University of Michigan experts are available to discuss the weekend flooding in the Detroit metro area. The flooding provides a dramatic reminder that the frequency and intensity of severe storms are expected to continue to increase in the Great Lakes region due to climate change.

“There are at least opportunities to meet one another, collaborate with one another, advise larger groups of people who are doing engagement, and who are working in Detroit, and who are thinking about working in Detroit. It doesn’t have to be everybody starting from scratch completely every time. It’s not perfect yet but it’s better than it was, and I think people are communicating.”
~ Trina Shanks, social work professor

Jade Burns has worked with Detroit’s youth for more than 15 years in a variety of clinical, community-based and academic capacities. Her research focuses on using technology and digital spaces to improve access to health care services for adolescents and young adults, specifically young Black men and other youth of color.

In this episode of Michigan Minds, Jeffrey Morenoff, director of the Institute for Social Research Population Studies Center, explains the goals of DMACS and shares recent findings from the surveys on how Detroiters are experiencing the pandemic.

For mom Heavenlee Gordon, The Luke Clinic couldn’t have come into her life at a better time. At a church in southwest Detroit, Gordon found the help she needed and…

Residents want living-wage jobs, good schools, affordable housing, accessible health care, and other foundations of economic well-being.

“People say Detroit is on a rebound. I vehemently disagree with that. One-third to one-half of all homes in the city have foreclosed. One in six homes don’t have water. I’ve tried to use my platform to talk about what I see happening in the neighborhoods and in the shadow of all of this money coming in.”
~ Drew Philp, author and journalist

Survey responses indicate Detroit’s unemployment rate dropped from 48% in May and June to 38% in late July. One-quarter of Detroiters in the labor force say they remain unemployed due to layoffs and business closures resulting from the pandemic.

As COVID-19  swept across the city of Detroit, it brought with it a wave of food insecurity, particularly among low-income residents and seniors who rely on public transportation and can only afford to buy small amounts of food at a time. Now, a U-M research team has stepped in to help identify solutions.