page_title: Boulevard House
section_title: Purpose
hierarchical_section_title: Boulevard House / Purpose
caption_attribution_description: English: A photo of the Boulevard House.
context_page_description: The Boulevard House, now the Southwest Detroit Community House, is located in Southwest Detroit, Michigan and situated right on the Boulevard, in the articulation of Mexicantown, Mexican Village, and Hubbard Farms. It is the University of Michigan's settlement house, providing space for praxis among community scholars, community activists and residents. Since it was established in mid-2012, the Boulevard House has been used to create a place-based space to develop projects, engage community and support social change.
context_section_description: The Boulevard House works for the needs and benefits of the neighborhood and larger community, using the models of community-based participatory research and empowerment evaluation. Using these models, the Boulevard House is a space for observation and discussion, creating opportunities for community engagement, action and change initiatives. It is based in community-embedded praxis, which identifies five aspects of social change needed to produce positive and sustainable effects on the social, political and economic systems. Those aspects include comprehensiveness, synchrony, integration, long-term perspective, and inclusiveness.
  In addition to the above, the Boulevard House adheres to certain practice principles and integrates ongoing community feedback and discovery. The principles of practice are as follows:
  Recognize community as a unity of identity
  Build on strengths and resources within the community
  Facilitate collaborative, equitable involvement of all partners in all phases of the research and practice
  Integrate knowledge and intervention for mutual benefit of all partners
  Promote a co-learned and empowering process that attends to social inequalities
  Involve a cyclical and iterative process
  Disseminate findings and knowledge gained to all partners
  Involve long-term commitment by all partners
caption: Front view, looking east from W Grand Blvd.
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