East side nonprofit is a training ground for community leaders

For Tammara Howard, the Eastside Community Network is a second home. 

The Gratiot Woods resident has been visiting the community center for more than 20 years, participating in cooking classes and its weight loss challenge program. 

But ECN is more than just a place to socialize with friends and have fun, Howard said. It’s also where she learned about being a community leader. Howard has been running the Belvidere Community Youth Block Club since 1999 and, in 2014, she founded the organization What About Us, a grassroots project dedicated to building the physical, mental and emotional health of Detroit youth and their parents. 

“I’ve been in a lot of different projects with Eastside Community Network and they’re all great projects to help the community in going towards the right direction,” said Howard, who also is an ECN board member.

And, just in time for the organization’s 40th anniversary, the ECN team will be able to do even more for the thriving center and surrounding area. The organization was recently awarded a $1 million grant from Gov. Gretchen Whitmer’s Make It in Michigan Fund, an initiative aimed at investing in the state’s people, places and projects. 

ECN President and CEO Donna Givens Davidson said the grant aligns with the network’s yearlong capital campaign to raise $5 million for its anniversary. The grant and campaign will help support interior and exterior improvements to the center on Conner Street, such as removing the wrought iron fence outside the building to make the area more walkable and bikeable, adding more outdoor gathering space and upgrading the streetscape. In addition, ECN will be making green infrastructure improvements for sustainable water runoff and flood prevention. 

Givens Davidson said it’s also a priority to repair the center’s rear entrance which was damaged last August when a pickup truck rammed into the building. 

“The idea is our people deserve the best and so, we take a lot of pride in that,” Givens Davidson said of the center. “It’s beautiful already, but we’re going to continue to grow the beauty of the space and give people this feeling of excellence.” 

Loretta Powell, a newer member of ECN, said the organization has made a positive impact in her life over the last eight years. The east side resident joined in 2016 when she participated in the Chandler Park Healthy Neighborhood Strategy, a partnership led by ECN, St. John Providence Health System and the Detroit Department of Health and Wellness Promotion to improve the health of residents in one of Detroit’s poorest neighborhoods. 

Powell has since created her own organization, Little Detroit Community Garden, where people can learn about gardening and plant fruits, vegetables and flowers. She developed the nonprofit in 2021 as a fellow of ECN’s LEAP Sustainability Fellowship, a training program focused on building residents’ community leadership capacity.

“They’re making a difference all around the east side and the city because they help so many people,” Powell said of ECN.

Continuing to serve the east side 

In addition to making upgrades in and around the building, Givens Davidson’s other goals for ECN this year include kicking off a new initiative called the Black Detroit Democracy Project. The effort is designed to get more Black Detroiters engaged in democracy, encourage them to pursue careers in government and ensure the Black community’s needs are represented in the political sphere, she said. 

The CEO wants to continue building the organization’s home repair program, which partners with DTE Energy’s Efficiency Program to repair doors, windows, furnaces and hot water tanks. ECN also gets funding through the Detroit Home Repair Fund for bigger projects, like fixing roofs, porches or plumbing. The organization helped 100 families last year and hopes to serve even more this year, Givens Davidson said.

Powell got a water heater and furnace for her home through ECN and the Detroit Home Repair Fund.

Other goals for ECN include a summer day camp for children and employment tracks for those looking for a new opportunity. 

“There is a tremendous shortage of allied health care workers and there’s all these opportunities to get people trained and ready for allied health professions,” Givens Davidson said. “Likewise, there’s so many trades that we can get our community members engaged in. 

“I want us to be able to align people looking for work with opportunities and to know exactly how to help people understand what the pathways are because it’s not always easy,” she added. 

Forty years of community service

ECN was founded in 1984 by Detroit community activist Maggie DeSantis as the Warren/Conner Development Coalition (WCDC). The group formed following a legal settlement in a case against the Detroit Board of Realtors over discriminatory practices. 

Under the settlement, the nonprofit Neighborhood Service Organization received funding to work with a group from the east side to develop a plan on housing. DeSantis was hired to facilitate the process, which turned into a coalition of residents, businesses and institutions, she said.

“On a personal level, it was me knowing that this was what I had always wanted to do since I could remember,” said DeSantis, who led the organization for 32 years. “On a professional level, it was the perfect opportunity, even though I didn’t have the experience…to take what I always wanted to do and try and make something happen.” 

In its early years, the coalition worked with residents to protect public housing, designed the program Youth on the Edge of Greatness, launched a neighborhood newspaper called The Pipeline and a crime prevention program called Project Cops and Neighbors. 

DeSantis hired Givens Davidson in 1993 as the director of the Partnership for Economic Independence, an effort to break intergenerational cycles of poverty.  

“It was a great challenge for me to be able to implement something from the ground up that I could design based on my values and what I believe our cultural values were,” Givens Davidson said. 

Givens Davidson also fell in love with the community. As a west sider, it was the first time she worked and lived on the east side and her neighbors were friendly and down to earth, she said. 

“It felt slower than the west side and I liked the vibe,” Givens Davidson said. “And I felt like I was making a difference in the lives of people and so, I always loved my work here.” 

Givens Davidson was promoted to deputy director of programs in 1995, but left the organization two years later to pursue other opportunities, including jobs with Big Brothers Big Sisters and Vanguard Community Development. In 2016, she returned to ECN as its CEO. 

“One of my friends said it’s a place where I could use all of me and I didn’t have to hold certain parts of me back,” Givens Davidson said. “For me, it’s the perfect place because the foundational values, the intent are all very much in sync with who I am.” 

Meanwhile, Nayomi Cawthorne began working at ECN in 2022. She is director of the Stoudamire Wellness Hub, named in honor of Marlowe Stoudamire, a beloved Detroit community leader and entrepreneur who died in 2020 from COVID-19. 

“There’s climate work here and that climate work is connected to the wellness work and the wellness work is connected to the business work,” she said. “It’s a really unique model, and it’s interesting that we think about sustainability in a really holistic way, which is how I think about it.” 

Previously working in urban agriculture, Cawthrone now runs the organization’s classes and activities, which include anything from health fairs to art therapy, computer classes and hustle classes. Cawthrone said she likes the variety of services ECN offers. 

Cawthrone’s goal this year is institutionalizing within the Stoudamire Wellness Hub so that residents’ voices can always be the priority. 

“If this 40 years is a testament to anything for me, it’s really what’s possible when people get together and do things that are organic to them,” she said. “And so, we have to be able to change and react and meet the needs of whoever walks in the door.” 

Howard said wellness hub classes have taught her how to prepare healthy meals to help alleviate her diabetes. 

“I just hope that they continue to do the wonderful things that they’re doing and we continue to draw in more leaders; people who want to lead their community, their blocks because that’s what it’s about,” she said. “They need 40 more years because they’re a strong organization and a backbone for our community.” 

Editor’s note: Givens Davidson is a member of BridgeDetroit’s Community Advisory Council and co-hosts a podcast that is a BridgeDetroit content partner. BridgeDetroit Engagement Director Orlando Bailey is an ECN Board member.