Volunteerism in Detroit: A [RE]Generation Strategy from HAA on Vimeo.
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An army of volunteers. In Detroit, volunteerism is a catalyst for change. We accomplish change by performing change, and the unique legibility of these efforts is striking within Detroit’s urbanscape. Established throughout Detroit, various non-profit volunteer organizations and their dedicated, creative volunteers have successfully regenerated many facets of our City. This legion of volunteers has provided the impetus for positive marketing campaigns, entrepreneurial endeavors, and formal urban redevelopments.
These positive interventions inspire and motivate others to contribute to our City. And so, we ask ourselves…
How can we facilitate regeneration?
How can we become the vehicle for Detroit’s transformation?
On June 15th, lecturesHAA celebrated its one-year anniversary by hosting an event aimed at answering these questions. Entitled “VOLUNTEERISM IN DETROIT: A (Re)generation Strategy”, this event provided a venue for six local non-profit volunteer organizations
Young Detroit Builders
Detroit Synergy
Greening of Detroit
Preservation Wayne
Architecture for Humanity
Summer in the City
to present and discuss their origins, inspirations, and bodies of work within the City of Detroit. Initially, the organizations demonstrated themselves as unique, outlining their specific programs, and then documenting their commendable efforts on a common base map of our City. Between these six local organizations over 10,000 volunteers are utilized each year within the City of Detroit. En masse, their projects influence 60 square miles of the city. The collective scope, breadth and impact of these projects are striking. Click here to view the Volunteerism Areas of Influence Mapping.
Imagine if we were able to calculate the impact of every single volunteer effort from every single non-profit organization? What if we then added the contributions of all the for-profit corporations that organize monthly or yearly volunteer days? What statistics would we calculate? How much of the city is affected? How densely populated would our map be then?
As revealed in the second half of the evening, this volunteer energy actively works towards Detroit’s regeneration. Four main themes focused the panel discussion:
Detroit’s Volunteer Organization Model. In their origins, many of the non-profit volunteer organizations based their organizational structure upon a sister non-profit from another city. As they developed these organizations evolved away from their origins. In all cases, the once generic non-profit template became inextricably linked to Detroit specific issues. And now, these organizations (and their strategies) could be applied towards other rust-belt cities, acting as a regeneration model for other post-industrial cities.
Struggling with the Economy. In the best of financial times, Detroit can still be easily defined as a city “in need”. These last few years of national financial crisis have had profound effects on the volunteer organizations. Ironically, as more and more citizens lose their jobs, the requests for help increase exponentially, but so does the size of the volunteer base willing to work for a greater cause. Unfortunately, with each passing year, each organization has more volunteers than it has funding to organize.
Rightsizing Detroit. Using the final volunteer “area of influences” map as reference, the panel was asked about the forthcoming efforts to “rightsize” Detroit. The organizations noted the importance of participation, and remarked that perhaps their efforts and objectives could influence a new comprehensive plan for Detroit, rather than being told where they should focus their work.
Detroit and the Media. Even with the past year’s intensively focused national media interest, none of the organizations (or their efforts) have received any national media coverage. None have been asked for interviews, comments, or their story. Many of the organizations have attempted to contact the media in response to their stories, in hopes of balancing the more aggressively negative perspectives portrayed to the world. None have received a response.
Applause for the army. It is hard to ignore the passion and enthusiasm of tens of thousands of dedicated volunteers, the dedicated funding to the volunteer efforts, and the obvious effects resulting from combining these two ingredients. The following organizations presented during the June 15th event. In many cases, their individual regeneration strategies simply and beautifully improved the physical urbanscape of Detroit. In other situations, their regeneration strategies aimed towards benefiting certain socio-economic demographics, giving the youth of Detroit opportunities to learn skill sets that may guide them through troublesome teenage years. Regardless of their temporal (???) influences, their dedication and loyalty to the city of Detroit should be commended, loudly. For further information on each of the organizations, please check their websites or email info@roguehaa.com.
In addition, Dig In Detroit, Slows BBQ, and Cliff Bells volunteered equipment, supplies, and their energy towards the success of this event.
