Back to school brings several challenges, from student learning, expectations of academic success and mental health concerns among children to questioning technology replacing educators and AI and the ongoing shortage of teachers, school staff and supplies. University of Michigan experts can address these and other issues as students return to school.

As Detroit children prepare to return to school, widespread and chronic housing instability among city residents poses a threat to students’ ability to perform well academically. All of the parents interviewed said the lack of quality affordable housing is a barrier to housing stability.

Between 11-16% of Detroit K-12 students faced homelessness or housing instability in 2021-22, according to a new study from Wayne State University College of Education’s Detroit Partnership for Education Equity & Research in partnership with University of Michigan’s Poverty Solutions.

The Detroit Financial Well-Being Innovation Challenge brought teams together at a showcase event this spring hosted by GreenLight Fund at Durfee Innovation Society. The five-year challenge that launched in February 2022 is run by United Way for Southeastern Michigan in partnership with the University of Michigan’s Poverty Solutions.

Sixteen percent of Detroit residents in the labor force were unemployed as of March 2023, according to the latest survey from the University of Michigan’s Detroit Metro Area Communities Study. The latest unemployment estimate essentially holds steady from the previous DMACS estimate in August 2022. Detroit’s unemployment peaked at 43% at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic and remains higher than the estimated pre-pandemic unemployment rate of 8%.

“The responsiveness of the researchers was valuable. Not only did I reach out to the School of Information during the pandemic, I also reached out to Poverty Solutions for assistance with case management and they provided support. I reached out to the Medical School as a resource for residents with questions about COVID. In each case, there was a response, and with that response came hope.”

~ Zachary Rowe, executive director, Friends of Parkside

“We’ve done a great deal with housing and revitalization. We’ve worked a great deal with workforce development and with public health. So a lot of how we live out our mission happens in the city of Detroit.”
~ Luke Shaefer, director of Poverty Solutions

Part of helping people thrive is making sure the neighborhoods where they live are thriving too. For the past 25 years, Urban Neighborhood Initiatives has focused on serving the people and places within a 1.4-square-mile-area of the Springwells neighborhood in Southwest Detroit. 

Brilliant Detroit runs a host of programs out of houses-turned-community hubs in 14 neighborhoods across the city. On a mission to create “kid success” neighborhoods, the nonprofit offers tutoring, GED preparation and testing, health and fitness classes, nutrition information, reading activities, and social-emotional and mental health services for children and their families. It was co-founded by two U-M alums in 2016 and has partnered with the university from the beginning.