As the Challenge Detroit year quickly wraps up, I can’t help but reflect on how much has changed in just one year. I could not have anticipated how much I would have grown in my personal and professional life, or how much I would have learned by diving headfirst into the world of design thinking, or how amazing my Impact Project Partner would be.

For my last and final project, I worked with United Community Housing Coalition (UCHC), which is the premier tax foreclosure prevention nonprofit in the heart of Detroit. The work that UCHC does in the state of Michigan is unparalleled because their sole mission is to keep people in their homes, and they do it phenomenally.

UCHC hustles every day by providing housing assistance to low-income residents, so when I began co-designing this project with my Partner Liaison, the amazing Sarah Hoerl, we knew we wanted to create a deliverable that would celebrate UCHC’s great work. As the project evolved through the design thinking process, we found that an internal newsletter would help employees stay up-to-date on what was happening between all departments, while also building a stronger community by recognizing birthdays, organizational wins, and fun events that are happening in Detroit.

The goal of this newsletter is to unify all the departments by fostering connectedness among employees, and I can’t wait to see what UCHC does with the newsletter. It has been an incredibly impactful project and I am so grateful I was able to work alongside UCHC!

To learn more about UCHC, visit their website today: https://www.uchcdetroit.org/