When I think about my year as a Challenge Detroit fellow, I am grateful for the breadth and depth of knowledge I’ve gained, and for the relationships I have formed.  To explain “what Challenge Detroit is” has been challenging for me this year, but I think that my final blog post as a fellow serves as a good platform for another attempt:

Challenge Detroit is “a leadership and professional development program that invites approximately 30 of tomorrow’s leaders to live, work, play, give, and lead in and around the greater Detroit area for one year.”

To break this down, Challenge Detroit has several layers:

FELLOWS:  Challenge Detroit Fellows come from a wide variety of backgrounds.  The only requirement is that you have a college degree.  To become a fellow, an individual has to participate in an extensive application process that is broken into 4 phases.  Throughout the phases, the applicant explains their past experience and why they want to be part of the revitalization efforts in Detroit.  In the interview phase of the application process, the applicants are “matched” to interview with relevant Host Companies that are looking to hire them for the year.  At that point, the interviewees that have good connections with Host Companies are hired as a Fellows.

HOST COMPANIES: Host Companies are organizations in the Metro-Detroit area that the Challenge Detroit Leadership team has developed partnerships with.  These organizations have agreed to hire a Challenge Detroit fellow for one year.  The fellows work for their respective host company Monday-Thursday every week, leaving Fridays for the fellows to work with the Challenge Detroit team on what we call, “Challenges”.

CHALLENGES: On Fridays, all of the fellows meet together as a large group to work on our Challenges.  Each Challenge is centered around a theme that is relevant in Detroit.  These themes have included, Community Engagement, Transportation, Health Disparities, Land Use, Public Safety and more.

To make a tangible impact,  the Challenge Detroit Leadership team partners with a Non-Profit that is working to find solutions related to the theme our Challenge is centered around.  Before the fellows are brought into the project, the Challenge Detroit Leadership Team and the Non-Profit Partner develop specific projects for the fellows to do.

On the first Friday of our Challenges, the fellows embark on Empathy activities so that we understand the theme we are focusing on.  To accomplish the projects designed by the Challenge Detroit Leadership Team and the Non-Profit Partner, the fellows are broken into teams that are assigned specific “deliverables”.

What is a deliverable? In my experience, deliverables have included promotional and/or educational videos, graphic design materials, implementation plans, website design and more.

LOGISTICS OF THE CHALLENGE: We spend 5 weeks focused on each theme with our Non-Profit Partner.  The first 4 weeks are working Fridays.  On the 5th week, we present our solutions to the Non-Profit Partner and other relevant stakeholders.  On the 6th week, we have a leadership Friday that focuses on professional development.

OTHER INFO: The only other things to know about the program are:

• All Fellows must live within the city limits of Detroit
• As part of our commitment to the fellowship, each fellow completes 4 hours of volunteer work per month (outside of our Challenge Fridays)
• At the end of each month, we fill out a report that recaps our experience
• We also write monthly blogs to share our experiences

I hope this blog post clarifies the program.  However, if it doesn’t, feel free to reach out to me or any other Challenge Detroiter for more information.

I’ll miss you Challenge Detroit!