Talk:Boulevard House

I will be working on improving this page for a class assignment. My partner for the project is the current manager of the Boulevard House, and thus has many updated programs to add to the site. I am considering adding theoretical social work frameworks of the settlement house movement as a new section, but so far I have expanded on how and why the Boulevard was founded, and the partner organizations and programs that have operated out of the shared space (as the current ones are inadequate or outdated). Amelmayan (talk) 22:15, 22 February 2015 (UTC)

Boulevard House Peer Review
The introduction is accessible and straight-to-the-point. I appreciate having the address of the Boulevard House, but feel that the jargon “place-based residential space” might be off-putting to readers who are not familiar with this type of framework. I would suggest expanding on this in the introduction or creating a heading later in the article to expand on this topic.

I think the history of settlement houses is concise and relevant. I think the description of “people of wealth and resources into poverty stricken neighborhoods” could perhaps use more context. What does it mean for those of privilege to “evaluate” the lives of poor people? I think maybe framing this in a more accessible way that defines “social reform would be useful.” I do think the description of the different social services traditionally provided by settlement houses gives great context.

The transition to “the conditions in Detroit” paragraph seems forced. Perhaps breaking this off into another section might help the reader? You could have 2 sections: “History of Settlement Houses” and then “History of the Boulevard House.” Within this section, you use jargon such as “community engagement,” but it not explicitly defined for the reader. This type of context might be helpful. I was also interested in learning how each collaborator played a role in creating the Boulevard as in who raised funds, who worked on engaging community residents, who was responsible for creating activities? This type of specificity might be useful to the reader.

The Mission and Guiding Principles section reads like a well-written social work academic text. I think the first sentence is intimidating to unpack especially the “community-based participatory research and empowerment evaluation” part. Perhaps it would be useful to include links that can define these terms. This sentence: “its ideology on distressed communities” sounds very politicized as if the settlement is indoctrinating residents. Perhaps there is a different way to frame this so it sounds less politicized?

I especially like the programs section. The El Museo del Norte is done very well as it is easy to read and engaging. I would change the University of Michigan section to Community-Based Initiative to give it more context.

In terms of adding figures, you could take a photo of the Boulevard House and add it in the article for more context. (Maybe take the photo during the Spring time?)

I can understand how difficult it might have been to gather references, but I think the group did a thorough job researching about this topic especially through its interviews/reading materials from Dr Gant.

Overall, I commend the group for creating a completely new wiki article page that requires a lot of research. I especially liked the introduction and the Programs section. I think creating more sections to give historical context to settlement houses and conditions in Detroit would help improve the page. Academic jargon should be defined and unpacked in the guiding principles page. Perhaps including a section on place-based residential spaces could help with this section. While some of the language used may be inaccessible to a non-academic audience, I think the page provides an abundant amount of information in a very concise manner.

Content

 * The content is engaging and concise, but at times uses difficult academic jargon.
 * Perhaps defining a place-based residential space in a separate section would be useful.
 * Breaking up the politicized language surrounding poverty might help readers who are not well-versed in social work practice.
 * Helping define the different guiding principles in more accessible language would help give context to the Boulevard House.
 * Changing the University of Michigan section to the CBI Detroit program might give specificity to the programs.

Figures

 * Adding a picture of the Boulevard during the Spring might be helpful.