This project was eligible for matching funds through Neighborhood Connections COVID-19 Recovery Fund
Woodhill Co-Op Pop Ups!
Restoring health, pride and a sense of belonging in the Buckeye Woodhill neighborhood, through PPE distribution, and working long-term to establish a community-owned laundromat.
Leader
Morgan Bulger
Location
10600 Mount Carmel Road Cleveland, OH 44104
About the project
Through our series of Community Care Pop Up events in 2021, we aim to improve our neighbor's ability to recover from the long term impacts of COVID-19 in the Buckeye Woodhill neighborhood. According to this article in Forbes, the virus can survive on your clothes for as long as 24 hours, so access to clean clothes could be critical in the battle against the spread, particularly in communities with limited washing facilities.
In a 2019 survey of over 320 residents inside of Woodhill Homes we learned that, of all the services and amenities available in the neighborhood, a place to clean your clothes is the hardest to come by. We also know that hundreds of residents in the Buckeye Woodhill neighborhood are out of work due to COVID and many others have faced negative consequences of not having access to laundry services including; missing school or work, social consequences of attending school or work in dirty clothes, or even being suspended from school or fired from work. We aim to change that and return a sense of pride to our neighbors AND limit the spread of COVID through dirty laundry.
The long-term goals of our group is to start a laundromat in the neighborhood, for the neighborhood, and OWNED BY the neighborhood. While we are distributing laundry detergent and other PPE, we are also educating about cooperative ownership, and we are building relationships within the community.
These pop-ups will build on two pop-ups we held in 2020, one in October of 2020 funded solely through mutual aid, and one in November of 2020 funded through mutual aid, donations of PPE from Neighborhood Connections, and donations of food from Food Not Bombs. We engaged an estimated 250 residents through these events and helped connect them to laundry detergent, food, and other PPE. These two events were so successful in connecting resources to people, and people to each other, that we hope to build on these events to continue to engage the community, care for our health and safety needs, and build relationships.
The Steps
Design logo and create a banner and other branding materials.
Identify 2 dates in the spring and summer of 2021 for our community care pop-ups
Purchase necessary pop up supplies (tent, detergent, collateral)
Promote pop-ups on social media (using our Instagram account @woodhillcoop) and using flyers
Why we‘re doing it
By improving access to laundry supplies, facilities, and services we are helping:
- our youngest neighbors attend school sharp and prepared to learn with freshly pressed uniforms
- our essential worker neighbors go to work with peace of mind and limit the spread of germs they carry home with them
- our neighbors in the midst of a job hunt to feel confident and prepared during their interviews and eventually on the job
- all of our neighbors feel the dignity and esteem they deserve in the 21st century.
In the long term, we are also building wealth in this community and creating cooperative ownership opportunities for our neighbors.
The Vision of the Woodhill Community Co-Op: To cause a movement of interest that inspires the community, benefits people’s lives, + increases access to resources, using the tools of cooperative-ownership with informed choice, to create ripple effects of empowerment, creativity, + freedom.
The Mission of the Woodhill Community Co-Op: A community-owned laundromat + community space that is financially + environmentally sustainable, while encouraging resource sharing, relationship building + community ownership.