Detroit

Welcome to Detroit

Welcome to Detroit. The people of our city can teach the world something about resilience and what it takes to come back when systems fail children and families. Detroiters know that lasting change only happens through addressing historical racial tensions and injustices, and centering racial equity, community engagement and local leadership.

As attention and opportunity return to the city, it’s critical to tell the story of the real Detroit: a place where people with grit and determination held on when others gave up. These stories provide power to the Detroiters who are forging the city’s future and frame that future around the vision of equity held by people who have always loved the city.

We’re making groundbreaking and impactful investments to ensure organizations led by people of color have what they need to bring their vision to life – and to ensure racial equity is the cornerstone of the Detroit experience from day one, birth through career.

Improving systemic social issues involves shifting perceptions and beliefs by changing the narrative. Detroit’s story needs to be told using asset-based, empowering narratives that highlight the people who have always loved the city and kept going through every challenge. This is the story of the real Detroit moving into an equitable future.

To change the Detroit narrative, we invest in:

• Developing leaders who bring together people and organizations to address issues of structural racism across the media, community development, education, environment, food security, health care and housing.
• Building communications, advocacy and storytelling capacity among organizations.
• Creating approaches to training and discussion where participants identify long-standing impediments caused by structural racism.
• Building an understanding of racial equity to promote change.