Christa Drew, Principal, DAISA Enterprises
2017 FreshLo Convening in Memphis, Tennessee.
Many people have heard the phrase, ‘that really left a mark’ to indicate a memorable or significant event. While reflecting on my work with DAISA Enterprises over the past 6.5 years I have also been thinking about mark making, as in an artistic term typically used for the creation of different textures, lines, patterns, and shapes. During acrylic painting class a few years ago my instructor repeatedly challenged me to use my fingers, brush handles, and old combs and to add molding paste, coffee grounds, and sand to the paint to vary the traces and textures of color across the canvas, to leave my unique touches. While I did not initially find this easy nor enjoy the visual results, I could feel myself soften and shift through the process and so I’ve continued mark making in my painting, mindful there and in life that making marks goes both ways and it’s both difficult and liberating. DAISA’s work with the Fresh, Local, and Equitable (FreshLo) initiative of the Kresge Foundation is a perfect example in my life.
In 2015 at DAISA we accepted the invitation to serve as the National Program Office for the unique FreshLo initiative, blending neighborhood transformation strategies across health, arts & culture, and economic development all while advancing equity in practice and outcomes. An initial task was to help design and implement an equitable review and selection process for the record-breaking 550 FreshLo grant proposals which arrived. I read, organized, and discussed applications for many, many hours and in doing so gained access and perspective on systemic and nuanced urban neighborhood-based challenges and community-driven innovations from across the United States. We brought the initial 26 grant recipients together in Cleveland, OH shortly after the awards were announced and began an unforgettable journey of discussing struggles, joy, strategies, and questions – together.
In 2015 at DAISA we accepted the invitation to serve as the National Program Office for the unique FreshLo initiative, blending neighborhood transformation strategies across health, arts & culture, and economic development all while advancing equity in practice and outcomes. An initial task was to help design and implement an equitable review and selection process for the record-breaking 550 FreshLo grant proposals which arrived. I read, organized, and discussed applications for many, many hours and in doing so gained access and perspective on systemic and nuanced urban neighborhood-based challenges and community-driven innovations from across the United States. We brought the initial 26 grant recipients together in Cleveland, OH shortly after the awards were announced and began an unforgettable journey of discussing struggles, joy, strategies, and questions – together.
2018 FreshLo Convening in Denver, Colorado. Community Visit to Re:Vision, Westwood neighborhood.
At that first Convening I will never forget how people so willingly and humorously responded to our invitation to self-introductions through an “I get fresh by…” prompt nor how a discussion of governance models quickly surfaced discussions of power and wealth in communities. It was immediately apparent that the candor and agile leadership, born of necessity and perseverance, within the FreshLo cohort is dynamic, inclusive and highly effective.
Across the years our DAISA team visited all of the FreshLo groups and communities that moved through the 2-year then 3-year implementation phase of FreshLo – prompting us to share in local, cultural food delicacies, stand in the bitter rain gazing at vacant lots and social enterprises-in-the-rough, share in distinctive community-based lodging, participate in unique cultural festivals and local events, and become immersed in raw and dynamic learning. In visiting parts of the U.S previously unfamiliar to me, and traveling alongside my colleagues at DAISA, the Kresge Foundation and our Learning for Action evaluation partners, we witnessed divestment in the physical and social infrastructure of neighborhoods. And yet, we saw people coming together through art, creative processes, food and celebration to both defend and to celebrate their unique neighborhood identity. I will never forget the pride I witnessed while a neighborhood gardener in Detroit, MI talked about sharing her freshly grown tomatoes with her neighbors, sampled wild herbs while on farmland rich with crops grown from saved-seeds and cultivated through Indigenous practices, and saw small food-oriented enterprises in Seattle and Oakland. These communities and the community leaders within each left a mark on my mind and heart; it is impossible to imagine otherwise how I would have had this experience and the opportunity to respond and support across the 5 years.
Across the years our DAISA team visited all of the FreshLo groups and communities that moved through the 2-year then 3-year implementation phase of FreshLo – prompting us to share in local, cultural food delicacies, stand in the bitter rain gazing at vacant lots and social enterprises-in-the-rough, share in distinctive community-based lodging, participate in unique cultural festivals and local events, and become immersed in raw and dynamic learning. In visiting parts of the U.S previously unfamiliar to me, and traveling alongside my colleagues at DAISA, the Kresge Foundation and our Learning for Action evaluation partners, we witnessed divestment in the physical and social infrastructure of neighborhoods. And yet, we saw people coming together through art, creative processes, food and celebration to both defend and to celebrate their unique neighborhood identity. I will never forget the pride I witnessed while a neighborhood gardener in Detroit, MI talked about sharing her freshly grown tomatoes with her neighbors, sampled wild herbs while on farmland rich with crops grown from saved-seeds and cultivated through Indigenous practices, and saw small food-oriented enterprises in Seattle and Oakland. These communities and the community leaders within each left a mark on my mind and heart; it is impossible to imagine otherwise how I would have had this experience and the opportunity to respond and support across the 5 years.
2020 FreshLo Virtual Convening, select attendees.
The work with FreshLo, partnering with the teams at the Kresge Foundation and with evaluation and communication consultants, working with and for the leaders of 26 distinct communities has been among the most multi-faceted and very favorite parts of my entire career. I am forever changed, with a much more real sense of the struggles and inequities, and of the immense creativity and strength in community residents’ vision and action. The national FreshLo journey in so many ways has both contributed to and exemplified the heart of DAISA Enterprises. It has left indelible marks on who we are individually and collectively.
2021 FreshLo Cohort Mark-Making Activity, led by artist Virginia Fitzgerald.
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