Community Development

Coverage of community groups bringing about changes, innovattions and solutions in their community.

Sasha Center's Denim Day celebration guests from 2023.

Strength in Style: Empowering survivors at SASHA Center’s Denim Day event

As Sexual Assault Awareness Month is midway through, the SASHA Center in Detroit will host a Denim Day event on April 30 to support and uplift sexual assault survivors.

Latest in Community Development
Detroit Repertory Theatre stages “Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom” by August Wilson in 2025
Detroit Repertory Theatre: A stage for voices often unheard since 1957

In Detroit’s Oakman Boulevard neighborhood, a nonprofit theater offers a place to experience “storytelling, live, together with our fellow human beings.”

Hudson-Webber Foundation awards $2.9M to Detroit neighborhoods, Black orgs
LittleGuide Detroit proves to be a huge resource for families with little ones

Life with kids can feel overwhelming and costly. LittleGuide Detroit provides event guides, lists with free activities, birthday party ideas, local parks, recreation, and more for families. We spoke with founder Kerry Doman on how this newsletter, website and social media presence provides to families seeking out fun in the area.

MLK on 2nd is one of Detroit's newest affordable housing developments.
What city, state, and federal policies are needed to solve Detroit’s housing affordability crisis?

We talked to several local housing advocates and experts about new affordability strategies at the local, state, and federal levels, and how they could help build a more affordable Detroit.

The Ruth Ellis Clairmount Center offers permanent supportive housing for LGBTQ+ youth who are experiencing or at risk of homelessness.
“There can’t just be one approach”: Detroit pursues innovative solutions to housing crisis

We checked in with three organizations that are rethinking how to develop and expand access to housing in Detroit.

Tiffany Gist experienced homelessness and now serves the unhoused as a case manager at a nonprofit. She says numerous solutions are needed to solve homelessness in Detroit.
What would it take to end homelessness in Detroit?

Here are a few of the innovative solutions being implemented or proposed to better address the big problem of homelessness in the city.

Mapping Detroit: Why are Detroit streets numbered the way they are?
Alan Jackson, 25, has experienced multiple periods of homelessness since he was 17. He now has an apartment in Detroit.
What is it like to be homeless in Detroit?

We interviewed several Detroiters about what caused them to become homeless, the varying forms homelessness takes, and what services the city's unhoused need.

Instructor Kevin Gordon helps Serigne Lo, an ESL student from Senegal, study language needed for a driver's exam
Center offers language, community support for adult learners

With a growing population of students from West Africa, Siena Literacy Center provides language help and community support for adult learners  

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