Detroit is BIG—that’s what I learned. I suppose this is obvious, but the scale became far more concrete to me when I viewed it on a scale that’s easier to comprehend.
This week I compiled a list of all of the public and charter schools in Detroit. There were 178. I can’t speak for anyone else, but this struck me as a huge number and gave me some insight into what it means for a city to have 700,000 people. My hometown has 7 schools. When I put it like this, I can better understand the magnitude of Detroit. And I think this has just as much to do with the actual size of the city as my unfamiliarity with cities.
I realize how small Developing Despite Distance is and accordingly how inadequate it is to support all of the young men in Detroit who could be benefitted by it. How many more 3Ds would it take? I start to realize just how many loving people, institutions, and organizations are needed to adequately support a child. It’s corny, but it really does take a village.
And with COVID thrown in the mix, kids lose much of the support that they received from their schools. Especially in the cases where parents have to be out of the house working, the work of nonprofits becomes more important than ever, filling in some of the gaps made in the absence of schools.
Considering the number of kids in Detroit (and just think about how many more kids there are not in Detroit!), there’s so much need. I don’t at all mean to say that all this need is met, but it’s truly incredible to think about how many people dedicate their lives to support the children of Detroit—and beyond that, the children of the world! It has been a hard last few months, and there certainly is a lot of evil in this world, but thinking about all of the good, all of the love that exists leaves me a little more optimistic.
