Little did I know as I dashed out of my apartment this morning and sprinted for the bus stop that the next bus wouldn’t make its way through the area for another 50 minutes. As humorously described in TCF Summer Fellow Stephanie Parker’s blog post, the derailed train happened near a COTA hub and nearly half of their fleet is inaccessible. Luckily I did manage to find one buckeye awake at the wee hours of 8am to give me a ride to work. Owe that chica a meal.

While I did miss Harambee, my morning improved incredibly. I attended the press conference with Mayor Michael Coleman announcing the $24 million dedicated to revitalizing the South Side. It’s an exciting comprehensive partnership between the city, nonprofit, and private sectors. The multiple projects examine ways to increase the quality of health, education, and housing for South Side residents, tackling this endeavor from multiple approaches.

Press Conference with Mayor Coleman outside of Reeb Elementary School.

Throughout his address, Mayor Coleman kept using interesting language to describe those community members who stepped up to initiate the revitalization plans as South Side Champions.  I really liked that term and will be using #southsidechampions for any future tweets in reference to news/ updates on that project or for anyone interested to carry conversations about the proposed projects. Some individuals that compose the private partnership component of the South Side Champions are the Grote family (the people behind Donatos Pizza) and Don & Nancy Kelly (Mrs. Kelly was also CD4AP’s Read Aloud guest, click here to read about it). My Executive Director, Reverend John Edgar ended his address stressing that it was not enough to salvage social service programs in the community and proclaimed that this is an era of renaissance in the South Side for sustainable development.

It is a very exciting time in this area and I’m so incredibly fortunate to have my summer fellowship at an organization so extensively involved in the community it serves.

Best. Job. Ever.

Amber