This fall, Devon and I were thrilled to be selected as the two fellows to help lead our peers on our first challenge project with the Mayor’s Office. As lifelong locals to Detroit, we have worked with the City of Detroit in various small capacities in recent years and coming into this project we had a great level of respect and excitement to partner collaboratively with this current administration.

The Neighborhood Small Business Directory was a recent “big” idea from the Mayor’s Office to address the following challenge:  “How does the city showcase and stimulate new business for some of Detroit’s oldest, best, and most unique establishments, many of which are also tucked away in far corners of the 140 square miles that make up the City?” Beyond being a just business directory, our project had a creative focus. The main objective for this challenge was to leverage the power of story-telling to create profiles of the many “hidden gems” aka neighborhood businesses and also produce narratives for each of the City’s seven districts. IMG_3129Fellows were divided among the council districts and we helped coordinate the teams as they planned how to immerse themselves in learning about Detroit’s diverse and special neighborhoods. The District Managers were very helpful in liaising with our teams and introducing them to the businesses in their neighborhoods. The teams met and interviewed local business owners to hear  their stories and also enjoyed getting to know them, sampling their products, and even taking some great photos. The fellows also got to let their creative juices flow a little and come up with recommendations for ideas that the city or individual businesses could implement to increase awareness for the Neighborhood Small Business Directory or local businesses themselves.

To support the Mayor’s Office in bringing this directory to life meant that we as fellows needed to embrace an “all hands on deck” approach, and the Challenge Detroit fellows were more than happy to step up. The fellows’ effort and passion for the project paid off as our partners in the Mayor’s Office were impressed by how much ground we covered and data we gathered in addition to the special stories of the businesses we presented. Each and every team was able to paint a rich narrative about their district that encapsulated fascinating insights and compelling personal struggles that come along with being a small business owner in Detroit.

FullSizeRender (6)As fellow project leads, Devon and I were reminded first-hand that the first of anything is never easy, especially when you set high standards for yourself and your “fellow fellows”. We did our best to keep everyone relaxed, enthusiastic, focused, and on schedule.  In the end, we were both honored to have been chosen to as the first peer project leads, and to have partnered with the Mayor’s Office to help serve our City’s local business community.

Click here to view the online directory, “Do.It.Dream.It.Detroit”, and check out a Detroit small business you have never visited before!

This blog was written by Year 4 Fellows and Challenge 1 Project Coordination Leads, Gabriela Santiago-Romero and Devon O’Reilly.