Our Purpose

Locally, City Institute provides a deeper understanding of Detroit’s assets, history and challenges so its residents and stakeholders can be better equipped to shape an equitable and thriving Detroit.

Globally, City Institute helps other cities learn how to tell their stories in order to attract and retain talent, engage and inspire residents, promote small businesses, and build thriving and equitable communities.

Our Work

Our work is two-pronged, working on the ground in Detroit as well as with cities around the globe. 

Within Detroit, we work with companies & organizations to help their teams have a deeper understanding and connection to Detroit. We believe the only way to equitably engage in Detroit is to understand the bigger picture - to understand Detroit in context.  Through our Private Tours & Learning Journeys, we provide a deeper contextual understanding by connecting the dots between the city’s past and present, and providing the tools to better equip residents & stakeholders to play an active role in shaping its future.

Our team combines observations of current conditions, historical facts and recent statistics with powerful anecdotes and individual stories of Detroiters to help clients understand the complexity and dynamism of the city of Detroit. 

Beyond Detroit, we share lessons learned from Detroit and our work over the last 18 years. Our Sought-After City Program helps cities of all sizes attract & retain residents by deepening understanding and connection in the community. This program helps cities tell their story so people can have a better understanding & appreciation of where they live and work. When people appreciate and feel connected to where they live they are more likely to stay in that community, invest time and money in that community and overall help their community thrive. 

Our Leadership Exchange Program provides civic leaders from around the world with a turnkey Leadership Exchange Trip to Detroit that includes keynote speakers, panel discussions, site visits, special access tours, meals and activities. Leaders learn best practices, get an insider’s perspective on the assets and challenges of a peer metropolitan area, and be inspired to apply lessons learned from Detroit to their own community.  The most successful leaders focus on continuous learning and innovation and Detroit is full of innovation & inspiration.

Our services include:

Private Tours

• Private tour experiences offering a deeper understanding of Detroit through contextual storytelling focusing on the people, places and projects that make up Detroit’s diverse landscape

Learning Journeys & Leadership Exchange Program

• In-depth experiences that focus on Detroit as a classroom including site visits, panel discussions, and case studies

Sought-After City Program

• Workshops, consulting and on-the-ground support to help cities attract & retain residents by making sure people feel connected to where they live and work.

Speaking Engagements

• Presentations and workshops either about Detroit or about sharing lessons learned with other cities.

Our Story

In 2005, Jeanette Pierce co-founded a grassroots nonprofit that used tours to take locals and visitors beyond the headlines to educate them about Detroit’s history, culture, and community. That organization evolved into the Detroit Experience Factory (DXF) which used immersive storytelling to connect locals and visitors to Detroit’s people, places, and projects. Almost 150,000 people took tours from 2006 - 2021 to learn about Detroit’s assets, small businesses, historic neighborhoods, city planning and development policies, and innovative solutions to the challenges the city faces. Most of these tour attendees lived in Detroit and Southeastern Michigan. Although they knew much about the city, there is always so much more to learn about where you live. This knowledge gained had a positive impact on the guests and the region as more people supported small businesses, public institutions, community projects, and nonprofits they learned about.

As organizations and cities sought customized intensive engagements to learn, innovate and problem-solve, we created City Institute to expand on the work of DXF by: going deeper with the Detroit content and helping other cities learn how to tell their stories in order to attract and retain talent, engage and inspire residents, promote small businesses, and build thriving and equitable communities. Outside of Detroit City Institute has worked with the cities of Baltimore, Akron, Graz, Las Vegas, Chicago, Portland, Kansas City, Philadelphia and launched tour programs locally in Pontiac, Dearborn and Berkley.

Within Detroit there is still a need for a deeper understanding of city focusing on how we got to where we are today and how we can work towards becoming a thriving and equitable city. We believe the only way to equitably engage in Detroit is to understand the bigger picture - to understand Detroit in context. We provide that deeper contextual understanding by connecting the dots between the city’s past and present, and providing the tools to better equip people to shape its future.

To that end, we continue to work with companies & organizations in Detroit to help their people have a deeper understanding and connection to Detroit. Our team combines observations of current conditions, historical facts and recent statistics with powerful anecdotes and individual stories of Detroiters to help clients understand the complexity and dynamism of the city of Detroit.  Clients include Wayne State University, Detroit Medical Center, Challenge Detroit, Ralph C. Wilson Jr. Foundation, Rocket Companies, CDAD, Grow Detroit Young Talent and hundreds of others.

City Institute offers learning journeys & tours, presentations & workshops and consulting services that help other cities tell the story of their communities. 

Our Core Values