Question: Tell us your favorite way to give back in Detroit.
Answer: My favorite way to give back in Detroit has to be the plethora of school-centric community service projects available. I have a strong belief in the importance of education as a building block both at the micro-level for individual success and at the macro-level for societal stability. After serving for a year with City Year Detroit in 2011-2012 and seeing first-hand how much the city’s young people can benefit from having their surroundings improved, I am always happy to join service opportunities that center around education. Challenge Detroit has participated in the 100 Houses Project, worked with Matrix Human Services, and joined United Way on Service Days in order to develop safe, usable spaces for young people.
Kathy (back row, third from left) and other fellows at the 100 Homes Volunteer Day.
Kathy (front row, bottom left) and other fellows volunteered to help renovate the Osborn Community Center gymnasium.
One of the best aspects of our hands-on service project with United Way was the fact that it was hosted at Harper Woods High School – the school that I served at with City Year – and I was able to work side-by-side with students I’d tutored and mentored the year before.
Question: What do you enjoy about our community team challenges, the “Give” component of our program?
Answer: The ‘Give’ component of our program, the community challenges, is one of my favorite aspects of Challenge Detroit. These challenges offer an unparalleled opportunity to learn about the issues facing our city from an in-depth, insider perspective. Although it’s easy to hear about and volunteer with organizations like United Way, it’s not every day that I have an opportunity to learn in detail about what it’s like to work for the United Way and be on the front lines of the fight against poverty in Detroit. Without the perspective gained through our team challenges, I would never have known just how many people and groups are dedicated to identifying and eradicating the deepest-seated problems in our region.
On a less serious note, I also greatly enjoy the opportunity to work with the 28 other Challenge Detroit Fellows! The Fellows are all hilarious and intelligent folks who make even all-night deliverable finalization way more fun than it should be.
Question: What makes Detroit’s giving opportunities unique?
Answer: The most amazing thing about Detroit’s giving opportunities is the continuity that lies between each project. When it comes to community service, it is all-too-easy to lose sight of the bigger picture surrounding each unique activity – cleaning up a street here, painting some murals there. In Detroit, however, the city’s various organizations are tightly-knit enough that it’s fully possible to engage in a service project to clean up a street one day and then return with another group to paint a mural on the newly-bare wall a month later. This kind of connection between projects and organizations means that service in Detroit takes on a large-scale, long-term meaningfulness that is deeply inspiring. Giving in Detroit means participating in weaving the history of the city itself, and that makes the experience both rewarding and almost addictive – which keeps us all giving back!
Question: What else would you like to share about giving in Detroit?
Answer: It’s shockingly easy to get involved in the community in Detroit! All it takes is googling ‘community service Detroit’, checking in on United Way’s website, or stopping in at D:Hive (or Eastern Market, coffee shops, school offices, or any other place where people gather) to find out what’s going on in your neighborhood. Grab a flyer, sign up for a day of service, and join in the story of our fantastic city!
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Contributed by fellow Kathy Tian