Asbury Community Development Corporation (CDC), a faith-based nonprofit organization, has worked since 2011 to improve health, wellness, and literacy in its surrounding neighborhood. Asbury CDC aims to be a center for connection and promote economic revitalization in Flint’s Eastside neighborhood.
The Eastside area experienced a population loss of 42% between 2000 and 2017,1 and home values fell by more than 50% between 2010 and 2014.2 Furthermore, Genesee County ranked 82nd out of 83 counties in Michigan in 2018 for health outcomes, which include length and quality of life.3 While population loss and health concerns have impacted Flint and the Eastside long before the Flint water crisis in 2014, the lead poisoning effects exacerbated health concerns and elevated the urgency of neighborhood revitalization in Flint’s Eastside. The neighborhood contains many assets to build upon, from the grassroots entrepreneurial energy of its residents to vacant land available throughout the neighborhood for creative reuse.
This plan was created by a group of graduate students in the Urban and Regional Planning program at University of Michigan’s Taubman College of Architecture and Urban Planning to support the efforts of Asbury CDC, as well as other Eastside residents, community members, and government and nonprofit partners.
Our project is informed by a theme of community health and wellness and the social determinants of health, a widely-recognized framework that the Centers for Disease Control and the American Planning Association use to highlight the ways in which the places that people live, work, and play impact their health.
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