Matthew Piper was born and raised in Harrison Township, a suburb in Michigan. He came to Detroit when he started his school at Wayne State University, and has not moved out of Detroit ever since. He loved his connections fostered in Detroit and has no plan to move in  the foreseeable future. He obtained his master's degree from WSU in librarianship and is passionate about connecting communities through information.  

At Green Garage, a shared workspace with heavy emphasis in sustainability, Matthew oversees overall operation and communication. At Green Garage, printing paper could be reused; there is no air conditioning, but rather a dehumidifying process; the bathroom lights are assumed to be off; the list goes on. Matthew himself barely purchases new items and usually practices repurposing and reducing single usage items to contribute to sustainable causes. Green Garage is tightly connected with El Moore Lodge, El Moore Gardens, and Seasons Market due to the founders: Tom and Peggy. While walking around with Matthew, he told me about how the entrance of El Moore Gardens came from an old water tower, and it now serves as a free space for public congregation. El Moore Garden has mostly, if not entirely, native Michigan native plants. He also introduced how the specific design of the garage is intentional in creating a more aesthetically pleasing community. 

Matthew enjoys his interactions with Detroit. He perceives Detroiters to have strong work ethics, and the city to have abundant opportunities for creativity. He loved the proximity to a lot of great lakes. He believes the sustainability movement in Detroit starts from the ground up. There used to lack leadership in sustainability but has seen increasing prioritization recently. Now that the city has an organization and starts to build infrastructure. Two of the most iconic ones being the riverfront and dequindre development. The riverfront used to be purely industrial with minimal emphasis on people, but it now serves as a great place for Detroiters to relax and socialize.  

Matthew founded a publication called Essay’d, which covers the Detroit contemporary art scene. He also writes for other publications that focus on Detroit arts and architecture. He wishes to close the gap between what artists wish to share in local space and what people are understanding: we are all inhabiting architecture and we ought to know more about it. 

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“MoGo is a Detroit-based non-profit organization that strives to serve a wide range of people and needs. Whether by offering affordable pass and payment options, providing innovative programming that promotes health, safety, and connectivity, or forming partnerships with other organizations to reduce barriers to biking.”  

Over the last three weeks, interning at MoGo, working closely with Adriel Thorton, the Executive Director and Jacob, Rory and Jeremy, respective managers of Program, Logistics and Marketing, I have seen this mission of equitable transportation come to fruition, both in thought and action. 

In terms of thought: whether it’s sitting in on board meetings who’s unwavering, primary focus remains “transportation for all”, or personally hatching ideas to increase usage of MoGo bikes by a diverse community–different races, ages, regions, nationalities, physical and mental capabilities, MoGo is constantly attempting to transform this startup into a social-platform where detroiters can come together, transcend these superficial barriers and explore all that Detroit has to offer. Each meeting, each brainstorming session, and each upcoming change is planned and executed with the idea of equity behind it. Contrary to most transportation agencies around the world, whether its cars, trains, buses or bikeshares, their growth is determined and derived from the monetary profits the company makes. MoGo however, the blooming lotus of change in these muddy waters, emerges as a beacon of hope for the underserved and underprivileged communities who are unable to actively participate in society due to lack of resources, one of them being the ability to commute in a cost effective way. 

In terms of Action: Our work with MoGo is four-fold–Create a Revised Annual Survey for Casual and Member Users, Create a Consulting Proposal to increase usage of the Transit App specifically, and MoGo in general, determine the effectiveness of the SendinBlue Email Automation Platform, and finally enhance the working of the RiderPerks Program. While at surface level, all these tasks seem purely business motivated, upon digging deeper one can find the hidden hues of social change embedded into them. Our revised survey includes particular questions targeted towards the Adaptive Mogo consumer base as well the Access Pass user base, and asks for program specific feedback from both these, often neglected, communities of society. Our consulting proposal again involves particular events for the aforementioned communities as well as aims at bridging the gap between the disadvantaged and senior citizen community and the latest technology by promoting the Transit App through workshops on how to maneuver phones, apps, etc. Determining the most effective emails sent out by SendinBlue involves creating new email templates which not only include discounts and bonuses particularly for the vulnerable, but moreover for the community at large. And finally, Riderperks allows other aspects of Detroiters daily lives to become more affordable by targeting food and clothing businesses–necessities of everyday life that people constantly vie for to become more affordable. 

The goal is to make Detroiters view these resources–transportation, food, clothing, etc– as rights rather than luxury commodities; the mission is to raise the standard of living of every single member of the Detroit community through accessibility and affordability–the pillars of MoGo.

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​The relocation of major car manufacturers. “White flight” to the suburbs. Limited funding for inner city public needs. These political, social, and economic factors of Detroit’s decline in the 1950s left low-income and minority populations in the city to struggle with increasing levels of poverty, creating economic inequalities between the city and suburbs. Even today, around 77% of people currently living in Detroit are Black or African American and about 33% of the city’s population lives below the poverty line. In comparison, Oakland County, which encompasses Detroit’s north suburbs, has 14% Black or African Americans and only 8% of people living in poverty. This stark difference highlights the economic inequality still present in Detroit. Without innovative and equitable solutions and programs, Detroit’s vulnerable communities will continue to be marginalized and left behind.

One method to reduce economic inequality is through greater entrepreneurship in disadvantaged communities. The growth of local enterprises helps strengthen the local economy, provide more jobs to community members, and create more opportunities. An entrepreneur may be able to not only lift themselves out of poverty, but also give back to their community by paying employees a livable wage. Thus, entrepreneurship in disadvantaged communities can help reduce economic inequality. However, lack of access to resources and support can create significant obstacles for entrepreneurs in Detroit’s disadvantaged communities. This is where TechTown steps in, providing training and advice to empower prospective entrepreneurs and to help them grow their business. 

My work at TechTown is to create a comprehensive evaluation of their major entrepreneurship programs and to give recommendations on how TT can improve their alumni engagement. Improving TT’s alumni engagement will help TT build a strong community of entrepreneurs in Detroit who are dedicated to supporting one another and staying involved with TT events. My work will also help TT reevaluate their flagship programs to ensure that they are still meeting the needs of the community. Because the challenges communities face are constantly changing and evolving, it is very important for community organizations like TT to continuously evaluate and revamp their entrepreneurship support programs. Otherwise, these major programs may become ineffective and out-of-touch with the community it is supposed to serve.

Detroiters are the closest to their own problems, so empowering them to pursue solutions through entrepreneurship can not only help reduce economic inequality, but also promote equitable and sustainable social impact. As such, my project with TT is significant to me because I am truly passionate about solving economic inequality through equitable, community-based approaches. I hope my experience in Detroit this summer will allow me to gain the knowledge and skills to continue pursuing my passion in the future.

Week 3: Prompt: Students complete projects all the time, but often do not realize the full scope of what they are doing.  Please write to how you are specifically serving the Detroit community through your project this summer.  Please think past the surface level on this and really dive into what you are doing in and for the organization and the city.

Blinking, I could feel the dryness of my eyes. Staring at the screen for hours, I scrolled through the loan data excel sheet one more time and quickly drew down the cases that needed to be reviewed.

My teammate and I have been working on this loan data cleaning project for the past week. Frankly, data transferring is not the most exciting project – it could be quite repetitive. Yet, we were hyper-focus to ensure the accuracy of all data points. Not only because those data contain sensitive information about our clients, but furthermore we understand how these individual loan cases could play an important role to ProsperUs and Detroit.

ProsperUs is a community economic development organization in Detroit. It strives to achieve economic equity in under-resourced communities by providing opportunities and capital to entrepreneurs. Specifically, ProsperUs supports local entrepreneurs with entrepreneurship training, business services, and microlending. The data cleaning project we are working on feeds into the work of the microlending team. Using those lending data, we will be able to assist the team to generate impact reports and apply for federal grants and private funds. Those funds then will be lent to current owners to expand their business and to aspired entrepreneurs to achieve their business dream.  Particularly, searching for employment could be a daunting task for returning citizens, and the microloan from ProsperUs can provide them with new opportunities.

ProsperUs not only helps residents to start their business adventure but also offers continuous support throughout their entrepreneurship. The organization check-in with past program graduates through a longitudinal survey. By tracking the growth of their business, ProsperUs can offer additional support for the graduates and better current programs. My teammate and I are also working on developing the longitudinal survey. We aim to collect comprehensive measurements for determining business growth and program improvements. With the data collected, we will also be able to create an interactive business directory. The business directory includes identifying information such as minority-owned and women-owned. It allows the entrepreneurs to build affinity groups and support each other. It also helps to increase the exposure of these businesses in the community.  

This year marks ProsperUs’s 10th anniversary of supporting entrepreneurs and the local community. I am honored to be a part of the organization and am excited to continue my impact with ProsperUs.

The COVID-19 pandemic wreaked economic havoc upon the entire world, leaving tens of millions of people in a state of unemployment (cbpp.org). Furthermore, economic effects bore especially hard impacts upon Black people, Latinx people, and other people of color due to the structural racism that has polluted our society. In Detroit, the unemployment rate dipped to 22% and disproportionately impacted Black and Latinx Americans and other vulnerable populations. 

As an organization focused on the “meaningful and equitable revitalization of Detroit”, TechTown put forth a concerted effort to aid small business recovery in an equitable manner, serving 1,731 entrepreneurial businesses during the one-year period between March 2020 and March 2021, 68% of which were run by Black or African American entrepreneurs. TechTown’s service during the height of the pandemic goes to show the organization’s unwavering commitment to pushing forward the economic development of Detroit in a manner that also works to dismantle the system that puts BIPOC communities at a large disadvantage.  

My project this summer focuses on optimizing the employee onboarding process and other internal operations at TechTown, which is a process that has many downstream effects on all departments. Through the work that Rafa and I will conduct, our hope is that by establishing a standardized onboarding process that prevents the need for further assistance and streamlining submitting requests for assistance, TechTown will be able to focus its efforts on the well-being of the community of Detroit rather than internal matters. With our work, we hope that the Systems Innovation team will not have to spend their time and effort on tasks that could be more appropriately carried out by other teams. Additionally, we hope that through our investigations we can figure out how to leverage Wayne State’s resources so that TechTown does not divert its own money to materials that can be supplied by the university and can instead redirect those funds into the hands of Detroit’s entrepreneurs. 
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Although at a first glance it may seem like our project does not necessarily impact the company at large, I am excited to help work towards improving the manner in which TechTown operates so that it can continue working towards the mission it holds so deep to its heart. As demonstrated by their report from March 2020 – March 2021, TechTown is a company that has fought, and will continue to fight, for the equitable economic development of Detroit and I feel immensely appreciative for having the opportunity to help fight towards TechTown’s mission. ​