DCERP Summer Fellows

I’m a Junior at Henry Ford College and majoring in graphic design.   I’m in a fellowship through U of M that allows us to work and learn with the Detroit community.  I’m working with the Detroit Community Wealth Fund, which helps cooperative businesses from the city acquire funding, resources, and support as they start out. Since my career in graphic design is centered around branding and marketing, I’m studying how my services as a brand designer can be used toward the greater good and help the entrepreneurs and business owners in Detroit.  The people of Detroit face lots of challenges that aren’t experienced outside of their community, and brand design shouldn’t be one of them. I will use my skills and expertise to do my part to make sure the dreamers of Detroit won’t be stopped.

Asalam Alaikum (peace be upon you).  I’m majoring in biology, health, and society with a minor in community action and social change. This summer, I am working with Dream of Detroit, a community organization that aims to create a sustainable neighborhood through housing and land development. Located on the Westside of Detroit in the 48238 zipcode, Dream serves, not only the large Muslim population, but the entire neighborhood. I am assisting with a documentary project led by Dr. Alisa Perkins to showcase all the community work that Dream is doing by highlighting the stories of various community members.  Through my participation in this work, I hope to learn what it means to build a thriving community that is diverse, inclusive, and sustainable, while also building lasting relationships with community members, who similar to myself, are passionate about bettering the lives of others in the community they reside.

I am a rising sophomore majoring in Program in the Environment and minoring in Spanish and Urban Studies. This summer, I am interning at Bridging Neighborhoods, which serves Delray residents who have been affected by environmental injustice through housing programs. I am doing data analysis, conducting satisfaction interviews, writing surveys, and researching Community Benefits Agreements (CBAs). CBAs form when community coalitions negotiate for benefits from developers building in their neighborhood.  The first formal CBA was only created in 2001, which means research about them is still emerging. It also means that there isn’t a set formula for the agreements, so there is room for creativity. Communities can negotiate for what is best for them, be it environmental mitigation tactics like buffering, first-source hiring, or home repair programs like the one Bridging Neighborhoods runs. I feel very lucky to be learning from Detroiters who are leading the way in this relatively new way of looking at land use.

I’m a rising senior currently studying economics and sociology. I am researching with ProsperUS this summer! ProsperUS is a community development financial institution. It provides micro-lending services, entrepreneurship training and other business assistance to prospective entrepreneurs in Detroit, who lack access to traditional banking services. ProsperUS puts equity at the center of their mission, expanding services to historically marginalized demographics and geographic areas. Moreover, ProsperUS also focuses on relationship building and community impact of their clients.  I will be assisting with their impact assessment, which will involve gathering and analyzing their  lending data and interviewing entrepreneurs in person. Through these processes, we will develop insights to better inform the organization’s future practices to advance its goals at its 10 years anniversary.

I’m entering my third year at the University of Michigan.  I’ve been stationed at Detroit Public School Community District, specifically within Talent Pipelines and Professional Growth.  My main project is research and development for a Future Educators Club that will add to the burgeoning pipeline of homegrown teachers within DPSCD.  Previous studies have shown that students flourish in the classroom when their teachers match them in background and appearance, specifically when the race of the students and teachers are the same. Currently, DPSCD’s student population is 98% non-white, with their teacher population lagging behind this margin by 30% due to national teacher and teacher-of-color shortages. The creation of a Detroit Future Educators Club is just one of the many initiatives taken on by DPSCD to close this gap and supply their students with exceptional Detroiter teachers who students can both relate with and see their own success through. A Future Educators Club will be a student’s first step in becoming a profound role model for students like them. 

I am a rising junior and am majoring in Psychology, and pursuing a minor in Gender and Health. I am a 2022 DCERP Fellow. Through DCERP, I work with Friends of Parkside, a nonprofit organization located on Detroit’s East side. Since 1991, its mission is to serve the needs and well-being of the residents of the public housing complex, the Village of Parkside. My work for Friends of Parkside includes creating and conducting evaluations for their Annual Health, Safety, and Job Fair as well as assisting with the planning of the Annual Health, Safety, and Job Fair and producing a final report. With the feedback given from the evaluations, Friends of Parkside can gather ideas on how they can improve and better serve their residents, as well as ensure that they can provide the resources needed to address the issues that adversely affect their residents. I hope that, by the end of this project, I would’ve made a meaningful impact on the people of Friends of Parkside and the Village of Parkside.

 I am a rising sophomore, currently leaning towards Sociology or Psychology. This summer I am serving as a DCERP fellow with the non-profit organization CDAD (Community Development Advocates of Detroit). CDAD is known for its public policy work for nonprofits,community organizations, and overall advocating for improving the city of Detroit. As of now, CDAD specializes in the right to counsel and affordable housing for Detroit residents in response to its neighborhood crisis.  My latest assignment is to confirm City Council Members’ attendance to CDAD’s Right to Counsel Ordinance Community Meeting & Celebration. Also, to draft a ‘tax incentive white paper’ to eventually publish for CDAD members who may not know information about this topic. What I appreciate most about CDAD is that it aids the Detroit community with resources that residents may not be able to find easily. It gives community members a voice and a chance to have a say in how their environment is used. I hope to expand my own knowledge of the law and to teach my community how to do for themselves.

I’m a senior majoring in Sociology and Social Work. I am a U-M DCERP fellow working with Detroit Public Schools- Office of Homeless and Foster Care. We are collecting data on students' attendance and living status in order to find interventions that can reduce the chronic absenteeism rate in Detroit schools. We provide services such as food, clothes, school supplies, and shelter referrals to these students. Right now I am working with the other staff members to create an annual report by collecting quantitative data on the resources we provide and how many people use the resources. I am interning data in excel and making calculations. This data is very important because it allows sponsors and donors to see the impact these services have on young youth facing home instability. It gives the youth a chance to prioritize school and not worry about essential needs such as food and clothes.

I am a rising junior majoring in Political Science with a minor in Moral and Political Philosophy. I am currently interning at the Neighborhood Service Organization. They’re a non-profit organization that focuses on ending homelessness in Wayne and Oakland counties through a holistic and housing first approach. They have multiple emergency and long term housing buildings that provide meals, as well as psychological counseling, health services, and social workers to aid in job searches. I am conducting interviews with department heads, doing background research, and creating comparative studies that look for gaps in care for the community that we’re serving and any way to improve the existing care that we are providing. I am also helping with marketing through social media and outreach leading up to their summer fundraising event in August.

I’m a sophomore and plan to major in Organizational Studies and Psychology.   I am working with ProsperUs Detroit, which is an economic development non-profit that builds and sustains Detroit entrepreneurs and small businesses. I am researching how ProsperUs can improve their approach to Relationship Based Lending so as to help their borrowers become ready to increase their capital. I will be introducing innovative methods for adjusting our approach to Relationship-Based Lending and helping to explore the questions ProsperUs has. The community ProsperUs Detroit serves is predominantly African American and have been continuously prevented from starting and growing businesses. ProsperUs is working to change the structural racism in Detroit in the most equitable approach and “give the city back” to the minority population. As someone who was born and raised in Detroit, I want to see my city thrive again and continue to be the home for thousands of minority businesses.