DETROIT, Michigan - Wednesday, October 20, the Michigan Association of Planning (MAP) recognized two League members for their outstanding planning efforts to promote assets such as excellent physical design, multimodal transportation options and environmental sustainability. The Village of Onekema was honored with the Daniel Burnham Award for a Comprehensive Plan for its joint master plan with Onekema Township. This plan, which is connected to the establishment of a joint planning commission and shared ordinance, includes goals related to downtown walkability, quality schools and natural resource conservation.  MAP cited the effort for its "originality and innovation" and for its value as a "model for collaboration". Auburn Hills' Riverwalk Master Plan was recognized as an Outstanding Planning Project for Best Practice. The City developed this Plan, which communicates a vision for a riverfront park system linked to regional trails and downtown, through a public process that MAP cited as "open, inclusionary, interactive". The Master Plan includes a detailed resource guide for sustainable design and water conservation.

Congratulations to the City of Auburn Hills and the Village of Onekema for your outstanding planning vision and hard work.

Luke Forrest is project coordinator for the Michigan Municipal League's Center for 21st Century Communities. He can be reached at 734-669-6323 or lforrest@mml.org.

Detroit is one of ten Cities of Service launching citywide "high impact service plans" geared toward encouraging volunteerism and community service, this month. Cities of Service is a coalition of over 100 U.S. mayors, which was launched by 17 original founding mayors, in 2009 - it has grown quickly. A number of Michigan cities participate, including Flint, Grand Rapids, Kalamazoo, Muskegon, and Detroit. Detroit, along with nine other cities, received a cut of the first round of “Cities of Service Leadership Grant” funding, awarded by the Rockefeller Foundation, this January.

The grant is supporting Detroit Service, Mayor Bing’s initiative to address some of Detroit’s most pressing community service needs. Chief Service Officer Barbara Jean Patton will oversee the implementation of a number of goals outlined in their "Action Plan." Detroit Service is focusing on increasing public safety, encouraging urban gardening projects aimed at “blight elimination” and “beautification” of Detroit neighborhoods, increasing literacy among both grade schoolers and adults, promoting youth involvement in volunteering and community service opportunities, and building capacity for existing organizations. They will work with a hearty list of external partnering organizations and internal partners within the City of Detroit to coordinate volunteers and promote community engagement in these areas of service. 

For example, a volunteer "Citizen’s Radio Patrol" (CB radio patrol) will inform the Detroit Police Department of potential criminal activity in their neighborhoods. Partners on the project include the police department along with two AmeriCorps VISTA members. Wayne State University will measure the community-based patrol's impact on public safety. In addition, the resurrection of an "Eyes and Ears" program in Detroit will coordinate and train city service workers and other people who work in neighborhoods on a daily basis to keep an eye out for crime. 

Over time, Detroit Service will develop their new website, www.volunteer.detroitmi.gov into a centralized resource of information on volunteering and community service in Detroit. The City will post all of their volunteer opportunities on the site. The site is up (in its infant stage) and you can sign-up to receive updates via email now. 

Jennifer Eberbach is a professional journalist and writer. Find contact information on her website www.jenthewriter.info.

450 high school students will roll up their sleeves for a morning of community service work at ten parks in Ann Arbor, next Wednesday, October 6th. The entire student body of Community High School will visit parks around town to help pull up invasive plants and maintain park trails. The service day is a great example of community-based education that teaches kids about their local environment and encourages environmental stewardship. The Center for 21st Century Communities (21c3) champions education and green initiatives (two of 21c3’s “eight assets”), and Community High’s project covers both of these “assets” in one fell swoop.

This is also a great example of what can be accomplished when students and educators collaborate with the city and the greater community. Natural Area Preservation, a division of Ann Arbor's Department of Parks and Recreation is collaborating with Community High to facilitate the day of environmental stewardship.

The idea originally came from Community High’s forum council - the school’s equivalent to student council, according to math teacher Marci Tuzinsky, who is helping to coordinate the project. Last Spring, half of the student body visited local parks to pull up invasive garlic mustard plants, while the other half did outdoor community service projects at elementary schools. This Fall, some students will pull invasive species and others will help maintain trails and lay down wood chips.

Jennifer Eberbach is a professional journalist and writer. Find contact information on her website www.jenthewriter.info.

Community High School in Ann Arbor.

Michigan State University Museum is hosting the Great Lakes Folk Festival this weekend, August 13 - 15, in downtown East Lansing. Museum director Gary Morgan talked with News Talk 760 WJR’s Kirk Heinze about this year’s “Grassroots Green” theme, which seeks to encourage environmental consciousness and celebrate the long “heritage” of green practices. According to its website, “The festival encourages cross-cultural understanding of our diverse society through the presentation of musicians, dancers, cooks, storytellers and craftspeople whose traditions are rooted in their communities.” On top of 55 performances (from blues to hawaiian ukelele), the festival will include things like art made from recycled materials, green activities for kids, sustainable food, and the accompanying Bookfest will focus on sustainability.

Gary Morgan makes a good point that green practices and the idea of environmental sustainability aren't anything new. “As we go forward as a community and as the world explores how it will achieve that sustainable future, some of the deliverables will be with cutting edge technology, new discoveries every day....but we mustn’t forget that notions of greening and sustainability go back a long, long way. A lot of the traditional practices and a lot of the folk traditions of Michigan, and more broadly, are all about that relationship with place and that relationship with an environment. What “Grassroots Green” will be doing is providing every visitor with an opportunity to just think about that. Look at some of the traditions in music and story telling, in art, and so forth, which all have had strong influence from the notion of people’s relationship with a sustainable environment,” Morgan told Kirk Heinze.

Jennifer Eberbach is a professional journalist and writer. Find contact information on her website www.jenthewriter.info