Ali and I are doing some great work with ProsperUS, but I haven’t really thought much about the full scope of our projects. The great thing about our projects is that they have a seemingly direct connection to the Detroit community. ProsperUS works with entrepreneurs in underserved neighborhoods of Detroit by offering them entrepreneur training, technical assistance, and microloans. One of the projects we’re working heavily on is to showcase the incredible stories of entrepreneurs connected to ProsperUS in a photo series called, “People of ProsperUS”. For this project, we meet with entrepreneurs that have received funds and technical assistance from ProsperUS and interview them about their company, being a small business owner, and how ProsperUS impacted their business. We then go on to post their interview on our social media accounts and website, publicizing their business to the greater community of ProsperUS followers. So far, we have interviewed 6 owners of small businesses and have posted 4 interviews.
Daune Smith runs a fashion company called Visual Noise and is a talented fashion designer; JaTara Wright runs a marketing company called Innovative Marketing Artistry; Nicole Scott runs a social media marketing company called Cloudburst Visions Consulting; Walter Winesberry runs a company called Maximize Autistic Potential and offers a protocol to help autistic children.
It’s great to see the support from the community to these owners on our social media accounts. We are marketing their small businesses to a larger community, which I believe is a great way to impact a community. I believe the success of small businesses is the key to sustained economic growth in Detroit and I am thankful for the opportunity to be a small part of its growth.
In addition to this project, another activity that Ali and I participate in at work that I think serves the Detroit community rather well is our work at the Adult Learning Lab in Southwest Detroit. In an effort to tackle the problem of adult literacy in Southwest Detroit, Southwest Solutions created the Adult Learning Lab. The lab offers GED preparation, ESL instruction, academic and career counseling, and more. The Learning Lab is a valuable resource that residents of Southwest can use to further their education and further their careers in a number of ways.
Last Tuesday afternoon, we volunteered at the Learning Lab to help the class with their GED preparation in the areas of Language Arts and Social Studies. This is a worthwhile experience and it opens your eyes to the problem of adult literacy in Detroit. Improving the education of the workforce is something that accelerates the economic and technological growth of Detroit and this Learning Lab is a step in the right direction. These are some of the ways I believe the projects we partake in affect the community.