We just caught this on the WWJ radio blog, Michigan Future. This is the first we'd heard of ARISE Detroit, but their upcoming Neighborhoods Day sure sounds like a great idea:

A citywide wake-up call is coming to Detroit next month. ARISE Detroit! Neighborhoods Day will be a day focused on reconnecting families, people and neighborhoods all over the city on the same day.

ARISE Detroit Executive Director Luther Keith announced Wednesday morning there will be block parties, family reunions, and neighborhood cleanups all over the city Aug. 4.

Keith says the purpose of the special day is to stimulate pride and connect people and their children.

Events are scheduled to be held at churches, parks, recreation centers and other community areas. There will also be mini-community forums on key issues of importance to each area.

Click here or call (313) 921-1955 for more information.

Boy, we sure like the sound of this!

Here's a little more background from the ARISE Detroit! website:

ARISE Detroit!! is a new collaborative effort to put action and meaning to an old concept: community activism. We all have the power to reclaim neighborhoods and improve the quality of life for Detroit children and families. ARISE Detroit!! believes that everyone can help make a better community. You just need to find your role by volunteering or getting involved some other way.

Doesn't that strike a great chord? Everyone can help make a community better, and ARISE sure sounds like a great catalyst for positive change in the City of Detroit.

It's one thing for nonprofits to get involved with community revitalization -- after all, that's what we're here for -- but it's great to see an effort like this that targets individuals, and gets folks engaged in their own communities.

The ARISE motto "Be Part of the Change" is similar to an old Gandhi saying that I have hanging near my computer: "We must become the change we want to see in the world." Well, that's certainly what we're all about here at the Trust Fund, and it's great to see another nonprofit like ARISE bringing this vision to Detroit neighborhoods.