Our Initiative

The Communities For all Ages Team:
 

Jay Birchmeier, Principal, Comstock Alternative High School

Sandy Bloomfield, Comstock Township Trustee, Owner, Julianna’s Restaurant

Jeff Bogema, Comstock Township Trustee

 

Funder: The Kalamazoo Community Foundation

Phase of Development: Assessment

Starting Date: March, 2009

Our Communities for All Ages team has recently begun the implementation phase of the initiative. In 2009, through an intensive discovery process, the Comstock Communities for All Ages team identified several key issues of concern for the residents of Comstock Township.  Those issues included: diminished pride in the community, a poor image outside of the community, the neglect of business and residential property, and the lack of employment opportunities for adults and youth.

Through the visioning and planning process, the Communities for all Ages team developed a long-term vision for our township: 

In our future vision Comstock is known in and outside the community as a place where people of all care about each other and for each other.  Comstock residents of all ages share an increased sense of pride in themselves, of each other, in Comstock institutions and in the community as a whole.  More people of diverse ages, incomes and ethnic/racial backgrounds are moving to Comstock, property values are stable or increasing, there are more businesses and recreational and social opportunities, and people of all ages are more engaged in civic activities and with each other.  

The foundation of time-banking is the belief that everyone in a community has something to give.  This explanation is offered by TimeBanks USA (www.timebanks.org): “At its most basic level, Time banking is simply about spending an hour doing something for somebody in your community. That hour goes into the Time Bank as a Time Dollar. Then you have a Time dollar to spend on having someone doing something for you. It's a simple idea, but it has powerful ripple effects in building community connections.”