Detroit River Education Coalition - Detroit River Story Lab

The Detroit River Education Coalition, motivated by the vision of an historic waterway transformed into a living classroom, develops high-impact, experiential learning opportunities for students of all ages from the communities along its shores. Since 2021, Coalition partners have expanded the number and reach of place-based educational programs and laid the groundwork for continued growth and community engagement.

Visioning the Future of Detroit River Education:

Workshop 1: Inaugural Stakeholder Engagement Meeting

March 11, 2023 — Detroit / Wayne County Port Authority

On March 11, the Detroit River Education Coalition convened for the first in a series of visioning workshops, with the goal of collecting input from across the wide array of community stakeholders. Working groups were convened to spend more time on several clear priorities that emerged, including program design, media strategy, fundraising, and DPS partnerships. The main discussions of the first visioning workshop covered the following themes:

Dreams: If money were no object, what kind of river-based education program(s) should we be considering as a ten-year goal? What does success for this project look like in ten years?
Priorities: What are the most important learning outcomes we should be striving for? What are the most important river-related stories and opportunities future programs should highlight? What kinds of river-based experiential learning experiences would you like to see being offered to our students? How might we make river place-based learning opportunities accessible during the academic year?
Opportunities: What would be the ideal relationship between future river-based programs and local school districts? What additional partners and stakeholders might be brought on board? What successful programs (locally or nationally) should we learn from or take as models? What other resources, relationships, or connections do you believe will benefit our goals?
Logistics: What are the most important practical next steps for this project? What are the best ways to ensure community involvement in future program design? What would be the best methods to keep you engaged?

You are welcome to read through the results of this generative workshop at this link.

Workshop 2: Learning from Successful Place-Based Experiential Programs

December 9, 2023 — Dossin Museum on Belle Isle

Our second visioning workshop featured in-person presentations by the founders of highly successful, place-based, experiential learning programs in Grand Rapids and New York City that help serve as models for our growing coalition. We also heard updates from Coalition members about several new river-themed initiatives inspired by our March conversations and began mapping out additional pathways forward for the year ahead.

Over forty people attended this full-day session, and the lively discussions that followed the presentations produced a number of strong, actionable ideas to carry forward.

New York Harbor School presentation video
Grand Rapids Public Museum School presentation video
Skiff & Schooner Program slideshow

Workshop 3: Developing Strategies and Resources for Water-Related Education

April 27, 2024 — U-M Detroit Center

In this pre-summer workshop, we discussed upcoming coalition programs, including the boat building workshop, the Youth Career Expo, Detroit River Scholars, and the schooner program. We introduced and collected feedback on the new Career Pathways project and brainstormed on stepping stones available for building and supporting river opportunity pathways in our region. Going forward, the coalition partners committed to connecting with further additional local resources to build out these pathways.

Combined slide deck for all of the day’s presentations

Workshop 4: A Growing Array of Projects—Updates and Planning

January 25, 2025 — DNR Outdoor Adventure Center

In this fourth workshop, co-founders Jordan Irving and Bruce Ross announced the formation of the Detroit River Scholars’ Youth Leadership Council. Harry Jones, director of the Detroit Community Sailing Center, introduced the plans for the Detroit River Education Center on Belle Isle, and the coalition members brainstormed on the governance structure and business plan. We discussed U-M’s new LEAPS undergraduate degree, which aims to collaborate with many of the coalition partners, and presented the full portfolio of Opportunity Pathways projects that were visioned in April 2024. Then, we broke out into working groups to separately discuss curriculum development, fundraising, partnerships, and programming.