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U-M is only a short trek away from Detroit, but many students rarely visit. A number of student groups, however, spend a significant amount of time doing service work in the city. K-Grams partners with two of the city's elementary schools, Gompeer and Vetel, as well as Ann Arbor schools as part of it year-long projects. The Detroit Project (DP) culminates it year-long work in the City with its DP Day each spring.
Now these groups and others like them have come together to form the Detroit Coalition to promote their shared goals. The coalition kicked-off its efforts by having five student groups share Diag tables last week.
"We are like public transit on the conceptual level," said Chelsea Langston of Mission Serve, a coalition organization that takes a Christian-based approach to community service. Langston explained that like transit a coalition helps to move people and ideas and facilitate new interactions between them.
"It's symbolic that all these organizations are able to come together," said Megan Hanner, a coalition representative and the Education Director for the Detroit Project. Hanner was able to secure funding for the coalition because of a fellowship she has with Young People For (YP4), a subgroup of the People for the American Way Foundation. The coalition was able receive $2,000 to put towards launching a website, holding events like its Diag day, and to print "M ? Detroit" t-shirts.
YP4 promotes itself as a group "that identifies, engages and empowers progressive leaders to promote social change in their communities." In fact, its guide book to coalition building is aimed either at progressive students or, jokingly, at "conservative students trying to steal ideas from progressive student groups." Hanner does not see the group taking a political tract.
"The coalition is not an ideological coalition. YP4 will support us in their familiarity with the non-profit world. We have a campus that is divided by political issues so it nice to unite people," said Hanner.
"We are excited about the coalition because it is looking to provide sustainable, long-term opportunities for Detroit," said Rachel Burrows, Deputy Director of YP4's fellowship program. When asked about the compatibility of student groups with specialized goals, Burrows focused on a unifying vision.
"As long as all the organizations at the table sign onto their vision that's laudable," said Burrows.
While larger coalition members are well-known on campus, several smaller groups have signed on as well. In fact, Children of Abraham, a national inter-faith group that helps redistribute medical supplies to clinics locally and abroad, only formed a campus group several weeks ago.
"We knew that just doing things abroad was not enough and that there was a lot of need in Detroit," said Children of Abraham executive board member Phil Park.
Another young group, Intellectual Minds Making a Difference (IMMAD) formed in 2002 and works to eliminate the achievement gap in Detroit Public Schools by providing ACT workshops and connections to U-M admissions counselors to students. Other groups such as the Muslim Student Association, the Roosevelt Institution, and Alternative Weekends have also signed onto the coalition but did not participate in the Diag day.
At the same time that students are mobilizing around Detroit, University officials are also looking to increase relations with the city.
In early October, the University announced a plan to expand K-12 outreach by creating the U-M Center for Educational Outreach and Academic Success. The center will begin by targeting schools in Detroit and Southfield.
A new semester-long course will launch this upcoming fall, possibly with a test course in the spring/summer term. Called "Semester in Detroit" and following the model of the Michigan in Washington program, students will live, intern, and take courses in Detroit. The program, which is being organized mostly by students, has joined the Detroit Coalition.
"What I like most about it [the collation] so far is that people up top in the University are promoting Detroit-Ann Arbor connections and it's important to see a personal aspect from students," said Semester in Detroit organizer, Kimberly Cho.
The coalition plans to hold bimonthly meetings with representatives from its individual groups, and hopes to plan another unified event for next semester. MR
Editor Michael O'Brien is a member of the Detroit Project Planning Team, which is a member of the Detroit Coalition. He did not edit this article.
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