David Merritt, a U-M alum is the co-founder of Give Merit. It invests in the youth to help them excel in their schools and bring the dream of college into reality. He started this work 12 years ago and has supported nearly 200 students through Merit’s FATE Program. It promises each qualifying FATE student up to $8,000 in college scholarships.

“Coming to the Detroit Center, it’s natural for me to try to take a similar type of approach. What’s the Detroit Center already doing? Every time I hear about something new, I try to ask more because now I have the license to be nosy. That’s a characteristic of sociologists anyway. We want to ask questions. We want to know, what are you doing in that community? What are the results of that study going to be? Who is going to benefit from that? How can we help you with that at the Detroit Center?”

~ Paul Draus, U-M Detroit Center faculty director

Commemorating the 50th anniversary of hip-hop, eight artists gathered at the University of Michigan Detroit Center to share some of the tough conversations around Detroit hip-hop culture and whether the musical genre is still relevant.

The event kick-offs the Wolverine Outdoor Stage as part of the 31st Annual Concert of Colors that honors the diversity in Metro Detroit through music, food, and art, this Saturday to Sunday at the Detroit Institute of Arts south lawn. 

Paul J. Draus, professor of sociology at UM-Dearborn, was named the new director of the University of Michigan’s Detroit Center. He will focus on building community engagement, boosting research initiatives, and fortifying the university’s relationship with the Detroit metropolitan area.

A Podcast on what makes one want to be in the city of Detroit. Join our host Katie Lehman as she interviews students, scholars, innovators, and leaders from across the city to learn how they came to live, work, and love in Detroit.

The variety and volume of the efforts are a collaboration with Detroit’s neighborhoods, its community organizations and its residents. While the specific goals and partners of each effort vary, all of the work aims to help boost the vitality of Detroit and the region. 

Join this discussion, moderated by Patrick Carter from the U-M Injury Prevention Center, on ways to reframe the gun debate in America.

“If I were talking to myself 20 years ago, I would say consider the needs of the community you are trying to serve, versus developing a product or service in a vacuum and then trying to sell people on your idea.”
~ Lisa Nuszkowski