For the month of April the Challenge Detroit Fellows had the pleasure of collaborating with Detroiters Working for Environmental Justice in laying the groundwork for their Clean Air Campaign targeting small businesses in Detroit. To gain more understanding of the issues surrounding clean air, our challenge began with a Toxic Tour of the city, which allowed the fellows to learn about some of the greatest environmental injustices within the city, as well as efforts being led to create a greener city. On the bus tour we were able to see how different neighborhoods were each facing different challenges, from the constant truck traffic in Southwest Detroit to the incinerator in Midtown/Downtown. The tour gave us a sense of how it would be essential to address each neighborhood in a manner specific to the problems it is facing. From our tour it was clear that while access to clean air free of dust, chemicals, odors, and other pollutants is something that every person deserves, in our city it is disproportionately denied to citizens in some of our most ignored neighborhoods. As a result these neighborhoods have much higher rates of asthma, cancer, and other chronic illnesses.

To address the issues specific to each neighborhood we split into 5 teams: Southwest, 48217, Northeast, Lower East, and Midtown/Downtown. Each team was given contacts within their communities to help connect them with the small businesses that the Clean Air Campaign would be targeting. Following the Toxic Tour, the next two Fridays were spent connecting with our community contacts, developing campaign ideas/materials, as well as gathering some initial feedback from businesses. On our final Friday, April 26, teams spent the day implementing their pilot campaigns. The Midtown/Downtown team had a plethora of materials to allow businesses to interact with their customers about clean air and created an approach for businesses to set monthly clean air goals that they would meet.  Team 48217 spent the day at Save-a-Lot, where the business owner offered them space to set up a table during the pilot campaign. The fellows were then able to distribute information, test campaign materials, and provide an interactive demonstration about Clean Air in Detroit to the shoppers during the afternoon. Not only did the fellows test out different campaigns with the businesses, the teams were also able to provide recommendations for approaching/messaging businesses for DWEJ to use in the future.

As the teams returned from the day for a discussion with DWEJ, it was clear the day had been a success. The majority of businesses the fellows interacted with were interested in participating in a future campaign and wanted to know what else they could do to help. Going forward it seems that small businesses will play an important role in helping achieve access to clean air for all of Detroit’s citizens. We cannot wait to see DWEJ’s next steps in this campaign!

Contributed by fellows Sam Brennan and Caroline Gersch