Last month, we unveiled “Inclusive Design Together: Detroit City of Design Monitoring Report,” showcasing the progress of 62 inclusive design projects across the city, reaching 70,000 people in 2018. You can read it in its entirety here.

This report includes real stories that embody the hardworking culture of our community and the values of our initative -- diverse experiences, accessible opportunities, and collaborative relationships. While there is still much work to do, our coalition of 52 partners are building momentum and we want to give you insight into some of these important case studies.

This month we are looking into the idea of Investing in Talent and Seeing an Impact, and the case study we are focusing on is the Brightmoor Maker Space "Water Cycles." They are a collaboration between Detroit Community Schools and the Penny W. Stamps School of Art & Design at the University of Michigan. They transformed a formerly vacant 3,200 square-foot building into a place for youth and adults to build their creative making skills and incubate business ideas.

For the Water Cycle project, sixty local students worked together to design a functional and imaginative solar-powered water purification system. They did so in response to the Flint Water Crisis of 2016 and the continual human rights concern of widespread water shut offs. The Water Cycle is a tricycle mounted 3 stage filtration process unit capable of delivering 30 gallons of potable water in 30 minutes. Some students traveled to Kenya this past March 2019 to help implement the project near Nairobi. A third iteration of the Water Cycle is currently in development.

To learn more, visit brightmoormakerspace.org.