---
title: "Detroit Digital Stewards: Neighbors Teaching Neighbors"
description: "How Detroit trained hundreds of residents to build and maintain their own community technology"
summary: Detroit showed the world what's possible when communities don't wait to be connected—they connect themselves. Over 500 Digital Stewards have been trained to build, maintain, and govern their own neighborhood networks.
date: 2026-01-04
tags: ["case-study", "community networks", "digital literacy", "Detroit", "mesh networks"]
categories: ["Community Networks"]
weight: 5
featureImageCaption: "Detroit Digital Stewards learning the Commotion wireless interface with Open Technology Institute trainers. Photo from [Detroit Digital Stewards](https://detroitdigitalstewards.tumblr.com/)"
---

## What They Needed

Detroit has been written off many times. After decades of disinvestment, many neighborhoods lacked reliable internet access. But the Detroit Community Technology Project saw something that outside observers missed: the city was full of people who cared deeply about their neighbors and wanted to help.

The question wasn't "how do we bring technology to Detroit?" It was "how do we help Detroit build its own?"

## What They Built

The Detroit Community Technology Project created the **Digital Stewards** program—a training initiative that teaches residents to build, maintain, and govern their own community networks.

Digital Stewards learn:
- **Technical skills**: Installing wireless equipment, configuring mesh networks, troubleshooting connections
- **Teaching skills**: How to train their neighbors
- **Governance skills**: How to make decisions together about shared infrastructure

The program uses open source tools throughout—[LibreMesh](https://libremesh.org/) and other community networking software. But the real innovation is social: building local expertise so communities don't depend on outside experts.

## What Happened

Since [2012](https://commtechny.org/2022/10/28/celebrating-10-years-of-digital-stewardship/), the program has trained hundreds of Digital Stewards across Detroit.

These stewards have built community wireless networks in neighborhoods across the city. They've connected community centers, churches, housing developments, and individual homes. They've created digital infrastructure that belongs to the people who use it.

**What stewards say:**

> "I met more neighbors installing antennas than I had in five years of living here."

> "People look at me differently now. I'm the person who can help when the internet goes down."

> "We're not waiting for a company to save us. We're doing it ourselves."

The program has expanded beyond networking. Digital Stewards now teach digital literacy, help neighbors with technology problems, and serve as bridges between their communities and the broader tech world.

## What They Learned

**Technology is an excuse for community building.** The networks matter, but what matters more is neighbors meeting each other, learning together, and building something they own. The antennas are almost secondary to the relationships.

**Local expertise is sustainable.** When something breaks, there's someone in the neighborhood who can fix it. When someone has a question, there's a neighbor who can answer. This is fundamentally different from depending on a distant company's support line.

**Training trainers multiplies impact.** Each Digital Steward can train others. The knowledge spreads through the community rather than staying locked in a few experts.

**Open source enables adaptation.** Because the software is open, stewards can modify it for their specific needs. They're not locked into someone else's vision of how a network should work.

**Dignity matters.** The program doesn't treat residents as recipients of charity. It treats them as capable people who can learn, build, and lead. That shift in framing changes everything.

## What This Means for You

You don't need to be a technologist to start a Digital Stewards-style program. You need:
- A community that wants to build together
- Open source tools (freely available)
- A willingness to learn and teach

The Detroit Community Technology Project has shared their curriculum and methods openly. Other cities have adapted the model. Your community could too.

The goal isn't to build the biggest network or the fastest connection. It's to build local capacity—neighbors who can help neighbors, using technology they understand and control.

**Learn more:** [detroitcommunitytech.org](https://detroitcommunitytech.org)

---

*Detroit didn't wait to be connected. It connected itself—and trained hundreds of neighbors to keep it running.*
