Hi everyone, Jenny & Alex here!
We moved to Detroit in 2013 after living in Asia for 5 years. Alex is originally from California and Jenny is from Hong Kong. We met in Germany through an internship and later fell in love in a hostel in Spain while road-tripping through wine country. Alex has a background in tech start-ups in NYC and California while Jenny worked in marketing for L’Oreal in Hong Kong & Germany.
We LOVE to travel and have lived and adventured throughout Europe and Asia extensively. In 2013 we decided to move back to the US and thought we would end up in California but when we heard they were tearing houses down in Detroit we decided to check it out. As any open-minded traveler knows, a good place can often be distorted by the media so we decided to do a road trip to see the city for ourselves. After driving into Detroit we fell in love with the city! People here have a lot of pride and heart. There is a spirit of resilience and you can feel the energy as the city rebuilds. We also see that visiting the city provides opportunities for individuals to reflect, grow and make a difference in their own life. We have experienced the magic ourselves and we saw that happen to others so we hope you will consider joining us on the adventure!
WHO WE ARE LOOKING FOR
Currently, we are looking for help from people who don’t mind getting their hands dirty. Keeping the house going and we’re excited to get the garden going this coming season!
From our 3 years of hosting experience, if you are learning English and plan to stay for 1-3 months you have the best experience. Another type of travellers are those who are searching for alternatives of what they want to do with their life… whether you have quitted/about to quit your corporate job, just entering the work world and trying to figure it all out, starting your own business or anywhere in between. We are well suited to help these 2 groups because of our language skills and life experiences.
If you think you’re interested, and you want to experience a classic American city that is going through an exciting rebirth – please get in touch!
What type of host are you?
Private/Individual/family
What are you looking for help with?
- Animal keeping
- Cleaning
- Film-Making
- General Help
- Hostel/Hotel
- Marketing
What’s the mission of your community?
Right now, we are bringing a 1925 mansion back to life (that used to be an abandoned hospital. It’s been hard work but knowing that we will be able to host travellers from around the world in this house after bringing the home back to life gives us the energy to carry on. Having a positive impact on our society and hosting travellers for a deep travel experience have always been dreams of ours. We believe through a deep travel experience and the cultivation of friendship with people of a diverse background, we all can better understand one another, hence making us all better global citizens. We are excited to be part of such a movement and it motivates us to keep doing what we are doing.
How many volunteers could you host?
More than two
When would you need volunteers?
All Year Long
Note about the volunteer work and other expectations
STAY DETAILS
- Minimum Stay: 1 month
- Days: Everyday; usually 1-3 hours/ day
- No kids and pets
BIKES
Bikes are an important part of our regular transportation. You will have access to a bike during your stay so you can explore the city as well.
PROJECTS
- Cleaning – Clean and maintain our space for everyone.
- Greeting – As our volunteers, when you see our guests, please show them around the house and help them with what they might need. Definitely show them places in Detroit that you would recommend! For most people, that`s their first time in the city and the city doesn`t have very good travel guide in our experience so you can really help travellers to have a great time in the city.
- Photography and Videography – A picture is worth a thousand words and the more we develop our volunteer program the more we need someone to help us document the process. We would like help to take pictures and video of the house and the work being done we have started daily videos on YouTube (Search: JennyandAlex) and social media updates since 2019 and we are excited about it! Would LOVE to collaborate with like-minded creators. ๐
- Community Garden – We are going to start building a community garden next to the house! In this project, you will help us build raised garden beds out of wood, get them filled with topsoil, plant seeds and seedlings, water and weed growing crops, and harvest fresh veggies which we will use in our cultural exchange events and dinners.
- Bike Repair – We love to bike and our location is only 2 miles from downtown Detroit which makes this a great spot to stay if you want to cycle around the city. In this project, you will help us maintain and repair our bicycles as needed for everyone.
Art Projects:
In this project you will collaborate with other guests, volunteers and staff to create artwork of various kinds. This could involve sculptures, painting, street art, or anything that adds beauty and intrigue to the house. It could also include work done off-site that helps promote the values and spirit of what we believe in.
Other Projects
We are also passionate about food, brewing, fermentation and a whole lot of different things. If you are curious, check out our YouTube Channel and I think it’s a pretty good representation of our interest and value.
Are accommodation and food included?
Yes, we offer food and accommodation
What type of accommodation can you provide?
Dormitory/shared rooms.ย Single bed cabin in our shared room: Our single bed cabin has individual lights, plugs and privacy curtain so you can have your privacy while living in a community setting at the same time.
Diet – nutrition information
Groceries & basic food are included. Usually, someone in the group cooks lunch/dinner for everyone so we can have a nice meal after we’ve finished for the day. If there is something specific you’d like, please add the ingredients to our “Grocery List” and we’ll do our best to get them for you.
Oh… and during the time when the garden is productive, go harvest there. Get creative with our local ingredients!
VISA – could you provide Visa support/info/invitation letters?
No! we cannot help with Visa/invitation letters – similar requests will be ignored.
Volunteers’ benefits
We are very confident that we can provide a great cultural exchange and learning opportunity for the right candidates if he/ she is looking for:
Learn English/ Cultural and Language Exchange:
We have guests coming from around the world. Staying with us would mean you will be part of it! Jenny is an avid language learner (fluent in 4 languages, leant 7 and right now self-learning Spanish) and Alex is a native English speaker with West Coast accent. If your goal is to improve your English or pick up some new languages, we are very happy to help. There is free English class in the city we can help you to connect to and we will provide further opportunities for daily practice and self-learning methodology for you to get fluent as quickly as possible. ๐
Superb Guidance:
As someone who went through an internship program ourselves (in fact this is how we met in the first place ๐ ), we were there before and know how to create a meaningful experience for the right candidate. We are also well versed in both the start-up and corporate worlds which means we can offer perspectives on both. (I personally wish I had someone to guide me between those 2 worlds when I was right out of college.)
Learning what it takes to realise a dream:
Doing what we are doing involves not only the planning and analysis component but also the โphysicalโ component which a lot of people overlook. Being with us means not only will you see it first hand what it takes to rehab an abandoned old house, but you will also interact with guest from around the world, and meet people from diverse socio-economic and technical backgrounds.
An Alternative to the Classic Corporate Opportunity:
I still remember vividly the struggle between tapping into the corporate world versus starting something on my own. This will be a great experience for someone who wants to experience what it takes to start a project that’s different (and the satisfaction that comes with it ๐ ) before trying out a classic corporate job or someone who wants a break from the corporate world.
To understand a fascinating city and possibly identify his/her own opportunity:
Detroit is undergoing so much improvement and itโs an amazing city to be in right now. Since weโve started hosting, we have guests from around the world who have come here for a conference or a field trip and have fallen in love with the city and eventually decided to buy a house, fix it up and “start” their life here! Itโs an exciting time to be here in Detroit and who knows? Maybe you would want to start something here too!
A Fun Place to contribute:
Want to meet cool travellers from around the world?! Detroit is becoming an interesting place with a growing diversity. The Movement festival and the International Jazz Festival are big hits. But throughout the year, we have been hosting a lot of people from Europe, particularly Germans and French, and Australians. A lot of them can see the similarity of Detroit to East Berlin after the wall came down so people find it fascinating to see it here now before things change (and things are changing very quickly indeed).
What to do in the free time
Detroit has a lot to offer: A vibrant dining scene, awesome craft beers, rich history with great architecture, a lot of shows and entertainment, sports and games, museums (DIA, Ford Museum, Motown Museum and a lot more).
On top of that, the city is PERFECT to bike around and you will be within 15 mins bike ride from most major attractions. There is also a great urban farm culture here. It’s hard to miss that when you weave around neighbourhoods on a bike.
We’ve have put together maps and a full list of things to do for you to explore the city and the surrounding area. Isn’t it time to come and check out Detroit?! ๐
Language
Jenny is fluent in English, German, Mandarin Chinese and Cantonese Chinese. But we have usually a lot of other volunteers and guests around who will be speaking other languages (E.g. common in our house that someone will be speaking Spanish and Portuguese)
Geography
- LOCATION (15 minutes or less from most of Detroit’s major attractions)
- 3.2km (2 miles) from Downtown Detroit
- 1.6km (1 mile) from Belle Isle (Detroit’s famous & beautiful island park)
Detroit has very strong season meaning when it’s summer, it’s humid and hot (up to 35-38 Celcius at the peak) and when it is winter, it can get as low as -20 something celcius. During winter, bring warm clothes or buy cheap used winter clothing in the thrift store when you are here.
How to get to your site
- The “motor city” is best experienced via car as the city is very big but bike is also an intimate way to explore. We love this location specifically because of its close proximity to attractions via bike.
- Uber / Lyft are also great for moving around. Taxi is also available.
- City Bus 031 and 067 is great to go to and from downtown. City bus service is improving but below average compared to other big cities.
You can also take the 261 Bus from airport to downtown and take 067 to get to Kercheval & East Grand Blvd. Our place is 2 blocks up. If budget allows, we recommend uber if you are coming from the airport.
- The bike also works well in the city and it’s a great way to explore the downtown area. Check out MOGO bike share. Currently, most docks are in the downtown area and the closest station around us is 15-20 mins walk away at Agnes St & Parker St. Check out their website for details. We also provide bikes for our volunteers.
- Electric Scooters (Bird and Lime) is a new, fun and affordable way to explore the city! A lot of locals use it as a fun way of transport already. You’ll see them around! It’s $1 to start and comes with a per-minute fee. Download their apps for details.
Is there internet access?
Yes!
“Paying guests” Option. Could you accommodate “solidarity” tourists?
Yes, we can also accommodate paying guests
CONTACT DETAILS
Check out YouTube.com/jennyandalex
for our project updates and recommendations in Detroit.
We usually do a video chat before we confirm any volunteers. To schedule a video chat, please what’s app our help Angie at +63 908 849 7808 with a brief introduction of yourself (Where are you from? What do you do for a living? What’s the purpose of your trip?) as well as the dates you want to come over. She’s the superstar that helps us with scheduling and co-ordinating. For those who want to help on art/ photo/ video, please provide us with your profile.
Hope to chat with you soon!
Hostname: Jenny and Alex
Host Email: jenny@jennyandalex.fun
