This house was donated to Us back in 2014 on the heels of Us having to close the Urban Network Café that operated as a bookstore, cafe, community space and computer lab. We ran this space for the forgotten neighbiorhood for four years!
We have been knee-deep in leading the fundraising campaign to transform this house into a Neighborhood Organizing Institution that will function as a Neighborhood Training Center/Café rooted in the values of Black self-determination, economic justice (cooperative economic), transformation, radical education, leadership and youth development, holistic healing and resistance!
In February of 2016 We launched Our #ResistingGentrification and campaign where Yusef lived in the abandon house for #15days to bring awareness to water shout offs, neighborhood displacement, homelessness and etc. We had a donation of $25,000 that We had to raise $25,000 to match it, and many people locally and nationally donated to help Us to meet the match!
We spent the $50,000 to work on the house by getting a new roof, working on the electrical, plumbing, HVAC, drywalling, etc. By the end of the summer of 2016 We had exhausted Our funds and We had completed 60% of the work on the house! In Our rehabbing project We ran into numerous challenges particularly where We had to do the plumbing all over again! During this period in 2016 Yusef went back to school to finish his undergraduate degree and upon completing that immediately began to work on his graduate degree! Now Our goal is to have a grand opening August 2019 in conjuction with Our annual Neighborhood Festival Backpack event.
Since 2016 We have had a tough time securing local grants from funders for this space. We believe that Zone 8 is seen by mainstream funding sources as a "dead zone" but WE ARE STILL HERE!!!
We just secured a $7,000 donation that We need to match and We are launching a new fundraising campaign to raise the matching funds.
We hope that you will support Our fundraising campaign!
