The Porch Project (TPP)

The Porch Project (TPP)  is a resident-led neighborhood revitalization project that provides porch repairs and front yard garden enhancements at residential properties throughout the City. TPP engages Flint residents through a bottom-up approach where residents “opt-in” to the program by agreeing to maintain their front yard and porch area.  In turn, residents are asked to connect with their neighbors through regular conversation. 

The purpose of TPP is to use beautification efforts, porch repairs, and increased lighting to promote neighborliness in the community by increased use of front yards. The project supports neighborhood engagement and embeds safety measures into every home that participates in the effort by cutting back overgrown shrubs and increasing lighting on neighborhood homes. These measures help to improve sight lines and visibility

We have already completed much of the foot work for the project to be successful. We have met neighbors, went to homes to do evaluations of needs, and developed a list of homes that we can do repairs on. 

The next step is to have the contractor complete the work on as many homes as possible. We have already found a licnesed, reliable contractor who is waiting for us! 

The physical landscape of a shrinking city like Flint is fragmented, with open land spanning gaps between neighbors. The goal of TPP is to bridge these gaps, not from only a physical, but a social perspective – defragmenting the social landscape of neighborhoods. The neighbors participating represent the start of a network, that if cultivated correctly, can build a strong community. Our goal is not just to create these connections, but strengthen them. We want to empower neighbors to use these platforms as interaction hubs. These platforms are literal and symbolic, the physical space of the porch is a platform on which a resident can stand on to be seen and heard by their community that surrounds them. The symbolic platform represented by our community as a whole – by empowering individuals we strengthen the community and broaden the voices being heard in Flint.