In a city defined by its abandoned homes and empty lots that have borne witness to decades of trauma, Camp Restore Detroit has quietly become a place of revival and refuge. In partnership with Mt. Calvary Lutheran Church, Camp Restore is a faith-based volunteer and neighborhood restoration program located in Detroit’s Denby neighborhood. Far from […]

In Detroit – a place where generational poverty and street violence have shaped far too many childhoods – Beat Da Odds is more than just another afterschool program…it’s a movement that aims to restore hope and rewrite futures.  From school hallways to community centers, this grassroots CVI organization is showing youth that the deck doesn’t […]

Ceasefire is a community violence intervention program that often comes up whenever Detroit discusses stopping gun violence.  The city’s longest-running and most recognized CVI, Ceasefire’s foundation is based on hard truths and real opportunities, which they achieve through a partnership model that includes community members, law enforcement, clergy, and social service providers.  Originally inspired by […]

Not all Detroit stories are about broken systems.  Others are about people doing things themselves when the system fails to show up.  One such group on the East Side – in the Denby neighborhood between Chandler Park and the high school named after it – does exactly that. The Denby Neighborhood Alliance is not a […]

In the shadow of Detroit’s most underserved neighborhoods, where trust is a rare commodity and violence is a daily ritual, Force Detroit is doing something radical: truly listening.  Not policing.  Not preaching.  Listening.  From that, something powerful is being built:  A justice-dignity-healing community model of public safety. In 2015, longtime activist and organizer Alia Harvey-Quinn […]

In a city where many nonprofits fail before ever truly lifting off from the ground, New Era Detroit (NED) stands in a league of their own. They never ask for permission, nor do they require any applause. They simply show up – loud, organized, and unapologetic. New Era Detroit was started in 2014 by its […]

In Detroit, help for the disenfranchised isn’t always something easy to come by. It often arrives late if it even arrives at all – but some don’t wait. Some simply show up and do the work. That’s The People’s Action – not some distant nonprofit defined by fancy buzzwords and billboards, but a hands-on community […]

Long before community violence intervention acronyms, American Rescue Plan dollars, or national headlines, there was the Detroit 300 – concerned citizens, clergy, and retired professionals who said: enough is enough. Launched in 2011 by founder/owner/community activist, the late Eric Ford, Detroit 300 was not born out of a think tank.  It was born on the […]

Wayne Metropolitan Community Action Agency (Wayne Metro) is one of many CVI organizations working to hold it all together in the Metro area as far as crime and blight reduction goes. Thanks to funding from various nonprofits and community upliftment programs, Wayne Metro is restoring safety from the inside out all across Wayne County as […]

Detroit Friends and Family is doing something quietly revolutionary in a city plagued by disenfranchisement: they are putting a smile on the faces of people who are tired of broken promises and red and blue lights, doing their part in the violence epidemic with familiarity instead of fear.  A locally grown community violence intervention organization, […]

For years, the old Hudson site in downtown Detroit was nothing more than an empty parking lot, leaving many locals wondering, “When will this ever get developed?” It was a clear reminder of just how far the city had fallen: Detroit’s biggest, flashiest department store reduced to nothing more than a vacant patch of land riddled […]

Anyone who has ever sat in traffic on the Ambassador Bridge muttering under their breath in annoyance knows exactly why Detroiters have been begging for another crossing into Canada for decades now. That bridge is old, overworked, and feels like it might shake under your tires some days.  Enter the Gordie Howe International Bridge – […]

If you’ve walked through downtown Detroit near Campus Martius in recent years, chances are you’ve probably seen the empty stretch of land where the Monroe Blocks were supposed to rise. It always felt like one of those “Detroit someday” stories that never quite materialized.  That is until the moment comes when the plan gets real. […]

Detroit City FC games at Keyworth Stadium in Hamtramck are a lot different than any other sporting event. It’s loud. It’s messy. There’s smoke coming from the stands, drums pounding for 90 minutes, kids on shoulders waving flags, and people chanting. It feels alive in a way the other big four professional teams do not. […]

Detroit’s iconic music hall sneaks up on you.  It looks pretty modest from the outside – just one more old building downtown nestled between parking lots and office towers. However, upon entering, you can feel it – the history, the style, the sound emanating from the walls.  It is one of the few genuine reminders […]