Mother, mentor, activist, and community builder are just a few words that describe community champion Dominique Strong. Her goal is to fill in the gaps where there is a need through community building and focusing on keeping Flint strong.
Dominique has a big heart and paired with her tenacity to give back, she is helping the entire community with her work. “I know that people always need help, and I like being the one to do it” shared Dominique!
Through Keep Genesee County Beautiful, Dominique has adopted three parks over the last ten years: Brennan Park, McClellan Park, and McKinley Park. By adopting these parks, she has been able to beautify the neighborhoods around them and implement new education programs while also giving the community a safe place to be active. The parks have transformed their adjacent neighborhoods greatly, inspiring facelifts to the buildings and overall community around them.
With a determination to continue to push for better parks, Dominque has a vision for making McClellan Park, McKinley Park, and Brennan Park even more useful and attractive. She is currently working to clean them up, making them safe for walking and bicycling, as well as installing new infrastructure. Through her work in cleaning up the parks, she has eliminated a large amount of trash and because of this, there are signs of them being used more for gatherings, birthday parties, family BBQs, and more.
Dominque is a social worker by heart, which led to her service work, “Warming Bodies Through Love,” which started with her taking her son to the bus when it was cold. In 2018 Dominique started the non-profit organization Uma Strong Marshall Outreach (USMO) where she puts together winter warming packages to give away that include five pairs of tall socks, three pairs of gloves, two hats, and one coat each. “This was something I was doing before starting a non-profit just because I was called to help” Dominique shared.
Dominique advocates for the community through her work as a park adopter. “Through my non-profit work at USMO, I try to meet the children of Flint where they are to help them in any way that I can. I don’t have a building to operate out of, but the parks give me a space I can use.” Dominique is able to invite community partners to the parks to build relationships and demonstrate the beauty that is available. “I prefer to be there at the parks instead of in a building anyway.”
USMO works with community youth ages 5-12, focusing on educational programming. At Brennan Park, she conducts Literacy Wednesdays where the community focuses on reading and writing, including cursive. They also provide nutrition programming with the GISD and are currently partnering with the Flint Housing Commission to help students transition to after-school hours with reading, writing, and homework.
“Being educated is the best way to keep the community healthy, safe, and driven to succeed. Together, we can all make the world a better place,” Dominique shared.
The Crim Fitness Foundation is dedicated to ensuring that our entire community has the ability to stay active and healthy. A big part of this is ensuring there are dedicated spaces for this. “We are grateful for Dominique’s dedication to this effort that the entire community benefits from,” said Theresa Roach, Crim Active Communities Director.
