1. Thompson launches The Common Wealth podcast for Community Enterprise Clinic to explore urban issues

    A new podcast from the Community Enterprise Clinic (CEC) highlights work being done by the clinic’s clients as well as issues they and others face in community building. Called The Common Wealth, the podcast is produced and hosted by Professor Dana Thompson, ’99, the director of the CEC and an expert on community economic development and urban revitalization issues. 


  2. Potential of grocery delivery services to increase food access in Detroit

    New research from the University of Michigan points to potential ways to leverage grocery delivery services to improve food access in Detroit, where 32% of residents live a mile or farther from a full-service grocery store.

  3. Poverty Solutions research assistant leads with heritage, community to enrich research

    Nahiely Reza knew her fluency in Spanish could be an asset to her work at Poverty Solutions at the University of Michigan. But she didn’t anticipate some of the ways the language would open up new connections with the communities engaged in the research.

    1. New partnership leads to credits — and confidence

      Thanks to a dual-enrollment partnership between Detroit Public Schools Community District and UM-Dearborn, the Cass Tech High School students began as Dearborn Wolverines last fall, working on college credits and toward a certificate.

    2. Poverty Solutions convenes panel on youth-led rapid rehousing in Detroit

      University of Michigan Poverty Solutions and the Detroit Phoenix Center produced a documentary — Rapid Rehousing Designed By Youth, For Youth — and hosted a screening and panel that discussed the future of youth homelessness response in Detroit.

    3. U-M, Detroit build community ties via seven new programs

      The 2025 Engage Detroit Workshops grant program, now in its fourth year, has chosen seven new projects for funding.

    4. Natalie Sampson named Distinguished Professor of the Year

      The associate professor of public health talks about her sometimes uncomfortable relationship with academia, the politics of community-centered research and the challenge of getting today’s students to talk in class.

    5. From the Peace Corps to The Greening of Detroit, Fai Foen connects people to their natural environment

      Lessons from her Peace Corps work in West Africa led alum Fai Foen to want to foster connections through landscape architecture.

    6. For a UM-Dearborn student and professor, the influence goes both ways

      What started as a project to add energy efficiency measures at the Engineering Lab Building in 2020 turned into a friendship and research work relationship for Electrical and Computer Engineering Professor Wencong Su and LaRico Andres, at that time a sophomore and recent transfer from Henry Ford College.