Challenge and Opportunity for Michigan Nonprofits Part 4 of 5

We pick up from yesterday’s discussion of Michigan’s structural budget deficit making a difficult situation for Michigan’s nonprofits in the coming years. Now let’s look at some factors that offer leadership opportunities to Michigan nonprofits.

Regional Revitalization Dialogue
Now let’s take a look at what is potentially the more positive side of the situation. This is particularly relevant in the southeast Michigan region. In conjunction with the acknowledged need to revitalize the city of Detroit and bring about a region-wide renaissance economically and politically, leaders from all arenas are carrying on a multi-faceted regional dialogue about how to accomplish such a gargantuan task. We see legislators, municipal leaders, Michigan Suburbs Alliance, One Detroit, Detroit Renaissance, SEMCOG, City of Detroit Economic Development, Michigan Economic Development Corporation, the Detroit Regional Chamber, just to mention a very few of the participants, engaging in this dialogue.

“Regionalism” and “collaboration” and “cooperation” are the new buzz-words of this regional dialogue. It is going on in the educational arena and in the business community; it is found in political circles and among municipal governments. It is taking place in the legislature and in thousands of local, private enclaves. We’re collectively beginning to see and understand that it’s not just “Detroit’s problem” any more but “our” problem if our major metropolitan area has crashed and burned. So it’s “our responsibility” – all of us, no matter what party, what sector, what status in life – to pull together and re-invent the whole southeastern Michigan region. In the larger picture, the whole state is involved in re-inventing itself economically in light of the downgrading of the “Big Three” auto manufacturers.

Within that dialogue, for example, if you’re attentive to the discussion relative to public sector involvement, you hear a lot about “walkable communities,” “greening” and “community revitalization.” You hear about finding common solutions to healthcare, and the management of retirement “legacy costs.” You hear about cooperation in delivering services to community residents across municipal boundaries. The educational community has for some years talked about cooperative research and coordinating cross-cultural and cross-disciplinary learning. In the healthcare arena, “teams” have in many areas replaced a more hierarchical structure of delivering patient care. In many segments of our society collaboration and cooperation, the “team approach,” is gaining ground.

But there are several things missing from the regional dialogue on the revitalization of Detroit and the surrounding region. These have to do with how the region’s social and cultural values will be attained. We’re missing the piece of the dialogue that talks about how we will care for today’s “problems” differently than we have in the past.

Let’s take a few examples:
1. I don’t hear people bringing into that discussion new and creative ways that the arts and culture will help determine the future face of southeast Michigan.
2. It’s impossible to discern the inventive voice of youth and young adults and how they will put their stamp on the newly revitalized region.
3. There’s no representation of the poor, the migrant, the homeless at the discussion table.
4. Will child abuse and neglect still be a part of the new region? And how will we take care of those who are its victims in new and better ways?
5. Will there still be people in the new region who are addicted to alcohol and drugs? What is their contribution to revitalization going to be and who will see that it happens?
6. Will we have a revitalized area that is “greener” than it is now, more environmentally friendly, and on a large scale?

Does anyone care what the service recipients and target audiences of the area’s nonprofits have to add to the regional discussion on revitalization? The opportunity that I think I see now is for all the area’s nonprofits to join together, cooperate, collaborate, and, yes, even merge where that’s appropriate and advantageous, in order to take a prominent and vocal leadership role in steering the discussion on regional revitalization in a direction that includes dealing with the social problems in the current situation that nonprofit organizations can and do address daily.

More on this Monday.