2019 Detroit Fellowship

We offer a dynamic ten-day program that will allow participants to:

• Network and build urban and international relationships in Detroit and transatlantically;
• Increase intercultural competencies;
• Navigate differences;
• Draw cross-cultural connections;
• Practice cross-functional teamwork;
• Build mentoring relationships between participants;
• Gain a deeper understanding of what successful policies, projects and strategies (good practice examples) mean in different contexts;
• Enhance and share their knowledge, skills and expertise in redevelopment-related issues;
• Reflect collectively on their own positions and practical experiences in and for the development of their communities.

Fellows will benefit from the program’s rigorous learning experience and will contribute their own international perspectives and skills through their engagement with Detroit-based organizations.

Ultimately, the 2019 Humanity in Action Detroit Fellowship program aims to provide value to both Community Partners and Fellows in the following ways: 

• Equip Fellows with practical and theoretical knowledge to practically contribute to urban development efforts in their local communities—in the US and the rest of the world;     
• Lend global and comparative perspectives on human rights and development to support the work of the Detroit-based Community Partners;
• Provide professional development opportunities, whereby Fellows can apply directly relevant skills in the Detroit context in collaboration with practitioners from the city and other parts of the world;
• Forge mediums of knowledge-sharing in the future: between Humanity in Action and the Community Partners, between the Fellows and the practitioners, and between the Fellows themselves.

We expect participants to be fully available in-person from November 15 – 24, 2019 in Detroit, Michigan.

In order to arrive in Detroit well prepared, participants commit to up to 4 one-hour video conference sessions with the Community Partners and Fellows group to set the context and plan the engagement during the Fellowship. These calls will take place during the four weeks preceding the 10-day program. 

Humanity in Action is about giving back. Our Fellows apply their new knowledge and perspectives to the communities they impact.

Humanity in Action is about giving back. Newly recruited Fellows from Detroit who do not yet have an affiliation with Humanity in Action are expected to give back to their own communities. We expect you to develop and implement an activity after the Fellowship that reflects the learning experience from the program. This activity can take many forms – from lectures to articles, from (online) events of transatlantic knowledge sharing to mentoring. We also encourage continued engagement with our Community Partners in Detroit and the Greek delegation in the program.

Humanity in Action is about giving back. We expect our participants from Greece to develop and implement an activity in Greece that reflects the learning experience from the program. We envision that successful policies, projects, strategies, or models from Detroit can be fruitfully adapted for the Greek context. The follow-up activity can take many forms – from developing strategies for community regeneration in one’s own local context in Greece to adapting a Detroit-based model project for Greek communities, from (online) events of transatlantic knowledge sharing on best-practice experiences to a formalized continued dialogue with the Detroit community partners.