New Era Detroit: A Detroit Based CVI Working to Reclaim its Streets

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 founder, Zeek Williams, out of sheer frustration: police brutality was at an all-time high during this time, as was systemic abandonment, and Zeek had simply had enough of sitting idly on the sidelines watching it happen. 

From this yearning, New Era Detroit was born – a neighborhood-based power structure with a strong focus on Black self-determination.

The organization firmly believes that people can and must police, protect, and provide for their own communities, which they put into practice by organizing everything from street cleanups to grocery deliveries, educational forums, and violence interruption techniques.

Long before community violence intervention was even an acronym, New Era Detroit was out doing the work.

They then joined the ShotStoppers initiative in 2023, becoming one of six Community Violence Intervention organizations funded by ARPA dollars, which led to an impressive 53% drop in violent crime by late 2024 (the highest reduction of any CVI org in the city of Detroit that quarter).

New Era accomplished this by combining their grassroots base with high-risk intervention strategies, from credible messengers dispersed throughout neighborhoods to safe zones identified via their mobile app.

That said, unlike most traditional CVI groups, New Era Detroit does not see any difference between activism and prevention – whether they’re stopping a fight between two teens or marching in a 200-person demonstration against gentrification.

Regardless, the mission is the same: stopping gentrification and doing whatever is necessary to protect the interests of Black Detroiters, which they accomplish by partnering up with schools, block clubs, barbershops, and Black-owned businesses that provide wraparound support, including conflict mediation and school supplies for mental health services and clean water.

They also have their New Era Nation Ten-Point Program, which works to establish economic control, safety, food access, education, and cultural sovereignty for Black communities all across America – not just in the Metro area.

And while Detroit is still their proud base of operations, the movement has since gone international, including chapters in Atlanta, Dallas, Los Angeles, and Chicago – all while remaining firmly rooted in the city’s East Side neighborhoods. 

“We work for the city,” Zeek Williams often says. “We work for the people.”

In return, many Detroiters see New Era as a neighborhood safe space – a megaphone at the corner of Gratiot and Harper reminding folks that the block still belongs to them.

In short: New Era Detroit is not playing defense in the Metro’s war against violence, erasure, and systemic abandonment. 

They’re the ones writing the playbook on how to fight it.