Community Development Corporation is working hard to turn the Joy Road corridor into a joyful place to live. They are doing this through initiatives aimed at improving the health of residents of the community. "Our main goal is to close the racial and ethnic health disparity gap," says Rodney Gasaway, Director of Community and Economic Development at Joy-Southfield CDC. "83,000 African Americans die each year because of health disparities. We're asking, 'Where's the outrage?'" Joy-Southfield Executive Director Dr. David Law frames it this way: "Elimination of health disparities should be the priority of the modern civil rights movement."

The organization was founded by Second Grace United Methodist Church in 2001 as a mini health clinic serving uninsured residents of the neighborhood. Since then, the organization has grown the clinicclinical care," says Gasaway. Other factors include health behaviors (30 percent), which Joy-Southfield addresses with education sessions held throughout the community, social and economic factors (40 percent), which they are addressing through economic development initiatives, and the physical environment (10 percent), which they are addressing through the creation of complete streets.

While the clinic is still going strong, Joy-Southfield CDC has several projects underway that are aimed at complementing those services. One is their Tuesday farmers market (located at 18900 Joy Road), at which produce grown in three of Joy-Southfield's community gardens is sold alongside produce sourced from Eastern Market and non-food goods made by local artisans.

Recently, Joy-Southfield partnered with Wayne State University's Master of Urban Planning program to produce an economic development strategy for the neighborhood entitled "Going