It has been one year since you finished your year as a Challenge Detroit fellow, tell us what you’ve been up to for the last year. 

A lot of nesting actually. I’ve fallen in love with my cross streets and I’m finally in a place where I can settle in my house. To that end I bought a giant house plant and a hammock, haha. I’ve started pursuing passion projects I put on hold during grad school like building and screen printing. I’ve been learning more about Detroit as well. Last year was my introduction year and thanks to Challenge it was a fantastic, immersive, and multidimensional one. Now I’m able to dig deeper into the city and begin to unpack its complicated, yet wonderful character.

You are now working for the City of Detroit, tell us more about your work and what drew you to your current work. 

I am a data analyst and project manager for the General Services Department, and it’s a bit of a hybrid between two roles: on the data side, I sort through large amounts of data to assess how well the City is meeting its metrics, and on the management side, I help keep projects on time and on budget.

Talking to friends outside of the city, it is clear negative opinions about Detroit still linger, but a lot of that is not true. For example, 94% of the city 300+ parks are cut on time. People don’t realize how much city services have improved in part because we haven’t kept accurate data on our work, so I’m proud to part of that change.Oh and I met the mayor on my first day at work, that was fun. Haha.

How have you continued to give in Detroit following your fellowship? 

Well I’m a licensed attorney in Michigan now (yay) so I’ve been supporting projects I believe in like the Detroit Museum of Healing. Being able to provide this type of specialized support to wonderful organizations and people has made all those hours of studying worth it. Beyond that I have continued my long standing volunteering at Back Alley Bikes, the nonprofit that manages The Hub, the best bike shop in city.

Now that it is  summer time what are a few of your favorite ways to play in Detroit?

That’s easy: riding bikes through streets of wild pheasants, swimming at Belle Isle, drinking homemade herbal tea on my beautiful front porch, and dancing. Lots of dancing.

What excites you most about Detroit’s future? 

I said this in my Challenge application and it still holds true: we have the ability to redefine what it means to be a great American city. Detroit’s development and attention is exciting and inspiring. Having spent two years living, working, playing, leading, and giving in the City I’m excited to develop a more nuanced understanding of it. For example, while I support continued development and services for Detroit’s citizens, I now can see the issues with places the Carr Center, a world class African American arts institution, being forced to leave an area it helped stabilize as that area is being developed into an African American arts district.

Finally a call to action on something I’m passionate about: anyone who cares about Detroit, needs to care about our public schools. Regardless if you raise or will raise children in the city, all this development will be for naught if we can’t grow our population and strong public schools are a fantastic way to do that. That’s why it upset me to read about the poor deal our State legislature passed after a decent deal was voted down in the State House despite being endorsed by our Governor and our Mayor and passing the State Senate. All this is not to dissuade people though, what Detroit needs most is passionate people willing to stay and do the work to make a difference, which is why a program like Challenge Detroit makes a great impact in the city.

Sarms Jabra is a lawyer, printmaker, and bike builder who sips scolding hot tea on Detroit’s East Side. Part Baghdad, part Detroit, he is eternally grateful for the letter C for cardamom and Carl Sagan. Inquiries: [email protected]