For our second challenge of the 2021-2022 program year, we were honored to partner with Marygrove Conservancy, a nonprofit organization with a mission to preserve the legacy of Marygrove College through equitable stewardship of a campus that exemplifies excellence in education, serving Northwest Detroit and the city overall. Eight teams of Fellows collaborated with the Marygrove team – led by COO Racheal Allen and Program Manager Turkessa Baldridge – along with community stakeholders over seven-weeks. Learn more from the perspective of each team! 

 

It felt like it took us forever to get here. The holidays, the vacation, the Leadership Fridays, it all created a chasm between our first and second project that I didn’t expect. The level of anticipation and nervousness was similar to what I experienced as I tried wrapping my head around the first challenge. Thankfully, it quickly became clear that I was doing my usual song and dance of over-analysis. We had all been here once before and although the tasks felt herculean, our minds had retained valuable lessons- the most important of them being that we had the tools to succeed. The stretch between our first and second project began to shrink and the familiarity of the Design Thinking Process returned as our group broke down our central question- “How might we build awareness of culture-bearers in the Live6 communities?”

As we entered the Empathy phase, it seemed that each of us- Callie, Aaron, Gabrielle, Marisol, and Selene- had different interpretations of our central question. The more we discussed, the more questions arose about needs, gentrification, equity, sustainability, and access. We began our interviews with an arsenal of questions but many of them fell to the wayside as the process did what it was meant to do. Through their passion and honesty, our interviewees shared experiences depicting the barriers they face in regards to visibility, not only to external communities but to one another. “I don’t need help promoting my work. I need help finding a mentor to develop my community projects,” said Tiff Massey, a local artist, as she spoke about a building she acquired to give youth in the Live6 area access to studio spaces. After nine interviews it was clear that the real challenge was creating a self-sustaining strategy that could meet the many needs of a dynamic community, not a how-to guide to create a social media post. 

As we expanded our idea of a tool-kit beyond the parameters of self-promotion, we felt propelled to explore online tools with which we were not familiar. Aaron had the brilliant idea to experiment with Google Sites. We created an annex site for Marygrove Conservancy that housed educational and practical resources, an open-source section for community members to contribute their knowledge, and seamlessly integrated work from other groups like the ECO map created by the Ecosystem Mapping Team. Through all our planning, dissecting, research, and discussions, the process brought our work to a clean and simple solution. Not surprisingly, one of our interviewees advised us to K.I.S.S. (Keep It Simple Stupid) from the very beginning, but in a much more gracious way. Bethany Howard, Climate Equity Coordinator from the East Side Community Network, said “It’s not always about thinking outside the box, sometimes it’s much more simple.”

Like the gap from the first to the second challenge, the journey to developing our project for Marygrove Conservancy felt extensive until the moment we got it done. In retrospect, the time flew by but I’m certain that the lessons of valuing simplicity and trusting the process will stay to strengthen our next two projects.   

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