When you think about Detroit and the state of Michigan what do you see and hear? What emotions come over you? What kind of response do you want to give? All last week I was in Lansing, MI for our Public Innovators Lab and I came away more hopeful than one might expect about the situation there. Now, I have one simple wish for Michigan and other communities.

Times are tough in Michigan, as they are in many places across the country. Severe budget shortfalls plague both state and local governments. Unemployment and under-employment riddle people’s lives. Progress and hope can feel out of reach. At times it seems that everything that could go wrong has gone wrong. But look again and listen to what people have to say.

At the Lansing Lab we had more than fifty participants go out onto the streets to “Ask Lansing” about people’s aspirations and thoughts about the community. Sure, many people talked about the need for more jobs. But the thrust of what Lab participants heard was that people in the Greater Lansing area hold a palpable affection for their community. There is no desire among people to make a mass exodus; they want to stay. They told us that they want to create a safer, more caring and connected community, one where kids can grow up, and one where a key asset is recognized: the community’s vibrant diversity.

This is a far cry from what I often hear people outside Michigan project onto the state. Oftentimes people assume that those who live in Michigan can’t wait to leave, and that it must be depressing for those who are “trapped” there. But that’s not what we found in Greater Lansing; nor is it what we found back in June in our Detroit when more than 70 Lab attendees participated in “Ask Detroit.”

Let’s face it there are no easy answers for Lansing, Detroit, and other communities. Meanwhile, lots of good people in such communities are trying to do good things. So, rather than lay out more solutions today, I simply want to express my one wish.

All sorts of dollars are now flowing into Michigan to “help save” the state. Many of those dollars are sorely needed to address issues involving public schools, housing, economic development, and vulnerable children and families. But alone they will not be enough. So, as the dollars flow:

My wish is that we hold ourselves accountable for seeing communities as places where people actually live, and not simply as “sites” to implement programs and initiatives. When the latter occurs we end up missing people’s aspirations – what they seek, and what they’ll go to bat for. We fail to take the steps that galvanize people to play an active part in the creation of the community they want. Sadly, we get caught up in activity-happy approaches that produce little change.

We need good programs and initiatives in communities; much of my own work focuses on creating such actions. But in doing so we must fully recognize that good programs alone will not lead to the communities people want. Our challenge is fundamentally a human endeavor, one that must recognize and build upon the good things people already value, and which calls people to do their part of creating a different future. Communities with good programs – but without caring, connections and common purpose – are hardly communities. We must take a different path.

This is my Michigan wish.