Today, in developing Avalon’s footprint across Detroit and Ann Arbor, Jackie Victor says she has always wanted a community-minded place where people meet, eat and organize a better world. That may be why you never know who you’ll run into at Avalon from CEOs to small-business owners to everyday working people who are drawn to her energy and optimism. 

Economic mobility projects led by Church of Messiah Housing Corp., Journey to Healing, Urban Neighborhood Initiatives, and Wayne Metropolitan Community Action Agency will receive technical assistance and $10,000 grants from Poverty Solutions at U-M.

Over the next three years, the team will focus their research on resource-constrained communities in Detroit’s Eastside neighborhood and a refugee resettlement agency that serves a public housing community in Ypsilanti, Michigan.

Students receive $2,500-3,500 stipend award, depending on financial need, and are provided housing at Wayne State University. Program related transportation costs are also covered by the DCERP.

“Detroit in particular has been hard-hit by the pandemic, with a COVID-19 death rate more than three times Michigan’s overall rate.”

~ Mary Janevic, associate research scientist, School of Public Health

The Detroit River is saturated with stories. Designated as a Heritage River by both the U.S. and Canadian governments, the river and its wetlands were once vital habitat for fish and wildlife hunted by the People of the Three Fires and immortalized by their legends. 

“I will tell you this: When I published articles about this topic, no one was like, ‘I want to read it! How can I read it? With the film, I had so many people who couldn’t make it to the festival writing me, saying, ‘I want to see it! How can I see it?’”

~ Dara Hill, associate professor of reading and language arts in the College of Education, Health, and Human Services at UM-Dearborn

John Thorne said systemic and institutional racism can permeate the hallowed halls of the church, and it is up to congregations and pastors to ensure their place of worship is inviting.

These friendships and real experiences are what finally taught Kimelman his most important life lesson to date: that his views on what Detroit needed were not necessarily what the people who lived there every day needed — from him or the organization he built.