Mission · Vision · History

Mission
It has been the mission of this organization since its founding in 1980 (Project SAVE); expansion in 1989 (Parkside Intergenerational Center); and merger in 1998 to improve the quality of life and the quality of our community, to provide affordable housing for persons of low and moderate income especially for the elderly, by recreating neighborhoods that are great places in which to live, raise a family, and grow old with dignity and by providing services needed. We support each other in this effort.

Vision
We work on the premise that just as it takes a village to raise a child; it takes a village to care for an elder. To follow this vision, we are rebuilding the “village” in Southwest Detroit for the homebound elderly through direct services provided by professional staff and volunteers, through building intergenerational relationships, and through rebuilding the physical infrastructure of their village through community and housing re-development.

History
Bridging Communities, Inc. (BCI) is a nonprofit grassroots collaborative consisting of local unions, businesses, residents, and faith-based organizations working together to create caring communities where people of all ages can live in dignity in Southwest Detroit.

BCI began work in Southwest Detroit in 1980 as Ecumenical Project S.A.V.E. (Seek and Visit the Elderly). It was an effort by the clergy to cooperatively address the growing needs of increasing numbers of elderly in their congregations and the community at large. For 28 years, staff has trained and coordinated volunteers to provide supportive services that would enable the elderly to remain living independently with dignity in their homes and communities. In 2006 alone, BCI touched the lives of the frail, at risk elderly of Southwest Detroit by supporting 1,646 elders’ independence in their homes and neighborhoods through the assistance of 1,357 volunteers and their combined 25,459 service hours. This “Circle of Care” provides advocacy services, fellowship, supplemental food, medicine, transportation, chore services, home repairs, as well as Intergenerational opportunities.

Recognizing the direct relationship between the quality of life of the elders and their community, the organization saw the need to become more actively involved in community organizing, land use planning and housing development. In 1989, it took leadership in the redevelopment of 4.3 acres of abandoned property near Patton Park and later established a new organization call the Parkside Intergenerational Center to develop elder housing, along with elder and child day care on this site. The first phase of the redevelopment project was the construction of the Pablo Davis Elder Living Center, an 80-unit affordable senior housing development that opened in 1998. That same year, Ecumenical Project S.A.V.E. and Parkside Intergenerational Center merged to form Bridging Communities, Inc.

After the Pablo Davis Center was opened, BCI expanded its services by developing an Intergenerational Services Program to re-connect elders and youth by developing interrelationships through a variety of programs with other partnering agencies.

BCI continues its $3 million capital campaign to raise funding for Phase 2 – the Pablo Davis Intergenerational Center to be built next to the Elder Living Center. BCI has also worked to organize the Springwells Village Neighborhood Council for the area bounded by W. Vernor Highway on the North, Fort Street on the South, Detroit City Limits on the West and Waterman on the East. It completed preparation of a land use/development plan in 2000 with the assistance of graduate students from the University of Michigan’s School of Architecture and Urban Planning. To date, BCI has focused most of its housing development activities in this targeted area including rehabilitating many low to moderate income homes, and co-sponsoring with The Sterling Group the construction of Heritage Place at Magnolia – an 88-unit senior housing development in the Core City project area. The $8.13 million project was completed in 2005. We are currently in the process of building 24 low-income townhomes, 13 of which have been designated for Grandparents raising their grandchildren.