The Office of the Vice President for Research has awarded nearly $450,000 in grants across seven research teams to investigate the effects of systemic racism and inform strategies to combat them. These include two project teams working on Detroit topics.

Can grocery delivery improve the health of pregnant women? Are neighborhood entrepreneurship programs increasing economic mobility for low-income Detroiters? What role could a modern greenhouse play in expanding the ancient African art of bead-making in Detroit? These are research questions three teams of community and academic partners will tackle this year with support from the Detroit Urban Research Center and Poverty Solutions at the University of Michigan.

“When traveling in Detroit, doing work on urban gardens, I was struck by all the footpaths,” said Joshua Newell, associate professor at U-M’s School for Environment and Sustainability and in the Program in the Environment. “There is so much vacant land, we are not going to be able to develop or simply enclose all of it … so why not think about reaffirming and formalizing how people are already using these spaces?”

Increasing awareness of a program designed to prevent foreclosure among low-income homeowners in Detroit and making the application process easier are among the recommendations to help residents stay in their homes.

Summer employment is typically expected to support youth development in work readiness and career aspirations, but there is reason to believe it may improve educational outcomes as well, a new University of Michigan study suggests.

Focus HOPE + Graham Sustainability Institute In 2011, the Detroit civil and human rights organization Focus: HOPE expressed interest in working with the University of Michigan to determine how to…

The Healthy Environments Partnership (HEP), established in 2000, brings together Detroit-based community organizations.

The University of Michigan School of Public Health, in partnership with several community groups in Detroit, recently received a five-year, $2.8 million grant from the National Institute of Environmental Health Services to combat air pollution and related health risks in Detroit.