LIFE IN OSBORN - The Life Remodeled Movie - A Detroit Documentary

Detroit, Michigan. It was a special place for my family. Our house on Manor was the first place I called home. It's where I learned to ride my bike, where I had snow fights, birthday parties and pillow fights. It's the place where we celebrated the birth of my baby sister. The place where dad documented our lives in photographs. Today, my childhood home is unrecognizable. The neighborhood where I would play, imagine and dream is disappearing. How do the children in blighted neighborhoods dream amidst the broken and abandoned homes? Are their dreams broken? How do they find hope here? What happens to the lives within these houses surrounded by abandoned homes? Do the people who live here feel abandoned? Are their lives broken? If so, are we as a people, as a community, as a nation interested in repairing them?

We call, we're called the murder zone. You know, some of the abandoned houses, they is prostituting drugs going on. And we, you see, we got a lot of abandoned houses and we need to tear these houses down. These bandit houses are haven for crime and we need them out of the community. It's harming our young people. It's making our young people do things that they wouldn't ordinarily do, like going, skipping school, going in there to a drug house. Man, Osborne, as everybody know, man, we have the highest crime rate in the city. Increase the beast, fight the blight, fight the blight.

What happened to Osborne is what happened all of Detroit when the rest of.

The country had an economic cold.

We had pneumonia in both lungs and the middle class, the people who could.

Afford, went across 8 mile. It was one thing to have a blight problem with the homes. It's another thing to have a blight problem with homes and, and business buildings. Because we're on. We have several major thoroughfares here. You got all these blighted buildings on Gratiot that businesses are going. Then you start saying, okay, we've got a problem that's bigger than residents and we're never gonna get residents to come back to this area. It doesn't matter how many new homes we build or what kind of neighborhoods we get over here. We're never gonna have people move here if we don't get businesses to come back, you know, so that jobs can flourish and we can just make income entire neighborhoods within themselves. The element and the introduction of the whole crack cocaine element coming in. What it's done to this city is still. It's worse than what happened with the 60s riot. It's worse than that because, you know, at least with the 60s riot and I know this sounds really weird, but at least that riot still happened out of a sense of pride. But the crack cocaine element coming in, and there was no pride to it. It was just warfare in the streets.

There are many reasons for Detroit's rapid decline. One thing for sure, the struggle continues for most Detroit neighborhoods, and the struggle to survive continues for many Detroit residents.

You know, your kids, you have no idea what's really going on. You know, I'm Pandora Ingram. I'm from Detroit, a mother of four children. I'm a caring mother. My kids are my first priority. I've lost a child and I've been really heartbroken. And the thought of losing another one, it just makes you make me just extra overprotective. And, you know, from where I'm standing, there's no one cares.

Caring for children in a community where there are many obstacles isn't an easy job. The Man Network is one of the groups in Osborne dedicated to providing safety for children.

SAM One day they were driving down Lyndhurst is the street, and they heard somebody said, help, help. He's trying to rape me. And so they, you know, they stopped and they were driving by this garage and the guy was trying to rape her early in the morning. He lured her into the garage, snatched her as she was walking to school early that morning, it's broad daylight, snatched her in there and was attempting to rape her. Now, that street, particularly in the morning time, was pretty busy. So imagine cars driving past and not noticing it. Well, one of our patrol vehicles was out, just happened to be out. And I'm patrolling around that school zone. And as my wife looked in the garage, it looked like some people were fighting. And sure enough, this guy was like trying to rape this young lady. She was a 13 year old student, we found out. So they like opened the door, she broke away, she was able to break away, tear away, and ran. And she got in the car. And this is the street that I was traveling on. I looked into the garage and it just seemed like a young couple fighting. And I let down my window like this, and she started screaming, help me, help me, he's trying to rape me. And when I focused in, you could tell that she had fall. Her book bag was on the ground, her jacket was on the ground, and she had on like a zip up hoodie jacket underneath it, and it was half partially off when she saw the light. It gave her strength to fight, so she had more strength to get away from him. So she started running towards us. And then she got in the car and we took her over to Fleming Elementary. When you see them lights, people know that you the eyes and you watching them. And it kind of stopped them in their tracks of doing something. So it gave her like almost this superhuman strength to get away, just knowing that she had a chance of fighting chance because someone was looking out for her. And so to me, that's the best thing. Knowing that she wouldn't have to go through that lifetime trauma, that sexual assault brains. I never felt so hurt and pain. Deserted and so sorry for a person in my life. Like, how did this happen to my baby? I've always, I mean, been so protective of him and I just don't understand what happened to him. I don't. And the police to this day never gave me an answer. They start acting like I'm getting on they nerves. You know, I done wrote the chief of police and it's been hard. I mean, I can't see as good as I used to see. My focus is good. Cause I keep drifting off like, what happened to my baby? What happened to my baby? I feel like a quitter cause I haven't enforced no one to care about him. And now there he go, sitting on his shelf. He got back home, got hurt in October, his birthday in February. So I put him in there for his birthday and I bought this in remembrance of them this year. And you know, we not really the typical type family that celebrate death, but I do take a moment every twice a year and his birthday and his memorial. I have to. I keep talking about him and knowledge and I'm just. Because he's. He speaks part of my life. The summer job he worked fixing up southeast in that year, cleaning up, I guess when they was changing from EA and dpd, all that. So he was doing that work. That's my baby. Sit up. And you think you know your kids and you have no idea what's really going on. You know, I'm all done, out, done. But one thing you can't say, I can't do nothing but tell them. I told him the truth about everything. You're gonna be dead or in jail if you don't get an education.

Pandora's son attended Osborne High School. For most communities, education is a source of hope.

It's difficult, man. It's difficult being a student because while you're trying to learn about math, formula, you know, you got a guy outside that want to fight you because, you know, you got on a certain type of coat that he want, you know, or you got, you know, a guy that's selling Dope down the street and your mom going down there getting it and you know about it and it's bothering you while you're trying to learn. You know, that sort of stuff makes it difficult for young fellas like these at the midnight basketball to focus when they're at school. And this area, this is the worst area, a lot of people say, in Detroit, but it's also home, the zip code, to the highest population of youth in Detroit. I think a lot of times people say, well, what the hell is going on in the neighborhood? You know, in particular now, especially with Osborne and the blight, you know, you say, what the hell is going on? No one's doing anything. You know, I believe if the mortgage crisis wouldn't have happened, Osborne, as far as physical, the physical space would be perfect. I think the mortgage crisis really brought us back about two steps now around the human service side of things. I think doing a great job around the hubs, these after school programs and making sure that we reach the graduation rate, which was 90% by 2016, 2017, which we're almost there. We're able to work closely with life remodel to kind of give them the lay of the land. We work closely with the city of Detroit. The mayor's office really showed that this community is just not dead, that there is hope here.

What does hope look like in a dilapidated school? Osborne High School is in similar shape as many of the vacant homes in the community. The difference is there are students and teachers and life here.

I got a parent.

You have a parent. But he said that someone threw a bottle at him, but he doesn't know who it.

Is. So the cafeteria, I do not attend the cafeteria. Like ever since my ninth grade year, I have stopped attending the cafeteria. So every lunch period, I never go in the lunchroom. I don't go in the lunchroom because it's too crowded. There's too many people in there. And because they only have one door you can go through to get lunch, there's so many people in one line. Like, what's the point of going in there? And by the time you make it to the top, it's time to go. So I don't attend a lunch room.

Cafeteria is kind of small and limited. So it's like we're kind of like on top of each other. I mean, one school will fill it up. I'm in Evergreen. Evergreen is kind of small and like.

I said, we be bunched up in there, the bleachers.

Some need wrong, Something need to happen. They need to get fixed. Because like when you walking up the bleachers, they feel as if they unstable. One wrong move and you just jacked yourself up. You just all jacked up.

I mean, the roof leaks. I mean, it kind of slows up traffic in the hallway. So we going to a definition. You gotta, you know, maybe maneuver to a side because of the roof leaks.

Like since 9th grade, I've been walking around, see garbage cans in the hallway, garbage bags leaking, puddle holes on the floor and stuff like that. So with the roof, we really. That really needs to be fixed.

Chris and Andrea Lambert started the organization Life Remodeled. The vision for the nonprofit was birthed from their work in a small community in Africa. Inspired and full of hope, Chris and Andrea have brought Life Remodel to Detroit to address the blight.

In Liberia. I was a social worker and I was able to work with abandoned children from the age of birth to 18 years old. That experience of learning about how to do community development in a very broken place was very helpful to us. So, for example, Chris did this a lot. We had a lot of village meetings where Chris would speak and the village leaders would come forward and they would share their concerns.

And they came up with three big things. They said they needed animals, they needed clean water, and they needed a school. And so I worked with them to meet all those needs. And in the process, I was developing relationships, met with the imam frequently and sharing my faith, sharing who I am, what I believe.

And then we would make a plan of what is the next step to see if it's a well or a school. What is the next step? What do we need to do to make it happen. So you learned a lot about that. It has to be their vision. And by coming together, bringing the resources, but also bringing their passion and desire for change and working together. So you're having a whole, you know, huge group of people coming from different directions working on that is what's powerful. And the outcome was more powerful than going in and saying, oh, you need a building, let's build you a building. And then what happened? We noticed in a lot of cases there were abandoned buildings that people came to build because they had a heart for these villagers, but doesn't mean that that's what they needed.

It was a big undertaking, right? And all that happened in about seven month time period.

Over the next six months, Life Remodel will be planning efforts to remove blight of 300 blocks, renovating 21 homes in the neighborhood, providing upgrades to the high school.

My thought while I was born was.

It Needed a roof.

I would not put any money into this school until somebody fixed the roof. Well, Life remodel came along, and I was in a meeting with Life remodel. And the first thing they said, oh, yeah, we're going to have to fix the roof.

I said, I'm in now.

I'm in now. I believe now I think it's worthy because there's more than putting a band Aid in. They're really, really talking about creating a structure that will have some permanency to it. So therefore, I have some confidence in what's going on now. And I mean, like, I'm truly on board.

Work with the committees to make sure that work with city government is painless as possible is the goal. So.

Who'S next? All right, I'll cover the last part.

Excuse me, Can I have some say? I'm a parent of this area. My son, Martonio Ingram, was murdered in the streets. No one cares. We got. I see all y' all faces sitting around here with all these plans, plans, plans, plans. When y' all gonna get down to action?

Ms. Ingram, I want to thank you for sharing. Could I ask you to come sit by me? I would love to get to know you.

I'm Ms. Ingram. And you are?

Ingraham. I'm Chris.

Hi, Chris. I'm Pandora.

And I would actually like to see if. Could we pray for you.

I'm out of this mess and I'm not gonna keep coming to the. These bogus meetings. Everybody getting killed. They killed my son. Nobody care. You know who care and angry? Me. I myself. And I came in this meeting because y' all not gonna help for real get a beating.

Would you like to join us and stick around?

Yes, I would. That's why I'm here, actually.

After meeting with Pandora, I looked up her name. According to Greek mythology, Pandora was the first, first female human being created by the gods. And one day, she actually opened a jar. It wasn't a box, it was actually a jar. She took the lid off of a jar, and when she opened it, all the evils of the world came out and filled the world with the evil that we now know of. But the only thing that stayed in the jar was hope. While I don't believe in the mythology, I believe that's very symbolic. Because when I think about Pandora, I think about a woman who's carrying around a lot of struggles and has suffered serious adversity. But when I look at her, I have nothing but hope for her. And I strongly believe that that encounter was about her having an opportunity to meet people who genuinely love her, who genuinely care about her family, her community. And by her getting connected to people, that could be a huge impetus in her life transforming. So my hope is that six months from now or a year from now, we're all going to look back to that moment. Because we're going to see a new Pandora with a remodeled life. And we're all going to remember that moment being transitional in her life.

But I'm tired of this mess. They want you to go to the Matrix.

Sure.

What the Matrix do? Oh, putting the money in they pocket.

Well, Osborne Dr. I would actually like to say I'm very proud of the Matrix center and the Osborne Neighborhood Alliance. But I. I want to get to know your story more.

But they're gonna have to prove it to me. Can we pray for you right now?

Would that be okay?

Let's have a prayer. I love a prayer.

I wanna make sure I'm saying your name right. Ms. Ingram?

Pandora.

Pandora.

Pandora.

Okay, let's join in prayer right now for Pandora and her daughter Thaelyn.

Thailand.

Thailand. Father, thank you for Pandora and Thailand. And it is truly an honor that they are here with us today. We know you love them and we know that you have been mourning with them with the loss of Thailand's brother, the loss of Pandora's son.

I ain't gonna talk about my cousin that got bran down on the street. Nobody care about.

And many more things, God, that we don't even know about. But you do. And may we be attentive to all that you're saying to us through her. And may you show us how to respond together in the most effective way for long term impact in her life in the lives of her family, her friends, her neighbors and those she will call friends. Lord, in the future.

And.

And we pray blessings on her God. Peace upon her and love in Jesus name. Amen. Can I give you a hug? Is that all right?

I don't know.

A side hug.

Right here. How about that? How about that? Okay.

Following a delicious lunch at Capers, the leadership team took to their vehicles to survey the abandoned homes and to document the scope of blight. Hope begins with small steps. It does not happen overnight. It involves tackling one piece of blight at a time.

Seven houses and they're dumping and.

Board up number three. Three. Yeah.

Board up and dumping. 2, 3, 4, 5 and 6.

I didn't mean.

A nice lady back there named Cindy lost her job. She's looking for another job. Her parents had the house. She's been there 35 years. She's got an 11 year old son and she wants to stay as well because she hasn't got anywhere to go. She said she feels that the neighborhood will come back. So I think she's right.

I think the neighborhood will come back.

This is a beautiful home right there.

I'm Andrea Perkins. I've been a resident of the Osborne community for a little over a year. And I've been working in the Osborne community for a little under a year. I'm actually from the or. I grew up in the Denby neighborhoods. And being able to see the city from a young age, I realized that there's a lot that could be done and that needs to be done. And it wasn't until I went away to the University of Michigan I realized urban planning existed. And it was through a class that was celebrating Detroit that really got me interested in. In the history and just the roles that residents and city leaders and urban planners took in developing Detroit and cities in general. And that's when I decided that that is what I wanted to go into. And it just kind of took off from there.

One of our core values is people over projects. And basically what that means is people are infinitely more invaluable than more valuable than any project we've ever done or ever will do. All right? And specifically, I'm talking about you guys. Find your time to rest daily, to get along with God. Find your Sabbath time, or whatever you want to call it, a day of rest each day, one day of the week. Make sure you get your vacations and your plans. Plan a vacation right after the life remodel project. Just telling you. I'm just saying because we love you guys, all right? And we need you at the top of your game. We need you to be who God called you to be. And that's what all of this is about. It's about preparing to get you ready. So how we doing? We doing all right? Okay. All right, let's go forward.

Excuse me.

I'm not Pandora. You and I will chat right after, okay?

Because everybody, whatever I say is being disrespected. Yeah, go ahead, because I'm going to give you. I'm from the neighborhood, okay? We got kids and stuff. I feel I'm gonna leave because I don't feel like what I have to say is important. Okay? So y' all think I appreciate y' all doing stuff for Osborne?

Can I say something? Can I say something before you go out?

You can't say nothing because I don't.

Want you to say something that you wanna say.

It's not right that y' all come to this neighborhood and y' all say y' all doing this and that and that and this. Blessings are y'. All.

I hope you don't leave.

I love you. Okay, well, we love you too. And we all y' all people who are trying to help us. But I'm gonna tell y' all something. Show it. Show it. Let me tell you something. Do y' all know what I'm going through? I'm going through this right here. Stay here and lose another kid, Try to fight for my life and my kid's life, or do I fight for people who don't care about me? Whether it's mother, sister, brother, cousin, neighbors, uh, uh. Y' all don't know what I'm going through. 18. He's got the whole world in his hand he's got the whole world in.

His hand he's got the whole world.

Whole world in his hand he's got the whole world in his hand.

Pandora is being considered as a candidate to receive home renovations after her outburst in the last meeting, Chris is discussing with the team how they should proceed with her home.

Pandora, I want to spend a little time talking about individually because Pandora clearly has drawn a lot of attention to herself. She's put herself in the spotlight. She wanted to put herself in the.

Spotlight.

For all the reasons I don't quite know. And people are wondering, is Pandora someone that the investment is going to produce fruit? What's your sense right now? You're going to ask me last Thursday or today?

Both.

So as of last Thursday, I thought she had done everything we had asked. That application process is a lengthy one. She completed it. She showed up the first day that everybody remembers. And if you're not close to her, she was drunk. I mean, you can smell the alcohol within two feet. And I had never smelled alcohol on her breath again after that. And she and I talk every couple of weeks. Probably she'll just call me and say, how are things going? Or I'll call her just to check in. And then Mike Mentz and I went out and did a home visit to her home. We prayed for her with her home. And it just felt like there was a shifting. I mean, I really felt like she was moving in the right direction. Friday was a really bad day for her. You could smell the alcohol again. I mean, she was clearly drunk. And what you didn't see, though, was she was. If not, she wasn't, repent. At the end, when we walked her out. But she was clearly, like, she kept saying to us, don't worry. I'm not leaving you. I'm not giving up on this. I'm going to help. I'm going to take care of my block. I'm going to lead my block. In some ways, I think Pandora personifies where we are here in 48205. It is one of the messiest neighborhoods, not just in Detroit, but in the nation. If we have this standard for, like, let's say, the conversation we're having around Pandora, let's apply that to this high school. Just today, coming to this meeting, I was cussed out, threatened, and there's a smoke bomb, almost made me unconscious, trying to get into a locked room, right. What was it? Three weeks ago, breaking up a fight. Water was thrown on me, and I was almost beat up again by a guy bigger than me. So if we're saying let's apply Pandora rules, we can't finish the Osborne project like that. I mean, we're in a messy place. And I think, like Dom said, we just got to really be prayerful. It's not going to go the way we think or want it to. Every time I'm really looking to you and I want us to see through your eyes, you're going to have the best. The odds are stacked against her. I totally get that. To me, it's just such a high risk and such a high reward. Like, I get really excited because I have seen her grow. I have seen Dolores. The first time we prayed for her, it was like, what? Yesterday or Friday, when we prayed for her, she was like, come on. I mean, it was the first thing she wanted to do. Not the first thing, but when we did, she just totally embraced it. So to me, I'm telling you, Chris, I believe that it will pay off really well for her and her life and really well for the community overall.

Life Remodel, Black Family Development and the Osborne Neighborhood alliance were awarded a grant from the Kresge foundation to purchase tools for blight removal. Today, they're meeting with Central Detroit Christian to learn some of their best practices.

We had a funder, JPMorgan Chase foundation came through our neighborhood one day and said, we can't see any of the gardens because the grass is too tall. And so I said to the. I said to Christine, I said, well, you give us some money for a mower, and we will make sure that problem doesn't happen anymore. A couple weeks later, the check shows up to buy a commercial lawnmower. And we then went through the neighborhood and tried to talk to men and say, come on, apply for the job. Four days went by. Nobody applied. Finally, Anthony applied, and then Calvin applied with him. And there were some pretty big drug dealers in the neighborhood. So I was really surprised that this is who came. And they went out and they started cutting vacant lots for us. And they could not cut a straight line to save their soul. They couldn't. It was scary. I said, oh, my gosh, what have I done? This is another. This is going to be a nightmare. I mean, they were just all over the place and they were so high. But you know what happened? After time, they got their first paycheck. A week or 10 days late, whatever it was, they got their paycheck and they felt like all of a sudden they were part of the team because they got a check and that they had a job now and they were legal. And I saw after time that their skills started to minimally approve. And then I began to think, you know, maybe this can really work. Maybe we can really build a business out of this. And so this one mower grew. You know, we raised some other funding to be able to buy some more equipment. And we found a man named Craig in the neighborhood who was doing it on his own with his old ratty pickup truck and said he, this is. He came out of prison, said, no one will hire me. So I had to create my own business. And that's true for a lot of ex offenders and just great work ethic. And so we said, well, let's, let's work together on this. And so we started, we started hiring men. So we need to really do drug testing. And so we drug tested everybody. And we said, you got 60 days to clean yourself up or you're out of here. And we found that of all the men, this is 2011 and we're now 2015. I think we've employed 80 different men. Only one out of all those men chose not to become clean. You guys are doing a great job in your neighborhood. And if there's ever anything CDC can do to help with that, whether it's just a phone call, whether you need us to come over there, whatever, we're there for you. We want to see it happen. We care about all of Detroit, not just central Detroit. We care most about central Detroit. But I'm glad to see great things happening over there. I'm glad there's a potential, there's a momentum that's building to do even more. So Detroit can be just a city that we all love.

Jamel and Kingston are two Detroiters who are apprentices with life remodeled to assist with the renovation of Osborne. Now the school is out, and the money has been raised for the construction. They will be working throughout the summer until the work is complete. Raising money for these projects is not an easy task. With a tight budget in mind, the construction team will be repurposing the wood from the gym floor to use throughout the school. The money hasn't come in for the roof yet. So Chris Lambert sends out a final plea to the city of Detroit.

Here's the cold, hard facts. Not too long, long ago, this zip code was known as the most violent zip code in the entire country. And the residents of this community about 10 years ago, stood up and said, we're not going to accept that. We're going to change that. And they got help from the Skillman foundation, they got help from Black Family Development and others, and they formed an alliance called the Osborne Neighborhood Alliance. And this community is moving forward fast, and we couldn't be more proud of it. This school five years ago was known as a dropout factory. This was one of the lowest graduating schools in the entire country. Right now, this school is graduating over 80%. That's a turnaround in five years. Let's give a big hand for Osborne High School. Amazing staff, inspiring students, great leadership at dps, and we're proud. And that's why we're investing. Because when we invest in a neighborhood, in a school, we look for two things. Significant need and radical hope. And if you drive around the neighborhood, you will see this is the most blighted neighborhood in Detroit. That can change. That will change this summer. But we need your commitment to the roof. This job is about a $2.4 million job, but thanks to some great partners who are here with us today, we can do this entire roof for $900,000. And we've got $100,000 raised. And we want to roof this entire thing. And we can do it if we come together and believe in Detroit. We believe in Osborne. We believe in Osborne High School. These students, these staff. This neighborhood is worth it.

Dr. Black heard about Pandora's story from life remodel, and she agreed to provide counseling and support with the loss of her son.

Do you stay away from here or you close?

Yeah, I live on the east side. I live in Detroit. Okay.

I can tell you up front, what this is going to cost you is a lot of sacrifice on your part, a lot of commitment on your part, and change. And so it's going to cost the risk to make something different in your life. And then from there, God's going, you.

Can pay for that.

You can pay for that. And then from there God is covering the rest of it. Have you ever wanted counseling for anything that you were dealing with in your life?

Maybe not wanted, but needed. Needed it.

Okay. What was going on at the time when you thought you might have needed it before?

Well, just recently I lost my son.

So you say you lost your son recently. What was recently? In the last year or two?

Yeah. Excuse me. I can't. I can't.

I can say recently.

October 16, 2012.

What I'm going to try to do is help you find your own source of faith and hope and encouragement and tap into that during the process of.

What we're going through.

Okay. Because my scope of practice is a biblical framework, then there'll be times when I ask you to read something from the scripture or maybe to study and meditate on the passage of scripture, but it'll all be Bible based and. And you always have the choice to decline if it's not something that you want to do.

All right.

When homes can't be restored, the next step is to demolish them. To prevent vacant lands from becoming dumping grounds, the city of Detroit created a plan to help return ownership to their residents.

Yes, let's see. I think we might need to go to the side door with the side lap pro. How we selected the neighbors is we started from the earliest year possible that you can purchase a side lot. So we gave those residents an opportunity to buy in or say that they wanted to participate in the program. Basically what we're here to do today is just talk about. I actually printed up what you can expect as far as the volunteers when they come, and then we'll walk through some design ideas.

Any homeowner who invests in their community by purchasing vacant side lots, they must be considered a great neighbor. Mrs. Baker was a pioneer in the side lot program, and Life Remodel is proud to assist her with the clearing of brush during project week. One of the goals of the project is was to increase the number of students who volunteered. During the project week, Life Remodel teamed up with the Osborne Neighborhood alliance to have ice cream social to recruit volunteers.

Together with 12,000 people in six days, we're going to pick up every single piece of trash in Osborne and put it where it belongs. Where does the trash belong?

In the dump.

That's where it's going. And we're going to do it together. So, hey, I need. Who are My strong guys here, who can pick up heavy trash, thousands of tires. Who's going to help pick up trash? Who's got some muscles here? Raise your hand. Anybody got some muscles? All right, who are my landscapers? Who knows how to cut grass with a weed eater? We need you guys. All right? August 3rd through the 8th, you signed up. Come on out. It was a tough crowd, right? When we're trying to speak, nobody was listening. And for me, that's hard as a speaker because, you know, you're looking for feedback. But more importantly, you know, I just get the sense they really don't know what this is and maybe they don't care, right? And no matter how hard I tried, no matter how hard we tried, we could not get their attention.

I was just thinking to myself, like, wow, they don't understand the magnitude of this project. And immediately I was kind of like, that's a bummer. You know, I don't understand why they don't get it. But I kind of looked ahead and said, but when they return to school, they'll see the difference that Chris and that life remodel and everybody on the team and everybody was a part of it. Those are the difference that they made. Students aren't necessarily used to seeing that, and I think that that's why it's kind of. They don't instantly respond to it. They have to kind of see it. And so I think that when they come back and see those tangible, when they come and see a new lunchroom and a new gym and a new library, I think it's going to be kind of like, wow, who did this? And then, you know, you can say life remodeling. With the help of the neighborhood and other organizations, they just came together. And I think that the beauty of this project is that it's not just life remodeled, but it calls the whole neighborhood together. And everybody who's been invested in this neighborhood, it brings them all to one table and it leads to some pretty good action.

Alright, guys, this is the last meeting before the big week. You guys all ready for that? I want to ask you to see if you can see yourself in this process. And where do you see yourself in this process as it relates to your leadership role in life or model? When Jesus first approached them and called them to be followers was this. They didn't really know what they were getting into. They didn't really know what they were signing up for. They didn't know what they didn't know. And when people are asked to do something great, let me Talk specifically about Jesus. When Jesus looked at them and said, follow me, that meant, I believe in you. I believe you have the potential to become like me in almost every single way. And so by Jesus, looking at these 12 men who were just typical guys, fishermen and a variety of other guys, and he said that, that inspired them tremendously. Where they said to themselves, he believes in me. He thinks I can become like him in almost every single way. And they were extremely excited. You're going to do amazing things and you're going to be blown away by what you are capable of doing. I want to invite you to realize it's God doing it through you. Jesus has been discipling you this whole process. He's been working in you. He's been working through you. And he's going to blow you away. The week of this project.

The volunteer recruitment continues and it's being led by community leaders who are ready to see change in Osport.

Because we all together, we all look the same.

A lot of people are going to.

Wonder, what are they doing?

So be prepared on the front.

Life Remodel, that's who we are. All right. We are remodeling lives one neighborhood at a time. We're coming to get volunteers. We need names. Hey yo, everyone. We're going this or why we're doing mending. Your neighborhood is included and everything I do mine. Yeah, it's. Come here. It's good. Go ahead. Hello. How y' all doing? Hi. Hi. I'm with Life Remodel. My name is Pandora. We cleaning up the fields. They remodeling Osborne and just pick one day with a new commit to one of them days. Rather it's evening. You see the hours or whatever day you would like.

Life Remodel is holding a training session for residents so they will know what to expect and how to lead volunteers during the project.

You know, it's all stuff that we've seen before, but there's different vernaculars for different equipment. Don't hurt yourself here.

Conduct, you know, I think the conduct.

Is kind of self explanatory. You know, we were mentioning harassment, inappropriate use of language. You know, obviously no drugs or alcohol, possession of dangerous or unlawful materials, firearms, all that stuff we don't want during event week. So let's move on to lead responsibility. So the shift signups and the Q and A. First of all, does anybody have any questions about anything that we've gone over so far? It's a lot of information. I understand that. Yes, your command centers, that's where the tent is Going to be and all the supplies and everything will be. So everything you need will be there.

Does that street lead float around between.

The blocks in their street? Yeah, like they'll be. Or are they stationary at command center also? They'll be kind of on the move.

The command center people will be stationary.

You know, it's kind of that theory.

Of you're lost in the woods, if.

You stay put, you can find yourself.

You know, I was just really impressed like last year. You're going to know what to do. They've got it very clear. You'll get forms that tell you and there'll be people to answer your questions. You'll be amazed. I mean, I keep coming back from the suburbs because I'm just so enthused about the program, but I'm also enthused about the way they do it. It's just very well organized. You will know what to do. They make it clear nicely.

Well, if they don't know now, they'll have to figure out quickly. We made it to the week of the project and there's only six days to lead the volunteers in blight removal.

Today is the day one of life remodel Osborne. And I'm really just going to be participating, trying to lead the group and making sure everything get done and try to keep things orderly. That's my plan. Go on this trailer. I'm go to the command post where they showed me, I think section A or something and I'm going to take it from there. And then I got to stop and go back to my house because they're doing stuff over there too. But I still want to stay in the field and I still want to help do everything and work with the people.

Do you think of anything else?

I just want to let y' all know I'm Pandora. I'm your block lead. Anything you need, water, anything we can do, I'm gonna make sure we got everything we need. So come to me, let me know and let's be safe and stay together.

We've got the tools, plenty of them. Lawnmowers, weed, whippers, and, you know, you name it, gloves. We're looking to do four and a half square miles in six days with 12,000 volunteers. And if you're listening right now, we need you. We need more. The more the merrier. Come on out.

These next few days. We have a relationship with this community and it's a seed. That's all I want to the team members to get just like the community that this too is a part of life. This is a part of humanity. This community receives the gift that we're giving, and then hopefully they'll take it and they'll do something else with it.

Oh, wow. I'm put it in that bucket. That's glass. Don't touch the glass. I feel good. I feel. I just feel good. I like this. I like making people feel better about their housing and everything. Feel good because I'm a resident, you know, so it feel good.

While Pandora is away from her home leading volunteers, there are members from a local church assisting with renovations and repairs. The transformation of Mrs. Baker's side lot is taking place. In weeks to come. The neighborhood will see new life being planted and a fresh perspective on vacant land.

Ms. Baker's lot is a really great lot. It's well shaded. And really what the next installation will involve will be bringing in new dirt, digging mounds and ditches, and installing the plants.

Okay, I'm gonna try to find some rakes. That's my job. My people want rakes. I'm gonna find them some rakes somewhere there go shovels. I don't see any rags, so we need rakes. Who do we go to for rakes?

They're coming. They told me 10 minutes ago they'd be here in five minutes.

Although students may not have been listening during the ice cream social, some of them heard the message and are here investing in their school.

You ain't sound scared.

You did a good job. Thanks. For two days, we gonna be working here. Yep. Roll it.

You gotta do it like.

Right.

Dang.

She didn't dye her hair white. Half of her ponytail.

For real?

Yes. I'm so serious. He didn't got it look real. He didn't got your ponytail.

Yeah, it's all there.

Bite. Half of her ponytail.

For real?

Yes. I'm so serious. He didn't got it for real. He didn't got your ponytail.

That is all in there.

Oh, my God.

Did you want to rake? I want a weed whacker now. I want a weed whacker. We don't really want to go too much in people yards and, you know, people be acting crazy, but we might have missed if we missed anything over there.

The decline of the automotive industry had a devastating impact on this neighborhood. It's great to see them here. Investing in Detroit. Investing in neighborhoods. Mary Barra, the CEO of General Motors, is one of the largest supporters of the project. She visited Osborne to share a few words about their involvement with life remodel.

Well, you know, Detroit is our home, and so when we look at the project that we originally started with the United Way and working with seven different schools. And I have to give Mark Royce so much credit because it was his vision, and we're seeing that has made real progress. And then this is our second year working with Life remodeled, being able to really target a school, target a neighborhood. I mean, we have, you know, I think, over 3,000, more than 3,000 volunteers that are working across the city for the week. And again, it's part of our vision of who we are, and, you know, why GM exists. And a big part of that is to make sure we give back to communities. So, again, I think you're seeing the benefits of that and everybody working together, whether it's our retirees or the student corps or active employees. So it's exciting.

That one.

Whatever. Okay, I gotta go get the dimensions.

Okay. And I gotta sweep down the stairs. All right.

So, Kendra, I'm gonna take all this stuff off the shelf. Okay? Is that okay, Ms. Ingram?

Yes.

Just throw yourself off. Is that okay? Just take all this stuff off?

Yes.

You want to throw anything away?

And that's all my son's stuff right there, who I lost. Not on my hair.

Okay.

I can't do it yet.

It's okay. It's okay. Yeah. Gift card. This is nice, right here. We can re. Upholster this. Hey, this nice candle right here. Nice. Where you get this from? I don't need this to be beyond this room, but I put on just for. For your own.

Book? Helen Barple. It's a good book. Some of my books. I was in school right before my son got hurt, so I don't throw books away.

You should go back.

I am going back. What you gonna do? I want to be a chef, but I was taking business courses. You know how to know how to manage your business, right? Right, Right.

You can do anything. Sky's the limit.

You.

Chris Lambert gave me a tour of the library earlier. And as we all know, as the tech world has advanced, we've moved more and more away from the paper books to online materials. And that's where you're getting involved now?

Yes.

We're providing all the computer equipment for the school. And we made a donation of $50,000 in order to provide all that.

In addition, of course, we have over 200 people out here working, including most of the people from our development construction department, which is good because they actually.

Know what they're doing.

They could actually be useful.

Unlike me.

Hey, Sergeant Paul. I just wanted again, just want to thank you guys for the work you're doing out there? Want to check in, see if everything was okay? Guys need water? Anything? Nope. Over here on Runyon and everything's going good. My role for this project has been co leading security with Wesley woods and so basically making sure the premises are secure at all times with volunteer patrollers and also having police scheduled for board ups in every area. And so the police will go and sweep the house before the board up, mark it with a black X with black spray paint that we provide them with. Detroit police. Anyone in the house, you need to come out now. This house is being vacated and boarded up.

You will be arrested for trespassing.

Then they report back and we give them their next assignment. Every day, prayer walk teams have been going out and reaching lives. One of the prayer walkers, brother Mel, has a tremendous testimony. And so he was talking to some young men and that seemed like they might have been dope dealers based on the way they reacted to his testimony. And brother Mel just kind of shared and apologized to these young men and said, you know, I'm the reason why this neighborhood is blighted. I'm the reason why it's in postimony. And brother Mel just kind of shared and apologies because I sold dope. He year I was the dope man, I did the shoe eyes to these young men and said, you know, I'm the reason why this neighborhood is blighted. I'm the reason why it's in parkings and drive by shootings years ago before you guys were even born. And I planted the seeds and now this. Because I sold dope here. I was the dope man. I did the shoot. This is the harvest of the seeds that I planted. And he repented and he cried and the young men that he was talking to began to cry and they embraced and they forgave each other and it was an awesome, awesome thing. A lot of lives being remodeled. So I think as far as we've been out, it's haven't been no safety issue. It was amazing. All of this stuff that they pulled out, these houses, behind these houses, they making a huge difference. Because actually for everywhere that what we could couldn't see now you could see. You could actually see somebody if they hiding, you can't hide no more. That's you exactly. All the way in the house one particular day, came to the meeting, ran my big mouth off and ball started rolling. I met Mr. Timbush, Chris Lambert, Walter and the church people. It's just been great. It's been really great. And I could tell I could Feel it in my heart that people are praying for me. I can feel it because ever since I started being involved with life and model, different situations have arrived. And with the spiritual healing that I'm receiving and everything that I'm going through, I've been able to deal with things differently.

So when we looked at the roof overall and we saw the areas that were the worst, we thought, well, where do we need to focus naturally on the areas that we're going to complete inside the building? So the first goal is the gym. And we put that on as target one, because it takes so long to redo a gym. Four, we can't have a roof that's going to leak when you're redoing the gym. We still have about half the roof left. So our goal is to keep asking other partners to step forward. We know we'll get about 90 to 95% of the leaks complete out of the building, out of the school. And we know that the time teachers, the principals, and the students will have a much safer and drier place. But we're still not finished yet. Somebody brought down the 1964 accolade yearbook, which is a year before I was here, unfortunately. So not in it, but some of the ads in here for the Waltham Pharmacy was two blocks from my house. Stephan Doerr, the senior vice president of basf, is here from Germany. Yeah, this is our second year with Chris Lambert's organization here Live remodeled. We have 200 people a day here from BASF. We have eight facilities here in Michigan. So we've drawn from all over our sites in Michigan here, donated quite a.

Bit of furniture because we believe you.

Need to want them to come to school.

Right.

So last year, last year, life remodel was at Cody High School and the community. The school was incredibly grateful for all the work that was done in the Cody Rush community. So all week long this week, Oak Point Church has been working with Cody High School to bring kids from the school, people from the neighborhood to serve at the Osborne life remodel project. Once you get the community involved to realize that, we got to take it on ourselves to change this. This is not the way we want to live either. Now you got.

Now you got something going, and that's what's happening. And that's when it's great to have downtown work.

Better to have downtown redeveloped like that. But until the neighborhoods get redeveloped and until all the people in Detroit start.

Feeling that way, like the doing around.

Cody like they're doing around Osborne now, that's when it's going to really happen for this city.

Flight removal is just like snow removal in one way, because, you know, if you pick up a bunch of snow, it'll snow again. And so people will litter again and vandalize again and things like that. But we're hoping that we can have a cultural shift and that we can maintain a clean and safe neighborhood and that this huge effort will just be sustained by the residents of the community. So that's what I'm looking forward to, the work ahead of, making sure that this work continues, that our students are successful, that our neighborhoods are clean and safe. Usually I would be, like, so angry and so upset, and I was able to keep under control and get her to be under control and, you know, bring her back down because it was really frightening. I would imagine.

So now I know they're doing the whole community, not just your home, but they're doing some other things. Have you been involved in any of that work at all?

Even my neighbors who I felt did me wrong, they know how I feel. I haven't been quiet about it.

Okay.

I went knocked on their door, memorial line because some of these trees down. I've been going to my neighbors, the older ones. You gonna make me cry now? I just been putting in my work because I want to. It's my block, it's my neighborhood, and I want to see it look good.

The project week was a success, and residents are now gathering in the heart of the community, Osborne high school, where hope lives.

So for all that you have done, both the residents, our friends, our neighbors, and folks from across this region, we say we thank you, we love you, we appreciate you.

We went down for a minute, but.

Now we're coming back. I already like coming over here a little better, knowing that I'm not going to see all the overgrown vegetation. It's just not going to look as bad. It's going to be a lot more presentable.

It's been remarkable.

The students just took me on a tour of what's been done in the high school and to hear the high.

School students excited about their new library, their new cafeteria, their new gym. Hundreds of houses boarded up in the neighborhood. This is the way the city is going to come back with the cities, the neighbors working together. And I just wanted to come by.

And say thank you to everybody who played a role.

Let's go, Osborne.

Let's go. Let's go, Osborne. Let's go. Let's go, Osborne. Let's go.

I'm happy to say, and I'm proud to Say we had the highest number of youth and residents from Detroit than we've ever seen ever. And it was just how it's supposed to be. Working together.

Life Remodel had much success in clearing the blight, but there was still debris to tackle. The following weeks, General Motors brought a team of volunteers to remove the remaining mounds of trash, debris and waste that was left on the curbsides inside the high school. There are many projects that needed to be completed before school resumed. Small church from the state of Maine learned about Life Remodel's work in Detroit and decided to bring a group of 50 people to assist with the post project cleanup.

Airfare here alone was about $13,000.

It's a lot.

We didn't know how much money we could bring. We came into church one week and.

Somebody had made a.

A big banner with little tickets with the students names on it that said.

Fund a flight to Detroit and had.

Every student's name on an individual airline ticket. And you were encouraged to take one and pray for that student. And if you wanted to give something towards it, give something towards it.

$30,000 was given to make a difference here.

The response from my church has been absolutely amazing and that's why we're here.

Workers from the Kresge foundation are here to install the Four Seasons Rain Garden in Mrs. Baker sideline. They'll be planting trees, flowers and clearing debris. I believe these are the types of investments needed to reduce illegal dumping and overall blight in Osborne.

The basics of tree planting. So who's planted a tree before? I know some of us have a lot of experience, so we've dug the hole. We're going to basically set up the tree for success by root pruning is what it's called. We're going to take the tree out of the pot, you're going to score the outside of the. And it's basically to stimulate the roots so that they grow into the hole. So we're going to get the tree in place, then we're going to add some of the soil back in. These are the broad steps we're going to water and then we're gonna basically mulch over the top.

A number of people have said how extraordinary it is to come into a lot, look at it and just feel it's overwhelming.

And then two hours later, with 80 or 90 people working on it, you.

Realize that the brush is taken away, the garbage is taken away.

And people have said, well, maybe this makes a difference.

Maybe it makes a difference.

Not only for Ms. Baker's life. But maybe the neighborhood's neighbors sort of get inspired. Maybe we get inspired by what we see around us to go do another lot and another lot and another lot.

Look right there at that tree. You want to help me fix it today?

Yeah, yeah.

We're going put some pants on.

Then. October 16th then. Do you have plans yet for what you're going to do for the memory of your son?

Yes, I do. So for the last couple of years, I have been calling cemeteries and different parks and everything and even looking at gardens where I wanted to buy him a tree. Like this is Martonio's tree.

Yeah.

And do you know Don Morelli one morning just walking up in life remodel, you know, just getting ready, like while I was doing the whole seven day project. And he's like, come here, Pandora. And I came, he's like, I got this tree over there for you. And he planted a tree in front of my house.

Right. I think I'm parked right in front of that tree. Yes. Okay.

I'll take my remainder of my son ashes and put them in the tree.

Right. And it'll be growing with him.

Yes.

Yeah.

Life renewed.

Yeah.

Wow. So that's my.

Thank God for that.

Yes. I mean, it's like I didn't ask for. I never talked to no one about it. And it was just like, it was just ironic and it, it was God. Yes, yes.

He got. God is faithful.

I said thank. I said God. How many. How would this person know how bad I wanted a tree?

And now you have one right here. Right at the homestead, right where his roots are.

Students are returning to school and I'm curious to know which improvements they'll notice first.

Pretty sure they're happy about the roof because it rained a few times. Ain't got no garbage cans in the hallway catching the rain. Gotta worry about getting rained on. Most of the students here are very excited about the gym. It's very excited about the gym. So a lot of them be running around here like coach Will. When we going in the gym? Oh, I'm not playing sports until they open up the gym. So the main source and the main excitement came from the gym. Like they was very excited to see that it.

I got a question for you guys. I got a question for you. Who, who built this gym?

Hold on, hold on.

Do you know who built this gym? Do you know who put a new roof on this school? Do you know who built the cafeteria?

Do you know who did the office?

Do you know who did the library? Let me tell you, you did you listen to me? You built this gym. You put that new roof onto school. You built that new cafeteria, you made that new office. You built that library, that college room, that teacher debriefing room. This guy is shaking his head. He's like, no, I didn't do that. It was God through you. It was God through you. Do you know why? Because you raised graduation rates from 50% five years ago to 80%. You built this school. So we're gonna pray. We've got a pastor here.

All right.

From Osborne.

God, we want to thank you first for giving us life. We want to thank you for Life Remodel and its constituents. We want to thank you for the Osborne High School, its administrators, and most importantly, its students. We want to thank you because we know that you through us, have led this work and caused it to be manifested before us now as we thank you today, we simply ask that you would bless the entirety of this building, but in particularly, that you would bless this gymnasium. That every practice would be safe, that every game would be helpful to the students and what this area is going to achieve through their abilities and talents that you have given to them. And most importantly, that every team that plays a sport in this gym for the Osborne Knights, that their opponents will suffer sweet defeat, that our teams will suffer nothing in loss, that we will win every game, and that the glory will be to you. God bless the Osborne Knights and all of his victories. In Jesus name, Amen.

Residents and volunteers are gathering for one last time to share their experiences and thoughts on the Life Remodel project.

This experience serving alongside of the Osborne community has truly showed the power and beauty of where working together to create a positive impact and help improve the lives of others. Thank you Life Remodel. Thank you for those who are not in Life Remodel that came out and participated and volunteered your time.

We want to like to thank Life Remodel for the gym and it's good that somebody know that somebody cares about us.

Residents and volunteers are gathering for one last time to share their experiences and thoughts on the Life Remodel project.

This experience serving alongside of os.

We promise you that we give y'.

All a good year this year.

Good evening everyone. I just want to say this has been a beautiful, beautiful journey. I came back to the community three years ago and within these three years, I have been through some of the worst experiences in my life. And not only during this project did they remodel and help me with my home. I have been built up Community has.

Truly showed the power and beauty of working together to create a positive impact and help improve the lives of others. Thank you Life Remodel. Thank you for those who are not in Life Remodel that came out and participated and volunteered your time.

We want to like to thank life Remodel for the gym. I feel so much love for people who have constantly. Even August 9th is gone and I still have people calling checking on me at my house. And this has just been such a great, great blessing and I want to thank all you guys and I want to thank God and it's good that somebody know that somebody cares about us. And I can't wait the next year so we can bless some else. We promise you that we give you all a good year this year. Good evening everyone. I just want to say this have been a beautiful, beautiful journey. I came back to the community.

God bless you, sister. So one of the things I've learned, I need to get a lot better at messaging what is really going on in a neighborhood and how we can help improve it. And I want to be honest with you guys. I want to share, you know, some things I've learned in that I have told the story to many partners outside the city of Osborne, both the need and the hope. All right. And I love telling the story of great organizations like Black Family Development, Osborne Neighborhood Alliance, Man Network, Osborne High School, three years ago.

And within these three years, I have been through some of the worst experiences in my life. And not only during this project did they remodel and help me with my home. I have been built up spiritually. I feel so much love for people.

Who have constantly turning their graduation rates around. I love it. Another thing that I've done is I feel like I've been very, very transparent about the level of blight and about the level of crime that has plagued Osborne for years. And what I found is that has been very helpful with people in the suburbs when they see the need.

Even do. August 9th is gone and I still have people calling checking on me at my house. And this has just been such a great, great blessing. And I want to thank all you guys and I want to thank God and I can't wait the next year so we can bless someone else they want to help.

Right? But what I've also found is that I think I've hurt some feelings in the community. I think I've hurt some people's feelings. Maybe I've talked about Osborne in a way that maybe made people feel shameful. And if I ever made you feel that way, I Want to apologize right now, because I never want to make anybody feel that way ever. So if. God bless you, sister. So one of the things that's you. Please accept my apology and know this. For those of you who I've learned is I need to get a lot better at messaging, who've been transparent with me and honest with me and pointed out where I have been, where you. What is really going on in a neighborhood and how we can help improve it. And I want to be honest with you guys. I want to share, you know, some things I've learned in that I have told the story to many partners, perceived that I've been offensive and where I can learn and where I can grow, because that's what it's all about, right? I mean, we're outside the city of Osborne, both the need and the hope. All right? And I love telling the story of great organizations like Black Family Development, Osborne Neighborhood Alliance, Man Network, Osborne High School turning their graduation rates around. I love it. Another thing that I've done is I feel like I've been very, very transparent about the level of blight and about the level of crime that has plagued Osborne for years. And what I found is that has been very helpful with people in the suburbs. When they see the need, they want to help. Right? But what I've also found is that I think I've hurt some feelings in the community. I think I've hurt some people's feelings. We're all trying to get better, and I just. I'm just thankful that you guys love me enough. Maybe I've talked about Osborne in a way that maybe made people feel shameful. And if I ever made you feel that way, I want to apologize right now, because I never want to make anybody feel that way ever. So if that's you, please accept my apology. And know this. For those of you who've been transparent with me and honest with me and pointed out where I have been, where you perceive that I've been offensive and where I can learn and where I can grow, because that's what it's all about, right? I mean, we're all trying to get better, and I just. I'm just thankful that you guys love me enough to tell me the truth. Now I'm probably gonna mess up again, so I'm gonna need more grace. But I'm gonna be better today than I was yesterday.

For me, this has really been a family affair. And I'm gonna be very transparent, too, because to tell me the truth now.

I'm probably gonna mess up Again, so I'm gonna need more grades.

One of the folks who went to Chris and said, you know, Chris, this don't feel right to me. I don't like what's going, going on. But this is what's so great about that. It's a family affair. And when we love each other like we're supposed to, the love that we have for each other overcomes everything. So in a family affair, do know this about family. We have conflict, we have struggles, we have disagreements, we have fights. But before the sun goes down, that's what we do. We show love on each other. And so I. I appreciate the fact that anything I brought to Chris, he was open to receive it. So I am so happy about the experience because in the experience, I grew as well. But the most important thing I want to say is this, that the word says that God knows that we're his disciples. Disciples by the love we have for one another. And as long as that love that we have for each other shines bright, everything else becomes insignificant.

Blight continues to be a major concern in Detroit. We have to work together to make Detroit a better place to live. Osborne is a small community example of communities that are peppered throughout America, throughout the world. In a year's time, people from all walks of life gathered to assist with the construction of a new gymnasium, cafeteria, library, and main office for the high school. 21 families in Osborne received home renovations, and more than 300 blocks were cleared of debris. The roof hasn't been replaced entirely, but Life Remodel received a commitment from one of their roofing partners, and the work should be completed by the end of the year. Life Remodel is one organization. Can it spark something in us? To be better citizens? Citizens who create a world where all children can play and dream like I once did on the streets of Detroit. Foreign.