I’m A Community Action Hero for Health

Lauren Stock, age 13, is an eighth grader at Greenhill School in Dallas, Texas. Outside of school and High School Heroes, she dances, plays softball and is involved at her synagogue. She is a 2011 generationOn Excellence in Leadership and Service awardee, an honor that recognizes young people’s impact on local, national and global communities and inspires those around them to do the same.

When I was 9, my mom was diagnosed with t-cell lymphoma, a rare form of blood cancer. My mom’s treatment included more than 600 hours of chemotherapy and extended hospital stays. In addition, the doctors said she needed a stem cell transplant to survive. I didn’t know anything about a stem cell transplant and neither did the rest of my family.

We needed a complete stranger to donate healthy blood cells to save my mom’s life. And so the international search began to find her the perfect donor. Her donor coordinator at M.D. Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, Texas, looked through the National Marrow Donor Program databases daily, but no one was found.

My family planned a bone marrow registry drive to find a donor. A few days before our drive, a match was found. But we understood that the drive was not just about my mom; there were many people in the world who needed a donor, so we stepped up our efforts to recruit volunteers and potential donors. We had hundreds of volunteers sign up to help at the drive. To spread the word, I went to all of the first through fourth grade classes to explain what was happening and how the students could help by telling their parents to come to the drive. I also had each class decorate “Get Well” banners for my mom and “Thank You” banners for potential donors.

At our donor drive on March 29, 2009, more than 800 potential donors registered for the National Marrow Donor Program (NMDP), and we raised thousands of dollars. People learned what it meant to be a donor. It is an easy cheek swab to get registered and a big commitment to be ready if identified as a potential match.

Just days later, my mom moved to Houston and received her stem cell transplant at MD Anderson. The stem cell transplant took only 20 minutes, and these were her life-saving minutes.

After many months, my mom was introduced to Keith, the stranger who saved her life, and he immediately became part of our family. Keith registered 13 years earlier at a college donor drive and had never been a match before. He didn’t know who he was saving and it didn’t matter to him. He saved my mom’s life and he is my hero forever.

Now, three years later, my mom has fully recovered and is healthier than ever.

Through my mom’s illness and recovery, I understood the enormity of the need to increase the number of potential donors in the National Marrow Donor Program donor database. In the fall of 2010, I started a program at my school, Greenhill School, called High School Heroes. My goal is to educate students when they turn 18 on how they can make a difference by becoming a potential stem cell or bone marrow donor. I hope that my efforts to teach people about the donor registry as soon as they are eligible (age 18) will increase the number of potential donors and make a difference for blood cancer patients in the future.

My mom getting sick really changed my view on life. I realized how many people wanted to help but didn’t know how. I also realized that we all have the ability to save someone’s life – to cure cancer. Most people don’t know about bone marrow donation or what a big deal it is for a patient with blood cancer. I do, because without my mom I couldn’t be the girl I am today. I will always be so grateful to Keith. Her donor. The man who saved her life.

So what can you do?

Identify your passion. What do you want to make better in the world?
Develop a plan of action. What are you trying to accomplish, and what steps are you going to take to get there?
Recruit your friends, family and wider community to help you.
Realize that no matter how big or small the action, we all have the ability to make a difference.

This summer you can make your mark on the world and inspire others to do the same through generationOn’s Hasbro Community Action Heroes summer program. Visit communityactionheroes.generationon.org to find out more about the range of youth service projects you can get involved in, as well as the national recognition and prizes that you can win for your creativity and effort.

A Well-Deserved Reputation in Minneapolis

Minneapolis has long been considered a bastion of civic virtue, and for good reason. With the highest volunteer rate among large cities, the city understands the impact of giving back.

HandsOn Twin Cities – the longest operating volunteer center in the country – continues to find new ways to create change. I had the chance to meet with its board members and staff, led by Executive Director Kristin Schurrer, to learn more about their evolving work.

For those looking for innovative ideas, here are two: HandsOn Twin Cities will sponsor a speed-volunteering experience (think speed dating and you’ll understand the matching that goes on!) for 10,000 people at an event at the Mall of America. And the group will also launch a skills-based, done-in-a-day volunteer expo in the fall.

Minneapolis also has a rich history of corporate philanthropy. Since 1946, Target, which opened its first store in Minneapolis, has contributed 5 percent of its annual income to support families and communities. That philanthropic leadership continues to be the high-water mark among corporations nationwide and has influenced many other Minneapolis-based companies to give back. Along with Target, I had the chance to visit with General Mills, which engages its employee volunteers to combat hunger in Malawi, and Best Buy, which engages its employee volunteers to help teenagers explore the world of technology and even choose tech careers.

I also visited with my friend Paul Terry, CEO of Staywell Health Management. His group works with corporations to improve employee health and reduce health care costs. Paul and I have been collaborating on a journal article that compares some of the key lessons and intersections of the service and wellness movements. (Stay tuned for a look at the role of champions and incentives in both worlds.)

I met with Jenny Friedman, the author of “The Busy Family’s Guide to Volunteering” and founder of Doing Good Together, who is all about cultivating a new generation of citizen leaders. Jenny is launching a new web platform called Big-Hearted Families to help families find ways to cultivate empathic children – children who are engaged in volunteer service, understand the issues around them and are equipped for a lifetime of citizenship.

I’m also inspired by Hunger-Free Minnesota, which to my mind embodies the civic ambition of the city. By 2015, this statewide coalition plans to close Minnesota’s gap of 100 million missing meals annually and sustainably. The campaign has a staff of only two but will mobilize thousands of citizen volunteers to feed hungry neighbors and community members.

This kind of civic campaign, uniting sectors and mobilizing citizens toward concrete goals, is an exciting indicator of the future of Minneapolis — and the nation.

Check Your Ego at the Door

Today’s guest post, first of the Investing in Innovation series, is written by TJ Muehleman, co-founder and CTO of We&Co.

The Investing in Innovation blog series highlights world-changing ideas and startups and is made possible by the Civic Accelerator, a Points of Light and Village Capital venture. If you would like to have your civic-focused startup considered for inclusion, please inquire here.

As a graduate of Atlanta Village Capital and a soon-to-be-graduate of Georgia Tech’s Flashpoint, We&Co has the unique perspective of having gone through two different accelerators. So, I didn’t hesitate when I was asked to offer up my thoughts on what to keep in mind when doing an accelerator program.

For a young start-up, having the guidance, networking and opportunities that a program like this provides is invaluable. It’s also an opportunity to check your ego at the door. It’s staggering the sheer number of times we’re challenged on what we’re doing, asked difficult questions about our business model or told we’re this side of crazy for pursuing what we’re doing. Participating in an accelerator can also be maddening, frustrating and make you want to pull your hair out. So yeah, you get the best of both of worlds.

With that short intro out of the way, here are five things to keep in mind before entering an accelerator:

Prepare for brutally honest feedback. Yup, if you’re looking for kumbaya moments and unicorns, an accelerator ain’t the place for you. The role of an accelerator is to get you to challenge your assumptions, test them against the market and dump anything that is not working. And do that very quickly. The programs we’ve been part of have done a darn fine job of telling us how crappy our ideas are. How stinky our hypotheses are. How difficult it’s going to be to turn this “experiment” into a real business. They’re not telling you these things because they don’t like you; rather, they’re telling you because you need to hear it. Prepare yourself.

Move fast. Real fast. See number one above. You will not have time to marinate over decisions, give yourself three months to build the coolest new feature or six months to let the market mature. You have a very limited window of time to see if the market “pulls” you in a certain direction. So figure out how you can break your tests down into discrete parts that can be validated (or most likely invalidated) in a few days, or a week at most. Look at your development calendar in day- and week-long sprints to see if you can push smaller features out.

Take advantage of mentors and don’t be afraid to ask for help. Entrepreneurs are a proud bunch. They think they have all the answers and can solve every problem on their own. This is definitely something that plagued us early on (well, all the time). We didn’t ask for enough help. The beauty of an accelerator program is you’re surrounded by smart, capable people who have gone through this before. Ask for help. Get them to set up meetings for you. Tell them exactly which problems you’re encountering and ask for feedback. If they weren’t interested in helping, they wouldn’t be there, right?

Don’t forget who you are. This is something I’ve seen time and time again. Your job is to find a problem and fix it with your company. Your job is not to let every piece of advice sway you this way or that. This is a dilemma few if any really talk about when it comes to start-ups: everyone and their mother will tell you which way to go. Pivot here, pivot there, pivot everywhere. But your internal compass is the most important thing you need to listen to. Find a few key advisors you know and trust and listen to them. Everyone else, politely take their feedback and weigh with a grain of salt. Because, ultimately, it’s up to you to make your company work.

Have fun. Running your own gig is a blast – don’t forget that. You will have crappy days where everyone tells you your idea stinks. Customers will turn you down. You’ll lose a big contract. A few months back, we were having a really tough time and it showed. One of our biggest champions told us pretty plainly, “you guys are a bunch of downers. Get your s**t together boys.” And he was right. We’d stopped having fun and it showed. Remember: things will suck, but stick with it. Keep a positive attitude and do things that are fun.

Any questions or want feedback? Feel free to contact me: @tjmule or [email protected]

Not-So-Secret Salamanders in Milwaukee

Michelle Nunn continues her service tour with a stop in Milwaukee.

I must confess that my concept of Milwaukee was a bit trapped in old stereotypes. I was expecting a cold Midwestern city with musty factories and dusty breweries. That’s not what I got.

As we pulled in for a short visit, I was taken in by the fabulous lakefront parks, spectacular new Santiago Calatrava-designed Museum of Art, and the rivers winding through the cities with kayakers and scullers pulling into shore-side cafes and pubs. We discovered a Safe House spy restaurant with trapdoors and a password-only entry point that was great fun for kids and adults alike. It is a city of secreted charms.

The next morning, I got an equally pleasant surprise. As we pulled into Riverside Park, we discovered the Urban Ecology Center – a 20,000-square-foot environmental community center replete with a secret entry slide, a room full of Wisconsin animals that can be examined and held (the salamander was the favorite), a beehive, observation deck and a bicycle-operated fountain.

Imagine a traditional community center and then reimagine it as a drop-by urban ecological oasis with an equipment library of kayaks, bikes and snowshoes, a green space for families to play games and learn about their local environment, and an antidote to Chuck E. Cheese birthday parties.

This unique place was started by a group of neighbors who, in the 1990s, decided to take back Riverside Park, which had become degraded and crime-ridden. The neighbors worked together on park clean-ups and began an alliance to support the park. They hired their first executive director, one of their fellow volunteers, Ken Leinbach.

Ten years ago, they brought a trailer in to act as a hub for their activities and, over the last decade, they have created an extraordinary organization that now has three branches. Our family enjoyed a magical tour with volunteer coordinator Susan Winans. (Susan is an AmeriCorps Alum. It seems that every time I meet dynamic, new generation nonprofit leaders, they tell me they started their journey with AmeriCorps.)

We also were met and escorted by Bonnie Andrews, the manager the Volunteer Center of Greater Milwaukee, housed by the Nonprofit Center of Milwaukee. Bonnie and the Volunteer Center have been providing volunteer support to Riverside Park for years and have seen the organization’s transformation. Bonnie shared some of the familiar challenges the city faces, from unemployment to struggling school systems, and explained how the Nonprofit Center works to meet these needs with human capital, training, expertise and new resources.

As we literally dragged our kids away from the salamanders, slides and beehives, we talked with Ken, the social entrepreneur behind the Ecology Center, about the ingredients behind its success. Ken’s newest challenge: how to respond to the dozens of communities around the country and the world that want to do just what he did.

As I travel the country, I can literally see that so many of the answers to our problems lie in programs that already exist. Going to scale is Ken’s challenge right now, but it’s a challenge all of us face as we work to build a thriving civic society.

Business Behind the Scenes in Chicago

Michelle Nunn shares her experiences in Chicago on her Service Tour across country.

You can’t help but marvel at Chicago in the summertime. On an evening stroll from the Museum Campus down the lakefront and up through Grant Park to the new Millennium Park, you see extraordinary cultural institutions, beautiful parks, a lively street life and wonderful restaurants.

But what isn’t so visible – a collaboration of business, civic and government leaders, all determined to take on tough city problems in smart, new ways – is just as noteworthy.

Here are three organizations that are engaging business in innovative ways:

The Chicago Civic Consulting Alliance was founded more than 20 years ago to bring the expertise and leadership of the business community – pro bono – to bear on the challenges of leading and managing the city. Working with governmental leadership, Civic Consulting takes on meaningful challenges that can be effectively tackled with business resources, scopes the project and solicits from the business community the right skills and human capital to address the problem.

I had the chance to sit down and visit with Gillian Darlow and Alexander Gail Sherman, both members of the Alliance’s management team. They told me that Civic Consulting has leveraged more than $20 million of pro bono services from businesses ranging from Allstate Insurance to Edelman to U.S. Equities Realty. Their newest focus: public safety. By defining a macro community problem and giving businesses and skilled volunteers the opportunity to work together to solve it, they are creating a way for the larger community be a part of solving the city’s greatest challenges.

The Alliance’s model is now being copied in cities across the country, which is as it should be.

Chicago Cares fills more than 40,000 volunteer slots annually and partners with hundreds of corporations. Part of its secret sauce involves engaging volunteers from businesses and training them as project managers and leaders. In this way, volunteer engagement becomes not only a problem-solving project for the city, but also a team-building project for businesses and an important leadership development opportunity for employees. That’s a triple-win, to be sure.

Most recently, Chicago Cares has turned a simple model around – they bring the kids to the volunteers. As part of their Read-with-Me program, they bring children to the offices of General Growth Properties so employees can help kids with reading comprehension, pronunciation and vocabulary. While honing academic skills, the children get a chance to get outside their boundaries and into the workplace with caring adults.

I also met HandsOn Suburban Chicago’s Board President Tom Gaynor, who took time in between jobs to volunteer and put his skills to work, helping nonprofits figure out how to use volunteers to do mission-critical work. HandsOn Suburban Chicago is now working with dozens of nonprofits to outline high-impact volunteer projects involving marketing skills, financial analysis and human resources management. They are using VISTA AmeriCorps members and an RSVP program to mobilize and channel the passion and skills of experienced and talented volunteers to boost impact for those they serve.

Chris Smith, COO of HandsOn Suburban Chicago, told me that the organization itself has been transformed by adopting the principles of Reimagining Service‘s Service Enterprise model, bringing in talented volunteers to infuse new capacity, leadership and excitement into their own organization. They’re walking the walk.

Next time I come to Chicago I want to take the architectural tour – and a walking tour of volunteer successes.

Envisioning Pro Bono as the Future of Corporate Service

Today’s post is republished from the Billion + Change blog on July 19, 2012. This post was contributed by Michelle Nunn, CEO of Points of Light, and includes her reflections on A Billion + Change’s Forum at the White House on June 27, 2012.

Can you imagine a future where 500 companies decide to collectively lead social change and tackle the most pressing challenges of the 21st century through skills-based volunteer service (SBV)? This is the future that A Billion + Change discussed recently at a national forum at the White House, “A Billion + Change in Action: Connecting to the Future of Corporate Service.” I was honored to join with leaders like Valerie Jarrett, Senator Mark Warner and Jean Case at this forum, where A Billion + Change announced that 200 companies across the country have pledged an estimated $1.8 billion worth of skills-based services to help build nonprofit capacity.

This event was a turning point in our national service movement, in that it challenged each pledge company to look ahead at the powerful and transformational impact that 500 companies can one day have on society through skills-based volunteering. It also created a huge sense of enthusiasm and support for A Billiion + Change, and for scaling collaborative efforts to address social challenges through pro bono service.

There was a consensus among policymakers like Gene Sperling, Thomas Kalil, Racquel Russell, Jonathan Greenblatt and Wendy Spencer, as well as among CEOs from large, global corporations and small businesses that corporate skills-based volunteer programs have a critical role to play in our nation’s economic recovery. By helping nonprofit organizations become more sustainable and successful, corporate America is injecting valuable support to community-based organizations that are working every day to help veterans transition to civilian life, implement workforce development and job creation programs, improve education, and promote global development abroad.

Throughout the day, the recurring themes that business, civic and policy leaders kept echoing were: 1) How they could scale the impact of their service programs through collaboration, 2) How they could deepen and improve the quality of their nonprofit partnerships and 3) The importance of A Billion + Change as a national movement to inspire, connect and catalyze successes at the local level.

Inspiring pro bono success stories abound. Joe Echevarria, CEO of Deloitte, shared a personal example of growing up in the South Bronx and working his way up the corporate ladder at Deloitte. Today, he shares his life experiences with students during Deloitte’s Impact Days, and encourages underserved youth to believe in their ability to succeed. Deloitte recently announced that its commitment to pro bono services would rise to $110 million by 2015.

Hervé Humler, President & COO of The Ritz-Carlton Hotel Company, shared his company’s “Succeed Through Service” program, which has partnered with America’s Promise Alliance to stem the school drop-out crisis by engaging and inspiring at-risk middle school students. Since the program was launched in 2009, Succeed Through Service has improved the lives of 9,000 children around the world.

“By harnessing the skills, knowledge and experience of our employees to inspire and engage at-risk youth we are supporting schools in their mission to see young students flourish and remain in school – and we are mobilizing our workforce to give back to their local community. Joining A Billion + Change has helped us intensify our Succeed Through Service youth engagement efforts and challenged us to look at how we can expand the reach of our pro-bono efforts to make a greater impact,” he said.

Gregory Cotton, CEO of Cotton 7 Global Enterprises, discussed how he has instilled his passion for service, picked up from his days in the U.S. Army, into his own IT and secruity consulting business. Today, Cotton 7 engages its employees in volunteer service to improve environmental security abroad, such as improving access to clean water in Sudan, and strenthening workforce readiness among youth by working with nonprofits like Junior Achievement.

We have now set our signts on having A Billion + Change continue to tell the narrative of these successes to inspire others to improve their communities through service, and to catalyze change at scale by supporting regional and national collaborations. Civic Consulting Alliance, a Chicago-based organization that creates pro bono teams of government leaders and business experts to make cities more livable, affordable and globally competitive, is an example of how we can achieve impact at scale through collaboration. More opportunities also exist through national initiatives, such as Strong Cities, Strong Communitis and Grand Challenges.

How do we create a future where 500 companeis lead social change through pro bono service? How do we mobilize communities to tap into the skills and talents of businesses to address social needs? How do we inspire employees to grow professionally while championing causes they believe in? I invite you to join us in the months ahead as A Billion + Change continues to grow in energy and size as it catalyzes new partnerships and programs, and as it inspires the largest commitement of pro bono service in history.

In Service,

Michelle Nunn
CEO, Points of Light

Be an Environmental Community Action Hero!

Today’s post is written by Clay McMullen, 18, from northeastern Ohio who is a first-year student at Duke University in Durham, NC. He is the Founder of the Wetlands Education Team and a member of the 2011 PARADE All-America High School Service Team, an award recognizing outstanding young service leaders presented by PARADE Magazine in partnership with generationOn, the global youth service division of Points of Light. To read another environmental community action hero blog by Charles Orgbon check out today’s HandsOn Blog.

“Ewww. I’m not touching that stuff,” the kids always squeal. But, composted animal and human sewage can be valuable. Once it has been processed correctly, it doesn’t even have a bad smell. Don’t get me wrong, if you are looking to get together with friends and make some good happen in your community this summer, you can totally avoid touching disgusting stuff and still make a huge difference to the environment.

So, why in the world did I choose to work with waste? The cost and volume of disposal of waste in our area is rising and valuable soil nutrients are lost when the waste is put into landfills. I live in a rural area where many farms amass large piles of manure which can cause pollution problems. While there have been environmental concerns associated with the use of sewage sludge (biosolids) as fertilizer that had not been tested properly, the sludge turned compost is also filled with nutrients vital to plant growth. I’ve been experimenting with beneficial uses of this waste.

Around the world, sanitation problems are the cause of many types of disease, even death. The World Health Organization reports that problems associated with sanitation result in 4 percent of all deaths, and nearly 6 percent of all illnesses worldwide. Improving sanitation results improves the quality of water, air, land use and people’s effect on our climate. While trying to save the world should be reason enough to get to work, my community also had an immediate economic problem. Local garbage disposal fees have increased about 40 percent in the past year. As landfills reach capacity and tipping fees and gas prices are up, alternative, more beneficial uses of our region’s garbage are needed.

So we matched up farmers who had excess manure with community gardeners in the city who needed fertilizer. We taught students at our school and in our community to take compostable materials out of the waste stream, how to make compost and how to use it. We educated adults about how to use composted sewage in landscape applications. We backed up our talk with experiments that showed how compost can really improve growth of plants.

Most satisfying of all, we raised some money and helped a rural community in Ecuador set up their own garbage reduction and composting program. During Chugchilán, Ecuador’s rainy season, people who sort compostable items from recyclables and garbage were working in the rain or closing down the recycling center and dumping waste into inappropriate locations. We funded a covered sorting shed and locally-made adobe brick compositing bins to allow for year-round work. This center will serve as a model for surrounding communities.

You don’t have to work with waste. I use it as an example of reuse of otherwise unwanted material that was a problem in my town. You know the challenges your local community faces. So, c’mon environmental community action heroes, every little bit can make a large difference. The world needs your work and generationOn wants to hear about it.

This summer you can make your mark on the world and inspire others to do the same through generationOn’s Community Action Heroes summer program sponsored by Hasbro! Visit communityactionheroes.generationon.org to find out more about the range of youth service projects you can get involved in, as well as the national recognition and prizes that you can win for your creativity and effort.

Michelle Visits Battle Creek

Michelle Nunn makes a stop on her service tour at HandsOn Battle Creek.

When William Keith Kellogg established his foundation in 1930, he provided simple instructions: “Use the money as you please so long as it promotes the health, happiness and well-being of children.”

From the foundation’s inception, Battle Creek – founding home of the Kellogg Company and current home of the foundation – has enjoyed the bounty of W.K. Kellogg’s rich philanthropic tradition.

Here’s what impressed me most during my visit with Jim Pearl and his team at HandsOn Battle Creek.

A dental program with a twist: HandsOn Battle Creek runs a dental program for people who can’t afford dental care. But instead of the usual charitable care model where the “haves” simply give away free services to the “have-nots,” they require all players to contribute something. Dentists provide free dental services to patients who need them and, in return, the patients volunteer in the community. The program has reduced emergency room visits for dental pain by a stunning 80 percent.

A 2-1-1 call center: HandsOn Battle Creek runs a 2-1-1 call center, a terrific asset that allows people to call to give or get help. Last year, the center got 38,400 calls, an astounding number given the town’s population of just 55,000 residents.

School-based service-learning: Jim and his team are helping teachers build service-learning into the curriculum, making the school experience relevant and cultivating a new generation of citizen leaders. While I was visiting, HandsOn Battle Creek hosted nearly 30 teachers in a three-and-a-half day workshop organized with help from Kellogg Community College, the Michigan Nonprofit Association’s LEAGUE program and the Fisher Foundation, plus the hard work of two AmeriCorps VISTA members.

When I walked into the classroom where they were working, the teachers were buzzing with energy. They had just been to a local soup kitchen where they prepared a meal. And they were busy using generationOn‘s Learning to Give website to prepare a whole semester’s worth of curriculum and class materials. (Learning to Give offers more than 1,600 lesson plans that are aligned with Michigan’s state standards and the Common Core.)

Teachers I spoke with were enormously enthusiastic about the training, resources and tools they were finding to bring back to their classrooms. Kathy Roberts told me that the program had totally transformed her work as a teacher. She determined never again to teach her students “anything that is not directly and clearly relevant to the real world.” To her, service-learning isn’t an add-on, it’s a “bridge” to enliven and bring meaning to academic work.

This is exactly the kind of program that would be great to bring to scale. Imagine communities across the nation engaging teachers in lessons that bring philanthropy and service to life in practical ways and make academic work meaningful. For more, visit The LEAGUE Michigan’s website, http://www.mnaonline.org/league.aspx.

Coney Island Hot Dogs…in Detroit

Michelle Nunn continues her cross-country trip and writes about her time spent in Detroit, Michigan.

The Lafayette Coney Island Hot Dog Stand in downtown Detroit hasn’t changed much since it was founded in 1929. Menus aren’t really necessary – you can get hot dogs, chili, “loose” hamburgers and pie, and the servers take your order and yell to the kitchen how many “coneys” have been ordered.

When I was eating lunch there on my visit to Detroit, Asia, an enthusiastic 9-year-old girl, came to my table and explained that she was selling candles for $5 each. I asked her how many candles she could sell in a day and she replied, “If I talk to 100 people, I can sell 35, but if I am in the zone, I can sell 60.”

Asia became the face of Detroit’s future for me. The city is resilient, undaunted and optimistic, leaning into its entrepreneurial spirit and ready to take on a challenge.

With a 19 percent office vacancy rate and a city population that has shrunk from several million to less than 700,000, Detroit is a city that has to reimagine itself. New alliances are needed, along with new energy and a new form of civic renewal.

I was struck by both the enormity of the challenges that Detroit faces and the reservoir of optimism and determination of its citizen leaders. When I asked a group of leaders, who have come together in a collaboration called Serve the D, to rate on a scale of one to 10 their level of optimism about their ability to tackle the tough problems of the city, they all enthusiastically said 10 or even 11.

The group includes the city’s chief service officer, the Michigan Nonprofit Association led by my hosts Kyle Caldwell and Donna Murray-Brown, neighborhood and faith-based groups, and new generation approaches like Summer in the City. This diverse group of service leaders talked about the economic and racial rifts in the city and how central volunteer and civic engagement is in bridging differences and bringing the city together. Service, they said, is the essential ingredient for making tough decisions and finding the pathway forward.

Throughout my visit to Michigan, I was impressed by the rich civic infrastructure that undergirds its service work. Volunteer Centers of Michigan, the statewide volunteer association and network led by Diana Algra, supports and coordinates with 30 Michigan volunteer centers to embrace best practices and peer learning. In partnership with the Michigan Community Service Commission, led by Paula Kaiser VanDam, they have created a real model for collaboration at a statewide level, adopting HandsOn Connect as a unified technology platform, embracing the Reimagining Service Service Enterprise Model and focusing concerted energy in cities like Detroit. (Throughout the country, I have seen how a really small allocation of dollars from the Service Generation Fund is rippling out in creative investments and solutions.)

I walked into the D:hive in downtown Detroit, an initiative funded by the Hudson-Webber Foundation to accelerate the renaissance of this city. The D:hive is literally buzzing with activity – they give newcomers tours of the city to attract urban pioneers and run eight-week courses for entrepreneurs who want to start new businesses and civic ventures. Detroit has so much to offer, and D:hive helps newcomers find things in the city, from great jobs to community organizations.

I also saw how tough challenges can generate creative solutions. I met with my friend David Fike, who is the president of Marygrove, a small college serving largely first-generation college students. He and the leadership of this formerly women’s Catholic college have carried the institution into a new generation of growth and vitality by focusing on creating urban leaders. With a grant from the Kellogg Foundation, the college is revising its entire curriculum to develop leadership skills in each of its students and make Marygrove a significant leader in the drive to rebuild Detroit.

Back at the Lafayette Coney Island Hot Dog Stand, I asked Asia about school. “I love school, I love learning, and if I do well, I can help people,” she said. Given all the great leaders I met who are helping others in an effort to help Detroit, Asia will have a lot of company and, I hope, a lot of success.