It was Jevona Watson’s dream to have a coffee shop in the Fitzgerald neighborhood in northwest Detroit, a place she calls home. A matching Motor City Match grant in 2016 helped take the first steps toward her dream. Watson began searching for support and resources as she was getting the shop ready to open. She landed on the University of Michigan’s Detroit Neighborhood Entrepreneurs Project.

Reynolds Farley started teaching urban sociology in 1967, the same year of the Detroit riots.

Striving to implement transformational social change, the University of Michigan’s Center for Social Impact has encouraged students to find innovative ways to positively impact the city of Detroit.

The David Bohnett Foundation Leadership and Public Service Fellowship, open to master’s students at the Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy, offers two years of tuition support and a funded internship in Detroit.