To understand Detroit’s transformation over the past decade, some say you need to visit the city in person to witness the vast changes. That message and enthusiasm for how young leaders can have a long-term impact on the city came through loud and clear at the Detroit Impact Conference.

Partnering with a small business owner to boost her coffee shop business, building a makerspace for students and the Brightmoor community, and working with Eastside city residents to create authentic tours are just a few projects the University of Michigan is collaborating on to boost entrepreneurial impact in Detroit.

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.  

Interested in urban issues? Here’s a list of courses offered at the University of Michigan this fall through the College of Literature, Sciences and the Arts, the Law School, the Ford School of Public Policy, the School for Environment and Sustainability, the Ross School of Business, and the Taubman College of Architecture and Urban Planning.

It was his work with Detroit Sip and becoming a regular face at block club meetings, that resulted in Bill Lovejoy winning a Spirit of Detroit award from the Detroit City Council in 2018. This award remains one of his proudest achievements to date. “Anything I do in Detroit I do with local residents, and without them I do nothing.”

About a decade ago, wine expert Blake Kownacki met Claes Fornell, a retired University of Michigan business professor and expert on customer satisfaction. Their conversations blossomed into a friendship based on their mutual admiration for good wine, and they started to brainstorm how to put Detroit back on the map as a wine-centric, agri-entertainment center.

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.

As Detroit emerged from the largest municipal bankruptcy in 2014, city officials knew they needed to boost collections of income tax—the city’s top source of revenue.

Jerry Davis is the associate dean at the Stephen M. Ross School of Business and leads the Business + Impact initiative. Davis’ research at the University of Michigan is broadly concerned with corporate governance and the effects of finance on society.