Mama Shu
The Avalon Village
Detroit, MI USA
"When you look at ugliness [in your community], it tears everything down. Folks feel like it’s hopeless. It’s only so long that you can live in that type of environment. Nor, is it fair. People deserve better."
Career Roadmap
Mama's work combines: Non-Profit Organizations, Entrepreneurship, and Upholding a Cause and Belief
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Day In The Life
Skills &
Education
Advice for getting started
People can look at this block and the neighborhood and be intimidated by the scale of the project. And, it is truly a lot of work. However, it is doable. I just put in the time, focus, and effort to make it work. What ended up happening is that as improvements were made, people started to see the possibilities and started helping. It became infectious. People started believing that they deserved better and were willing to work for it.
Here's the path I took:
High School
Life & Career Milestones
My path in life took a while to figure out
1.
Grew up in the Highland Park neighborhood of Detroit, MI.
2.
As an adult, she continued to live, work, and raise her family in the neighborhood even as it became blighted—buildings sat vacant, trash covered the streets, and crime became an increasing problem.
3.
She worked as a school administrator for 27 years and has owned small businesses within the community since 1998.
4.
In 2007, her 2-year-old son, Jakobi, was killed by a hit-and-run driver.
5.
Inspired to make the neighborhood safe for other children, she bought one of the abandoned buildings for $3,000, transformed it into her ministry, and built a park in honor of her son nearby.
6.
Spent the next decade assembling a team of engineers, futurists, artists, urban farmers, volunteers and donors from around the world to revitalize the neighborhood one lot at a time.
7.
Has received funding from Alex Ebert, lead singer of Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros, and his nonprofit, Big Sun Foundation, and Ellen DeGeneres, enabling her to work on a much larger scale.
8.
The neighborhood is now known as The Avalon Village, a sustainable ecovillage that currently sits on 20 parcels of land with after-school learning, holistic healing centers, greenhouses, and more.
Defining Moments
How I responded to discouragement
THE NOISE
Messages from Society in general:
You must be crazy.
How I responded:
People can look at this block and the neighborhood and be intimidated by the scale of the project. And, it is truly a lot of work. However, it is doable. I just put in the time, focus, and effort to make it work. What ended up happening is that as improvements were made, people started to see the possibilities and started helping. It became infectious. People started believing that they deserved better and were willing to work for it.
Experiences and challenges that shaped me
My 2-year-old son was killed by a hit-and-run driver in 2007. I dedicated myself to transforming my neighborhood in his memory so other children would be safe.
The neighborhood I grew up in slowly started becoming blighted over the years. I saw the buildings sit vacant and crime increased. I started fixing up the neighborhood one building at a time so future generations could enjoy living here.
Money isn't given to neighborhoods like this...I bought the first abandoned building in the village for $3000 and spent the next decade working on the neighborhood bit by bit. I have had to get funding from outside sources like foundations, etc.