For our fourth and last challenge of the 2022-2023 program year, we partnered with Teen HYPE, a nonprofit that works alongside Detroit area youth (12-24) to celebrate them and build collective power, agency, leadership, and critical skills—making it possible for them to enact positive change in their lives and communities. Five teams of Fellows worked alongside the Teen HYPE staff, Detroit 4 Youth (D4Y) consultants and stakeholders including youth to create deliverables focused on the Detroit Youth Action Plan (DYAP) for this project – learn more from the perspective of each team!

For our last Challenge Project, we had the honor to learn about the youth development ecosystem within Detroit. We learned from one of the driving forces for youth development and our project partner, Teen HYPE, about the Detroit Youth Action Plan and how we as fellows can help make an impact. Our team was tasked with answering the design question “How might we engage the philanthropic community to support the Youth Action Plan?”

In our discussions with stakeholders and our partners we recognized why there were challenges in informing and engaging these types of entities. The Detroit Youth Action Plan is not yet completed, which can pose problems when asking corporations and other organizations for buy-in. We needed to show the corporations, government entities, foundations, and beyond how they can be involved in the implementation of the DYAP  and why their support is crucial to the success of Detroit Youth and ultimately the city as a whole. 

With this goal and the illustrative words of Lindsey Barrett “Get them to see how they are a piece of the puzzle and how they are needed to complete the picture”, we developed the slogan Detroit Investing in Detroit Youth. This statement, along with visuals, recommendations, and proposed strategy provided by our team aims to guide Teen HYPE in engaging the philanthropic community; Inspiring them to not just be investors within Detroit, but to invest in Detroit. 

Blog by Fellow Team: Livia Stine, Kyra O’Guinn, Katherine Kenney, Nathan Schooner, Caroline Reed

***