Since 2022, Ypsilanti Township nonprofit Odindi Youth Action Village (OYA) has been dedicated to empowering young people in the township's West Willow neighborhood by fostering their talents and engaging their parents, schools, and wider community. With a mission to nurture positive, healthy, and fulfilling lives, OYA envisions a future where every young person has the resources and encouragement to reach their full potential.

"Everyone wanted the community to come together," says OYA co-founder Bambo Oluwadare. "There was a lack of trust between neighbors, but after a while we’ve seen how they’ve started to respect each other. It’s been very powerful for us to hear."

Currently, OYA offers three programs in West Willow. The Storytelling, Action, and Advocacy group, in partnership with Healthy Together West Willow and the New West Willow Neighborhood Association, "brings together groups of elders and youth to discuss creating a stronger West Willow" and close generational gaps, according to OYA's website. A summer camp program is designed to promote healthy habits and open conversation between community youth and elders. And the Freedom School, an afterschool program for young students, provides homework help for kids, encourages community among neighbors, and connects children and families with local resources when needed. 

The nonprofit is deeply rooted in the West Willow community, focusing on empowering local youth by uniting the neighborhood’s resources and talents. This commitment to building a supportive network is reflected both in OYA’s leadership, and in the organization's consistent efforts to listen directly to community members and meet their needs head-on.

"The elders, the youth, and everyone working here are all from the neighborhood," says Akin Oluwadare, OYA co-founder and Bambo Oluwadare’s son. "We’re just bringing all of those pieces together."
Doug CoombeOdindi Youth Action Village co-founder Akin Oluwadare.
Inspired by his father’s experiences growing up in Nigeria, Akin Oluwadare embraced his family's mission to empower youth by fostering comprehensive support systems in their community. The father-and-son duo pursued degrees in social work, studying side by side at Washtenaw Community College and later Eastern Michigan University (EMU), where they earned their bachelor’s degrees. They went on to obtain advanced degrees, with Akin Oluwadare focusing on social policy and youth advocacy at the University of Michigan and Bambo Oluwadare specializing in nonprofit management and youth and family services at EMU. 

Today, through OYA, they channel their shared passion into creating a safe, nurturing environment where every child has the opportunity to thrive, emphasizing collaboration, education, and community engagement as the foundation of their work.

"This community is very unique because of the populations here, so it makes sense to us to do this work here," says Akin Oluwadare. "Folks are able to see themselves in the work and be a part of it."

With OYA’s work centered around the adage "it takes a village to raise a child," Bambo Oluwadare feels it's crucial to ensure that youth feel like they are as integral to their community as their elders. He says that's key to healthy development, and allows older family members and neighbors the opportunity to guide the youth in positive directions. Programs like the Freedom School also work directly with Ypsilanti Community Schools, providing fully inclusive wrap-around support for the community’s students and families.

"We’ve decided to take a holistic approach where the parents are part of what we do, but we also connect with the other community members and the local schools," Bambo Oluwadare says. "We want to support the youth to know they have someone behind them."
Doug CoombeOdindi Youth Action Village co-founder Bambo Oluwadare.
It's not just West Willow residents who are benefiting from OYA's work. OYA’s partners at Ypsilanti Township have been just as impacted by the Oluwadares' teachings and the community conversations OYA has facilitated.

"I feel like society has become more isolating, especially through Covid," says Ypsilanti Township Community Resource Coordinator Laurie Lutomski. "This work has been bringing the community back together, and it’s great to see that growing. It’s why people care about each other."

While the township has developed a relationship with OYA and the West Willow community through providing spaces for the Freedom School and participating in programs like the Storytelling Action and Advocacy groups, Lutomski feels that the township’s role in OYA’s work is not to dictate what programming looks like, but to act in a supportive role to the organization. Ypsilanti Township Supervisor Brenda Stumbo says watching OYA grow organically has been particularly inspiring, calling the Oluwadares' ideas "darn good ones."

"My two bookends in my career have been our children and our seniors," Stumbo says. "To see them come together like this, it’s an amazing transformation."

One OYA project the township was heavily involved in was the renovation of West Willow Park, where OYA hosts its summer camp program. The Freedom School location is also adjacent to the park. The project involved a number of meetings between West Willow community members to discuss what they wanted to see in the new park as well as a survey of several other parks in the township. It culminated with young people developing the concept for the renovation project and bringing it to the township to request funding, which led to a groundbreaking in September 2024.
Doug CoombeOYA members Akin Oluwadare, Seven Brown, Layla Broaden, Sheila Washington, and Bambo Oluwadare.
Stumbo says OYA is dedicated to encouraging community members to take pride in their neighborhood and speak out for the things they want to see changed. She says that helps to show community members how local change actually happens, potentially inspiring young folks to participate more frequently in local politics. Akin Oluwadare agrees.

"Coming together and saying 'This is what we need in our community' is just the start," he says. "Meeting constantly and being able to point to something tangible shows that these things can happen when we work collectively."

OYA has forged several other community partnerships to ensure its programs meet residents' needs. One of these partners, Ann Arbor Jazz Festival Executive Director Anna Gersh, is collaborating with the Ann Arbor Hands On Museum to provide musical education at the Freedom School. The initiative, which Gersh has called the "Traveling Sound Museum," allows for students to explore and learn about different instruments and their constructions. It will ultimately lead to a contest this summer where students build their own new instruments. 

Gersh says the winners of this contest will become "docents" of the traveling sound museum, with their instruments being put on display at the Freedom School for anyone to explore and learn more about. Gersh hopes this initiative allows for not only education, but further community collaboration, and yet another source of pride for the community when students are named "experts" in the museum. 
Doug CoombeOdindi Youth Action Village co-founders Akin and Bambo Oluwadare.
"We want to support this amazing project between father and son in this environment of high need, because we’re all in this together," Gersh says. "We are reaching across these lines and helping to develop this network of support because it’s necessary, and the connections are already there."

OYA’s work, according to Akin Oluwadare, is intentionally rooted in West Willow’s unique needs and culture, reflecting the voices and experiences of the people OYA serves. The Oluwadares feel that trying to expand OYA’s services to other communities would be inauthentic to their mission, but hope that their work inspires others to implement community-strengthening programs in their neighborhoods.

"We aren’t in the work of trying to expand, replicate, and scale up, because you can lose the essence of things when you package them and take them elsewhere," Akin Oluwadare says.

You can keep up with OYA by checking its website or Facebook page. More information on OYA programs is available here.

"We really are trying to create a space where folks in the community can see people who look like them, and know all of us are here together to support each other," Akin Oluwudare says. "Everything is out of love."

Rylee Barnsdale is a Michigan native and longtime Washtenaw County resident. She wants to use her journalistic experience from her time at Eastern Michigan University writing for the Eastern Echo to tell the stories of Washtenaw County residents that need to be heard.

Photos by Doug Coombe.