Authentically Detroit
Authentically Detroit is the leading podcast in the city for candid conversations, exchanging progressive ideas, and centering resident perspectives on current events.
Hosted by Donna Givens Davidson and Orlando P. Bailey.
Produced by Sarah Johnson and Engineered by Griffin Hutchings.
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Authentically Detroit
Correcting the Narrative: Black Fathers’ Role in Maternal and Infant Health with Denzel McCampbell, Jasahn Larosa and Iris Taylor
On this episode Donna sat down with the newly elected Denzel McCampbell plus Jasahn Larosa and Iris Taylor of the Southeast Michigan Perinatal Quality Improvement Collaborative (SEMPQIC).
Together, they explore a father-centered approach to maternal and infant health and the policy changes that make it possible, as well as Detroit’s new council voice on housing, transit, environmental justice, and participatory budgeting.
SEMPQIC is leading a groundbreaking initiative to fully embrace fatherhood, especially in the lives of Black children. Their Black Fatherhood Initiative directly addresses the stark disparities in maternal health outcomes faced by Black mothers by elevating the often-overlooked role of fathers.
For more information on SEMPQIC’s Black Fatherhood Initiative, click here.
Up next, Authentically Detroit welcomes newly elected City Councilperson Denzel McCampbell, as well as Jassan LaRosa and Iris Taylor of the Southeast Michigan Perinatal Quality Improvement Collaborative. Keep it locked. Authentically Detroit starts after these messages.
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SPEAKER_07:Hey y'all, it's Orlando. We just want to let you know that the views and opinions expressed during this podcast episode are those of the co-hosts and guests and not their sponsoring institutions. Now, let's start the show.
SPEAKER_04:Inside of the Detroit East Side Community Network's headquarters, I'm Donna Gibbons-Davidson. Thank you for listening in and supporting our efforts to build a platform of authentic voices for real people in the city of Detroit. We want you to like, rate, and subscribe to our podcast and all platforms. We have a full house in the studio today, and Orlando's out, but I'm honored to have the newly elected City Councilman for District 7, Denzel McCampbell, as well as my friend Jassine LaRosa and Iris Taylor from the Southeast Michigan Perinatal Quality Improvement Collaborative, who are here to discuss their groundbreaking Black Fatherhood initiative. And by the way, this is the same Iris Taylor who serves on the Detroit Public Schools Community District School Board. So we have two elected officials in the House. Welcome to Authentically Detroit, everyone. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you for having me. Okay. How is this blessed day finding you?
SPEAKER_01:You know, it's it's been a great day. It's a sunny day outside, and uh my I was sharing my birthday is tomorrow. So I it's been a it's been a great year, and I always get in the reflective mode um right before my birthday. So it's a sunny, great day out there.
SPEAKER_04:All right, Sagittarius in the house, right?
SPEAKER_01:Oh, we're still Scorpio.
SPEAKER_04:Scorpio. Oh, we're still Scorpio. Oh, okay, okay. I've got my dates wrong. All right. So um we're gonna start actually by talking about this SimpQuick. Did I get that right?
SPEAKER_00:That's exactly right.
SPEAKER_04:Fatherhood initiative. SimQuick is leading a groundbreaking initiative to fully embrace fatherhood, especially in the lives of black children. Their Black Fatherhood Initiative directly addresses the stark disparities in maternal health outcomes faced by Black mothers by elevating the often overlooked role of fathers. Recently, SimpQuick showcased this work at its Black Maternal Health Equity Summit, which marked its 10th anniversary this year. The summit dedicated to advancing maternal and infant health in Wayne, Oakland, and Macomb counties brought together healthcare professionals, industry experts, and community leaders to highlight solutions with fatherhood emerging as a critical factor. Through community outreach and the new curriculum, SimpQuick is equipping dads with practical tools, knowledge, and a supportive network to be active, engage parents in the perinatal journey onward. This work not only strengthens families, but also tackles systemic barriers that have historically limited black fathers' involvement. Wow, this amazing initiative. Tell us about it. How did you get started?
SPEAKER_03:Well, let me start just a little bit about SimQuick. SimQuick is the southeastern Michigan perinatal quality improvement. It's Region 10 of the state's disparity units that they did established. And SimQuick Coalition has Wayne, Oakland, and Macomb counties. And we exist for the sole purpose of promoting or enhancing maternal and infant health, or the reverse of that of saying trying to decrease infant mortality and maternal mortality. So that's why we exist. But what's unique about it is that we work across the full continuum. We work with systems, health systems, insurances, we work with community-based organizations, we do a lot of grassroots. We try to push out initiatives and grant dollars to help people on the ground not only understand the issue, but what can they do to help us as a collective to impact? Because we realize that it's not just the providers who we need to work with, but we also need to work with the people on the ground. So that's what SyncLink is all about.
SPEAKER_04:And I think before we started, I share with you my background, right? So my first job was in health education and community organizing at the Community Health Awareness Group in partnership with Detroit Receiving Hospital and the Detroit Health Department. At that time, almost everybody who was black in the city of Detroit was treated and diagnosed or treated by Detroit Receiving Hospital. And so there was this amazing doctor, Dr. Crane, who reached out to our organization, Community Health Awareness Group, and sent all of the people diagnosed to our organization for us to provide them with case management support. And I, if you can believe it, at 22 years old, I facilitated the support group for the organization. And so what it was like a master's degree, PhD level understanding. I just come out of the University of Michigan. Um and I've been kind of, you know, in a protected bubble, but what I learned in that process was how people ended up where they were. A couple things. Number one, the people I was serving were as intelligent as all my classmates at U of M. They just didn't have the same opportunities. And that was mind-blowing to just see how brilliant and funny and enrich some of them were. And the second thing was so many of them said, now that I've been diagnosed with AIDS, my life has never been better. But at that time, their life was almost over, too, because HIV AIDS was the death sentence. And that led me to the process of saying, what if I could intervene in people's lives earlier? Why wait until then? Because I could see all of the brilliance that was just being trapped and lost by all of these systemic inequalities. And so it really changed my life. But Detroit Receiving Hospital is also where you got your start, Dr. Taylor.
SPEAKER_03:Can you talk about that? I started at Detroit Receiving Hospital as a staff nurse, actually. And I went from the staff nurse to a head nurse to working in staff development, then I became a director of nursing, and then eventually the vice president of nursing. And ultimately I ended up being uh the president of the hospital. So I was president of Hopper Hustle for a while, then I was president of Detroit Receiving Hospital, and then I worked at the corporate level in the DMC. So I've had a full career, but I've been able to do it all in the Detroit Medical Center.
SPEAKER_04:Now, did you ever work for Grace Hospital? Well, we it was I'm talking about the one on no I'm the one on six mile on seven mile and myers. I'm talking about way back.
SPEAKER_03:Yes, that yes. You know, we used to rotate staffing sometime and I used to move mine out there. Yeah. And um, that was interesting too.
SPEAKER_04:I was a candy striper at that hospital. Were you really? Yes, when I was in high school in college, and my dad was a doctor at that hospital, Donathan Givens, and so that that was my entry into Detroit Medical Center was through Grace Hospital when it existed. My sister was a nurse at Sinai Grace. And she was an emergency room nurse at Sinai Grace. So I have so many connections to the DMC family. And I know over the years you have seen so much happen with fathers, with mothers, with babies, where you understand the significance of fathers in maternal health. And that's such a unique way of looking at maternal health, is we need fathers there to help protect mothers' health. I'm assuming that's one of the things. And also in infant health. So, how did you make that connection? That's really an exciting connection to me.
SPEAKER_03:Well, as we look at the entire um journey from prenatal to actual a year after the child was born and all aspects of it, how could you not look at the family union and what was missing in our ability to provide services? And what we really discovered is that uh the father was desiring to be present, or the mate was fathering to be present, and we didn't allow him to be present. We didn't engage or embrace him as providers. And so that started the conversation that led up to where we are now, where we include elements of fatherhood and everything that we're doing around this entire pay and nail journey from before the person gets pregnant until a year after the person has delivered.
SPEAKER_04:That's wonderful.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah.
SPEAKER_04:Can you talk about this, Jason? I know that you are a real advocate for father's rights and male empowerment. Can you talk about that?
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, um, Jason Larsosa speaking here. First of all, I was so honored when I got the call from Dr. Iris, Fernice Anthony, Alethea Carr and the SimQuick team. Um I knew that they had been looking really closely about at the role of fathers in increasing maternal and infant health and vitality. And um they there are women led organizations and have been successful in securing a lot of partnerships from the state to to philanthropy and and local partners. And um I think understood pretty quickly that um they wanted to center the voices of men. With the ultimate outcome, as Dr. Taylor pointed out, being to increase infant and maternal health and vitality, but also realizing that fathers and black fathers in particular are um deserving of services in and of ourselves. And so we started conversations around the development of a guy that brought fathers in not as derelict or absent or needing to be taught about what fatherhood is, but uh in an effort to remove some of the barriers that fathers face to involvement. We see that the outcomes for moms and babies are radically improved when there's that continuum of support. And we also find the data bears out that uh strongest and most consistent uh support comes from the birthing partner. And uh black women experience birthing disparities when black fathers experience barriers to involvement. And so the guide that we developed over the course of some months tries to honor the contributions of dads from an asset-based perspective as opposed from a deficit frame, as if black fathers are people who need to be fixed. Um, it is a mix between didactic and non-didactic information. So while we're we're presenting information, we're also having conversations and coming to collective um insights about what fathers need and what they're experiencing. It is evidence-based, it is, as I said, strengths-based, and it's trauma-informed.
SPEAKER_04:So, you know, I'm the type of mother who is gonna try to be in the birthing room whenever I have a grandchild, okay? That's just me, all right, because I think I'm a doctor anyway. I'm like, no, that's what that says. My daughters both had doulas. I'm like, I know more than them. They're just joking. But they had doulas, and then, you know, I'm there. And one thing I noticed in some hospital systems, fathers are treated as guests.
SPEAKER_00:That's right.
SPEAKER_04:And why would a father be a guest and not a participant in the birth of their child? It feels as though having to choose between me and the dad, I kept losing out, but I'm just saying, you know, some instances, you know, you don't want the father to ever be removed from that room. What are policies that different hospital systems have around that and how are you seeking to change that?
SPEAKER_00:Donna, you said it quite well, and dads are treated as guests at best. And in many cases, we're seeing that fathers feel like they're outsiders, like they uh need a hall pass, like that they're somewhere they're not supposed to be. And I don't actually know, we don't we don't have a full understanding of what some of these policies are that they have in place, but I can tell you about some of the practices we've been introducing, not only in our region, but across the state, as we tour uh different regions and talk to birth and providers. It's you know we're gonna be in here, you know that mom just had a cesarean session. Why do I have to ask you for a bed to sleep in? She's gonna be spending the night. Um, when you're having these bedside huddles, include dad into that huddle. Or when we're looking at the the whiteboard, mom's name is is is written on it, put dad's name next to it. We're a family. Consult with the father, include the dad, give the dad assignments. And these are the when the when the providers hear some of these best practices and some of these suggestions, they're like, never thought about this before, but they're really receptive to it. No one's challenging them on it.
SPEAKER_04:What about like birth certificates, right? The dad's name does not automatically go on the birth certificate. Can you talk about what that barrier looks like?
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, I'm so there are multiple levels to that um that that barrier. One of it is one of them is cultural. I mean, so fathers are afraid that they're gonna be penalized, sent to jail, uh, have their licenses stripped if they establish paternity through um the birth certificate, if they're experiencing poverty when when the baby is born. Um, but the bigger issue is that uh paternity is not automatically established. This is something that fathers have to fight for. And there's real no real incentive because uh within the black community, I would say in particular, fatherhood seems to be a phenomenon that is criminalized. For consensual sex, two people have a baby, and if one of them is experienced, if they're experiencing poverty, one of them is criminalized for it and um appropriately. So we we rally around the birthing parent, the mom, to provide support. Um, but dad goes to jail, get his license, suspended, and a host of other things. That's that's if he doesn't pay child support. That's if he if he doesn't pay child support or can't afford if he's experiencing poverty for the case. Well, I'm not I'm not sure.
SPEAKER_04:I'm not talking about the reason. I'm saying that the criminalization is the non-payment of child support, not being a father itself, right?
SPEAKER_05:Yes.
SPEAKER_04:Just wanted to clarify for people who are listening that you don't go to jail for having children, you just have to pay for them, whether you can afford them or not. Right. And the system will say if a mother is receiving benefits from the state, then they will look at the father as responsible for paying a portion of those benefits, even if the mother doesn't ask.
SPEAKER_05:Right, correct.
SPEAKER_04:And so that's um something that ends up happening with indigent parents, where the father is like, I cannot afford to be the father in some instances, correct?
SPEAKER_00:Absolutely.
SPEAKER_03:All right, but from a system perspective, though, um they'll go in and ask the mother, the father's name, if she wants it on the birth certificate. That's who gets the information. Right. And if she doesn't give the information, then you get birth certificates where father is blank.
SPEAKER_04:I I've seen situations in extended family members where the father was present at birth and wanted to, but there was a process by which the hospital would not he had to sign the hospital did not make it easy to put the father's name on there. So I think sometimes we blame mothers and fathers when in fact the system doesn't. Sometimes there's a systemic barrier. We're talking about people who are, you know, if you're not married, there's a penalty placed on unmarried parents who are couples.
SPEAKER_00:Yes, absolutely.
SPEAKER_04:And yeah, so I I just wanted to point that out because I think it's important that we think through all of the barriers to father's participation. What I'm hearing also is that father should be involved in the birthing process even before the mother gets pregnant, if possible, and then all through the pregnancy. Um, can you talk about what that looks like in terms of what your what's your experience in fathers? You've been in the healthcare industry for so long. I know you have some stories. I'm telling stories, but you have more. Tell me, tell us about it.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, the the the reality is though, that it's a conversation that's not even had, you know, the conversation of do we want children? Or what happens if we have children? Um but then more importantly, to have children, you need to be healthy. And so let's talk about health behaviors. So if I'm I'm a diabetic or I'm hypertensive, or I just have uh a poor nutrition status, or I just, you know, we don't encourage women to be healthy, and men need to understand that as you're talking about potentially having a family, that being healthy first is one of the first steps towards that. And then we know we have all the social determinants and health disparities that go on to sometimes create some barriers, but that's where we start the conversation.
SPEAKER_04:A lot of times we tend to think of physical health and mental health as being two separate things, like your mind exists outside of your body. But in recent years, I've been reading a lot about the fact that the mind is the body, it's all connected, that you feel things in your stomach. And I know that there's been a lot that's been researched around stress during pregnancy and the fact that toxic stress during pregnancy can impact the neural development of an infant. And so um I would imagine that there's also a somehow correlation between father, I mean between mothers and fathers getting along and um maybe some pre marriage pre-baby counseling so that they learn how to resolve conflict more effectively. Because a lot of us have inherited stuff, right? Most of we all inherit this stuff. But a lot of us have inherited feelings, like so if my grandfather did this to my grandmother and my mother did this to my father, and I'm not gonna let any man do this. And if my mother did this to this person, I'm not gonna let any woman do this. And so we're not always, it's not always modeled for us how to have healthy adult relationships.
SPEAKER_00:And a lot of it is skewed by skewed by um stories that that just aren't accurate. I want to come back to that question of criminalization because you made a good point in talking about legal status when if people are criminalized, punished legally, but we're also talking about the way that stories are told. And I recently told the story of my youngest child's birth when I took the stage at the summit this uh this fall when our youngest baby Claire was born. My wife and I were unmarried. And this was a period of newness for us, and we should have been celebrating. I had a new job at Focus Hope, and I had a new car. I bought us a new home. And I was pulling into our driveway, and there was a squad car outside. Um, and my wife was at the door, and I walked up to the front door, and there was an officer looking for me. He was shocked to see her in the house because this was listed as my address. And he had asked her, she reflected later, about whether I was an earshot, whether um I was home, whether she feel safe. And he served me a subpoena for friend of the court, and we later appeared in court, and my wife and I stood there defending our love. As the judge questioned her about whether anybody was pressuring her at home or whether she felt threatened when she was saying, like, we don't need child support, we're about to be married, and uh we live together, and like we had to advocate for our love. And so this is the so even if I wasn't charged with something, there's this feeling of criminality. Absolutely like I had done something wrong, uh, despite everything that we that we were doing together.
SPEAKER_04:Wow, that's awful.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, and but this is the pressure that families, particularly black family families, are up against. You're right, it's a systemic question. But you know, we have we have real stories, right? The sisters, you know.
SPEAKER_04:Because I got some stories and they're true. Yeah, some of them I've observed for myself, right? Um, about, you know, I always think about we are how many generations from being enslaved and dehumanized and pitted against each other and having our families torn asunder. And until we heal, sometimes we pass on generational harm to the next generation unintentionally, right? So I knew stories about things that happened in my family background. I can't remember not knowing them. It's talked about, right? Because my family, we're all talkers. I don't talk the most. We all talk a lot, and everybody's very opinionated, right? And so you're hearing all these stories and it impacts how you interface with men.
SPEAKER_05:Yeah.
SPEAKER_04:I didn't have any brothers that I grew up with. I found out I had a brother, but he was, you know, not in my household when I was young. And my father was very tyrannical. And so I didn't have relationships with men that were healthy in my household. I had friends who were men, but I didn't have that close family relationship with men in my household that were healthy. I learned how to let go of that as an adult because you make a lot of assumptions. This men are like this. And it may or may not be fair because we generalize our pain. I think that there is so much in so much bashing that goes on on both sides that is encouraged, that we're not encouraged to really see the humanity in each other and see the vulnerability in each other.
SPEAKER_00:And it's encouraged by external forces. It's not us, we're not the problem. It's systemic forces that are discouraging us from being community and family.
SPEAKER_04:We just need we also need some, we need we we need some trauma-informed practices, okay?
SPEAKER_00:Yeah.
SPEAKER_04:Because without trauma-informed practices, it doesn't take an outside force.
SPEAKER_03:Like once they get that in you, then you it's no longer uh a trauma, it's now an innate part of you, it's part of your character. Yeah, it's part of who you are.
SPEAKER_04:It's part of your story, it's part of what you think. You know, um, I'm happily married for five years, right? And I love my husband so much, and we get along so well. Until I met him, I really did not believe I could be loved by a man as I am.
unknown:Wow.
SPEAKER_04:Okay?
SPEAKER_05:Yeah.
SPEAKER_04:Because people say, well, men don't love strong women, men don't love women like that. And then, you know, and so how I can't, I don't know how to change myself to make myself into a weak woman because I'm not gonna be weak. Okay, I'm gonna tell you this right major. That's what I'm trying to say. And so I just decided that this was not something I could have.
SPEAKER_05:Yeah, wow.
SPEAKER_04:And that's such a generalization to say men don't love strong women, right? My husband loves strong women, his mother was a strong woman. There's plenty of men who love women of all different, but that's the narrative. And so now we we we sort of, what is it? Um internalized, but we also protect ourselves against what we expect people to think of us, we expect them to do. And I'm certain that there's another narrative that women don't like nice men. Men women don't like men who can be trusted.
SPEAKER_00:Nice guys finish last.
SPEAKER_04:Nice guys finish last. And it's all because of that one woman who you shouldn't have been with in the first place who rejected you when you were with the bad boy, and now that's all women, you know, and somehow we don't see each other really.
SPEAKER_00:We're not talking to each other, we're listening to external forces. I mean, which really gets to the heart of I think that the the work that's being led by Dr. Arbis and the SimQuick team is having healing conversations, creating these guys, bringing us together because no one's coming to save us. We've got to do this work ourselves.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah. You know, part of what's unique about the uh color of fatherhood is that we start in the prenatal phase and go to one year after the child is born. But along that same line, while we're giving you all the didactics, you know, you know, you know, the man doesn't recognize that the person is going through a lot of bodily changes in the first tri-semester. And her body may not even be changing. So in their mind and their eyesight, well, she's not pregnant. Or how come she's not doing all the other things we want, you know. So from that perspective, and all the didactics teaching that, but also having the all the conversations around, so how did you feel when you you heard that you were gonna be a father? Um, you know, what did that feel like? You know, what are the anxieties that go along with uh the first time becoming a father, and what is gonna be my role and responsibility and and all of that? And we carry that theme all the way across until uh one year later, and um the mom is experiencing postpartum depression, and what does that look like? So that the the dad is prepared for the entire all possibility, all possibilities across the entire journey.
SPEAKER_01:I I have a question on um just about as you were coming in, as I saw someone ask for the um the guide, the the guide, right? What has the community response been to the guy so far? And how does that engagement look for folks in the community?
SPEAKER_00:I think that this has been a resource that has been so widely received on a positive level. And if I'm being frank, it's not even just the guy. That's the tip of the iceberg, it's the attention that's been that's been given to this, and it's the investment um that's been put into fatherhood. People are like, oh, they see us. A huge part of the guy we open up trying to root the fathers in a collective sense of purpose by dispelling a bunch of myths about black dads, throwing out statistics that most people haven't heard before. Most black men, ages 15 to 49, have no children. 54% of black men are more likely than any other group of folks to be raising children that are not just biologically tied to them, but not biologically tied to them. Um we talk about um involvement. CDC is saying that black men are more involved with our children than any other group of men in the country. And when we just share some of these statistics, fathers feel so seen. And they they they they they're brought into a space where we're developing trust and they begin to share out some of the challenges that they're experiencing. And from there we build community and a sense of purpose around the entire community, I think.
SPEAKER_01:That's amazing.
SPEAKER_00:Picking up momentum, yeah.
SPEAKER_01:For sure. And another question I had, you know, I talked to folks about, you know, in the city of Detroit, we see um uh uh unfortunate trend of poverty going up and childhood poverty increasing. And one thing, as I talked about on the campaign trail, was that we uh absolutely have to have programs that that get folks out of poverty, but also talked about parental care. Uh and uh this guide and and the work that you are doing kind of lends into that of how are we actually addressing and taking care of parents that are raising kids in the city of Detroit. What will you say you you want to see from policymakers in the city or at the state or federal level when it comes to this?
SPEAKER_00:Uh I'll let Dr. Iris go first, and then I got some thoughts that can follow up.
SPEAKER_03:Okay. Um a systems perspective, we need providers and organizations to embrace the notion that we have to care for moms and dads, and that moms and dads are included in the discussion and in the care in the beginning. And that's a system impact that we're trying to impact on or to encourage to happen. Um, I think from a policy perspective, um, just allowing changes of how you get on a birth certificate. Um policy changes that that encourage or enhance the father to have be legitimized in the beginning, even though they may not be married.
unknown:He's still a father.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, he's still a father. And uh we have this little saying that Q saying that we say that uh I don't care where you go, there's a father. There's a father everywhere. And so that would be uh two things I would say.
SPEAKER_00:Just to add to it, um, Dr. Iris and uh Denzel, I think, and probably you too, Donna, know that my wife runs an organization called Black Marriage Movement or the Marriage and Fatherhood Fund. And I I think what a lot of us would like to see, and this goes to your earlier point, Donna, um, is that the government invested over decades in disrupting our families. And I think that it's time now for the government to invest in healing. So even if couple, even if parents are not romantically involved, we need investment that gets us talking to each other and working toward healing as opposed to dividing us. Uh we've become our relationships have become politicized. Um, it's become unpopular for us to talk to each other and be on one another's side. And we need government support to be able to say, no, it's okay to talk to each other and to co-parent in ways that even if you're not romantically involved, you can continue to support each other.
SPEAKER_04:Yeah. I mean, I think that we have been um torn apart for centuries, not decades. I think that we have so much nostalgia about grandparents, but some of them grandparents' stories are not very attractive to some of the grandchildren. That's why we ended up being different, right? It's like mm mm, never letting anybody do this to me. You know, from the woman's standpoint, you know, it's not always that great, right? And I think that we have got to understand the race, the harm of racism in really destroying or undercutting the fabric of our community. And one of the challenges I think. That I'm hearing from you is also when you think of a black father, what do you think of? When you think of a white father, what do you think of? If you don't think of a good man when you think of a black father, you need to be re-educated. And if you don't think you know what I'm saying, we need to stop assuming that you have to convince black fathers to love their children.
SPEAKER_00:You just need to get out the way.
SPEAKER_04:Um, well, and also help the healing.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah.
SPEAKER_04:Um, another um thing I think about though is when I first started my career and I was working in the community, I actually worked with this organization in the 90s, um, running a program called Partnership for Economic Independence, and our focus was on families, intervening with families. You got a lot of foundation support to support family structures. And right now we have youth support, but we don't really invest in families as a society anymore. It's almost as though young people need mentors more than they need parents. And we know that a young person's best outcome is going to be when their family is doing well. Um, so I think as a society, we've got to elevate families. Now, the families may not all look the same, right? But whatever that family structure is, let's invest in families. Stable parents have stable kids. And parents who are all messed up and ignored, you can't fix that when they come to your after-school program.
SPEAKER_00:That's right.
SPEAKER_04:They go back home to that mess and chaos. And so we have to love the people they came from. You know, I always think that we love children until they become adults, and then we stop loving them in our society. Black children, I should say. Black children become disposable. When they're little kids, they're so cute. Let's all invest in them, but let's understand that a lot of people with problems as adults have problems they were little and nobody ever intervened, and we have an opportunity to really help set the record straight. Uh, I think that what the work you're doing is amazing. And I just want to know how we get involved at East Side Community Network. This is a wellness hub, and we bring the community together for all kinds of purposes. How can we participate in the Simp Quick program? Is there any role?
SPEAKER_03:Yes, most definitely, because we always encourage any uh involvement from community-based organizations with the this particular theme of fatherhood. We have been going out in the community to various groups of fathers and having this conversation and looking for organizations who want to take the curriculum and host meetings and have the kind of conversations that are represented in this guide, and then do some follow-up. We encourage people to get the guy and use it as a guide to facilitate a group. That's how you help us to have a collective impact.
SPEAKER_04:All right, well, we um we'll follow up on that. I promise you, we are gonna have some things here. Um obviously this is near and dear to me, but I know there's other listeners who really care and want to be involved. How would what would their first step be to get connected to this initiative? Their phone number, uh email address, uh if you go to the SimpCirk website, uh-huh, uh, which is simpquirk.org.
SPEAKER_03:Um on there is a tab that says Fatherhood, and the curriculum is listed. We've did some videos, and we have videos of fathers that you know that you can you can you can view as well. And then there's an opportunity to to say, I want to volunteer, and then as we're doing some of the work in the community, we'll connect you, or or to say, I have an organization and would like to be involved, we'll enroll you into the to the collaborative in the coalition itself uh as well.
SPEAKER_04:Oh wonderful. Okay, so if you are interested in being involved, the website is S E M P Qic.org. Okay, right. Simp quick. S-E-M P Q I C dot org. I hope people listen, get connected, and let's help build our families.
SPEAKER_00:There's also an email, Kizzy Monk M Kizzy M. That's K-I-Z-Z-I-M at Metrosolutions.org. Okay. She's our executive director.
SPEAKER_04:All right, well, thank you. We have an executive director. We have two amazing leaders who have turned their attention to this process. We're going to take a break, and when we come back, we're going to talk to Denzel about his run for city council and his recent election.
SPEAKER_06:Interested in renting space for corporate events, meetings, conferences, social events, or resource fairs? The MASH Detroit Small Business Hub is a 6,000 square feet space available for members, residents, and businesses and organizations. To learn more about rental options at MASH Detroit, contact Nicole Perry at nperry at ecnetroit.org or 313-331-3485.
SPEAKER_04:And we are back with our good friend Denzel McCampbell, who is the managing director for Progress Michigan.
SPEAKER_02:Yes.
SPEAKER_04:Um, I met you when you were serving on on in the staff of um our our friend and Congresswoman Rashida Talid.
SPEAKER_02:Absolutely, yes.
SPEAKER_04:And then you ran for city clerk, and we got really hopeful, and you explained to us what a clerk should do. Um after Garland Gilchrist also ran and explained to us, but you helped open the door some more, and that was not successful. And then you ran for District 7 City Council.
SPEAKER_01:Yes.
SPEAKER_04:Talk about that.
SPEAKER_01:You know, it is I learned so much in that city clerk's race about it. We did have to do a lot of political and public education on that campaign. It was just not saying, hey, vote for me, it was hey, vote for me for city clerk. And folks would say, for city council, what's going on here? So I learned a lot about that race and the need to constantly talk to folks and and be um communicating to them about the role and who I am. And was very grateful to have the opportunity to run for Detroit City Council of District 7, as you mentioned. And this campaign was it was an open seat because the current member, Fred Durha, ran for mayor and did not run for re-election. And it was a lot of similar in the city clerk race, introducing myself to a lot of folks, right? Uh some folks did remember me from running for city clerk, but this was a race that we centered the needs of our folks in the district. And I know neighborhoods was uh uh folks talked about neighborhoods a lot in the campaign on all levels this year, but we were we were really intentional about how do we lift up policies and a focus that centered what the basic needs in our neighborhoods were when it comes to economic justice, making sure that people have access to quality, good paying jobs and skill trades training, recognizing that uh folks need every opportunity to learn skills, not just in a four-year or two-year college, thinking about how do we center public transportation, because we don't talk enough about how one in every three households in the city of Detroit does not have access to a car. And in District 7, we have a uh transportation department that our buses don't run as frequent as they should. On Plymouth, it runs every hour. And then we talked a lot about the need to have a right to breathe clean air and drink clean water and how all of this connects to folks having thriving neighborhoods that they can get whether it's going to get affordable fresh food, um, a good meal to build a community, coffee, a healthcare uh facility, pharmacy right in their neighborhoods that they don't have to go outside the district or outside the city to get so get that. And folks really connected with that vision. We knocked over 30,000 doors. Um, we sent over 100,000 text messages, uh, made tens of thousands of phone calls, and we're just wanted to be extremely present.
SPEAKER_04:Um, can how much money did you raise?
SPEAKER_01:So I raised, I think it was around$182,000.
SPEAKER_04:Was there any city council candidate who raised as much as you?
SPEAKER_01:I believe the only other candidate that raised as much was uh Councilmember Santiago Romero. And neither one of us took any corporate pack dollars.
SPEAKER_04:Let's talk about that though, because um you guys did something pretty unprecedented in Detroit. Um, what connects you to the Congresswoman? I mean, Councilwoman Santiago Romero.
SPEAKER_01:We're both we both have uh have had a start in community organizing and connecting with folks and being in coalition with other organizing organizers and organizations that are working on the ground on the issue. So we were I feel that both the councilwoman Santiago Romero and I are able to one, also have lived experiences as we're talking to folks on the doors, but also to say, okay, you may be talking to me about economic justice. I know folks that are working on that. We can solve that issue today, because often we have these big ideas that are needed and the policy solutions that are needed. But if I'm talking to someone and they are saying, I am in need today, and I'm talking to them and say, okay, four years, you'll be good. They're like, they'll look at me and say, That's not true.
SPEAKER_04:If you say that a lot, because a lot of times people don't really get any real responses to their immediate things.
SPEAKER_02:Yes, yes.
SPEAKER_04:But you are also, come on now, you are part of a larger movement right now of young, progressive, yes, multicultural folks standing up and saying we're going to run on our ideals.
SPEAKER_02:Absolutely.
SPEAKER_04:Can you talk about that race? Because we're all excited about what's happening in New York. But I'm like, they're not clocking what's happening in Detroit.
SPEAKER_01:Yes. And you know, so, and and thank you for that. So both the councilwoman, Santiago Romero, and I, we're both uh members of the Metro Detroit, the Democratic Socialists of America's chapter. Um, we have uh really pushed for a lot of progressive policies and are aligned with folks in the progressive movement here in the City of Detroit, and really, like you said, really connecting to folks about here are here's our vision to have a more affordable Detroit, a more equable Detroit, a Detroit that actually brings folks to the table and not have these divisions that we see that no matter who you are and no matter where you're living, that you deserve to have a city government that puts you first, that centers your needs, and does not um do the bidding of folks who are constantly going against um our best interests. And that also creates a target on us, right? The folks that say, oh, you're not taking corporate pack dollars. Well, you're you're actually in the community. What does that mean for, for example, I've heard this a lot. How do you, how will you balance the interests of community and business? Well, I don't see a need to balance if you're doing this right.
SPEAKER_04:Yeah, right? You know what I hear? I hear things like, well, you're not really running on black people's issues. Like black people don't need bus service and we don't need to breathe clean air. The way that black people's issues have been, you know, conflated with business interests is something that, you know, I think President Nixon did a very good job of, you know, this whole concept of black capitalism. Capitalism is inherently racist if we're going to be honest about what capitalism is. Now, um, you know, Social Democratic Party, I believe, is trying to balance that and say we've got to look beyond that. But um, I hear that I've heard those voices kind of critiquing that in New York City and I hear it in Detroit, and yet it's happening where you're able to do something. And at a time where people are really trying to tear us apart and fragment our movements and say, well, you know, black people can't trust Hispanic people, Latino people, because they hate us, all of them, hate all of us, right? Not stereotypes. But anyway, you know, you and Gabby represent two different ethnicities, and yet you came together around shared values.
SPEAKER_02:Yes.
SPEAKER_04:And you're also aligned with our Congresswoman Rashida Talib and her values. And so I'm seeing this movement beyond um identity of black or Hispanic or Palestinian to say that we are people who care about our communities.
SPEAKER_01:At the end of the day, what we're seeing is that we are seeing the wealth gap in this country expand. We are we just ended the longest government shutdown in US history. And what was being used against folks was the ability to access food assistance and the denial of expanding subsidies to help what cover health care costs. That's not that has nothing to do, that is that is impacting black folks, that is impacting um Latinos, that is impacting Arab Americans, and it is benefiting those that the rich who are getting more and more money.
SPEAKER_04:And and and quite quietly, it's impacting white people.
SPEAKER_01:Exactly.
SPEAKER_04:Because, you know, the narratives that get spun help us believe that we are a threat to each other and that all white people are doing great while we're suffering. And by the way, a lot of those people, a lot of white people believe all black people are doing great because we get free everything. That's how they're able to divide our communities. And so you're you're you're part of coalitions because you are part of the Democratic Socialists of America, right? But you're also um at least speaking with and and coordinating with the working families, Michigan chapter of the working families party, right?
SPEAKER_01:Yes, and I'm a I'm a member of the uh 12th Congressional Democratic Party, right? And it's I've I've worked in coalition with so many folks, and like you uh uh like you said, it's keeping those values and the shared values that we have to make sure that we're putting people first. And the the thing out the one more example that I want to share is that this big ugly bill, right, that passed, right? Um the folks who were impacted immediately once it passed, we saw rural hospitals close. Right? Was a lot, of course, in a year or so we'll see Medicaid and a Medicare cut, but the immediate thing was rural hospitals. And that shows that it does not stop at the city limits of Detroit.
SPEAKER_04:Have you ever been to rural Michigan? Yep. Where the grocery stores are dollar trees or whatever? I'm like, Dollar General? It's it's amazing. I mean, I said in a horrible way. I was in visiting rural Michigan and you're driving through places and you don't have any broadband, you can't even get a cell phone connection in communities where you see people's homes, and you realize that injustice does not have geographical boundaries. Um, it sucks the life out of communities, out of people. And the only way to keep people kind of oppressed is to make them believe that the people they should watch out for are the people who like them are struggling with some of the same things.
SPEAKER_01:And that is what I want to make sure we are pushing back on, especially here in the city of Detroit. In District 7, of course, it is a majority black district, but we have, and I I tell folks this, we have significant Arab American uh population, significant Latino, and a significant white population in District 7. And these as I go door knocking, I hear similar issues show up from folks of the need to tackle um whether it's having truly affordable housing in the city, uh making sure that it's more affordable living the city of Detroit, transportation. Those, no matter who it is, those are the similar issues. And we then have to say, these are the folks who are working against that. It's not based, like you said, it's not based on geography, it's not based on race. And we really have to have an indictment on how capitalism is showing up in our community.
SPEAKER_04:I mean, you know, environmental justice is an urban thing. But those battery plants that are seeping you know, poisons into the groundwater in rural America, those that's not always black folks, right? It's not all Native American. A lot of these are white people dealing with it. And, you know, the the siphoning of water for Nestle is not happening in a black community where we're draining the aquifers. I think the extent to which we can see each other. I saw a woman recently who said you can't hate people. It's hard to hate people when you're talking to them one-on-one. It's easy to hate people from afar. So I have two uh questions. Yes, and one little comment and two questions. One of them is that you ran for um council in the far west side, and I'm on the far east side.
SPEAKER_02:Yes.
SPEAKER_04:And yet I see your election as being relevant to my community. Why are you relevant to the east side of Detroit?
SPEAKER_01:One, uh just as we talk about the structure of city council and we talked about the charter, as I'm looking at the issues that are impacting our residents in District 7, and I see whether it's contracts, ordinances, or budget considerations that come across, I'm just not thinking about District 7 and impact. I'm thinking about how it would impact folks here on the Far East side in District 4. How it does, like, you know, in District 7, we talked about environmental justice and we have issues with truck traffic and air pollution. We also know that there's been issues with air pollution here in District 4, right? And so it is impactful for one, the vote that I'll have on city council, but also that I'm someone that has done work across the entire city and is in community with folks to be able to say, hey, we're experiencing that here. How are you experiencing that on the east side, Donna? And how do we work together to make sure we have a comprehensive policy in addressing that?
SPEAKER_04:Yeah, because you know, I'm I'm old enough to remember how the concept of district city councils got started. And a big part of that was most people on city council lived in the same neighborhoods. And when you read the city charter, as you know, the city charter talks about how district city council people can be elected. But it doesn't change the job duties of a city council person who gets elected from this district. They still have the same legislative responsibilities as they did beforehand. And the way I look at it is you have a congressphoo who represents your district, and certainly you want them to bring home some of the bacon, and nobody does it better than Regina, but um, you know, you certainly you want that. But you also want them legislating on the behalf of the nation, not just your community.
SPEAKER_02:Exactly.
SPEAKER_04:And to the extent they only legislate on behalf of their own communities, they're really not doing their jobs, right?
SPEAKER_01:No, and you want to have someone who has that view of the entire city. You want to have someone who is able to say, and and also to build relationships with other council members to say, this is how it's impacting us in District 7. I see how you talk about this in your district. Let's come together to create a policy that's even more comprehensive in that way. That's I and as you talk about council by district, is we also as we talk about Congresswoman to leave, I want to make sure that we have a amazing constituent services program as well to address again, address the immediate needs of folks and then also create policy around what we see as the systemic thing that needs to be.
SPEAKER_04:Right. I mean, no, the mayor, the city council is responsible for approving appointees, not based on where people live, approving budgets, writing ordinances, all of these things have citywide significance. And if you have city council people who are only caring about what happens in their backyard, the mayor has too much control. Because if you take your eye off those legislative duties, then you have ceded that power to the executive.
SPEAKER_02:Yes.
SPEAKER_04:And we already have a strong mayor form of government.
SPEAKER_02:Yes.
SPEAKER_04:And we have a incoming mayor, mayor-elect, I'm really excited about. But I'm excited about the structure of our government as well as anything else, because you know, form the structure of our government determines how well our democracy is working. And when you see a legislative body not really being as active or having the same kind of power input, then you see a failure of democracy.
SPEAKER_01:You see a failure of democracy, you see a stifling of ideas, right? Because then you have you're not having the ideas that are needed at the table. You're seeing a one uh a sing a singular view of how we address these needs. And it's a disservice to residents that we are there to serve. So absolutely I agree.
SPEAKER_04:So in in in in Detroit, all elected officials run nonpartisan races. Yes. But there's a couple of you, not just the two of you, but one more, I believe, who is working with you around ideas that surfaced from the working families party. You all got endorsed by the working family party. And it's um our district four councilwoman, um, Letitia Johnson.
SPEAKER_01:Yes.
SPEAKER_04:So you have three people. Talk about that.
SPEAKER_01:Yes, I I am deeply excited to work with Councilwoman Johnson, um, Councilwoman Santiago Romero, and and the entire council. But I would I want to talk about them for a second because, you know, I this was the open seat, and it was a race that had quite a few folks, folks that have run before, um, folks who have had that were in seats had a title, um, that have high higher name recognition. And Councilwoman Johnson and Councilwoman Santiago Romero really went out to publicly support this campaign because we had those shared values, because they see why this vision of putting centering people, fighting for truly affordable housing, fighting for environmental justice, um, fighting for a government that serves people is needed. Right. And that we have to go on that path. And I'm very grateful for them having that vision and being being out there to support. Uh, and also then um the having a legislative agenda that absolutely recognizes the power that city council has and the power that we have collectively that we're bringing multiple districts together to say this is what we need in the city.
SPEAKER_04:Yeah, you know, what we did on Saturday with um councilmember Johnson hosted a budget um workshop here. How um forward thinking to host a budget workshop in November?
SPEAKER_02:Yes.
SPEAKER_04:Most people don't start talking about the budget in the community until March or April and all of the decisions have been made.
SPEAKER_02:Exactly.
SPEAKER_04:Um, but to really help people understand the budget process, how to get involved, that's some real forward-thinking stuff. And we want to continue doing that. Um I I I feel as though on January 1st, you work for me too. So yeah, I was gonna hold you accountable. Please do. Um, I'm excited about that. You've talked about a couple of things. Uh, you know, we're working on um truck routing ordinance, and that's been a real challenge. I think we have one in southwest Detroit, but there's no truck routing ordinance that really covers our community. What is that a priority of yours?
SPEAKER_01:It is. I uh that is a priority and to make sure that we are having truck routes throughout the city of Detroit because it is impacting every part of the district where you have an industry. You know, we have the AMC project that now there's universal. So uh there's the uh community along Plymouth, making sure that the air quality there is not impacted by the increase in truck traffic. We see that in every part of the city. So I I do want to have a focus on improving our air quality, truck routes, and also making sure that we're our city is on is leading in having a green future. Um and not I I I just want to make sure we're ahead of the ball and not reacting because we have the ability to be that for it thinking. If we're just like you said, around the budget, but and also to say, what more can we be doing around environmental justice?
SPEAKER_04:You know, when I got this job um in 2016, you know, I had to interview Ford. And um I remember one of the questions and about assets in our community and me seeing vacant land as an asset, right? Yes and that's certainly something that our organization takes into account. We have the Lower East Side Action Plan, which talks about how we can repurpose vacancy to address environmental justice issues. We have all of this vacancy, much more than any other city, which means we could potentially be the greenest city in the United States if we just leveraged it.
SPEAKER_02:Yes.
SPEAKER_04:The other challenge I see is that we are not doing a great job producing a green workforce. I would love to see workforce development say, how are we training people for the future jobs? Every job does not have to be a data center or a battery plant. There are jobs that we can create that will be stewarding our environment.
SPEAKER_01:I you know, I I was just mentioning this to a friend to say that, you know, we have such momentum, and there's still momentum around a green future and and green economy. And I was like, how do we get to a point where the this it seems like this this golden nugget that folks assume is this golden nugget, it are data centers. Like the jobs there is you build it, and then there are no there are very few jobs inside there. But if we're talking about a green economy, these are jobs that continuously build upon each other, they are good paying, there are long-term jobs that build skills for folks. And that's the vision that we have to, you know, in in our politics, we so often see what's the quickest thing that we can say, oh, I can send out this press release about. And often we see that it may be a detriment to our communities. And we deserve to have public servants that are looking at the long term, addressing these now, and also setting our communities up for a thriving future as well. And and I'm excited to be at the table and be in a community with folks that are thought leaders and saying, how do we get this right and how do we do it right the first time and learn from it and even improve as we go on.
SPEAKER_04:One of the things that our mayor elect, uh Mary Sheffield distinguished herself by is commissioning studies to research some of the problems that we see in our community. She did that around housing, she did that around poverty, and also around things like the entertainment tax and um the downtown development authority. I think that's such a critical role for us to look outside of our community and say what works best.
SPEAKER_02:Yes.
SPEAKER_04:Do you see yourself also or your triad of leaders also trying to better understand issues so that you can lead in those areas?
SPEAKER_01:Yes, absolutely. We quite often we don't have to recreate, recreate the wheel. There are other folks who are dealing with issues that we are dealing with that have dealt with, that there are also examples that we can look and say, we don't want to go that route because that is something that we see is not what we the results of it. And we can't be in this bubble of or the silo of just, oh, this is what's going on in the Sea of Detroit. We we can look to other places, and and I love the example on the entertainment tax because I I attended the Citizen Research Council, their presentation on it, and they looked at the other cities. And one thing that I saw was that, you know, they uh in Chicago, they have a resale tax. And the question in the room came up well, how do we get to have data transparency from platforms? And I said, okay, well, if a city has a resale tax, then maybe they have already thought about that and we can look there for data governance and transparency. So it's even those things that answer some of the other questions that we can be prepared for.
SPEAKER_04:Yeah, I mean, and having the Citizens Research Council of Michigan or one of our many universities do some of that benchmarking so that you don't have to is amazing work. I want to talk about your transition.
SPEAKER_02:Yes.
SPEAKER_04:Because between now and January 1st, you've got to do a few things. What do you have to do to prepare to be a city council person?
SPEAKER_01:So we have to build up a team to serve District 7. Um, and that's from a policy team, our community constituent outreach team, our comms uh executive team, chief of the yeah.
SPEAKER_04:What does your budget look like?
SPEAKER_01:I believe this budget is I believe it's around 1.8, a little 1.8 million. I'll have to double check.
SPEAKER_04:But your budget that you control for your office.
SPEAKER_01:It's gonna be half going in because I go on at the half mark, um, halfway mark in the year. But I had to double check on the exact numbers. So I'm still waiting on the full budget.
SPEAKER_04:But halfway mark, what do you mean? So it's Oh, the the the the calendar year. The fiscal year, yes, because it ends September. Yes.
SPEAKER_01:So we go in at the halfway. So they're mandated to keep uh at least 50% of their budget. The current member of the United States. Oh, wait a minute.
SPEAKER_04:No, the city budget starts July 1st. Yes, so six months. That's the reason why I see. Yes. Okay.
SPEAKER_01:So that's so I'm still waiting on the full budget numbers there. So but we'll have a full staff of around um we we still have to figure it out with the uh numbers there, but also we'll have orientation in December. So I'll get uh even more information there. And then we'll take office at the beginning of January. What I want to be intentional about is continuing to listen to community. So we're gonna be putting together a series of listening sessions, but also just not coming out for folks to listen. I I've I am strong about, I feel strongly about meeting people where they are. So we're gonna do telephone town halls as well for folks who are not able or just don't want to get out there uh to uh uh eat an event in person, but also engaging folks virtually and also doing more door knocking. So that's gonna be a large part of our our initial um coming in to get information, more information for folks and be present, and we're gonna Be in the right, as you mentioned with Councilwoman Johnson having the budget uh workshop, we're gonna be right in the middle of budget season. Yeah, so really engaging folks on that process as well. I really want to start pushing more, and I know other colleagues for participatory budgeting as well. I think that is something that really helps bring folks into the fold and also addresses some community uh desires and needs, and that's a way to really push back on a lot of this um apathy that we see because people are right in the middle of making things work.
SPEAKER_04:You know, you can look at the Detroit budget for a minute and still not understand how things are being spent. Sometimes the categories are so large that they obscure things, and it's really hard to, you know, you know, um really drill down and get some information. So one of the things I think would be really helpful is also, even before we get to participatory budgeting, which will require some changes, yes, to have workshop sessions that really just educate people on this is what's in your budget and pull that information out so that when people are giving their feedback, it's informed feedback and not based on some false assumptions.
SPEAKER_01:Absolutely. In a very digestible way, for sure.
SPEAKER_04:So can you talk about your staffing process? Do you have everybody selected? Is there some place people should send resumes if they think they are well qualified to um help lead in your um office?
SPEAKER_01:Yes, for sure. We are not fully staffed up yet. So we are um looking for policy folks, we are looking for community outreach folks, also um, you know, internal operations or comms uh as well. And folks can send that if if I'll I can just give you a right now we don't have a city uh email address. Exactly. Just give your email. Yep, so if it you can still email to Denzel, uh D-E-N-Z-E-L at Denzelford Detroit.com. You can email it there and we'll make sure that uh we get folks connected there.
SPEAKER_04:All right, so you're going through budgeting. We have an incoming mayor who will be actually developing a budget. And you have priorities priorities. There is a transition process that our mayor elect is also overseeing. How do you see connecting with our mayor elect to help bring about the kind of change that the community is looking for?
SPEAKER_01:I think the constant communication and collaboration and and being very clear on words, you know. I know she uh uh mayor elect Sheffield also feels very strongly about housing and has done a lot of work around that. So coming together on those issues to say, one, here's the feedback that we are getting from, and I that's why I see my role as well, is that we know that these we have the same residents that we're serving, but I just heard this at a community town hall that folks want to have this or want this to move. How can we work together on that? I really believe in that communication and collaboration, and then find a ways to be innovative to say, hey, um, you know, they're doing this in this other city, right? Can we try this and can we be thought partners in that? I believe that when we're, and I keep this is a common theme, and I hope folks realize that when we are bringing forth those needs in the community and bringing it up, the possibilities are endless. And also that many of these solutions are also in our neighborhoods. As I've been door knocking, folks are saying, why don't we try this? And I'm like, that's a great idea, we should try that, and really more fostering an environment that folks feel that they should be at the center of policymaking as well.
SPEAKER_04:You know, I I I feel as though a Detroit that's innovative, that encourages participation from so many different places, and um, that sort of decentralizes some of the power so that people feel empowered inside their communities is an attractive place to be.
SPEAKER_02:Oh, yes.
SPEAKER_04:If you want people to move back to Detroit, give them a sense that this is their Detroit. Yes. Because when I was growing up in Detroit, we felt like it was ours. And that sense of this is our city has been lost to some extent. And it feels like the city belongs to somebody else, not quite sure. And even if we like what that somebody else is doing, it doesn't feel like ours.
SPEAKER_01:That's key. And and I I've seen you see that as you go to folks and they say, Well, I'm not I'm not gonna participate in that. That doesn't help me. And it it kind of hurts me when people say that because every single person in this city should feel that what's going on in their city government is about them and involves them.
SPEAKER_04:And and every part of the community, every park in the city is a city park.
SPEAKER_01:Yes.
SPEAKER_04:It's your park. Yes, every place downtown that is public space is your space.
SPEAKER_02:Yes.
SPEAKER_04:The riverfront is your space, and we need to own this city and claim this city so that we don't allow people to box us into this little corner that they've decided is ours. And that's my only concern about the districts, is that somehow I don't want us to believe that we belong to this part of the city. There is one Detroit.
SPEAKER_01:Yes.
SPEAKER_04:And we're stronger together, right?
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, absolutely. All right. That's it. And just before we wrap up, um just so I don't cross wires, I'm actually gonna give a different email address for folks to send a resume. If folks can send their resumes to McCampbell, M C C A M P B E L L dot D as N Dog A as N Apple at gmail.com. McCampbell.da at gmail.com.
SPEAKER_04:All right. Well, thank you for sharing that information. I'm sure you're gonna get a lot of great resumes. And I'm really looking forward to your service.
SPEAKER_01:Thank you.
SPEAKER_04:Um if you have topics that you want discussed on authentically Detroit, you can hit us up on our socials at authentically Detroit on Facebook, Instagram, or Twitter, or you can email us at authenticallydetroit at gmail.com.
unknown:Okay.
SPEAKER_04:It's time for shout-outs. Do you have any shout outs?
SPEAKER_01:I just want to one, yes, I want to shout out to the residents of District 7 for giving me the honor and opportunity to represent you all. I'm very excited about the work that we're gonna do together. Um, shout out to all our our staff, our our team, our supporters in this race. I wouldn't have been able to do this without you all. So thank you all so much.
SPEAKER_04:All right. And I'm gonna shout out a mayor elect. Um I am serving on the um as co-chair of the housing development and planning subcommittee, committee for the transition team. And I can't tell you how exciting it is to have a mayor who actually wants to hear something I have to say. It's been a minute. Yes. Okay.
SPEAKER_02:Yes.
SPEAKER_04:Um, but also there's so many different people and so many voices at the table that are not normally at the table where decisions get made. Um, I always think about that um, the song from Hamilton, The Room Where It Happens, and we all want to be in the room where it happens. And so many of us get to be in the room where it happens, and that alone should let you know that this is going to be a different type of leadership in our city. And I say that with caution because it's the mayor of the city, not the mayor of your dreams, not the mayor of your neighborhood. And the city has many competing demands. But we do have a mayor coming in who hears our voices. At least hears my voice. I hope I speak for some people, but here's my voice. Here's the voice of many people. It's a diverse group of people. And when voices are heard, decisions are just always going to be better because you're listening.
SPEAKER_01:Yes. And that's it. And I I am I am super excited.
SPEAKER_04:I've never been more hopeful about Detroit. And um, normally when I vote for people, um, I get disappointed. You know, I'm so used to just losing at the polls. So this is an exciting win all around in the city of Detroit. I was really happy on election night.
SPEAKER_02:Yes.
SPEAKER_04:All right. Well, thank you so much for listening. Love on your neighbor. Thanks, Denzel.
SPEAKER_01:All right, thank you.
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