“We have a team of interdisciplinary students responding in various ways: law students researching legal questions related to Small Business Administration lending, public policy students creating easy to understand guides, and design students designing templates for businesses moving to online sales.”
~ Justin Erickson, program manager for the Detroit Neighborhood Entrepreneurs Project.

The Detroit Partnership facilitates weekly volunteering programs within the city throughout the academic year. Approximately 60 volunteers drive weekly to the city and support Detroit-based youth organizations such as Alternatives for Girls and Racquet Up Detroit.

The idea is that everyone has the right to do research and should be able to ask questions that will make their lives better. One doesn’t have to be in the academy to do research, everyday citizens can do research and it can lead to change.

~ Damani Partridge

The variety and volume of the University of Michigan’s efforts touch 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.

The Detroit Neighborhood Entrepreneurs Project (DNEP) held its first Small Business Showcase Thursday, bringing together more than a dozen of its current participants, including Denard. Their business ideas ran the gamut from wellness subscription boxes to a new gaming platform to a chemistry-inspired fashion line. The event at the U-M Detroit Center also featured its food entrepreneurs, including soul food, French crepes and Afro-Caribbean specialties.  

“I think it’s also the first book to overtly state that cities are our last best chance in the war against climate change. People who live in cities have smaller carbon footprints, and that’s largely due to walkability, transit, and shared dwelling units that share walls and infrastructure.”

“I never thought my career would have unfolded the way it has, but I’ve had the opportunity to work on projects that I think have made the world a better place. I never thought I’d be a municipal lawyer, but when the opportunity came up, I took it. And that’s how I’ve always tried to live my life. To go where I can do the most good,” said Eli Savit, U-M Law School alumnus and lawyer for the city of Detroit.

As a student at Cass Technical High School in Detroit, Rico Ozuna-Harrison discovered how he could have a future in medicine. Every month, students from Cass Tech visit the University of Michigan to be mentored by medical students.

Joshua Akers first arrived in Michigan in 2010 to work on his dissertation about the housing crisis. He stayed to help shed light on how speculators were affecting Detroit neighborhoods with bulk buying. With the help of students at the University of Michigan-Dearborn, where Akers is an assistant professor of geography and urban & regional studies he created Property Praxis, a collective exercise illustrating the impact of speculation on cities.