Michigan Community Resources (MCR) honored individuals and organizations who demonstrated outstanding commitment to pro bono and community-based service at its 15th Anniversary Celebration hosted at the Virgil Carr Center in?Detroit on Tuesday, Dec. 3. Bodman PLC was honored as “Law Firm of the Year.” On hand to accept the award were Bodman’s (l-r) Pro Bono Counsel Kimberly Paulson, Chairman Ralph McDowell, and Pro Bono Committee Co-Chairs Susan Kornfield and Christopher Dine.
Photo by John Meiu
Michigan Community Resources (MCR) honored four individuals and organizations who demonstrated outstanding commitment to pro bono and community-based service. Hosted at Virgil Carr Center on Tuesday, Dec. 3, MCR’s 15th Anniversary Celebration acknowledged the amazing work of its volunteers and the transformative progress community groups make in their neighborhoods.
Awards were presented for Law Firm of the Year, Volunteer of the Year, Partner of the Year, and Outstanding Community Action.
The 2013 award winner for Law Firm of the Year was Bodman PLC for their long-standing commitment to pro bono values, which was further demonstrated by the recent hiring of Pro Bono Counsel, Kim Paulson. Under Paulson’s direction, Bodman attorneys provided hundreds of hours of pro bono legal assistance to almost 20 clients statewide this year.
“For Bodman, pro bono service is an essential element of our social responsibility philosophy, and for our attorneys, it’s an integral part of a full and satisfying legal career,” said Paulson.
“Working with MCR helps our attorneys focus their efforts on important projects and allows them to see the positive impact their work has on our communities.”
This year’s award winner for Partner of the Year was presented to Helen Broughton of the City of Detroit’s Buildings Safety Engineering & Environmental Department for her assistance with MCR’s efforts to improve code enforcement.
Broughton served as an excellent resource to MCR; sharing information, explaining processes, and providing connections as staff from MCR researched Detroit’s code enforcement policies and developed educational programs for community members. Broughton also served as a panelist and presenter on code enforcement at MCR’s vacant property coalition meetings and vacant property education series workshops. Due to Broughton’s assistance, MCR is in position to develop a new approach to code enforcement that has garnered the attention and support of peer organizations and funders.
The Volunteer of the Year award was presented to William J. Perrone of Dykema for his service in helping MCR build its statewide programs and for the pro bono assistance he provided to Allen Neighborhood Center (ANC) of Lansing.
Perrone’s legal assistance was vital to help ANC build the Allen Market Place, a non-profit food hub that houses its award-winning farmers market, an incubator kitchen open to the community, and an innovative marketplace exchange that links rural growers to in-town restaurateurs, food service managers, and other procurers. Perrone’s assistance to ANC was so valuable that it named its new community education room the “Bill Perrone Classroom.”
Perrone said that he volunteers with MCR because, “It is a more unique pro bono experience. It is working with good people who provide direct services to those in need. Corporate structures, contracts, leases and employment issues are not things that many volunteer organizations are familiar with, but are always necessary in order for them to fulfill their own charitable mission. MCR does the legal side for them, so that they can do the services side.”
The Outstanding Community Action award was presented to Creekside Community Development Corporation for its cooperative blight elimination and neighborhood cleanup projects. In 2013, Creekside surveyed over 4,000 properties and is now working with several partners to house this information in an interactive database to help target strategies and resources for the greatest impact.
Creekside CDC is strategic in its neighborhood cleanup projects as well. It coordinated their cleanup with Detroit’s quarterly bulk pickup dates and also built a core of volunteers who are responsible for maintaining its blight elimination and cleanup efforts.
“Community action is about inspiring, organizing and mobilizing a group of people to achieve their common vision and goals,” said Sharon Meadows of Creekside CDC.
“For us, that means engaging residents and owners to play a major role in planning and making Jefferson-Chalmers into the community of choice that we it want to be, and MCR is a wonderful community of organizations and people who are dedicated to working with others to make our home communities what we want them to be.”
Over 150 guests helped MCR honor all of its award winners and celebrate its 15th anniversary. This event showed that despite any negative spotlight on the City of Detroit right now, amazing and positive work is transforming Detroit’s neighborhoods. This event celebrated the work that happens day in and day out to help build communities.
“Taking the time to honor successes like these is so important,” said Jill Ferrari, chief executive officer of MCR. “They show a little bit can do so much to help improve a community; that everyone has a role they can play, and MCR is happy to help community organizations make their goals a reality. We look forward to what we can accomplish together during the next 15 years.”
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