project leader
Jackson K
location
12511 Woodward Ave
(Highland Park)
latest update rss
Update

the project

Soulardarity is a community organization formed in response to the repossession of over 1000 streetlights from the city of Highland Park, MI. We’re building community power, promoting community-owned clean energy, and creating self-determination in Highland Park through the collective planning and cooperative ownership of 200 solar-powered streetlights. We just installed our second streetlight at a community park in HP. In the next year, we are launching a community cooperative and installing the first 20 streetlights owned by the Co-op. We need your help to raise $25K to pay local organizers, build the cooperative, and leverage full funding for the 20 streetlights in 2015, with the full 200 coming within two years.

Check out this piece about our most recent streetlight installation here:

http://www.modeldmedia.com/features/soulardarity-highland-park-082514.aspx

the steps

To reach our goal of launching the co-op and installing 20 more streetlights this year, we need to:

1. Education and Outreach - Talking to Highland Parkers about energy, cooperatives, where streetlights are needed, and the needs in the city that can be addressed through cooperative ownership

2. Building the Co-op and Planning the Lights - Making a business plan and building membership for the Co-op, while having new members identify locations for the next 20 streetlights

3. Installation - In the Summer of 2015, we install the first 20 streetlights owned by a community co-op in Highland Park. This will be our biggest installation yet and our first in the ownership of the cooperative.

4. Scaling up! Our next steps after this year will be creating a community plan for the streetlights, raising the full funds we need, and installing the full 200 by 2017. With your support, we can take our next big step towards that goal.

 

why we're doing it

Highland Park, MI is a small city inside of Detroit. It is the site of the world's first automobile assembly line and urban freeway. Since the withdrawal of automobile manufacturing from the city, the city has experienced a meteoric drop in population, employment, and tax base that has left much of its infrastructure in disrepair. In 2011, over 1000 of Highland Park's streetlights were repossessed by the local utility to forgive $4 million of electrical debt, leaving residential streets in the dark.

In Highland Park and Detroit there are serious issues with water, housing, transit, and energy resulting from decades of depopulation, divestment, and inequity. Through solar streetlights, we are building a model of community ownership to empower citizens to tackle deeper infrastructure issues and create a vision for a clean, thriving, sustainable community.

Conversation

Check out this article on our most recent streetlight installation! http://www.modeldmedia.com/features/soulardarity-highland-park-082514.aspx
Just wanted to let you know we spread the word across two blogs in our network: http://praxia-partners.com/light-the-night-community-owned-solar-street-lamps-in-detroit/ and http://communityrenewableenergynow.com/index.php/light-the-night-community-owned-solar-street-lamps-in-detroit/ Best of luck with your great work!

budget



SUBTOTAL = $24,600
ioby Platform Fee  $35
3rd Party Credit Card Processing Fee (3% of non-match dollars) $678
TOTAL TO RAISE = $25,313


RAISED = $13,035.00
ioby Platform Fee (paid by New Dream) $35.00
3rd Party Credit Card Processing Fee (3% of donations) (Paid by New Dream) $320.39
TOTAL TO DISBURSE = $13,035

Revised Budget, 11/3/2014

$5000 - Outreach, Organizing, and Education

$5000 - Cooperative development

$3,035 - Funding for the next streetlight

updates

Update

Following the successful campaign on IOBY, Soulardarity got started working with The Cooperation Group to build the community ownership entity for our upcoming solar streetlights. We’ve reached out to Highland Parkers through house parties building DIY solar window heaters and weatherizing own homes to take control of the cost of energy. To reach 20 solar streetlights in 2015, we need even more help - that’s why we’ve just unveiled the Adopt-A-Streetlight program where individuals can sponsor the costs of installing a maintaining the lights. You can learn more at www.soulardarity.com and get more info about streetlight sponsorship at: http://tinyurl.com/adopt-a-streetlight

Love from HP,

The Soulardarity team
 

Thank you to our donors!

photos

This is where photos will go once we build flickr integration

donors

  • Eli
  • Anonymous
  • Max Gilbane
  • Kyle Wiswall
  • lawrence p.
  • Erin Barnes
  • Marta and Nick
  • Ana
  • Jackie
  • luca
  • chico
  • Elaine Hinrichs
  • Katrina P.
  • Anonymous
  • Hannah B.
  • Laura M
  • David J.
  • Sheila Stocking
  • Jess
  • Heather G.
  • Juan G.
  • Anonymous
  • Jason L.
  • Halima C.
  • P Marie
  • Emily T.
  • Anonymous
  • Deb Groban Olson
  • Cliff Martin
  • Anonymous
  • Sandra Porwick
  • Harriet S.
  • Michael Friedman
  • Rick Smith
  • Anonymous
  • Jonathan of Orange
  • Acadia
  • ryan s.
  • Patrick H.
  • Anonymous
  • Benjamin J.
  • Alan S.
  • name
  • Michael E.
  • Tenaya T.
  • Helen F.
  • Juelaine Druckrey
  • Alex M.
  • Anonymous
  • Nick Gerken
  • Greta P.
  • Lee Samelson
  • Devyn
  • Corrigan
  • Anonymous
  • ogawa/depardon architects
  • Collin Rees
  • Margaret D Lewis
  • Anonymous
  • Rick Ruffner
  • Charlene Turner Johnson
  • Mary Hoyer / UnionCo-ops Council of US Federation of Worker Co-ops
  • Pablo B.
  • Elinor Koeppel
  • Joy Hughes, Solar Gardens Institute
  • Detroit Bold Coffee Co
  • Adam Konner
  • Anonymous Resource Generation member
  • Ellie J.
  • Savannah
  • Becki Y.
  • Caroline Savery
  • Shannon Zak
  • Abby Fenton
  • Hana T.
  • ryan s.
  • Kevin Bone
  • A. Garrison
  • Timothy DenHerder-Thomas
  • Andreas K.
  • Austin Broderick
  • Mary S.
  • John & Diane Beres
  • Ryan A.
  • Jonathan Aylward
  • Anonymous
  • Curtis V.
  • Anonymous
  • Swagalicious
  • Spike H.
  • Jackson K.