For our first challenge of the 2022-2023 program year, we were excited to partner with Detroit at Work, the City of Detroit workforce development agency, powered by Detroit Employment Solutions Corporation, a Michigan Works! Agency. Five teams of Fellows worked collaboratively with Detroit at Work (DaW) and the Community Health Corps (CHC) staff as well as community stakeholders to deliver this project – learn more from the perspective of each team!
Beginning the first Challenge project – and using the Design Thinking process – for the first time was daunting. It was accompanied by a level of uncertainty that, at times, we were not sure how to approach. However, we were continuously reminded of how important embracing uncertainty is during the design process, especially when it came to reaching outcomes that we may not have initially believed were possible.
Our team was tasked with addressing the design question: “How might we create and maintain a Community Resource Manual across Detroit at Work’s various programs?” The design process, in answering our project team design question, taught us to listen to stakeholders and allow their insights to guide our work. By doing so, our team was able to construct effective and accurate community resource manual deliverables that Detroit at Work (DaW) could potentially implement to meet the needs raised by the stakeholders.
Our stakeholder interviews offered insight into the current Community Health Corps (CHC) resource manual and opportunities for growth. Our project goal, in the words of CHC Case Manager Dion Shepherd, was “to get people to a sovereign state.” By recognizing what DaW and CHC do well, our team was able to understand the need for streamlined avenues of communication between DaW and CHC, refined categorization of resources and the process, and continuous improvement of the manual.
Our final recommendations and deliverables included a project management dashboard, suggestions for new community partner categories, a sample evaluation survey and plan to improve ease of use, and so much more. With these recommendations we hope DaW and CHC can take their current work even further and ultimately better serve residents.
We would be remiss not to thank our liaisons, CHC, and DaW. Our team liaisons were instrumental in encouraging us to continue to push ourselves and reminded us how valuable our ideas are. We are grateful that this experience has equipped us with the confidence to approach future projects with the Design Thinking process.
Community Resource Manual team reviews ideas before continuing with the next round of ideation
Written by Fellow Team: Megan Pham, Amani Abuelenain, Diamonique Thomas, Daniel Arini, Kellie Wasikowski, and Victor Martinez
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