This blog was written by project coordination leads, Jessy Wang and Jazmyn Becker

The diverse landscape of education in Detroit mirrors the diverse skillset the Year 3 Fellows brought to the Education Empowerment Challenge. With six former teachers, two former City Year Corps Members, and many more involved in education prior to Challenge Detroit, the Fellows were more than excited to dive into this challenge. Over the past five weeks, we had the privilege of partnering with six Detroit nonprofits all centered on education. Below we will outline our partners and the work we did to support each:

Detroit Food Academy uses food and social entrepreneurship to empower local youth to develop their own triple-bottom-line food businesses. The Fellows designed and built a one-of-a-kind mobile cooking cart that will be used to facilitate cooking classes in elementary schools. Now local high school students can share their culinary skills, knowledge and passion with young elementary students across the city!

Detroit Achievement Academy (DAA) is a free K-2 public school focused on expeditionary learning. As a school committed to its kids, families, and communities, DAA tasked its Fellows with creating a marketing and community engagement strategy to help them better integrate into their neighborhood. By immersing themselves in DAA’s unique culture (Fellows attended the 2^nd graders’ “Celebration of Learning”, the “Morning Community Crew Meetings”, and more), Fellows were able to create a robust asset report and community engagement collateral that aligns with DAA’s core values.

The Future Project unlocks the greatness in young Americans by empowering students to launch “Dream Projects” – initiatives that transform their schools and communities. The Fellows worked with Da’Jon Johnson, a senior at East English Village Preparatory Academy, to develop a job shadowing program that will pair his peers with mentors in the workforce and insight into various career paths. Beginning in April, over 20 Detroit high school students will begin job shadowing with mentors from the Challenge Detroit network.

Wayne County Community College District (WCCCD)is a network of six community college campuses serving 70,000 students in the metro Detroit region. Fellows developed a strategic plan for WCCCD to help launch Year Up – an established job training and professional development program for students aged 18-24 – as part of the College’s larger community engagement strategy. At the final presentation, Fellows had the opportunity to present their recommendations to several key stakeholders at WCCCD’s downtown campus, including a Year Up implementation proposal and corporate partnership assessment.

Balancing a checkbook and creating a budget are vital skills that every adult needs. Junior Achievement of Southeastern Michigan brings business professionals to the classroom and students to the Junior Achievement (JA) Finance Park to provide youth with “real life” financial simulations. Fellows developed a comprehensive marketing strategy to help grow JA’s volunteer and alumni network. By introducing JA to tools like HootSuite and IFTTT, Fellows provided their partner with integrated, user-friendly social media platforms to market to young alumni.

Youth Energy Squad (YES), a program of EcoWorks, cultivates the next generation of green leaders by engaging youth in hands-on service learning projects to make their homes, schools and communities more sustainable. Fellows created branding and marketing materials to help Youth Energy Squad better tell their story to prospective partner schools. We were thrilled to hear that YES has already begun using the Fellows’ deliverables in their day-to-day work!

Education in Detroit is an ever-changing landscape, and these nonprofits are playing a pivotal role in helping students, families and communities achieve success. Thank you to our partners for giving us the opportunity to learn about the amazing work they do and contribute innovative deliverables to support their missions.

Check out our forthcoming Challenge 3 Recap video produced by talented Year Three Fellows Ben Breuninger and Hannah Mills to learn more!