Challenge Detroit encompasses quite a lot from our monthly blogs to cultural events, but foundational to the Challenge Detroit experience are our five week Challenges. This Challenge our topic was neighborhood activation, and we worked in partnership with the Detroit Collaborative Design Center in the Fitzgerald neighborhood. Be sure to check out the Challenge Detroit blog for a more comprehensive look at the Challenge and all of the awesome deliverables the fellows created!
For this challenge, I was honored to be selected by my peers as Project Coordination Lead, alongside my dear fellow fellow, Elizabeth Grabowski. In short, as PCLs, we oversaw each team’s designing, prototyping and iterating of their various deliverables, all while managing communications between teams, the DCDC, community groups and Challenge Detroit leadership. As I’m sure past PCLs can attest, this turned out to be no easy task! 
Here are some of my key takeaways from the experience:
- Set reasonable goals!
Elizabeth and I had the advantage of having witnessed PCL leadership in three previous Challenges. When we got started, we had a good idea of what PCLs were responsible for and as a result, from the get-go, Elizabeth and I had two main goals for our Challenge. We decided that, if anything, we wanted to create a new PowerPoint template for our final presentation and we wanted more community stakeholders to participate in our Tweet Chat. Both of these were reasonable and achievable and we’re proud of our results!
- Be forgiving!
A unique aspect of this Challenge was the variety of community stakeholders, from schools to community associations. This meant that there was quite a lot of regular communication between teams and local leaders and organizations, and so it was often difficult for Elizabeth and me to be constantly in the loop. With so many moving parts rolling at once, it was hard to keep up with all of our teams’ efficient progress. So we quickly learned that we needed to be flexible and forgiving — all while trusting on our entire group’s collective vision for the neighborhood.
- Lead with love!
Amid the Challenge, it was critical for me to step back and remember why I was so passionate about this topic. At the heart of it, I am passionate about a strong community’s ability to empower individuals and create a more just world. When I remembered this, I also remembered how paramount love is in a strong community’s creation. This was then my challenge: how to lead with love. As this lesson is certainly part of my ongoing journey as a leader, I am so grateful for the opportunity to put this in action among my friends/peers/fellow fellows as PCL.