The Equitable Community Development Project is a solutions-oriented journalism initiative covering community development and quality of life issues in Southwest Michigan, created by the Southwest Michigan Journalism Collaborative. Our reporting will focus on Southwest Michigan organizations, projects, processes and development that uplift equity and on areas where these issues need to be addressed.
Individuals and families deserve to live in a vibrant, thriving community that fosters entrepreneurship, sustainable development, and economic growth. In Southwest Michigan, many community-based organizations and municipalities have made some strides to create a more inclusive and equitable community development process to ensure every voice is heard and valued.
Community development is the work of building neighborhood assets to create healthy places that help residents reach their best health and well-being.
It touches on…
This is a new project built to:
The Problems We Seek to Address
Gaps remain in the community development process to ensure transparency and authentic engagement with community members. More specifically:
By reporting on equitable community development programs, projects and processes, we hope to uplift effective approaches to the problems and uncover idle, unhelpful work in this arena.