The Village: New initiative will take a systemic approach to inequities in Battle Creek – Battle Creek Enquirer

When New Level Sports Ministries and Pastor Chris McCoy first drew up plans for a Youth Village more than a decade ago,the vision for change was ambitious.

The idea was to build generational wealth and support youth development in the Washington Heights neighborhood.

Murals adorn New Level Sports Ministries on Wednesday, June 9, 2021 in Battle Creek, Mich.(Photo: Alyssa Keown )

Now, years later, as the community emerges from the strain of a globalpandemic, the vision for The Village has grown and gainednew momentum.

In partnership with the United Way of the Battle Creek and Kalamazoo Region, McCoy and other community leaders have worked together to develop The Village Reemergence Plan.It's designed as an opportunity for all people of color in Battle Creek to use philanthropy to become agents of change where they live.

Partners include the W.K. Kellogg Foundation, Voces, the Burma Center, the Southwest Michigan Urban League, the A. Phillip Randolph Institute,Reintegration to Support and Empower (R.I.S.E), Bronson and New Level Sports Ministries, among others.

The Village is a 10-year initiative that will bringresources to communities of color in Battle Creek, including new meeting spaces, improved food access, additional support for small businesses and education and acommunity-owned credit union.

The plangrew out of grant work being done by theUnited Way, said Nakia Baylis, senior director of data and equitable systems at United Way of the Battle Creek and Kalamazoo Region.

"We knew that we want to do good. We know that we want to unite our community, but were our policies and practice aligned with that intent?" Baylissaid. "What we found was we were grant-making equitably.... but not intentionally equitable."

As a result, the organization started working with community leaders to understand how it could better invest money to create opportunity and lasting change.

"We've got to get away from putting a Band-Aid on things with money. We can't keep investing the same way and expecting something different," Baylissaid. "We're trying to show that if you do invest differently, the benefits to the entire community can be profound."

Damon Brown, Kelley Blythe and Kevin Adams from the Battle Creek nonprofit, R.I.S.E., distribute food during economic hardship brought upon by the COVID-19 pandemic on Friday, April 10, 2020 at Washington Heights Methodist Church.(Photo: Alyssa Keown | The Battle Creek Enquirer)

Funded by a $610,000 Catalysing Community Giving grant from the W.K. Kellogg Foundation, The Village will provide structure for work thatpromotes improved, sustainable economic outcomes in food and industry, health and wellness, education, and growth and advocacy.

The direction of the initiative will be driven by the needs of Battle Creek's Black, Burmese and Latino communities as defined by community members.

We learned throughthese planningprocessesand by listening to our community, that wemustcontrol our future. We needed to build a Villageone in which we are leading designand implementation, instead ofallowingothers to design it for us,McCoy said. "I didn't expect it to be built out this large, but it's not new. I think if you look at it, the way The Village is designed, it's designed to share."

Pastor Christopher McCoy from New Level Sports Ministries stands for a portrait on Thursday, Jan. 21, 2021 in the Washington Heights neighborhood of Battle Creek, Mich. The City Commission planned to sell a plot of land in the neighborhood to a housing development company, but after hearing concerns about the proposed project from McCoy and other community members, the city is putting a pause on the sale.(Photo: Alyssa Keown | The Battle Creek Enquirer)

Through community conversations, infrastructure development and community collaboration, The Village's goal is to chip away at systemic inequities and remove barriers to economic development.

"What we want to do is have collective movement towards a shared vision, and that is a vision of really a revitalized Battle Creek," Baylissaid.

Baylis will provideorganizational support for The Village steering committee, chaired by McCoy. He will also oversee development in the food and industry sectors. Jose Orozco, executive director ofVoces,a nonprofit organization supporting Latinos in the Battle Creek area, will oversee development related to education. Health and wellness development will be overseen by Tha Par, executive director of the Burma Center, and Pastor Richard Baileyof Truth in Action Ministries will oversee personal growth and advocacy.

The Burma Center is photographed on Wednesday, June 9, 2021 in Springfield, Mich.(Photo: Alyssa Keown )

A management team will assist the steering committee, consisting of Damon Brown of R.I.S.E. Corp., Kyra Wallace of the Southwestern Michigan Urban League, Elishae Johnson of Bronson HelpNet and Deboraha Sallee of the A. Philip Randolph Institute.

As the initiative grows, organizers will be incorporating workforce development partners and established programs within the city.

"What we don't want to do is reinvent anything," Baylis said.

The first step is understanding what changes the community wants to see. Steering committee members areorganizing conversations to discuss what a better Battle Creek would look like in the four pillar areas.

Damon Brown holds his daughter Khloe Brown, 5, during the Let's Get Real Series on Aug. 31, 2020 at Friendship Park in Battle Creek, Mich. The Southwestern Michigan Urban League and the African American Collaborative, in partnership with the city of Battle Creek, debuted the Let's Get Real Series Monday, which involved community conversations with the city manager and police chief. (Photo: Alyssa Keown | The Battle Creek Enquirer)

For example, this summer, Battle Creek Public Schools Superintendent Kim Carter will participate in community conversations about education. Baylis said that The Village would like to host similar events with other area superintendents.

The conversations are intended to build accountability.

"The community is holding our leaders and our trusted members of our community accountable for moving the actions that they have articulated forward," Baylis said. "Now, we have a greater system of participation, of engagement and of interest."

The nextmeeting is being hosted by Voces for the Latino community on June 17 from 5:30 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. to discuss education.

Voces Executive Director Jose Luis Orozco Jr. and Fernanda Reyes share a laugh on Tuesday, May 19, 2020 at their office in Battle Creek, Mich. Voces is a non-profit that serves the Latino and Hispanic community in Calhoun County.(Photo: Alyssa Keown | The Battle Creek Enquirer)

"Education is the foundation of true systemic change," said Orozco. "Through this effort, we are demonstrating to our young people how shared goals can be reached with and for all communities of color."

Future meeting dates and times will be shared online through social media and The Village's website, changethestory.org/village.

Organizers are going to be tracking several metrics to measure the success of The Village, but how well the initiative builds wealth in the community will be a key indicator.

"We look at all of these things as being intersectional to the ultimate goal of building assets and wealth," Baylis said. "In order to leverage that power, we need to own our future."

Through its multifaceted approach, The Village aims tolift every household of color in Battle Creek above the state's ALICE threshold, which is the minimum income level necessary for survival.

In turn, that economic prosperity will benefit the entire city.

"Every resident, regardless of race, gender or identity," Baylis said. "This project actually allows us to scale effort to support a prosperous, thriving city where everyone is actually participating in our local economy."

By lifting every household in the state above the ALICE threshold, Baylis said that Michigan's GDP would increase by nearly $98 billion.

"The ALICE data shows us that the statistics per capita in Battle Creek within the county are similar to that of our state per capita," she said. "It doesn't take a statistician to scale that in your mind to what we can achieve here in Battle Creek."

Growing The Village will take intentional collaboration, but organizers believe in the community's ability to create meaningful change together.

"Together, we have and hope to continue to leverage our diversity to create a wide community that view everything through an equitable lens to address systematic barriers so that our communities are healthy and thriving," Par said.

Organizers hope the approach developed in Battle Creek can be expanded to other communities in the state and across the nation.

Tha Par, executive director for the Burma Center in Battle Creek, speaks to hundreds at the Sojourner Truth Monument on Wednesday, Feb. 3, 2021. The demonstration took place in response to the military of Myanmar seizing control of the government after allegations of election fraud during the countrys November election.(Photo: Alyssa Keown | The Battle Creek Enquirer)

"It's time to trust our leaders of color," Baylis said. "We're encouraging our partners, we're leaning in, and we're trying to share what we are learning as an organization."

The progress made in the last year aloneis proof of what can be achieved, Baylis said.

"We don't take for granted that this is indeed an ambitious effort involving multiple organizations and communities," she said. "And yet the way these leaders have been able to respond to our communities of color during a worldwide pandemic, reassures us that what we intend to do can be accomplished. It will take a village."

To learn more about The Village and upcoming community meetings visit changethestory.org/village.

Contact reporter Elena Durnbaugh at (269) 243-5938 or edurnbaugh@battlecreekenquirer.com. Follow her on Twitter at @ElenaDurnbaugh.

Read or Share this story: https://www.battlecreekenquirer.com/story/news/2021/06/11/village-new-initiative-take-systemic-approach-inequities/7600999002/

Original post:

The Village: New initiative will take a systemic approach to inequities in Battle Creek - Battle Creek Enquirer