intervention for mutual benefit of all partners Promote a co-learned and empowering process that attends to social inequalities Involve a cyclical and iterative process Disseminate findings and knowledge gained to all partners Involve long-term commitment by all partners Call to Action Between 2008 and 2011, the economic downfall of Detroit affected community service programs. Detroit is increasingly recognized among critical social policy theorists as one of the first industrialized, Western democracy cities dramatically emerging from a post‐industrial to "neostructural" society. In Detroit, new forms of governance are emerging through a local experience of painful abrogation of democratically elected municipal leadership. Population declines resulted in fewer federal and state resources supporting the traditional range of community services; for example, Detroit's Department of Public Health and City of Detroit Human Services closed, with services eliminated or outsourced to the private sector. Only a few programs survive and thrive through mergers, and many more community programs dramatically reduced services, merged or are in the process of closing. In response, a group of residents, university faculty and social workers began looking at other Detroit neighborhoods which were successfully working to maintain quality of life. As a result, the collaboration applied their knowledge of the settlement house ideal and potential for community work, creating a settlement house reflective of the 21st century. This creative opportunity fit well with the engagement interests of CBI Scholars. The Community-Based Initiative (CBI) is a fellowship program at the University of Michigan's School of Social Work, begun in 1999. It works to create and sustain community and social change in urban cities, neighborhoods and communities, with a specific focus on Detroit. The Boulevard House was launched in summer of 2012 with a vision of providing project-based learning and engagement with the surrounding community. Invited to settle in the vacant property owned by People's Community Services, the project was funded by the UM School of Social Work. The concept developed with a project team at University of Michigan (UM) and a core community committee. The initial stakeholders included: Larry Gant (UM-Social Work and Art & Design), Maria Cotera (UM-Latina/o Studies), Tom Cervenak (People’s Community Services), Mike Garcia (UAW), Mary Luevanos (CLAVE), Lisa Luevanos (CLAVE), Diana Rivera (Michigan State University) and Gloria Rocha (Comite Patriotico Mexicano). Boulevard House is a call to action to the community, CBI scholars, and all community allies to engage in creative, positive, self-determined change from the ground,