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Our Common Future Detroit 2017 archive

Detroit · October 25 to 27, 2017

Our Common Future

A gathering for people who build the common good. Three days of talks, working sessions, and city time in Detroit, kept here as a record of the ideas and the people who carried them.

Read the dispatches See the program
A diagram of many paths meeting at one point
Many directions, one shared room

ArchiveOur Common Future 2017

PlaceDetroit, Michigan

RecordProgram, people, dispatches

The gathering

A shared room for people who do the work

Our Common Future brought nonprofit leaders, foundation staff, social entrepreneurs, artists, and business leaders into one program. The mix was intentional. The problems people work on do not stay inside one sector, and neither should the people trying to solve them.

Over three days in Detroit, the program moved between main stage conversations, smaller working sessions, and time in the city. The through line was practical: name what is changing, learn from people already testing an answer, and leave with something usable.

  • Three daysOctober 25 to 27
  • One cityDetroit, Michigan
  • Many fieldsPhilanthropy, art, business, service

The program

Three days, three currents

Each day had its own centre of gravity, moving from the opening frame to belonging, and then to the obligations that community places on all of us.

  1. Day one

    October 25

    Opening the frame

    The first afternoon set the tone with a main stage featuring Mo Rocca of CBS Sunday Morning and a lineup that moved from cultural institutions to food business, recovery work, and national philanthropy. Musicians from the Sphinx Organization opened the gathering.

    Mo Rocca · Patricia Mooradian · Amy Peterson · Gary Wozniak · Devita Davison · La June Montgomery Tabron

  2. Day two

    October 26

    The work of belonging

    Stephen Henderson moderated a conversation with Rosanne Haggerty of Community Solutions and Sarah Eagle Heart of Native Americans in Philanthropy. Rip Rapson, also of The Kresge Foundation, joined, along with artists from the Kresge Artist Fellows program.

    Stephen Henderson · Rosanne Haggerty · Sarah Eagle Heart · Rip Rapson

  3. Day three

    October 27

    What community asks of us

    The closing day set large questions against real places. Darren Walker of The Ford Foundation, Dan Gilbert of Quicken Loans and Rock Ventures, Krista Tippett of On Being, Robert Ross of The California Endowment, Jason Paulateer of PNC, and Robert Thornton of the Skillman Foundation shared the stage. Thornetta Davis also performed.

    Darren Walker · Dan Gilbert · Krista Tippett · Robert Ross · Jason Paulateer · Robert Thornton · Thornetta Davis

On stage

People who shaped the conversation

Writers, funders, organizers, artists, and business leaders shared what they had learned, and what they were still testing.

  • Mo Rocca

    CBS Sunday Morning

  • La June Montgomery Tabron

    W.K. Kellogg Foundation

  • Patricia Mooradian

    The Henry Ford

  • Amy Peterson

    Rebel Nell

  • Devita Davison

    FoodLab Detroit

  • Gary Wozniak

    RecoveryPark

  • Rosanne Haggerty

    Community Solutions

  • Sarah Eagle Heart

    Native Americans in Philanthropy

  • Stephen Henderson

    Pulitzer Prize winner and moderator

  • Rip Rapson

    The Kresge Foundation

  • Darren Walker

    The Ford Foundation

  • Krista Tippett

    On Being

  • Robert Thornton

    Skillman Foundation

  • Thornetta Davis

    Detroit blues vocalist

The host city

A city that keeps rewriting its own story

Detroit was not a backdrop. The city shaped the questions on stage and the conversations in the halls. Its neighborhoods, cultural institutions, and community organizations gave attendees a way to test abstract ideas against a real place.

Attendees could choose city experiences alongside the program, including tours and evening events at cultural institutions such as The Henry Ford. The aim was not to treat the city as scenery, but to let it teach.

Long after the closing session, the useful question remains: what does it take to build a place where more people can flourish?

With thanks

The gathering had backing

Our Common Future 2017 was supported by major sponsors, including the Charles Stewart Mott Foundation, the W.K. Kellogg Foundation, The Kresge Foundation, the Fetzer Institute, and Ford Motor Company. Additional support came from Michigan and national foundations and businesses.

  • Charles Stewart Mott Foundation
  • W.K. Kellogg Foundation
  • The Kresge Foundation
  • Fetzer Institute
  • Ford Motor Company

From the journal

Dispatches from the gathering

Short reads on the people, the sessions, and the questions that stayed in the room.

Stay in the record

The archive stays open

Questions about the gathering, a speaker, or the material here? Write to the team and we will point you in the right direction.

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