Brilliance

It’s a story replete with incredible failures, and almost laughable.  A few folks living in the suburbs, tending towards the end of successful careers, decide it’s time to “fix” what’s “wrong” in the big city they border.  They develop a plan of their own, then foist it on some unsuspecting mayor or community leader, only to discover in time (typically a few months) that the plan is underfunded, underthought, and bears no relationship to the needs of the people who, you know, actually live there.

Then there’s Brilliant Detroit.  Started a scant ten years ago, three suburbanites who loved Detroit wanted to make a real difference.  They had professional backgrounds in community building and child development, so they started out with at least some awareness of what might be needed to improve the quality of life in Detroit.

But they knew they didn’t know the whole story, and that’s where their story differs.  Waiting for an invitation from a Detroit neighborhood asking for help—right, they wait for an invitation– they meet neighborhood members, ask some key questions, and listen.  A lot.  A plan to provide services and resources is then developed with the residents.  This involves finding a property in the neighborhood that can be flipped—not into a better house, but into a community center.

Then the magic part begins.  The community center is the epicenter of all the activities, most of which are focused on serving children ages 0 through 8, often including summer camp, tutoring, literacy programs, and science/STEM programs.  Family events, including meals and potlucks, are frequent activities, and most of the employees live either in the neighborhood or in the area.  Folks from the suburbs invest in a city property, make it better, then basically hand the keys to the residents.

Ten years later, Brilliant Detroit now has 18 community centers up and running in Detroit, with plans for 5 more.  They serve thousands of children and families, including some students who, it is said, are 8 years old for several years, simply because their parents love the programs so much, they don’t want their kids to stop going.

Need further proof?  Brilliant Detroit was just starting to find their groove when COVID hit, sending many of their programs online.  One lucky educator found themselves teaching 3–5-year-olds science, online—and since they were teaching children in Southwest Detroit, about half of the students spoke only Spanish, while the instructor did not.  This sounded like the recipe for a dumpster fire to many, but Brilliant Detroit found a translator to assist instructing the Spanish-speaking students, and it worked, thanks in part to the parents and grandparents of the pupils, who had to commit to being in the same room as their children during class. If you’ve ever tried to teach a four-year-old anything, even when they’re in the same room, you know this qualifies as a miracle.

Word of Brilliant Detroit’s success spread quickly, with dozens of cities asking for their expertise, both in the US and beyond.  Now known as Brilliant Cities, a multimillion-dollar grant finds the program in Philadelphia, with word that Chicago is next—and if the Chicago program pans out and catches the eye of a certain former US President, who knows where it goes from there?

Like too many programs, Brilliant Cities took a budget hit this year, so fewer folks are getting hired, and fewer kids are getting tutored.  I know times are tight, but if you want to put your money behind a proven difference-maker to grateful people you’ll never meet, here you go.

Childlike

The six-year-old who
Pats the howling puppy
Puts their hand on a crying mama’s shoulder
Chortles when they discover you eat the seeds of a pomegranate?
Yup.

The eleven-year-old
Who throws the bat when they strikeout?
The seven-year-old who pulls someone’s hair for laughs?
Any child who hits?
Not at all.
They think it wise
To abandon childhood
Following the example
Of an adult who longs for more
Likely having left their youth
Too soon.

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