:45-7pm. Love & Logic with Detroit Provider Network (ECRFC) Wednesday December 19 from 10am-2pm.

0-5 years of age.

DCI will be closed December 24-25, December 31 and New Years Day.

For more information about these programs Parent Cafe Holiday Edition (DCI) Thursday December or to join BrightStars, contact Mike Martin at (313) 255-0900, ext. 2125. 27 from 11:30am-1pm. RSVP to 255-0900, ext. 2125.
Choose from 3 locations: Development Centers, Inc. (DCI) (313) 255-0900 ext. 2125 17321 Telegraph Rd. (between Grand River & 6 Mile) Redford Community Center (RCC) (313) 387-2787 12121 Hemingway (west of Beech Daly & north of Plymouth) Early Childhood Resource Center (ECRC) (313) 766-6475 23450 Davison West (old church offices located on the DLA Campus-East parking lot)

Bright Teens: A New Program for 9th-12th Grade Youth

This month we will be launching a brand new youth program, BRIGHT TEENS, for youth grades 9-12 in Brightmoor. Bright Teens is a FREE youth activity program that offers teens a healthy environment to hang out with friends, eat good food, play games, watch movies, listen to music and dance! Bright Teens will also sponsor Community Work Days and field trips to give Brightmoor teens the opportunity to serve and engage with their communities while gaining valuable hands-on skills, training and self-determination. Upcoming gatherings: Friday December 7 Teen Night: Games & Music Night 5-10pm @ West Outer Drive United Methodist Church Wednesday December 12 *SPECIAL FIELD TRIP* 4-6:30pm Tour of Focus:HOPE (meet at Detroit Community High School) Friday December 14 Teen Night: Cookie Baking & Holiday Movie Night 5-10pm Friday January 4 Teen Night: PJ Party & Breakfast for Dinner 5-10pm Friday January 11 Teen Night 5-10pm Teen Nights will be held Fridays from 5-10pm at West Outer Drive United Methodist Church (southeast corner of Acacia and West Outer Drive, just north of I-96). This program is generously supported by West Outer Drive UMC, Neighbors Building Brightmoor. Grant funding provided by a collaboration between The Prevention Network and The Skillman Foundation as part of the Good Neighborhoods initiative.

Greening News
Holiday Music Benefit PJs Lager House will be holding a Holiday music benefit for the Greening on Thursday December 20 from 7-10pm (1254 Michigan Avenue). The event features live, local music and a CD giveaway. Admission is by donation; proceeds benefit the Greening of Detroit. Urban Roots Each winter, the Urban Roots Community Gardening Training Program provides training to community leaders in community organizing and horticulture skills as they develop or expand their community garden projects. During this 9-week, 45hour course, students also build a foundation of knowledge, tools and leadership capacity from which their gardens will blossom. 2013 applications will be available soon. For more information, contact Tee at 285.2300. Market Garden Training Program The Market Garden Training Program (MGTP) is a two-part course designed to support market gardeners interested in creating or expanding a producebased business in developing farm and business plans as well as the skills to be successful entrepreneurs. Applications will be available in late 2012. Go to detroitagriculture.net for more information.

Detroit Recycles
Recycling: A smart anticrime move! Holiday time is a great time for would-be robbers and thieves on the lookout for gifts to lift. They pick up hints on good shopping when residents put out packaging in overflowing trash bins. Anti-crime Hint: Break down cardboard packaging, fold the tell-tale labeling toward the inside, and put it into your recycling (blue-lidded) bin. Recycling makes good sense for security! Get into the recycling habit! For those living between City limits and Outer Drive/ Lahser, blue lidded recycling containers will be picked up on the 2nd and 4th Tuesdays of the month. For those who live east of Lahser, pick up days are the 2nd and 4th Wednesdays of the month. DO recycle: flattened cardboard boxes newspapers, junkmail plastics with the recycling logo cans glass bottles DO NOT recycle: styrofoam plastic bags food fabric anything toxic (such as empty bug spray cans, cleaning products, etc.) Brought to you by Rosedale Recycles and Zero Waste Detroit.

Block Contacts
Grayfield Riet Schumack 283-8091 Myra Jessie 808-3074 Beaverland Nicky Marcot 590-1965 Scott Unger 310-7052 Bramell Tim Miller 687-2806 Gwen Shivers 533-9455 Pauline Adams 537-4623 Chatham Jill Nienhuis 898-1769 Eaton Donna Voss 804-7540 Jody Scarlett 537-7848 Lamphere Bill Hickey 541-2601 Jeremy Kenward 701-2063 Jackie Adams 753-5446 Dacosta Sherry Courtney 537-5558 Pat Baldwin 244-7737 Dolphin Craig Reinke 778-2710 Rockdale Ilka Lapeer 532-9272 Billie Hickey 541-2601 Outer Drive Bernice Walker 926-1975 Lyndon Tywan Bell (248) 755-1034 Fenkell Still needs a block captain

For questions about or submissions to the NBB newsletter, please contact Leah Wiste at (530) 9025332 or leahwiste@gmail.com.