Urban WWOOFer: Rebuilding Communities

Rebuild Foundation

The nonprofit Rebuild enlists a team of artists, architects, developers, educators, and community activists to together redevelop abandoned properties for cultural and economic redevelopment in generally under-resourced communities.  They integrate arts and alternative entrepreneurship to create the "community-driven process of place making and neighborhood transformation".  

Upon visiting their St. Louis spaces, I was floored by how through great design, simple elements and reused materials they are able to create a space that is both dignified and inspiring.  It reminded me of a Ted Talk I saw years ago by an innovative designer, "Creative Houses from Reclaimed Stuff" who argues that any piece of junk can be turned into an artistic element with repetition and balance.

This Hood of Ours

Through grassroots community organizing, This Hood of Ours reclaims abandoned and foreclosed upon houses in neighborhoods with a large number of them.  The mission of This Hood of Ours is to inspire, empower and mobilize people to improve their own lives by improving their own communities.  They come into a neighborhood and create community shared space; facilitate clean-ups and group working days to create a community of mutual support and shared investment in working together; and facilitate resident-led improvement in the quality of life of the neighborhood.  After rehabilitating uninhabited houses, through "fix to own" laws that they worked with the government to get recognized in Detroit, they bring families in to the homes and eventually move on to a new neighborhood or space in need.  

What inspiring organizations!  I had the opportunity to offer my hands to both of them while in Detroit and St. Louis and to be influenced by the inspiring people working with them.  In Detroit, the Superheroes camped for several days in a neighborhood where the inspiring community activist Jasahn of This Hood is Ours was working.  We fixed, cleaned,  composted, painted faces and played with kids, and painted abandoned houses with the people in the neighborhood. In St. Louis, I happened upon Rebuild through a Sunday brunch potluck organized in one of their spaces.  Dayna, the organizer, gave us a tour of the current projects and showed us the community space that they are creating around children, arts and education.