Week 9: Looking Back

When I began this program, I had a particular idea of the kind of work that I would do. It is interesting to see how that turned out to be similar in many ways, yet different in others, to the project I ended up completing. I am proud that my fellow intern, Naomi, and I have been able to create a comprehensive report on potential policies for the mediation project at the City of Detroit’s Office of Civil Rights, Inclusion, and Opportunity. We have created a beautiful presentation that I cannot wait to deliver to the staff and Director next Wednesday and condensed the information we gathered and the work that we have done into an easy-to-navigate platform. It feels strange to be leaving the project here. While I know that much of the community engagement will come in the upstart of the program and many changes will be made to the models that Naomi and I have made, I feel secure in the knowledge that we have provided a foundation to be built upon. When I started this project, I knew very little about mediation, and now, I can tell you in detail about the five different mediation services that the City of Detroit would like to offer. This project has taken shape and I am proud of what Naomi and I have created. I look forward to maintaining connections with the CRIO team to assist in any way that I can with the development of the mediation services and their conflict resolution center.

One thing that I did not mention in my first blog post is the community of DCERP. I think that at that time, I had no idea how important each member of this community would come to be to me. I hope that we can continue to connect as we come back to Ann Arbor. The friends and colleagues that I met in DCERP are truly some of the most mindful, driven, and respectful people I have met while at UM and I am so thankful to have been a part of this community.