A New Development: Bike Watch

For a while now, AmUS  has been trying to find a way to provide the Wayne State Police Department with an extra pair of eyes during periods of high crime. 

The AmeriCorps Urban Safety (AmUS) Project is a part of the Wayne State University Center for Urban Studies’ Urban Safety Initiative. This initiative uses crime data provided by Wayne State University and Detroit Police Departments to highlight crime trends in the area. This information is used as part of the COMPSTAT (computer statistic) process by which the police use data to locate crime hotspots. Interventions are then employed in those hotspot areas that include follow ups on the efforts to ensure policing effectiveness.

Along with input from community residents and the police, the AMUS Project uses the Urban Safety Initiative crime data to target crime prevention strategies within neighborhoods and to track the progress of those efforts. Additionally, crime and safety concerns voiced by residents are passed along by AMUS members to the police (with the permission of the residents) in order to assist the police in their work. Together, we are helping each other make our neighborhoods safer.

AMUS's Easter Weekend

The AmeriCorps Urban Safety had a busy, successful weekend; we are so grateful for the chance to tell you about it!

The excitement began on Friday March 29^th, with an Easter Egg Hunt at Calumet Townhomes organized by Michael Franklin. He started planning the event a month earlier, in hopes of engaging the younger residents. Those dreams melted into reality when twenty-six children and thirteen adult residents joined six AMUS members to participate in the festivities. The race itself occurred around 2:15pm. Those twenty-six children descended on the playground area, empty plastic shopping bags in hand, in dogged pursuit of the plastic Easter eggs filled with various kinds of candy and toys. At the end of the hunt, every kid was given at least a few of the 200 eggs. Hopefully, this is something that the children will remember for many Easter to come,and those memories will strengthen this awesome community in some way.

On Saturday March 30^th, AMUS members Michelle Harlow and Kaye Sutherland led an event in which thirty volunteers and several fellow AmeriCorps members collaborated in order to board up three dilapidated houses on Melbourne Street, and cleaning up many yards in the same area. These houses, like all the ones we help board-up, are houses we are told by residents are causing some sort of safety hazard in their community. It was a beautiful day, all of the residents were very excited to have our assistance and the street looked great as a result of this work. It even made the Detroit News!

We are confident that the two aforementioned occasions made the community’s holiday weekend even happier,  and hope to see you at any and all upcoming events! Videos will be posted soon.