They were afraid to come out of their homes and talk to one another or look each other in the eyes walking down Saginaw Street or in their own neighborhood. There are hordes of nonprofit organizations doing good work in this community and yet something still is amiss. It's like a petri dish. And at some point, something catalyzes people to move forward. What catalyzes them is the coming together of all these different factors.
People start gaining clarity and are then able to put a name on it.
They begin to see their own role in what has become of their community and what could become of their community if they were more involved and engaged. It's sort of the confluence of all those things that in life, or in anything, you can't really predict. We know from our earliest work in Flint that there were no safe places for people to come together and talk, particularly for catalytic leaders in the community. The answer is not about hiring a good PR firm, running ads and all of a sudden saying you're authentic. You can't claim authenticity.