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This report is a part of Kids Matter Here An Analytic Review of the 10 year Good Neighborhoods Initiative The Skillman Foundation s Good Neighborhoods Initiative was a 100 million commitment to six Detroit neighborhoods spanning from 2006 2016 To best understand the outcomes of the long term neighborhood based work the Foundation worked with a variety of evaluators residents stakeholders grant partners staff Trustees and community allies to form a series of analyses and dialogues The goals of the Analytic Review are to synthesize what the decade of work has accomplished inform decisions about the Foundation s work going forward and build and share knowledge locally and nationally This report is one of the many interconnected products that will be available on the Foundation s website at www skillman org GNI as they are developed through spring of 2017

STRENGTHENING Grassroots Community Leadership in Detroit Evaluation Report on the Community Connections Grants Program 2006 2015 Produced for Prevention Network and the Skillman Foundation July 28 2016 By David Scheie with Lisa Leverette Inetta Mims and Jessica Brooke Williams Touchstone Center for Collaborative Inquiry

Credits Learning and Evaluation Team David Scheie Touchstone Center for Collaborative Inquiry Lisa Leverette and Inetta Mims Community Connections Grant Program Jessica Brooke Williams and Ebony Roberts JFM Consulting Group Formatting Jenny Sigsbee and Erik Dosedel Touchstone Center for Collaborative Inquiry Cover Design Tricia Vanderkooy This report was developed through a collaborative inquiry process involving Touchstone Center for Collaborative Inquiry JFM Consulting Group and the Community Connections Grants Program of Prevention Network David Scheie Touchstone president served as lead evaluation and learning partner including lead author lead case study fieldworker and project coordinator Lisa Leverette Community Connections program manager was co learning and evaluation partner generating learning questions advising Detroit data collection and contributing to lessons learned Inetta Mims Community Connections administrative assistant managed the grants database helped identify learning questions and conducted several data analyses Jessica Brooke Williams JFM project associate helped plan and conduct data analyses and edit case studies Ebony Roberts JFM project associate through November 2015 helped plan and launch case studies This report was produced by Touchstone Center for Collaborative Inquiry with support from Prevention Network Skillman Foundation and W K Kellogg Foundation Responsibility for its contents rests solely with Touchstone Center 2016 Touchstone Center for Collaborative Inquiry We encourage reproduction and use of this report Once acknowledgement has been made to Prevention Network Skillman Kellogg and Touchstone Center for Collaborative Inquiry parts or all of this document may be reproduced provided that such material is not sold Touchstone Center for Collaborative Inquiry 360 Brunswick Avenue South Minneapolis MN 55416 612 232 2912 www touchstone center com

Strengthening Grassroots Community Leadership in Detroit Table of Contents Executive Summary i Introduction 1 Overview of the Community Connections program 1 Evaluation methodology for this report 4 Findings 6 Grantmaking patterns 6 Youth participation 11 Adult participation in Community Connections projects 14 Engaging partners leveraging resources 18 Barriers encountered by projects 20 Learning to improve sources of guidance used by grantee groups 21 Outcomes 22 Reflections on building community leadership 26 Growing the capacity of individual neighborhood leaders 26 Building the collective networked leadership of the neighborhood 29 Role of Skillman related activities and programs in developing leadership 29 Prospects for leaders influence on future neighborhood planning 30 Lessons 31 Recommendations 33 Appendices 35 Appendix A Case studies of durable Community Connections projects 35 Appendix B People interviewed for this report 61 Appendix C Youth contributions to project applications and reports 63 Touchstone Center for Collaborative Inquiry

Strengthening Grassroots Community Leadership in Detroit Evaluation Report on the Community Connections Grants Program 2006 2015 Touchstone Center for Collaborative Inquiry July 2016 Executive Summary Community Connections is a resident centered grant program working to strengthen civic engagement and grassroots leadership in six Detroit neighborhoods Brightmoor Chadsey Condon Cody Rouge North End Osborn and Southwest It awards grants of 500 to 5 000 to local projects that mobilize residents energies to improve opportunities and conditions for youth Community Connections was launched by the Skillman Foundation in 2006 as part of the Foundation s Good Neighborhoods initiative and is operated by Prevention Network a statewide organization experienced in running resident focused small grants programs Since 2012 it has also received major support from the W K Kellogg Foundation Rooted in the conviction that local groups and leaders are essential if neighborhoods are to create safe environments where children and youth can grow up successfully the program is guided by a four fold impact framework At its heart is a commitment to expand residents civic engagement Through its project support and related learning opportunities Community Connections helps strengthen community leadership in these neighborhoods Projects offer positive youth development opportunities to children and teens in these neighborhoods And some projects contribute to systems change by connecting with kids in ways that larger institutional systems currently miss by helping to create alternatives to those established institutional systems and by engaging in neighborhood planning policy advocacy and other efforts to reform those systems Results From August 2006 through June 2015 Community Connections awarded 815 grants totaling nearly 2 8 million to 481 different groups an average of 91 grants to 76 groups per year at an average size of 3 394 Analysis of final reports since 2012 indicates that Hundreds of neighborhood residents are engaging in community life and building their leadership skills through Community Connections projects Funded projects report over 750 adults involved median 10 per project and over 220 named adults playing leadership roles average 3 per project each year These projects are providing positive youth development experiences to over 2700 children and youth each year A median of 36 youth are reported involved with an average of 76 groups funded per year in the past 3 years 55 of the youth involved are boys About one in seven 15 of funded projects work just with boys the vast majority African American or Latino Community Connections groups and leaders are highly networked and collaborative Almost all grantees 92 report mobilizing project contributions from at least one other

Strengthening Grassroots Community Leadership in Detroit organization or group nearly half 47 named four or more contributing partners Over a third 37 reported obtaining funds from other sources besides Community Connections Most Community Connections project leaders are active learners Nearly three fourths 73 reported getting guidance from one or more sources to plan or do their project Over half 52 reported getting advice coaching or mentoring from Community Connections staff One in five 22 reported learning from training or workshops and one in six 16 said they got advice coaching or mentoring from a neighborhood executive director Some Community Connections leaders are involved in policy change About one in four projects 24 said they had connected or interacted with local policy makers and one in six 17 said they had contributed to changes in resources and public policies affecting youth and their neighborhood Lessons A small grants program such as Community Connections can be an effective way to surface and strengthen large numbers of grassroots groups and leaders One key to an effective small grants program such as Community Connections is staff that are skilled at finding encouraging coaching and connecting these local leaders Using a residents leadership panel to review applications make funding recommendations and advise staff gives community credibility to the program builds leadership and helps staff focus more strategically Achieving consistent youth participation in the program leadership panel is difficult Adults panelists can be coached to provide a welcoming environment for young panelists But youths dynamic lives and limited resources mean that consistent schedule availability and transportation to meetings are bigger barriers for them than for adult panelists Deeper leadership development happens largely through sustained experience and mentoring relationships especially those that help leaders learn from their own experience Finding adults skilled at supporting youth led projects through the learning experiences of project implementation without taking charge and reducing youth to follower roles has been difficult Grassroots project leaders greatest contributions to systems change may be to create or illuminate alternatives to current flawed systems rather than pushing to reform entrenched systems Recommendations Continue supporting the Community Connections program The program has proven to be effective at surfacing and strengthening networks of active residents and grassroots organizations working for youth development and community improvement Make it easier for proficient small Community Connections groups to access larger resources from Skillman and other sources Expand opportunities for grassroots leaders to grow through mentoring and peer learning relationships such as communities of practice that can accelerate and deepen learning from experience Touchstone Center for Collaborative Inquiry ii

Strengthening Grassroots Community Leadership in Detroit Introduction Overview of the Community Connections program The Community Connections program is part of the Skillman Foundation s effort to improve conditions for children in six Detroit neighborhoods and of the W K Kellogg Foundation s strategy for Detroit It works toward the goals that Skillman and Kellogg have for Detroit especially More caring adults in young people s lives and deeper connections between youth and caring adults to instill positive pathways for youth to learn and grow into successful adults More youth adult residents and other neighborhood stakeholders business owners nonprofit staff public officials etc engaged in leadership and leader development activities so they can help youth develop and learn in a healthy environment Greater collaboration among networks of resident organizations and leaders youth development organizations and schools so they can be more effective in improving opportunities for youth Improved neighborhood conditions including systems policies and programs that help youth live in economically secure families and grow up safe healthy educated and ready for adulthood Equity and opportunity for youth of color especially black and brown boys and young men Community Connections is a resident driven grant program that believes local groups and leaders are essential if neighborhoods are to create safe environments where children and youth grow up successfully The program is guided by a four fold impact framework At its heart is a commitment to expand civic engagement in the Brightmoor Chadsey Condon Cody Rouge North End Osborn and Southwest neighborhoods Its primary strategy is providing grants of 500 to 5 000 to local projects that mobilize residents energies to improve conditions for local youth Through these projects and related learning opportunities Community Connections helps strengthen community leadership in these neighborhoods Projects offer positive youth development opportunities to the children and teens in these neighborhoods And some projects contribute to systems change by connecting with kids in ways that larger institutional systems currently miss by helping to create alternatives to those established institutional systems and by engaging in neighborhood planning policy advocacy and other efforts to reform those systems Community Connections was launched in 2006 by the Skillman Foundation as part of its Good Neighborhoods initiative which made a 10 year commitment to work to improve conditions and benefit the lives of children in these six Detroit neighborhoods which together are home to close to one third of Detroit s children about 50 000 in 2014 down from 65 000 in 2006 Skillman wanted to make sure that neighborhood residents were integrally involved in the Good Neighborhoods change effort and saw a resident focused small grants program as a strategy to Touchstone Center for Collaborative Inquiry 1

Strengthening Grassroots Community Leadership in Detroit surface and strengthen resident leadership Skillman partnered with Prevention Network a statewide organization experienced in administering small grants programs for grassroots substance abuse prevention projects to operate Community Connections The program was initially designed by then Skillman program officer Sharnita Johnson and then Prevention Network executive director Sheila Taylor Inspiration was drawn from several sources including the Neighborhood Connections program in Cleveland Prevention Network hired Lisa Leverette a Detroit resident experienced in youth development and community engagement to manage Community Connections Nearly 10 years later Lisa is still the program manager though the total staff of Community Connections in Detroit has grown to three thanks to additional funding from the W K Kellogg Foundation which began in 2012 1 Prevention Network s main office in Lansing also provides administrative support and fiduciary oversight of Community Connections Community Connections staff encourages its grassroots leaders to connect with other Skillmanlinked assets for change in these six neighborhoods such as the neighborhood executive directors currently in five of the six neighborhoods the University of Michigan Technical Assistance Center and the Youth Development Alliances Key elements of Community Connections approach include its grants the coaching and connecting provided by Community Connections staff its residents leadership panel known since 2012 as the Changemakers panel and the program s commitment to ongoing learning and evaluation Grants Community Connections will provide up to two grants per year to grassroots groups and organizations All groups are eligible for grants of 500 to 5 000 Since 2013 with the infusion of Kellogg Foundation support Community Connections has also offered grants up to 10 000 maximum of 20 000 per year to experienced grantee groups meeting higher eligibility criteria Coaching Community Connections staff hold pre application workshops for prospective applicants They also give individualized assistance to help applicants and grantees refine their project ideas and plans think about how to grow their impact and access various other resources and learning opportunities 1 Funding for arts and culture opportunities has also come from the Berman Foundation Touchstone Center for Collaborative Inquiry 2

Strengthening Grassroots Community Leadership in Detroit Changemakers leadership panel Community Connections goals of empowering residents and building resident leadership are pursued partly through using a residents leadership panel comprised of residents from the six target neighborhoods selected by the Community Connections manager Known since 2012 as the Changemakers Panel this group meets monthly to review grant applications and make funding recommendations which are forwarded to the Prevention Network board for final implementation the board takes fiduciary responsibility for grants to groups without IRS 501c3 status This responsibility requires several hours per month on a volunteer basis in addition to whatever other involvement panelists may have in community and Skillman initiative affairs Having a panel of neighborhood residents make the grant award decisions vividly demonstrates Community Connections commitment to be resident driven and community owned This may be especially important In Detroit where many decision makers over resource flows do not live in Detroit let alone in these neighborhoods The panel s composition reassures applicants that their application is reviewed by a panel of people like them who understand their neighborhood from lived experience Following the Community Connections five year evaluation in 2011 which recommended tapping this group s strategic potential more fully the panel was refined The number of panelists was reduced from 21 in 2011 though only 12 had participated actively to 12 in 2016 while still maintaining representation from the six neighborhoods and multiple demographic categories as shown in Figure 1 Figure 1 Composition of Changemakers resident leadership panel 2016 Gender Men Women 4 8 Age 20 29 30 39 40 49 50 59 60 2 4 1 2 3 African American Latina Arab 9 2 1 Ethnicity Neighborhood Brightmoor Chadsey Condon Cody Rouge North End Osborn Southwest 2 2 2 2 2 2 Year joined panel 2006 2007 2009 2014 2015 1 5 2 1 3 The panel is both a learning and a leadership group Through their process of monthly deliberation over grant applications panelists hone their understanding of program goals They become aware of the overall mix of project types and of groups capacities They spot opportunities for groups to collaborate with others They watch for patterns of progress and difficulty across all the grants and periodically review evaluation findings for clues on how to improve program effectiveness This knowledge equips them to serve as a valued advisory group to Community Connections staff giving them direction on where to focus their outreach Touchstone Center for Collaborative Inquiry 3

Strengthening Grassroots Community Leadership in Detroit and coaching efforts Panelists have also helped to revise the language in grant applications report forms and program guidelines For the past several years the panel and staff have held annual daylong retreats exploring key topics in greater depth and refining vision and strategy for the program Panelists take part along with Community Connections staff in national learning networks thinking through how to adapt lessons to their Detroit context Learning and evaluation within Community Connections Community Connections has pursued a multi faceted approach to ongoing learning and evaluation particularly since the five year evaluation in 2011 Internally the program overhauled its application and report forms to enable more precise and extensive learning from the information on those routine forms One of the new staff positions created with Kellogg support enables Community Connections to maintain a data spreadsheet where many data points from these files are compiled and analyzed periodically for learning among many other tasks An evaluation team comprised of that staff person plus two external consultants one from JFM Consulting Group in Detroit and the other from the Touchstone Center for Collaborative Inquiry in Minneapolis works together to conduct these analyses develop these data displays and guide these learning conversations Externally staff are active in national peer learning networks including Grassroots Grantmakers and the Leadership Learning Community Staff often bring panelists and grantee leaders with them to learning venues in these national networks such as the Grassroots Grantmakers On the Ground events and the Resident Learning Exchange launched by Roque Barrios of the Jacobs Foundation in San Diego Sometimes these learning journeys are bookended by prep and debrief sessions to help panelists and staff focus their learning goals more sharply and harvest their learnings more fully and critically Learning through critical reflection and dialogue also happens through panel retreats The senior evaluation consultant sometimes helps to design and facilitate these retreats He also serves as thought partner to the program manager and other staff providing critical questions and a safe listening space where they can name and explore their challenges and opportunities their impressions and wonderings Evaluation methodology for this report The chief purpose of evaluation efforts in the 2015 16 program year was to discover and communicate what Community Connections contributes to the goals of building community leadership strengthening community fabric and fostering youth success in these six Skillman neighborhoods Evaluation efforts have centered in two areas probing breadth and depth For breadth we have analyzed data mainly quantitative from the grants data system There are two parts to this system One includes basic data on all grants awarded in the entire history of the program back to the first grant in August 2006 These data include the name of the organization its chief Touchstone Center for Collaborative Inquiry 4

Strengthening Grassroots Community Leadership in Detroit contact person the project name and description and the grant amount These data were used to examine cumulative grantmaking and long term patterns The other contains up to 142 additional data points drawn from the application and final report for each grant These data have been entered for all applications funded in the three most recent program years from July 2012 through June 2015 We focused primarily on the most recent projects completed by 100 different grantee groups These included data from seven projects funded in May or June 2012 plus the 93 groups that filed reports from projects funded between July 2012 and June 2015 These data were used to generate findings regarding youth participation adult participation barriers encountered by projects incidence and types of developmental assistance reported by project leaders and reported outcomes For depth we conducted case studies of four grantee organizations that had received Community Connections support for at least five years for maximum longitudinal perspective We wanted to learn how these small organizations and their leaders grow and sustain themselves over the long term Organizations were selected to provide some diversity in their neighborhood location the age range of youth they involved the racial and ethnic diversity of their leadership and the focus and approach of their project We also wanted some diversity in whether they had evolved in focus and or size over time or stayed fairly constant in focus and scale though they may have grown in quality and strength Using these criteria organizations were selected by Community Connections staff in consultation with the evaluation team The organizations selected were Amistad Reading and Music Project led by Randall Mosley in Southwest Detroit funded by Community Connections since 2011 Brightmoor Wellspring Youth Adventure Leadership led by Peter Lisiecki in Brightmoor funded by Community Connections since 2007 Developing Kingdoms in Different Stages Developing KIDS led by Kim Newberry in Cody Rouge funded by Community Connections since 2008 Join In to Revitalize Arab American Neighborhoods JIRAN and Chadsey Condon Youth Committee CCYC led by Aswan Almaktary in Chadsey Condon plus Cody Rouge and Southwest funded by Community Connections since 2010 We interviewed between six and 12 people at each case study site primary and secondary leaders community partners and observers youth and parents We observed the project in action in three of the four cases Case studies appear in Appendix A and interviewees are listed in Appendix B Primary limitations of this evaluation are 1 its interviews focus on groups and leaders with long term viability and long term Community Connections support selected as instructive examples by Community Connections staff rather than a more diverse or random sample that included groups and leaders no longer active or involved and 2 it relies largely on selfreported data from project applications and final reports Touchstone Center for Collaborative Inquiry 5

Strengthening Grassroots Community Leadership in Detroit Findings Grantmaking patterns From August 2006 through June 2015 815 total grants were awarded to 481 different groups About 91 grants were awarded per year at an average size of 3 410 as shown in Figure 2 Figure 2 Grant totals by program year Year Total grants Total awarded Average grant size 2006 07 71 301 958 4 253 2007 08 103 379 080 3 680 2008 09 107 373 555 3 491 2009 10 93 303 484 3 263 2010 11 93 303 308 3 261 2011 12 90 240 128 2 668 2012 13 92 308 509 3 353 2013 14 92 309 136 3 360 2014 15 74 260 318 3 518 Total 815 2 779 476 3 410 Average year 91 308 831 3 394 The six neighborhoods had roughly similar levels of small grant activities with some variation On average each neighborhood received about 55 000 per year ranging from about 46 000 in North End up to 67 000 in Osborn as shown in Figure 3 Figure 3 Total grant dollars awarded per neighborhood July 2006 June 2015 600 954 507 219 473 841 447 773 343 379 316 740 89 560 Brightmoor Chadsey Condon Cody Rouge North End Osborn Southwest Multi nbd projects Touchstone Center for Collaborative Inquiry 6

Strengthening Grassroots Community Leadership in Detroit Yearly variations in total grant dollars awarded in each neighborhood are shown in Figures 4 and 5 Figure 4 Grant dollars awarded in each neighborhood by program year Year Brightmoor Chadsey Condon Cody Rouge North End Osborn Southwest Multiple 2006 07 82 715 24 525 74 016 115 702 5 000 2007 08 94 959 53 093 40 899 31 430 83 302 63 187 12 210 2008 09 55 949 37 893 77 934 59 263 94 662 42 854 5 000 2009 10 38 328 65 260 46 228 61 521 58 817 33 320 2010 11 43 604 31 494 61 160 34 379 70 367 58 304 4 000 2011 12 29 349 8 230 65 470 40 728 43 971 47 580 4 800 2012 13 18 906 40 420 53 682 37 492 60 380 67 917 29 712 2013 14 52 224 36 185 69 806 23 786 73 891 43 234 10 010 2014 15 57 807 46 279 32 594 28 141 42 749 35 121 17 627 Total 473 841 343 379 447 773 316 740 600 954 507 219 89 560 Avg yr 52 649 38 153 59 703 3 66 773 56 358 9 951 2 42 232 Figure 5 Grant dollars awarded in each neighborhood by program year 140 000 120 000 100 000 80 000 60 000 40 000 20 000 0 2006 07 2007 08 2008 09 2009 10 2010 11 2011 12 2012 13 2013 14 2014 15 2 Cody Rouge and North End grants began in January 2009 18 months later than in the other four neighborhoods 3 See note 2 Touchstone Center for Collaborative Inquiry 7

Strengthening Grassroots Community Leadership in Detroit About two thirds 69 of the 481 groups funded received only one grant during the nine years There are 151 groups that have been funded multiple times 76 groups received two grants 37 received three 29 received four or five and 11 groups received between six and 13 grants during the nine years as shown in Figure 6 While groups may receive up to two grants per year only a small percentage about one in eight groups come back for a second grant in the same year Figure 6 Percentage of groups receiving multiple grants 6 2 1 grant 23 2 3 grants 4 5 grants 69 6 13 grants The number of groups funded each year is slightly smaller than the number of grants awarded because of those groups receiving two grants On average 76 different groups were funded in each of the three most recent years from July 2012 through June 2015 Between six and 12 groups each year received multiple grants While 5 000 is the standard maximum grant available in 2013 guidelines were changed so that experienced grantees could apply for grants up to 10 000 if they met these criteria a multilevel leadership so that project well being does not depend on just one person b have a longterm plan c strong community engagement d engage multiple organizations and stakeholders and e efficient with managing funds These larger grants support infrastructure growth including allocating a larger share of funds for stipends and durable equipment They were made possible when W K Kellogg Foundation joined as a major funding partner Since March 2013 about 10 percent of grants comprising between a fifth and a third of all grant dollars have been in this larger dollar category Through June 2015 22 grants between 7 150 and 10 000 were awarded to 14 groups across five neighborhoods These organizations had previously received a median number of five previous grants Touchstone Center for Collaborative Inquiry 8

Strengthening Grassroots Community Leadership in Detroit Figure 7 Total dollars awarded in grants of 7 000 10 000 90 000 80 000 70 000 60 000 50 000 40 000 30 000 20 000 10 000 0 84 809 66 470 59 900 2012 13 2013 14 2014 15 Program Year To better understand who and what Community Connections has been nurturing in recent years we analyzed applications and reports from the 100 grantee groups that most recently filed final grant reports with Prevention Network These 100 projects were funded between May 2012 and June 2015 4 A majority 58 of these 100 groups had been funded at least once before by Community Connections Thirty six of them received multiple grants during these most recent three years for these analyses however we looked just at their most recent grant file Types of projects funded The application form asks groups to identify the type of project they are proposing checking up to two options on a list of 15 choices As shown in Figure 6 groups conducted a fairly balanced range of project types with six different types each reflected in 10 27 of the projects Most common were projects focused on sports and recreation and or leadership development youth development civic engagement each comprising just over one fourth of all projects Next most common were arts and culture and gardening environmental beautification projects each comprising about one in six projects 4 The 100 files included 62 with new format applications and 76 with new format final reports which contain more extensive and specific information than the old format forms The new format forms were phased in starting in May 2013 Touchstone Center for Collaborative Inquiry 9

Strengthening Grassroots Community Leadership in Detroit Figure 8 Most common types of projects Health food 10 Social skills 12 Gardening env beautif 15 Arts culture 17 Leader dev Youth dev civic engagement 26 Sports recreation 27 0 5 10 15 20 25 30 Percentage of projects Projects took place in a variety of locations or settings in the six neighborhoods as shown in Figure 9 The largest number 40 took place at least partly outdoors About a third of projects used a school setting and about a fourth used a neighborhood center About one in seven took place at an agency or a religious institution Other locations used less often included businesses and other work sites college campuses and homes Percentage of projects Figure 9 Most common project settings 45 40 35 30 25 20 15 10 5 0 Outdoors School Nbd center Agency Relig Inst Touchstone Center for Collaborative Inquiry 10 Other

Strengthening Grassroots Community Leadership in Detroit Youth participation In our analysis 99 groups gave information on the number of youth they involved They reported a median number of 36 youth per project With 76 groups funded per year this suggests that over 2 700 youth are participating annually in these projects This is a dramatic increase since the early years of Community Connections Our analysis of projects from 2006 10 conducted in 2011 found a median number of 19 youth involved per project 5 However we don t know whether youth numbers actually increased or if the change in reported participation is due simply to the more precise new reporting format used since 2013 Projects varied widely in the number of youth they involved from a low of three in a block club with mainly adult participants to a high of 1 121 Figure 10 Numbers of youth participating in projects by neighborhood Median Range Brightmoor 26 20 121 Chadsey Condon 33 5 694 Cody Rouge 47 5 10 920 North End 28 5 3 139 Osborn 25 7 800 Southwest 36 15 1121 Multi Nbd Groups 96 12 1000 All Projects 36 3 1121 In gender ethnicity and age these youth participants roughly mirror the demographic composition of these neighborhoods according to analysis of final reports that included specific demographic information Gender of youth participants The great majority of Community Connections projects 81 said they worked with both girls and boys Fifteen percent worked just with boys while four percent involved just girls as shown in Figure 11 Overall about 55 percent of the youth involved were boys and 45 percent were girls Those involving just boys worked overwhelmingly with black and brown boys 91 percent of their participating boys were African American and 8 percent were Latinos 5 See Engaging Natural Leaders to Improve Neighborhoods for Youth Touchstone Center for Collaborative Inquiry 2011 p 25 Touchstone Center for Collaborative Inquiry 11

Strengthening Grassroots Community Leadership in Detroit Figure 11 Share of projects that involved boys girls or both n 74 Boys only 15 Girls only 4 Both boys girls 81 Race or ethnicity of youth participants Of the 100 projects analyzed 74 reported the ethnicity of the youth participants involved Not surprisingly for Detroit all but one of these projects involved African American youth However half of the projects involved youth from multiple ethnic or racial groups More than a third of the projects included Latino youth over a fourth included white youth and one in seven included Arab Americans as shown in Figure 12 Six 9 of these projects reported youth from other groups including one project each including Asian or Chinese plus four projects that did not identify their other ethnicity More than a fourth of the projects included youth from three or four different ethnic or racial groups Ethnicity of participating youth varied somewhat by neighborhood Most projects involving Arab American youth were in Chadsey Condon Three of the four projects involving Hmong youth were in Osborn Nearly two thirds of the projects involving Latino youth were in either Chadsey Condon or Southwest Chadsey Condon and Cody Rouge had the largest number of projects reporting participation by white youth See Figure 13 for variations among projects in different neighborhoods The four case study groups included three with mainly African American youth and one with mainly Arab American youth that also included African American Latino and white youth Altogether about three fourths of participating youth are African American and one fifth are Latino as shown in Figure 14 Touchstone Center for Collaborative Inquiry 12

Strengthening Grassroots Community Leadership in Detroit Figure 12 Percentage of projects including youth of different ethnic or racial groups 99 100 Percent of Projects n 74 90 80 70 60 50 36 40 28 30 15 20 9 10 5 0 African American Latino White Arab Other Hmong Figure 13 Number of projects per neighborhood involving youth of each ethnicity total projects with youth ethnicity data 74 Youth ethnicity Brightmoor Chadsey Condon Cody Rouge North End Osborn Southwest Multi nbd projects African American 9 14 10 5 25 7 3 Arab 1 7 2 0 0 1 0 Hmong 0 1 0 0 3 0 0 Latino 5 9 2 1 3 7 1 White 1 5 5 1 3 4 1 Other Total number of projects per nbd 3 0 1 0 1 0 1 9 14 10 5 25 8 3 Figure 14 Racial ethnic identities of all youth participants Hmong 1 Arab 2 White 4 Other 1 Latino 19 African American 73 Touchstone Center for Collaborative Inquiry 13

Strengthening Grassroots Community Leadership in Detroit Ages of participating youth Ninety seven of the 100 projects in the analysis provided information on the age groups of their participants in the categories of ages 0 5 6 10 elementary 11 13 middle school and 14 18 high school Most projects worked with multiple age groups Four out of five projects worked with high school aged youth two thirds with middle schoolers and half with elementary aged youth Figure 15 shows the total number of projects that reported working with each age group Figure 15 Percentage of projects working with youth in each age group 90 80 Percent of Projects n 84 80 69 igure 11 Youth participant 70 age group by neighborhood 60 49 50 40 30 20 Figure 12 Youth participant numbers per project by neighborhood 19 10 0 0 5 Elementary 6 10 Middle School 11 13 High School 14 18 The four case study groups included one focuses on elementary students one that works with ages 5 18 and two that engage high school aged youth Adult participation in Community Connections projects The 100 projects analyzed reported a median number of 10 adults involved Thirty percent reported 20 or more adults involved and 32 reported five or fewer adults involved See Figure 16 for the median and range of number of adult participants for each neighborhood Figure 16 Adult participant numbers Brightmoor Median Range 14 7 43 Chadsey Condon 6 5 2 44 Cody Rouge 6 1 32 North End 14 5 45 Osborn Southwest 8 1 100 14 5 2 557 Touchstone Center for Collaborative Inquiry 14 Multi Nbd Groups 42 2 55 All Projects 10 1 557

Strengthening Grassroots Community Leadership in Detroit Ages of participating adults Adults of all ages are participating in Community Connections projects according to project reports Seventy three of the 100 files in our analysis reported the age range of the adults involved in the funded project The four age group options listed on the final report included college 19 21 young parent 22 34 middle age 35 54 or older adult 55 Most projects reported involving adults from all four age groups as shown in Figure 17 Figure 17 Participation by adults of different ages Adult age group 19 21 22 34 35 54 55 of projects involving this age group 56 73 84 60 Adult participation by age varies somewhat across neighborhoods Middle aged adults are most common in Osborn projects while Southwest projects have a higher proportion of young adults ages 19 21 involved and Brightmoor has the highest proportion of projects with older adults 55 involved as shown in Figure 18 Figure 18 Number of projects working with each adult age group by neighborhood out of 73 projects who reported Number of Projects 25 College 19 21 20 Young Parent 22 34 15 Middle Age 35 54 10 Older 55 Other Adults Reported 5 0 The four case studies include two groups whose primary leaders are now middle aged and two whose leaders are now older adults Touchstone Center for Collaborative Inquiry 15

Strengthening Grassroots Community Leadership in Detroit Race or ethnicity of participating adults As with youth involved the vast majority of Community Connections projects 93 have adult African Americans involved Next most common was involvement by white adults active in nearly half 47 of projects About one in five projects 18 reported Latino adults involved and one in 12 projects 8 had Arab American adult involvement as shown in Figure 19 White adults participated in more projects than did white youth Arab and Latino adults participated in fewer projects than did youth of those ethnicities as shown in Figure 20 Figure 19 Number of projects involving adults of each ethnicity by neighborhood African American Arab Hmong Latino White Other No Ethnicity Reported Brightmoor Chadsey Condon Cody Rouge North End Osborn Southwest Multiple Neighborhoods TOTAL 8 12 10 5 24 6 3 68 0 0 1 3 2 3 0 4 7 0 0 0 1 8 1 0 0 1 2 1 0 3 0 6 1 2 0 4 6 1 1 o 2 2 0 6 3 13 34 6 5 2 8 2 2 7 1 27 Figure 20 Comparison of projects inclusion of adults and youth of different racial or ethnic identities African American Arab Hmong Latino White Other of projects including people of this identity Adults Youth 93 99 8 15 4 5 18 36 47 28 8 9 The four case study groups include two led mainly by African American adults one with Arab American adults and one with mainly white adult leaders Touchstone Center for Collaborative Inquiry 16

Strengthening Grassroots Community Leadership in Detroit Adults in leadership roles Most projects involved multiple adults in leadership roles On the new application form groups are invited to name up to five adults playing leadership roles in the project On average projects named three adult leaders About a third of projects named only one leader while slightly over half of projects named two or three adult leaders and one in six named four or five adult leaders as shown in Figure 21 Those listing five may have had more adult leaders as the form only provided room to list five Figure21 Number of adult leaders named per project 4 leaders 4 5 leaders 12 1 leader 31 3 leaders 37 2 leaders 16 According to Community Connections staff one kind of adult leadership that has been difficult to find has been adults willing to support youth led projects in implementing their project ideas Adults that are willing to take charge and give direction to youth are more common Adults skilled at letting youth attempt implementation and be a guide by the side while young leaders make mistakes and then struggle to learn and recover have been far more rare Touchstone Center for Collaborative Inquiry 17

Strengthening Grassroots Community Leadership in Detroit Engaging partners leveraging resources Community Connections has supported a tremendous number of groups and organizations in these six neighborhoods 481 to date or about 80 per neighborhood Consistent with its desire to surface and strengthen natural leaders and natural helpers most of these organizations are resident led or are small locally rooted nonprofit or faith based organizations with a mix of resident and non resident leadership Most of these groups and leaders are collaborative engaging other organizations or groups as partners or contributors in their funded projects Ninety two of the 100 groups analyzed described contributions from at least one other organization thus leveraging resources and forming larger networks of partners in the community Close to half 47 of the groups reported that four other groups or organizations were involved in their project Partners most often provide host sites for project activities 38 while 19 percent of partners provided staff interns or volunteers The remaining 43 percent of partner contributions ranged across eight other possible roles as shown in Figure 22 Figure 22 Contributions by Project Partner Organizations Stipends 4 Transportation 3 Food 4 Vendor exhibitor 5 Youth participants 5 Host site 38 Fiduciary 5 Planning training curriculum 8 Computer lab equipment supplies 11 Staff interns volunteers 19 Touchstone Center for Collaborative Inquiry 18

Strengthening Grassroots Community Leadership in Detroit Leveraging financial resources More than a third of Community Connections groups leverage their Community Connections grants with funds from other sources Of the 100 groups analyzed 23 reported procuring funds from one other source while 14 reported funds from two additional sources Amounts from other sources ranged from as low as 52 for a first time grantee awarded a 2 335 Community Connections grant up to 16 340 for an experienced grantee awarded a 10 000 Community Connections grant In total these 37 groups received 129 412 from Community Connections plus 105 883 from other sources Those that obtained additional funds from one other source expanded their project budgets by 40 percent and those that leveraged two other sources had project budgets that were nearly 50 percent bigger than their Community Connections grant alone as shown in Figure 23 Funds leveraged were greater for groups that reported funds from more than one source not surprisingly The median amount obtained from other sources was 1 000 for those with one other source and 1 433 for those that leveraged two other sources Those that reported leveraging two other sources also got larger Community Connection grants This might indicate that they are larger or higher capacity groups or that attracting more other funds is easier when one s primary grant is larger Figure 23 Funds leveraged from sources beyond Community Connections CC only n 63 2 460 1 other source n 23 2 440 2 other sources n 14 2 925 0 1 000 Median CC Median Partner 1 000 2 000 1 435 3 000 4 000 Touchstone Center for Collaborative Inquiry 19 5 000

Strengthening Grassroots Community Leadership in Detroit Barriers encountered by projects Ninety percent of organizations said they encountered at least one barrier during their project About half of the organizations reported dealing with two or more barriers The most common were transportation related barriers reported by 38 percent of projects Close behind were funding related barriers reported by 34 percent as shown in Figure 24 About one fifth to one sixth of projects reported barriers in four other areas related to attracting participants scheduling conflicts parent commitment and buy in and communication or collaboration with partners or sites Figure 24 Barriers encountered by projects 38 34 26 21 19 17 16 10 Touchstone Center for Collaborative Inquiry 20

Strengthening Grassroots Community Leadership in Detroit Learning to improve sources of guidance used by grantee groups On the final report form organizations were asked whether they got any help or guidance in planning or doing their projects In a checklist they could indicate whether they received advice coaching or mentoring from up to four different sources Community Connections staff a panelist an experienced grantee or a neighborhood executive director who coordinated local governance and planning efforts in the six Skillman neighborhoods as well as whether they attended useful trainings or workshops or tapped other sources of developmental assistance We examined these data for 77 funded groups in the past three years Nearly three fourths of these groups reported getting help or guidance from one or more sources see Figure 25 Of those that reported getting help or guidance half were first time grantees and half had received at least one previous Community Connections grant Those that reported zero sources of developmental help were slightly more likely to be experienced grantees Figure 25 Number of sources of guidance reported by grantees 0 sources 27 2 or more sources 35 1 source 38 Not surprisingly Community Connections staff were the most common source of help or guidance Over half 52 of projects reported getting advice coaching or mentoring from Community Connections staff see Figure 26 The next most common source of learning help came from training or workshops cited by about one in five groups 22 One in six groups reported guidance from a neighborhood executive director Nearly half of these groups were in Cody Rouge and a third were in Chadsey Condon The only neighborhood where no Community Connections groups in our analysis reported getting help from the neighborhood executive director was Southwest Touchstone Center for Collaborative Inquiry 21

Strengthening Grassroots Community Leadership in Detroit About one in eight groups said they got advice coaching or mentoring from an experienced Community Connections grantee Figure 26 Sources of developmental assistance used by grantees of all grantees 52 22 21 16 12 1 Outcomes Outcomes for participating youth Over half 54 of the projects involving high school aged youth reported that youth could earn community credit toward high school graduation as shown in Figure 27 The same proportion offered either paid work experience 33 or unpaid work experience 21 as shown in Figure 28 6 A few projects offered two or three of these kinds of opportunities 6 Fifty seven projects that work with high school aged youth filed new format reports that probed these topics Of these 30 said they allowed youth to earn community credit toward graduation 19 offered paid work experience and 12 offered unpaid work experience Touchstone Center for Collaborative Inquiry 22

Strengthening Grassroots Community Leadership in Detroit Figure 27 Share of projects offering credit for high school graduation Projects offering community credit for HS graduation 53 No HS credit offered 47 Figure 28 Share of projects offering paid or unpaid work experiences Paid work experience 33 No work experience 46 Unpaid work experience 21 The new format reports also asked whether youth built new relationships and connections to their community Almost all groups 91 said this occurred in their projects Another question asked if the project helped youth become more capable learners navigators and contributors to their community Nearly as many projects 89 answered yes to this question The written comments provided to describe the results in these areas indicated that the magnitude of achievement in these areas was modest in many cases All three case study groups that work with high school youth include a focus on community service projects typically neighborhood clean ups and intergenerational social events with older adults and or younger children Touchstone Center for Collaborative Inquiry 23

Strengthening Grassroots Community Leadership in Detroit Youth in project leadership roles As an indication of youth leadership and youth leadership development about half of projects said that youth contributed to planning or writing the grant application or final report Figure 29 Youth involvement in planning or writing project applications and reports Did youth help develop the project report Did youth help develop the project application No 45 No 53 Yes 55 Yes 47 The three teen focused case study groups particularly JIRAN CCYC emphasize youth choosing and shaping their project activities These provide a way to develop youths skills at framng and focusing and help build ownership and responsibility among the youth Outcomes for participating adults Of the projects that provided information on these questions in their final report 84 percent said that their project had drawn more adults into new or stronger relationships with youth Seventy four percent of projects reported that adults had developed new skills roles and relationships in the community because of this project 7 7 Seventy six new format reports included responses to the question about adult relationships with youth Seventy four reports responded to the question about new skills roles and community relationships Touchstone Center for Collaborative Inquiry 24

Strengthening Grassroots Community Leadership in Detroit Community level outcomes When asked broad questions about possible community level outcomes more than three fourths of Community Connections grantees answered yes answering yes n 76 Final report question Did your project empower residents to improve and or influence schools organizations institutions or your neighborhood Did your project help to increase opportunities and equity for youth of color especially black and brown boys and young men 83 78 A review of the written descriptions of these reported results indicated that the magnitude of impact in these areas was modest When asked more specific and tangible questions about possible community level outcomes however the percentage of yes responses was far more modest Only about one in four projects said they connected or interacted with local policy makers and just one in six said their project had contributed to changes in resources and public policies affecting youth and neighborhoods answering yes n 76 Final report question Did your project connect or interact with local policy makers Did your project contribute to any changes in resources and public policies affecting youth and your neighborhood 24 17 If these percentages are generalized to the 76 groups and 86 grants funded annually by Community Connections in the past three years it means that close to 20 groups per year three or four per neighborhood are interacting with policy makers and a dozen or so are helping to shift resources and public policies affecting their neighborhoods All four case studies show grassroots organizations working to increase opportunities for youth of color The three teen focused cases seek to empower youth participants and build their selfconfidence skills and relationships so that these young people can become more effective as community leaders The JIRAN CCYC case study shows organizations that also work intentionally to help teens learn how to navigate and wield influence among schools youth development networks and other institutions and systems in the community Touchstone Center for Collaborative Inquiry 25

Strengthening Grassroots Community Leadership in Detroit Reflections on building community leadership Growing the capacity of individual neighborhood leaders In interviews with Community Connections project leaders participants and observers a handful of factors stand out as especially important in nurturing individual leadership growth These include early experiences in leadership formation relationships particularly with mentors and models and learning first through observation and then through experience in leadership spaces and roles Formal learning and peer networking opportunities such as trainings and workshops also have contributed to leadership growth for many Community Connections leaders Leadership formation starts early in life Many Community Connections project leaders have understood themselves and been recognized by others as having leadership ability since they were young They were active as initiators connectors and influencers among their siblings during childhood they were peer leaders in their high schools and in the youth programs they participated in during adolescence This insight is why so many Community Connections projects focus on youth leadership development and on sports opportunities for youth Projects are designed and conducted so that kids can experience themselves as leaders among others and so that kids can practice and come to own the skills and characteristics associated with leadership learning navigating contributing and connecting handling challenges even scary ones persevering despite barriers and difficulties They learn about teamwork and working toward a shared goal and practice the leadership traits of fairness respect integrity and accountability These projects also give children and youth opportunities to form relationships with peers with adults and sometimes with children older and younger than themselves through which they can give and receive support and feedback and thus mentor and be mentored Relationships with mentors and models nourish leadership growth People come to believe in themselves as having leadership potential and then develop their potential partly through having relationships with people who affirm them challenge and inspire them instruct and encourage them These relationships often extend over many years several interviewees cited the influence of parents teachers and job supervisors that they met long ago and have stayed in touch with ever since These mentors notice and affirm people s talents helping them to recognize their own gifts and to think of themselves as someone with something valuable to contribute The mentors encourage people to contribute their talents sometimes pointing people toward the spaces where they can make a stretch contribution Touchstone Center for Collaborative Inquiry 26

Strengthening Grassroots Community Leadership in Detroit One project leader said it was her middle school principal that encouraged her to go to college then hired her as a substitute teacher as a first job when she finished college Watching her in that role the principal told her she had a gift for working with children Years later the woman remembered those words as she dared to launch her own organization to work with kids A father at one Community Connections program described how staff there had mentored him When staff learned that he had recently DJed his child s birthday party they asked him to DJ a teen party at the program He took his role seriously and did well the program director recalled He subsequently has served as a DJ on several other occasions both within the program and in other settings on referral from program staff Staff also have asked him to share the wisdom of his life experiences with boys and young men at the center Staff have told him Your mistakes don t have to define you he says After all they did for my children they put me on a platform I never thought I d be on That father is active in the neighborhood as a youth football coach and a chaperone at high school events Mentors sometimes give challenging feedback Several Community Connections grantees named program manager Lisa Leverette as a mentor even though she is blunt sometimes I learn a lot from Lisa even when she s fussing at me said one grantee leader That style works well at least for this person who described another of her mentors as one of my hardest critics This leader believes that the ability to take criticism and learn from it is a valuable leadership skill Leaders use mentors as models too and learn by watching them in action I watch what Lisa does and how she does it said one project leader The adult leader of another project renowned for her skill at developing young leaders lets one or two teens accompany her to the many different community meetings and events she attends There are always a youth or two that are constantly with her noted a community observer They self select she doesn t select them They make themselves available to go to the spaces she goes to Watch to learn and then start learning through experience This adult who mentors young leaders asks new participants simply to attend and observe at first Come and see watch what we re doing so that you can understand what we re doing she explained As youth gain understanding they can move into leadership roles Last year s participants can be this year s leaders With this adult project leader the youth leaders plan the agenda and run meetings of the group This gives them experience and skills they can use in larger public settings When they are ready the mentor encourages the young people to stretch into larger public roles The community observer we interviewed recalled a Youth Development Alliance conference a couple of years ago where two teen leaders from this organization served as MC s They were the highlight of the night he said He knew that they had practiced their parts ahead of time and that the time they had spent shadowing their adult leader in different community spaces had prepared them also It wasn t their first time he noted They d spent time in all these spaces Touchstone Center for Collaborative Inquiry 27

Strengthening Grassroots Community Leadership in Detroit Stepping into these larger public spaces both helps these young leaders develop and lets them be an instructive and inspirational model to other young people according to this mentoring adult Recently she asked that two youth that had been accompanying her to meetings of a citywide group focused on youth and education be allowed to co lead the group s retreat with adults It will be good for other youth to see these youth using their voice she said Other project leaders we interviewed also said they have grown through the experience of carrying out their work as they have learned through various experiences in their jobs and as a parent and family member I have learned here said one I have worked on my patience A young adult now in her late 20s said it was the combination of experience plus her relationships with mentors and also with kids in her organization that has helped her grow They are watching me I know I have to do and be my best I didn t notice my growth until they did When they told me I was doing a good job I could see it then and I wanted to keep doing it Training and peer networking also help leaders learn Several of the Community Connections leaders interviewed said they have sought out and found value in a wide range of trainings and peer gatherings including Skillman lunch and learn events and workshops sponsored by Skillman related entities such as Partnership for Youth and the University of Michigan Technical Assistance Center Both the information presented and the opportunity to interact with other people and groups with similar interests and experiences have been worthwhile Key capacities for effective community leadership Many Community Connections projects work to help youth develop the intrinsic capacities for leadership self confidence perseverance using their voice building relationships being open to new ideas and so on A smaller number also emphasize youth becoming knowledgeable about their neighborhood and its diverse people institutions and systems They encourage teens to volunteer and do community service at diverse settings in the neighborhood and to learn who decision makers in education are above their own school principal They coach them to write grant proposals for their project ideas not only to Community Connections but to other funding sources such as Partnership for Youth And they encourage youth to care about other people in the community and about Detroit as a whole Get out Or help Detroit confront its problems One project leader said an early mentor urged her to leave her neighborhood Noting how many of her childhood friends and even family members have made poor choices and struggled in adult life she estimates that she is one of only 10 percent of her childhood peers who made it out But she eventually made a strong commitment to her west side neighborhood and the children in it Touchstone Center for Collaborative Inquiry 28

Strengthening Grassroots Community Leadership in Detroit Another project leader gives a different kind of advice to the young people she works with She said she encourages them not to run away from Detroit and its problems but go to college and return to Detroit to face its problems She advises her youth to listen to what a range of people and youth in the community are saying to learn what people care about She coaches youth to bring others into the group s projects and activities and to learn how to work with other people noting that you can t achieve as much by yourself Don t try to control others she advises you must care about them Building the collective networked leadership of the neighborhood As reported earlier Community Connections grantees are highly networked and collaborative Nearly half of these groups report involving four or more other groups or organizations in their projects and almost all 92 described a contribution from at least one other specific organization More than a third 37 are attracting funds from other sources beyond Community Connections for their projects While we don t have much information on how leaders in Community Connections projects are working collectively with others to affect broader neighborhood issues and decisions we do know that many grantee leaders are active participants in neighborhood governance groups and other venues where planning and policy making occurs And we know that many Community Connections leaders are extensively networked with others Role of Skillman related activities and programs in developing leadership Skillman related resources and opportunities figure prominently in the leadership and organizational capacity growth of Community Connections leaders and organizations As reported earlier the most important of these is the coaching and mentoring provided by Community Connections staff identified as a source of guidance by over half 52 of grantees In addition about one in five groups 22 report learning from trainings or workshops and these are quite often offered by Skillman related resources such as the University of Michigan Technical Assistance Center or the Youth Development Resource Center One in six groups report getting advice coaching or mentoring from a neighborhood executive director and one in eight report getting this kind of help from a Community Connections panelist or experienced grantee Several of the leaders we interviewed cited Skillman and Community Connections Lunch and Learn networking opportunities as valuable learning sites As mentioned previously the Partnership for Youth Youth Development Alliance Chadsey Condon Community Organization and 482 Forward all have been important venues where leaders of JIRAN and the Chadsey Condon Youth Committee have learned and exercised their skills Touchstone Center for Collaborative Inquiry 29

Strengthening Grassroots Community Leadership in Detroit Prospects for leaders influence on future neighborhood planning Our impression is that seasoned Community Connections leaders those that have led grant projects and participated in Community Connections networks and other Skillman related activities and venues for several years are fairly well equipped to influence neighborhood planning post 2016 In general terms this would include most of the 230 leaders of the nearly 80 groups that have received three or more Community Connections grants over the years Their involvement will depend partly on how easily they can connect to activities and planning Most Community Connections grantee leaders are primarily committed to leading their own groups projects and organizations They are focused on taking action now doing what they can now to make their community a better place especially for kids Participating in larger neighborhood planning processes is of only secondary interest worthwhile mainly to the extent that they can see its relevance to their primary work with children families and neighbors They have little patience for poorly focused or clumsily facilitated planning processes Many Community Connections leaders have been deeply active in neighborhood planning over the years They are attuned to Skillman efforts and willing to participate and lead on efforts where they have interest experience and access Many of the young JIRAN and Chadsey Condon leaders who stay in or return to Detroit can also be expected to contribute to neighborhood planning efforts post 2016 Touchstone Center for Collaborative Inquiry 30

Strengthening Grassroots Community Leadership in Detroit Lessons 1 A grassroots small grants program such as Community Connections can be an effective way to surface and strengthen large numbers of grassroots groups and leaders Community Connections has increased the leadership experience of approximately 1500 people across these six neighborhoods in the past decade It provides caring adult relationships and positive developmental experiences for over 2 700 youth per year 2 One key to an effective small grants program such as Community Connections is to have staff that are skilled at finding encouraging coaching and connecting these local grassroots leaders Community Connections manager Lisa Leverette is widely recognized as a key driver of the program s success However finding or developing such staff is not easy In recent years it has added staff who are developing these skills but Community Connections still depends heavily on its founding program manager for its success Finding people with a passion for this work and a willingness to learn and investing time and resources for them to grow into the potential of such a program are both important 3 Using a residents leadership panel to review applications and make funding recommendations builds credibility and leadership and provides valuable advice to staff Such a panel helps the program be perceived in the neighborhoods as residentdriven Panel service is a powerful learning experience for its members as they gain awareness of the patterns of groups projects challenges and opportunities and as they participate in local regional and national learning networks on behalf of the program The panel is a valuable advisory group to staff guiding them in how to focus their outreach and coaching efforts for greatest effectiveness One challenge the panel has encountered is figuring out how to achieve consistent youth participation in the panel Finding transportation to the meetings and preventing personal schedule conflicts with meetings have been greater challenges for youth than for adult panelists 4 Long term mentoring relationships are an effective way to build leadership and organizational capacity especially when they help leaders learn from their own experience Our interviews indicate that these grassroots leaders learn especially through the trial and error of their own experience This learning is accelerated when coupled with long term multi year mentoring relationships that provide models for effective strategy and behavior advice tailored to their specific circumstances observation and feedback on their actual performance and a safe respectful space for reflecting on their experience to distill lessons from it Touchstone Center for Collaborative Inquiry 31

Strengthening Grassroots Community Leadership in Detroit 5 Finding adults skilled at supporting youth led projects through the learning experiences of project implementation is difficult Community Connections staff have struggled to find adults willing to walk with youth led projects without taking charge of those projects and reducing youth to follower roles Apparently there are not many people skilled at helping others learn through experience through the experience of taking action steps appraising how it went distilling lessons from that and adjusting next steps accordingly 6 Grassroots project leaders more often help to create alternatives to current flawed systems rather than pushing to reform entrenched systems Many Community Connections project leaders participate in neighborhood and city wide planning efforts to improve school youth development and other systems that affect prospects for children But most give their primary attention to creating working alternatives on the ground now for children in their neighborhoods providing positive developmental experiences for youth engaging youth with others to make immediate local improvements such as clean ups beautification and community building events Their most important contributions to systems change may come when their projects evolve in directions that are beginning to develop entrepreneurs alter economic trajectories and change food systems for neighborhood residents Or when projects help graffiti taggers and car detailers be recognized as artistic assets with economic potential for themselves and their community Or when projects provide doorways through which mainstream professional systems can learn culturally respectful and effective ways to be of service in these neighborhoods Touchstone Center for Collaborative Inquiry 32

Strengthening Grassroots Community Leadership in Detroit Recommendations Implications for future Skillman investments 1 Continue supporting the Community Connections program The program has proven to be effective at surfacing and strengthening networks of active residents and grassroots organizations working for youth development and community improvement It is building the expertise and connections of hundreds possibly thousands of active residents and locally rooted initiators in these neighborhoods 2 Accelerate support for projects poised for growth We would encourage Community Connections Skillman and Kellogg to provide grassroots groups with potential to grow in impact with easier access to expanded resources ideally from multiple sources Offering grants of up to 10 000 to proficient groups has been a good step in this direction So has been the access to Self Development of People SDOP grants in the 10 000 30 000 range that Community Connections manager has facilitated through her involvement as an SDOP board member Expediting access to larger Skillman and Kellogg grants could be another part of this strategy perhaps by creating a lower eligibility threshold for organizations to qualify for grants in the 30 000 60 000 range thus making the on ramps clearer and more accessible to small and mid sized organizations Skillman and other supporters might also expand access to coaching and capacity building assistance to accelerate growth Helping these high potential groups and leaders develop a network of supporters and partners beyond Skillman and Kellogg would also be valuable 3 Expand opportunities for grassroots leaders to grow through mentoring and peer learning relationships such as communities of practice To date most developmental assistance for Community Connections leaders has been through ad hoc coaching informal networking and time limited training events oriented toward accessing new information or specific skills Yet leaders tell us that they learn especially through experience and through mentoring relationships We recommend that Community Connections expand opportunities for grantee leaders to participate in communities of practice learning cohorts and similar vehicles The goal would be to provide more focused ongoing spaces for leaders to critically reflect on their practice explore their own and their peers stories in greater depth experiment with new strategies and tactics whether derived from self reflection peer examples or good practices suggested by mentors and coaches and then harvest lessons and adjust strategies based on their experiences With continuity and a common commitment to learning and growth among participants these spaces would also nurture deeper peer relationships of mutual support for excellence and innovation Experience from other leadership and capacity building programs suggests that these spaces will be most fruitful when they combine ongoing experimental practice peer interaction and tailored coaching or mentoring for each participating organization Touchstone Center for Collaborative Inquiry 33

Strengthening Grassroots Community Leadership in Detroit These learning clusters could be organized thematically such as on nurturing youth development accelerating organizational growth or leveraging program success for greater systemic change Or they could be organized by other commonalities such as working with black and brown boys or organizational life cycle stage Developing vibrant peer and mentor networks among would be change makers is probably at least as important as providing more learning opportunities on strategies and tactics given the long haul nature of working for transformative change in Detroit Touchstone Center for Collaborative Inquiry 34

Strengthening Grassroots Community Leadership in Detroit Appendices Appendix A Case studies of durable Community Connections projects The longevity of Community Connections presents an opportunity to understand better how these kinds of grassroots organizations and leaders evolve over time and what their distinctive contributions are to community social fabric and leadership growth To explore these themes we conducted case studies of four groups that have shown both effectiveness and staying power active with Community Connections support for at least five years with continuity in leadership and in relationships between adult leaders and youth participants and evidence that youth are doing better in school and life because of their positive experiences The four cases were selected in consultation with Community Connections staff to include some diversity in neighborhood focus and participant demographics Amistad Reading and Music Project is located in far southwest Detroit in zip code 48217 It works with elementary school students providing afterschool reading and music instruction Its adult leaders and its young participants are almost all African American consistent with the composition of the neighborhood and its schools Brightmoor Wellspring Youth Adventure Leadership program is located in the Brightmoor neighborhood of northwest Detroit It works with high school students providing team building and leadership learning experiences mainly in outdoors settings such as ropes challenge courses kayaking and camping trips Its adult leaders are white and African American and its teen participants are almost all African American consistent with the composition of the neighborhood and its schools Developing Kingdoms in Different Stages Developing KIDS is located in the Cody Rouge neighborhood on the west side It provides educational social and community service programs with youth ages 5 18 and their families with afterschool and summer programs plus family nights Its adult leaders and young participants are mostly African American consistent with the neighborhood composition Join In to Revitalize Arab American Neighborhoods JIRAN and Chadsey Condon Youth Committee CCYC are centered in the Chadsey Condon neighborhood with participation from adjoining west and southwest Detroit neighborhoods These interrelated youthled groups conduct educational social and community service projects largely chosen and shaped by the students involved with adult mentorship and support Their adult leaders are mainly Arab American and their teen participants are mainly Arab American with African American Latino and sometimes other ethnic identities involved Methodology included interviews with primary and secondary leaders community observers and partners and in cases with teen involvement interviews with some youth and parents Between six and 12 people were interviewed for each case Observations were conducted at three of the four case sites We also reviewed the Community Connections grant applications reports and supporting documents available for each grantee group or organization Touchstone Center for Collaborative Inquiry 35

Strengthening Grassroots Community Leadership in Detroit Case 1 Amistad Reading and Music Project Nurturing literacy and a love of learning When Randall Mosley was a child growing up on Beatrice Street in zip code 48217 in far southwest Detroit he was slow in learning to read But education was important to his mother She had been admitted to college when she finished high school but never got to go because her family could not afford it She wanted more for her son She worked intensively with Randall when he was seven and eight years old She insisted he spend 20 minutes a day reading Reader s Digest Gradually Randall improved his reading skills He eventually went to Cass Tech High School then Michigan State University He earned a master s degree in technical management from Eastern Michigan University and a certificate in instructional design from Wayne State University He worked as a technical writer for Ford Motor Company and as a middle school teacher in Ann Arbor He married and had two sons On the side he cultivated his love of music especially jazz Now more than 50 years after he struggled with reading in grade school Randall is back living in the house where he grew up On Tuesdays and Thursdays he leads the Amistad Reading and Music Project located in the church down the street from his house helping today s gradeschoolers improve their reading and cultivate a love of learning The Community Connections program has assisted Amistad since 2011 This is Amistad s story and Randall s The longest 38 miles in America Randall spent 30 years away from Detroit mostly living in Ann Arbor The distance from Detroit to Ann Arbor he says is the longest 38 miles in America In the notoriously cyclical car industry layoffs are common and during layoffs from Ford Randall taught middle school in the Ann Arbor district for six years Kids are fun Randall says and his principal was impressed with his classroom management skills Randall was impressed with how Ann Arbor parents valued education like his mother had About a dozen years ago however Randall s life hit a rough patch His job disappeared His marriage ended in divorce I m a believer Randall says One day I asked God to give me a second chance He vowed to do something good should he get that chance Returning home Then in 2007 his father asked him to come home By then Randall s mother had passed away and his father was in poor health Randall s brother who has autism was living at home with their dad Randall decided to move home He moved back into his childhood home in 48217 with his father and his brother His father passed away in 2008 but Randall stayed on He began working as a substitute teacher in the Detroit Public Schools In 2008 a principal offered him a long term substitute position as a kindergarten teacher Long term pays lots better than daily sub so I leapt at it Randall says He discovered that kindergarteners want to learn In his thinking about how to do good with his second chance he started to focus on early education rather than middle schoolers Touchstone Center for Collaborative Inquiry 36

Strengthening Grassroots Community Leadership in Detroit In 2009 a friend from his days at Wayne State asked him to contribute his instructional design skills to help shape an after school literacy project she had founded at Loving Elementary School in the North End Her project he learned was funded by a program called Community Connections Randall helped his friend run that project at Loving through the school year and into the summer of 2010 He realized though that what he most wanted to do was start a reading project like that in his own neighborhood in far southwest Detroit That neighborhood is my home I m going to bring it home Southwest Detroit doesn t have champions in his view particularly not the 48217 sliver which is mostly black He decided he would launch what he called The Amistad Reading Project in his neighborhood I d had some blessings Randall explains thinking particularly of his sons now young adults who he loves dearly You have to give back something That is the motivation He went looking for a site At Loving his friend had rented space from DPS but Randall couldn t find a suitable DPS site in 48217 He asked at his father s church but met a deaf ear and also got turned down by a second church Then he decided to ask at Saints Andrew and Benedict Catholic Church which was centrally located and just a block down Beatrice Street from his home Father Ed Zaorsky the priest there had him talk to the parish council They too refused to rent him space They told him instead that they wanted to co sponsor his project Amistad could use their space for free and the church would provide liability insurance We are a poor parish but God has blessed us with buildings The parish council s decision aligned with Father Ed s view We are a poor parish but God has blessed us with buildings and that s good stewardship he says Father Ed also served on Community Connections residents leadership panel during those years One evening in the spring of 2010 Randall attended a meeting of the neighborhood s United Citizens group which also used the basement of Saints Andrew and Benedict He shared flyers and talked about his new reading project He was impressed by a woman he observed there named Jackie Conley Jackie was more firmly planted in 48217 than Randall was I was born here I raised my five daughters here It s home for me These are my roots she says Jackie s mother still lives in the house she moved into in 1964 Her husband now deceased also grew up in the neighborhood and went to school there Several of Jackie s grown daughters and their children live nearby today And I feel like the children of the community need me Jackie s husband worked at Chrysler She had a career as a legal secretary for 17 years working for attorneys in downtown Detroit Birmingham and Southfield But she desired to give back to her community She returned to college for child development courses opened a day care business in her home and ran it for four years then went to work for Hartford Head Start She rose from teacher to center director and eventually traveled the country auditing Head Start centers Retiring from work a few years after her husband passed away she volunteered with Touchstone Center for Collaborative Inquiry 37

Strengthening Grassroots Community Leadership in Detroit Excellent Schools Detroit visiting schools across the city She also worked occasionally as a substitute teacher in many DPS and charter schools The Amistad flyer caught Jackie s interest Before she could contact Randall though he called her He asked me to help I didn t realize then that he practically wanted me to run it with him She agreed to volunteer for a year working with the younger children while Randall focused on the older ones Six years later she s still in that role Launching Amistad Randall and Jackie fine tuned the reading project s design according to Michigan Department of Education standards Amistad would operate from 3 30 to 5 00 on Tuesdays and Thursdays through the school year To stay within the recommended 1 8 teacher student ratio they would admit no more than 16 students at a time As an Excellent Schools Detroit volunteer Jackie had been impressed by instructional materials at a Mexicantown school and the school agreed to give her outdated copies of them They re wonderfully age specific with a nice selection of stories for students to choose from The neighborhood has one DPS grade school and one charter school Randall and Jackie reached out to both asking to post and distribute flyers Pierre Toussaint Academy the charter school renting out the former parochial school of Saints Andrew and Benedict readily agreed to Amistad s outreach The DPS school did not The principal would not let us leave flyers did not welcome us at all recalls Jackie The DPS school in the neighborhood treats us as competition says Randall The same pattern holds true today even though Pierre Toussaint Academy departed in 2013 and New Paradigms Academy has rented the church s school building since 2014 24 of the 25 students registered this year at Amistad are from New Paradigms Amistad conducts an assessment of students reading level about 30 days into the fall each year What they have found confirms that Amistad is doing something important in the neighborhood In five years only three kids came in reading at grade level says Randall Follow up assessments at the end of year one in the spring of 2011 found that students reading speed had improved by a median level of 42 percent since the pre test in the fall In August 2011 as the start of their second year approached Randall and Jackie applied for their first Community Connections grant Father Ed by then serving on the board of Amistad submitted a letter of recommendation Community Connections awarded it 1 750 Growing in sophistication not size through music While holding steady at an average size of 16 participants Amistad has innovated in its design In the 2012 13 year Amistad began incorporating music into its approach Randall studied music when he was younger and is a big jazz fan In fact he helps to manage the famous Baker s Keyboard Lounge jazz club at Livernois and 8 Mile Road One of his sons is an avid musician studying at the University of Michigan and working in an Ann Arbor recording studio Touchstone Center for Collaborative Inquiry 38

Strengthening Grassroots Community Leadership in Detroit It s made a huge difference in his life Randall observes He never asks for anything He s a happy young man Randall began bringing Amistad youth to Baker s Kids n Jazz program where they can see the bands play That year Amistad also had a Wayne State student volunteer who offered to lead some singing The kids liked it says Randall and that fueled the idea to do more with music Randall wanted Amistad to be different from what kids experienced in the school day and sadly nearly all Detroit schools have dropped their art and music programs which Randall calls incredibly stupid Randall also hoped that adding music to Amistad s focus would attract more parents attention He was troubled by how many parents kept their distance Many seemed to worry that enrolling their child in a reading project would stigmatize their child as a poor reader Furthermore reading instruction is not sexy he says it s three yards and a cloud of dust Parents who come to pick up their children rarely enter Amistad s classroom Randall has observed They prefer to wait in the hallway Sometimes Randall bakes biscuits in the classroom hoping the delicious scent will lure parents to enter Amistad has experimented with family pizza nights and other efforts using food to attract family involvement Sometimes Randall s frustration with the challenge of engaging parents shows through Some parents work he observes And you ve got a lot of fools raising children The grandparents are often a better asset than the parents Last year I knew more grandparents than parents Father Ed has a more nuanced view Our educational system has been so political that we have generations of people who are not literate including the parents of many children today he says Kids need someone to coach them to teach them Many parents don t have these skills This gives kids the extra help they need that often they can t get at home Adding music would let Amistad students occasionally perform concerts which could attract parents and grandparents And if a youth got really good at playing an instrument it might help him or her win a college scholarship Randall persuaded his friend Allan Barnes a Howard educated musician with over 40 years of professional experience and Allan s friend Sondra Johnson a retired DPS early education music teacher to join the Amistad team Tuesdays would continue to focus on reading and Thursdays would become music days Allan would teach instrumental music to the older kids Amistad started by buying recorders and Sondra would lead the younger children in singing Support from Community Connections in several forms Community Connections has continued to provide annual grants to Amistad with support growing steadily since 2011 Grants increased to 3 600 in August 2012 4 940 in 2013 and 5 000 in 2014 Randall attended Community Connections and Skillman Foundation Lunch and Learn events which he found useful for networking He talked numerous times with Lisa Leverette regarding organizational direction for Amistad He participated in organizational capacity building events offered by the Youth Development Commission He also turned to Father Ed for coaching and went to workshops given by the Archdiocese of Detroit Touchstone Center for Collaborative Inquiry 39

Strengthening Grassroots Community Leadership in Detroit In June 2015 Amistad became one of the 15 Community Connections grantees invited to apply for a grant larger than 5 000 thanks to Kellogg Foundation support Community Connections now can award up to 10 000 to high performing groups After consultations with Lisa Amistad applied for and received 8 850 so that it couldbuy six more instruments flute clarinet trumpet two saxophones and a drum set and offer weekly lessons in the summer for the first time to four advanced instrumental students Funds were also expanded for snacks and family meals in a continuing effort to increase family involvement The challenge of building long term relationships with children Despite Amistad s steadiness since 2010 sustaining relationships with children over multiple years is not easy This year of the 25 students registered only six were also enrolled last year Three of these are in their second year at Amistad two are in their third year and one is in her fourth year This level of annual turnover is fairly typical Many factors contribute Turbulence and instability in local schools is one factor When Pierre Toussaint Academy closed and the parochial school building sat empty for a year the former students there scattered Transferring among schools is common anyway Randall and Jackie say Adjoining suburban school districts particularly the River Rouge district aggressively recruit students in the 48217 neighborhood At least half of Amistad s students have been to two or more school districts by third grade Randall says Even though 48217 is known as a relatively stable deeply rooted community those families that aren t homeowners often move frequently As in many Detroit neighborhoods many people suffer from high levels of poverty and unemployment Randall knows that many students live in fragile shifting family configurations too with many part time or absentee parents These factors underscore the importance of Amistad s steady presence as a safe stable learning space in the neighborhood even while they make it difficult for Amistad s adult leaders to sustain relationships with participating students A larger role in the church and the neighborhood Meanwhile Randall has grown into a larger community role In 2014 Saints Andrew and Benedict Church was given a building two blocks down the street Two long time parishioners the Perry s had lived in the building and run a convenience store there When they passed away they bequeathed it to their church The church refurbished it as the Perry Outreach Center and moved its food pantry and St Vincent de Paul charitable assistance program in there It also hired Randall Mosley as director of the Perry Outreach Center with the understanding that he would help it grow beyond charity to empowerment When you have somebody in the community you gain credibility for your programs Father Ed explains Under Randall s leadership the Perry Outreach Center now offers adult computer trainings People can get help creating resumes and submitting on line job applications The center is considering offering GED and other adult basic education classes Working at the Perry Outreach Center also gives Randall additional points of connection with parents and other adult family members who come in for education and other assistance Touchstone Center for Collaborative Inquiry 40

Strengthening Grassroots Community Leadership in Detroit Jackie too continues to be active in the neighborhood in ways beyond the reading project With a friend she has led efforts to re purpose an abandoned lot on one of the neighborhood s main streets Schaefer Highway They designed and installed a large public art piece They have planted flowers Jackie doesn t dare grow vegetables due to concern over soil and air pollution thanks to the large Marathon Oil complex and other heavy industry nearby and the heavy truck traffic through the neighborhood They have recruited a local business to help care for the lot and obtained some financial support for their efforts from Marathon Oil and several grant sources they have not yet sought a Community Connections grant They have a vision of organizing a community festival on the site Jackie has helped various local candidates run for elective office Like Randall she is frustrated by her perception that elected and institutional decision makers downtown at DPS and in other public and corporate systems generally ignore the residents of 48217 We ve fought so many battles with the companies she says She intermittently participates in local neighborhood groups opting to stay away when she sees them clogged with gatekeepers who want things to stay the same she considers herself a changemaker Continuing with the children Both Randall and Jackie plan to continue at Amistad along with Allan Barnes and Sondra Johnson Other adults are sometimes involved In the past year Randall s musician son has begun working there occasionally He s 22 a free spirit hippie like says Randall Kids can see themselves in him Randall tries to foster a love for learning in children partly by inviting adults from diverse careers to come spend time at Amistad This introduces the children to a range of possible futures for themselves Sometimes professional athletes stop by but they are not Randall s main emphasis There s a woman judge who comes in and reads Another woman who is a naval reserve officer occasionally leads calisthenics College student volunteers are welcomed Randall himself keeps going because he remembers I got a second chance Giving back is important he believes and one should do it in the arena where you can be successful I teach reading I don t try football He finds children easy to be with not heavy They generally see the glass half full Touchstone Center for Collaborative Inquiry 41

Strengthening Grassroots Community Leadership in Detroit Case 2 Brightmoor Wellspring Youth Adventure Leadership Growing leaders through outdoor adventures There s so much more to you than you think there is For nearly 10 years now Peter Lisiecki has been leading Brightmoor teens into outdoor adventure leadership learning experiences first through Brightmoor Community Center and since 2013 through Wellspring a small nonprofit organization in the neighborhood Youth engage in team building exercises tackle high ropes challenge courses climb indoor rock walls and learn how to kayak on the Huron River They engage in community service projects cleaning up abandoned lots and visiting senior centers Peter and other Wellspring adults also take the youth on a multi day camping trip to Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore in northwestern Michigan where they hike swim climb giant sand dunes cook and keep camp and deal with whatever weather bugs and other surprises Mother Nature sends their way Community Connections has supported this work with a series of seven grants since 2009 One participant Jason Carter said his favorite part was when they had to jump into 15 feet of water wearing life jackets in preparation for kayaking That s when I knew I was the type of person I was a risk taker he said Other youth were reluctant to go in but Jason was willing to jump first He also liked the teamwork games You had to put your minds together It was more cooperative than competitive I had to practice keeping my mouth quiet His biggest challenge came when they paired up for walks with one youth blindfolded and the other youth guiding the way There were lots of obstacles The scariest thing for me was when I put my trust in someone else He experienced another insight when he took his turn as guide When someone else put their trust in me I didn t want to slip up For Jamal Mitchell going on the Sleeping Bear Dunes camping trip for three days when he was age 14 was a very big deal I ve never experienced so much wilderness It was one of the first times I ve ever gone camping Being away from home that long was a challenge The high ropes challenge course was another growth experience for Jamal especially because he fears heights The power of teamwork helped him meet the challenge I had people that were depending on me relying on me to do it I just had to do it What he discovered next has also stuck with him Then once you overcome it you want to do it again and again These are the kinds of life lessons Peter hopes youth will gain through these experiences We develop a culture of trying new things he said He teaches a framework of three zones our comfort zone our out of comfort zone and our panic zone The out of comfort zone is the growth zone where we become better stronger smarter Kids gain confidence as they try experiences outside of their comfort zone Peter says the core theme in his work with Brightmoor youth is there is so much more to you than you think there is Touchstone Center for Collaborative Inquiry 42

Strengthening Grassroots Community Leadership in Detroit Building character through outdoor experiences Peter s enthusiasm for outdoor adventure leadership development is rooted in his own experience He grew up on the East Side of Detroit The summer he was 17 he went to a 26day Outward Bound program in Colorado The solo and team based adventure challenges blew me away he recalled decades later It was one of the most significant experiences of my life He went into that month shy not confident at all and he came out a different person He discovered he could handle all kinds of challenges and new situations He saw how teamwork could accomplish things that a person could not do alone In addition he said I realized how much I have and yet others don t That realization of his privilege led him to a decision he would spend his life helping others with less access to opportunities After college at Wayne State Peter went to Micronesia on a church program He taught in a Catholic high school and sponsored the student outdoor club He organized an adventure program called Micronesia Bound modeled after his Outward Bound experience He spent three years running a diversion program for youth in the criminal justice system Instead of going to jail they could spend 21 days in the jungle with me he grinned All of these experiences reinforced his belief in the power of outdoor experiential programs to develop character in youth Eventually Peter returned to Detroit He earned a Master s in Social Work at the University of Michigan and in 1991 became director of youth and family services at Brightmoor Community Center Twenty five years later Peter is still working with Brightmoor youth with outdoor adventure learning at the heart of his approach Innovation fueled by Community Connections Peter has used Community Connections support strategically Community Connections grants allow me to try new things he said Lisa Leverette encouraged that Because Community Connections reviews applications monthly new ideas can be acted on quickly Brightmoor Community Center received large grants from the Skillman Foundation but these were awarded annually in October If Peter had a good idea in the winter spring or summer he could pitch it to Community Connections right away to pilot the idea Then if the pilot went well he could build its continuation into the next year s large grant From 2009 through 2012 Community Connections supported Peter s innovations in experiential youth character development through four different small grants In 2009 he got two grants one for a partnership project with Detroit Community High School where he led the Stepping Up Career Mentoring program and another to expand an ongoing youth leadership group at Brightmoor Community Center called Detroit Young Citizens The career mentoring program introduced youth to the concept of multiple intelligences helping them recognize what they were good at and what they liked to do They explored career paths that aligned well with different intelligences and then toured different higher education institutions that aligned with different careers a technical institute a community college and a university Finally to build their self confidence and teamwork skills as they Touchstone Center for Collaborative Inquiry 43

Strengthening Grassroots Community Leadership in Detroit considered these future possibilities for themselves Peter took them for a day to an outdoor challenge course Many of the kids were very individualistic Peter said This taught them With a team I can do so much more Detroit Young Citizens began meeting weekly in March 2009 as an outgrowth of the Brightmoor summer leadership training that Peter had started in 2007 Some summer participants wanted to form an ongoing group to plan and implement educational recreational community service and leadership development activities In contrast to Stepping Up which only involved students from Detroit Community High School Detroit Young Citizens and the summer leadership training were open to any teens in the neighborhood Peter visited schools congregations and organizations throughout Brightmoor to invite participants In June Community Connections awarded 4 300 so the group could continue its activities for several more months In September 2010 Peter got another Community Connections grant for what he called the Brightmoor Youth Challenge Project This bundled together support for further innovation with Stepping Up and Detroit Young Citizens For Stepping Up the grant paid for four more groups of DCHS students to spend a day at the Operation Adventure challenge course at the University of Michigan Dearborn as the culmination of their career mentoring program two in December 2010 and two more in May 2011 For Detroit Young Citizens the grant covered costs to add a four session kayaking program in the summer of 2011 Water based adventures are new experiences for many Detroit youth Typically according to Peter in a group of 12 only three will swim and several will be afraid of putting their face in the water Peter s introduction to kayaking therefore started with the basics in the Livonia YMCA pool Session one s goal was to get comfortable in the water while wearing a life jacket By the end of that session most kids were jumping readily into water over their head In session two they practiced operating the kayak in the pool Sessions three and four were outside on the Huron River first kayaking on a stretch of placid water and finally on a section with some faster passages Peter s next Community Connections grant in November 2011 continued support for Stepping Up groups to do the adventure challenge course that winter and in the spring of 2012 and for another round of Detroit Young Citizens kayaking in the summer of 2012 It also supported innovation in the Brightmoor Youth Adventure Leadership Training program the program that spawned Detroit Young Citizens shifting it from a weeklong summer program to a series on fall Saturdays culminating in an adventure challenge course day From Brightmoor Community Center to Wellspring During these years Brightmoor Community Center was falling on hard times The Great Recession reduced many of its funding streams other than the Skillman Foundation Staff was reduced and Peter was intermittently laid off In the spring of 2013 Peter found himself laid off again This time another small organization in the neighborhood Wellspring contracted with Peter to lead summer youth adventure activities combining his expertise in adventure based leadership development with their tradition of taking neighborhood teens on a camping trip to the west coast of Michigan at Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore along Lake Michigan Community Connections awarded a 5 000 Touchstone Center for Collaborative Inquiry 44

Strengthening Grassroots Community Leadership in Detroit grant to support what they called Summer Adventure 2013 Eight boys and six girls took part in this series that included team building exercises a day at the Operation Adventure challenge course at University of Michigan Dearborn the kayaking series three days of camping at Sleeping Bear Dunes and a closing ceremony in the fall Joining the Wellspring team was an easy choice for Peter He had known the founders and codirectors Brightmoor residents Cherie and Dan Bandrowski ever since his early days at Brightmoor Community Center We shared faith love of kids and outdoor stuff Peter said Growing further with Community Connections support In 2014 and 2015 Peter continued to refine the outdoor youth leadership strategy In response to Community Connections and Skillman Foundation s growing interest in opportunities for high school juniors and seniors Peter and Wellspring in 2014 began to offer two leadership programs a three part Basic Leadership program for 8th and 9th graders and a five day Senior Leadership Training for 10th through 12th graders plus a Summer Adventure program that included the kayaking series and camping at Sleeping Bear Dunes Due to interest from the kids the camping trip was expanded to four days this time Many youth in the Senior Leadership track also worked in Wellspring summer jobs as another venue to exercise their leadership abilities Community Connections supported this expanded effort with a 10 000 grant In 2015 Peter and Wellspring tweaked the program to focus still more on high school juniors Basic Leadership was targeted to youth entering 9th and 10th grades and Senior Leadership was for those entering 11th and 12th The Summer Adventure track was organized into two groups of eight kids up from one group of 12 in 2014 and the camping trip was expanded again this time to five days long Community Connections supported this with another 10 000 grant To help sustain relationships through these intensive summer experiences Peter organizes recreational and educational events about once a month during the school year such as college tours or going to Detroit Pistons games Navigating community systems more than changing them Peter and the Bandrowskis guide youth to advance physically cognitively emotionally and socially They also intentionally nurture youths sense of connection to multiple layers of community at the neighborhood level through activities at various spaces and institutions in the Brightmoor neighborhood the southeastern Michigan level through water safety and kayaking activities at the suburban Livonia YMCA and regional metroparks and the state and national level by traveling across Michigan to camp and play at a national park there While they coach youth to navigate the institutions and systems in their community they do not emphasize working to change those institutions and systems They teach community service but do not talk much of community change Their faith based approach is more pastoral than prophetic more love than justice They teach appreciation for teamwork but do not emphasize building collective power to change community conditions or systems Touchstone Center for Collaborative Inquiry 45

Strengthening Grassroots Community Leadership in Detroit Youth at Wellspring attend a volatile web of schools urban and suburban public and charter and private Many students attend six or more schools between first and 12th grade as schools close and open wax and wane For the most part the Bandrowskis and Peter steer clear of these dynamics focusing on giving kids healthy learning experiences outside of school time The complex interplay between resident led and professional agency work This case illustrates the challenge in using categories such as resident leaders and paid staff resident led groups and professional nonprofit agencies to describe community improvement efforts in neighborhoods such as Brightmoor It also shows the interplay between Skillman large grants often over 100 000 to professionalized organizations run by paid staff and Community Connections small grants usually under 5 000 to local groups for grassroots projects Wellspring is both a resident led group and a nonprofit organization run by college educated paid staff It has received both Skillman large grants to support a range of operations and programs and Community Connections small grants to support specific youth development projects and programs The founders and co directors of Wellspring did not grow up in Brightmoor but have lived there for 30 years They mobilize diverse resources from inside and outside of Brightmoor to support the work at Wellspring and their efforts have created jobs for a few other Brightmoor residents The staff also includes some people who commute to Brightmoor from homes in the suburbs such as Peter Lisiecki Yet could Peter be considered local because he has worked in Brightmoor for 25 years Wellspring s board of directors includes some Brightmoor residents and a majority who live elsewhere some in the city of Detroit others in suburbs This case also offers an example of working long term across racial lines Most Wellspring board and staff members are African American as are most Brightmoor residents and virtually all youth and families involved at Wellspring and Peter s youth adventure leadership programs Peter and the Bandrowskis however are white The Bandrowskis choose to live and work in Brightmoor Peter chooses to work though not live in Brightmoor Their adventure leadership development strategy is to help youth gain skills confidence and awareness to consider and possibly pursue life options both within and beyond Brightmoor Detroit and southeastern Michigan From youth to adult leadership Some youth start out as youth leadership program participants or Wellspring Kumon students grow into summer workers and display so much skill and leadership that they eventually join Wellspring s permanent staff DaSean Myree now 22 is one of these He was active at Brightmoor Community Center participating in Detroit Young Citizens and knew Peter Lisiecki there He began doing Kumon at Wellspring at age 12 and at 14 or 15 he began working in the summer job program As a high school junior he was hired as a part time year round staff I was the rec guy I d hang out with the kids play games and sports with them Touchstone Center for Collaborative Inquiry 46

Strengthening Grassroots Community Leadership in Detroit DaSean continued working at Wellspring while he went to college Now he works there fulltime I m the head of Recreation in charge of all activities after Kumon DaSean s role is more versatile than that actually I m the utility knife He shovels snow and handles custodial chores He grades papers and does flash cards with kids He substitutes as teacher for Mr or Mrs B when needed And DaSean has helped lead the Sleeping Bear Dunes camping trip for the past three years Consistent with Peter s and Wellspring s relational approach DaSean focuses on being an inviting warm person My goal is to make this a second home for these kids We want to be here for you We want to build friendships relationships It s like a mentor a big brother a father figure a mother figure Through his 10 years at Wellspring he said I ve known most of these kids since they were yea high I ve been like a big brother to them already Living and working in Brightmoor DaSean said We often see the bad abandoned buildings and stray dogs But at Wellspring particularly through its outdoor adventures We see nature the stars And positive relationships among kids I ve seen kids come in with the nastiest attitudes and I ve seen kids go from weakest of the weak to strongest of the strong I enjoy my job DaSean said I use my youth to connect with the kids here I m providing a service not just to myself but to the community It s fulfilling He is considering earning his college degree in social work to help him continue and advance in this kind of work Touchstone Center for Collaborative Inquiry 47

Strengthening Grassroots Community Leadership in Detroit Case 3 Developing Kingdoms in Different Stages Developing KIDS Building a vital community asset for youth and families Developing Kingdoms in Different Stages Developing KIDS may be the clearest example of a grassroots neighborhood effort that has grown with Community Connections support into a major community asset Started by a dedicated young mother and youth worker in the Cody Rouge neighborhood who began leading after school activities for kids on her porch in the spring of 2005 Developing KIDS now engages several hundred youth in long term relationships and activities It runs programs for children ages 5 18 and their families year round at two locations in the neighborhood It has a core staff of three and is a major host of Detroit summer youth employment program workers with 43 teen summer workers in 2015 For the past several years 100 percent of its youth participants have graduated from high school Kim Newberry its founder president and CEO has become a significant leader in citywide youth development networks in Detroit with growing national recognition Origins Kim Newberry grew up in a blue collar Detroit family Even as a kid she recalls she was a leader among her four brothers Her middle school principal encouraged her to go college even though her favorite high school teacher told her she was too poor to do that But Kim was a high achiever In four and a half years she not only earned her BA in English and pre law at Central State University in Ohio she gave birth to her two daughters and married shortly after graduation Returning to Detroit her former middle school principal hired her as a long term substitute teacher Kim took teacher training courses at Wayne State University on the side and became a permanent teacher Your gift is to work with kids her principal told her That s your destiny Kim liked working with kids but wasn t content with teaching In 2002 03 she earned a graduate certificate in human resource administration realizing by then that she wanted to run her own business She explored starting a janitorial service hoping to create job opportunities for her unemployed brothers But that effort did not go well and in the fall of 2003 she entered law school During her first semester there she had two discoveries I learned that I can do this but God had other plans for me she recalled She also discovered she was pregnant with her third child She left law school and stayed home until her son was six months old Then she took a job in mid 2004 as director of prevention services with Alternatives for Girls in Southwest Detroit leading positive youth development activities for girls ages 5 18 She grew interested in offering programs to boys and to families too In 2005 she began leading activities on the porch of her house and in mid 2006 she incorporated Developing KIDS During 2006 Kim also started participating in Skillman Good Neighborhoods meetings in Southwest Detroit where she worked and in Cody Rouge where she lived She learned of the new Community Connections grant program and met Lisa Leverette In fact the first grant that Community Connections awarded in August 2006 was to Alternatives for Girls for a project that Touchstone Center for Collaborative Inquiry 48

Strengthening Grassroots Community Leadership in Detroit Kim led Kim recalled years later that Ed Egnatios then the Skillman Foundation Good Neighborhoods program officer encouraged her to become active in Cody Rouge In late 2006 Kim went through an excruciating family tragedy that left her a widow The experience heightened her desire to offer positive experiences for neighborhood children and families and she increased her commitment to Developing KIDS She resumed leading activities after school on her porch I d take my van and pick up kids she said Their parents were people I d grown up with but were on the wrong path Then in the summer of 2007 Developing KIDS began to offer programs in the former parochial school attached to St Suzanne s Church in Cody Rouge a building that with Skillman support evolved into the Don Bosco Hall Community Resource Center a hub for many community organizations and programs Kim s gift for working with kids was apparent as Developing KIDS participation swelled to 29 children that summer Kim wrote her first application for Community Connections support in the fall of 2007 It was declined but Kim listened to feedback from Lisa and the panel She revised the proposal and was awarded a 4 000 grant in March 2008 to support weekly meetings of two groups one of middle school students and another of high schoolers both mixed groups of girls and boys In her report on that first grant Kim said that getting boys to enroll was difficult She and other volunteers put in several hours driving and walking the streets letting parents and youth know about the program she wrote Kim made a point of building relationships with parents and adult family members along with youth Part of the difficulty in her view was that in many single parent homes run by a woman young males are allowed to do as they please but the girls are pushed to do something productive However she noted After moms dragged the boys in they were shocked that they had to drag them out Rapid growth 2009 2011 The next few years were a time of intensive learning and growth for Developing KIDS Kim voraciously sought out workshops and networking opportunities through Community Connections and other Skillman supported resources She welcomed Lisa Leverette as a mentor and traveled with a Community Connections delegation to a Resident Learning Exchange in San Diego sponsored by the Jacobs Foundation In 2009 Developing KIDS began partnering with the city s summer youth employment program This enabled them to pay some of their experienced teen participants to step into paid staff roles which in turn allowed Developing KIDS to work with more children That summer DK had five teen workers and engaged 57 elementary and middle school youth Kim resigned from Alternatives for Girls in late 2009 to concentrate on Developing KIDS She drew no salary however preferring to use funds to make programming available to more children and families I thought either I can pay myself to do the work but then we couldn t grow Kim said I didn t want to charge the kids fees either I wanted everyone to be able to participate regardless of how much they could pay or how many children were in their family She supported herself and her three children through contract work with other agencies writing grants and administering projects Touchstone Center for Collaborative Inquiry 49

Strengthening Grassroots Community Leadership in Detroit Developing KIDS built its infrastructure It applied for IRS 501c3 status to help it qualify for more and larger grants Kim obtained funds for board training and the board along with Kim and other volunteers began organizing fundraising events such as bake sales and gala dinners In early 2010 Kim invited Tenecha Toy Bland to interview for a position as youth service coordinator The two women had met at Alternatives for Girls where Toy had volunteered as a mentor to youth because she was impressed by Kim s approach Toy accepted mostly on a volunteer basis at first Developing KIDS could only afford to pay her for six hours per week We get paid for part time hours but it s a full time job we re passionate here said Toy Both Toy and Kim brought their daughters to Developing KIDS with them Toy s talent and energy nurtured by Kim s mentoring of her helped DK s programs to grow In the after school program they guided the middle school students to begin mentoring the elementary students These mentoring groups proved so popular that they kept meeting straight through the summer With Toy s leadership Developing KIDS monthly family nights grew from 30 to 75 people per night Toy is now DK s director of programs She has been a solid rock in the foundation of DK said Kim The teen girls group that Toy was leading grew interested that spring in the once in a decade US Census and its implications for the well being of their community They won Community Connections support to do a Census outreach project encouraging three populations typically undercounted to turn in Census forms people ages 15 25 who were a experiencing homelessness many teens were not living with their parents b had criminal records and or c were unemployed The summer program in 2010 bolstered this time by eight summer teen workers plus Toy and another Community Connections grant planned for 50 youth but ended up attracting 115 The high school participants organized a business that earned several hundred dollars Community service was another important theme as the kids organized a Senior Mixer for older adults that included lunch games dancing and youth performances Healing from grief loss and trauma In 2010 Developing KIDS began to notice an increasing number of youth dealing with severe stressors Many were coming from foster homes others said they often had nothing to eat except when they were at Developing KIDS a growing number were on medications for mental and emotional distress Our grief loss and trauma groups grew from our teens program said Toy Teens came in full of emotion One day kids at Cody High School had lost a teacher due to a violent incident in the neighborhood So we talked in a circle Kim s personal experience as a widow single mother and survivor of many childhood challenges made her empathetic toward others who were coping with grief loss and trauma As adult family members spent time at Developing KIDS waiting for their children after sessions many of them shared with Kim and Toy about the stressors in their lives too Through active networking Kim and Toy enlisted three partners to begin offering therapeutic support groups and counseling for children and families the Ambassadors counseling clinic the Sand Castles grief support program for children and families affiliated with Henry Ford Hospital Touchstone Center for Collaborative Inquiry 50

Strengthening Grassroots Community Leadership in Detroit and the graduate counseling program at Wayne State University run by Dr Jina Yoon Lisa Leverette helped Developing KIDS get a grant from the Presbyterian Self Development of People SDOP fund to cover some costs Kim and other leaders at Developing KIDS helped these clinicians refine their cultural competence with African American neighborhood residents Thanks to these modifications and the rapport that Kim and Toy built the grief and loss groups drew a big turnout despite the reluctance of many African Americans to participate in mental health services Sustaining these partnerships has been difficult Sand Castles stopped leading support groups in 2013 when their grant ran out Dr Yoon retired in 2015 and it was unclear if her successor would continue to place graduate interns at the same rate Ambassadors discounts its rates but depends on Developing KIDS to fund its groups there Further growth 2012 16 In the past four years Developing KIDS has continued to grow in many dimensions More staff Late in 2012 Developing KIDS added a third person to their core leadership team Denise Cranford then 24 had been a peer leader in Kim s groups at Alternatives for Girls during high school Like many others she stayed in touch with Kim for years after that In 2012 after some years at college she came home and began working at a security company That was unfulfilling though and Kim offered her a part time job as Youth Service Coordinator at Developing KIDS The salary was lower but the work was more appealing Denise took it It s been a roller coaster ride these three years Denise reflected in mid 2015 Over time I learned how to work better with kids It helped me evolve tremendously as I learned the Developing KIDS way I adapted I have thicker skin now I deal better with constructive criticism I have more patience Early on she considered quitting I wondered maybe this is not for me I was always messing up But Toy and Kim said No you re doing well Denise recalled It clicked after I tried to give my two weeks notice I was sad I had built relationships both with staff and with kids They are watching me I know I have to do and be my best I didn t notice my growth until they did When they told me I was doing a good job I could see it then and I wanted to keep doing it Toy affirmed Denise s growth and commitment She has stepped up as a leader In 2015 Denise got married to a man who also volunteers at Developing KIDS Kim s and Toy s daughters grew into larger leadership roles too as they matured through high school and into college Touchstone Center for Collaborative Inquiry 51

Strengthening Grassroots Community Leadership in Detroit More leader development Developing KIDS continued to build its leadership circle and to emphasize learning and growth for adult leaders as well as youth participants One of Denise s first duties was to go through the Good Neighborhoods Leadership Academy along with Toy the DK board president and two parent leaders Kim completed the entire High Scope training series on youth development and became a trainer on Child and Youth Care Basics for the Academy of Competent Youth Work She attended webinars on youth development donor recruitment and marketing and workshops on nonprofit fund and friend raising Toy completed numerous High Scope workshops and the 40 hour Child and Youth Care Basics course The entire staff attended a capacity building conference held by the Skillman supported Cody Rouge Brightmoor Youth Development Initiative in 2013 The organization obtained a grant to pay for board development consultants in 2013 It also created a four person advisory board in addition to the board of directors which includes six to eight members plus Kim In recognition of her exceptional investment in capacity building and her success in implementing organizational growth based on workshop learnings Kim was honored with the Michigan Growth award for capacity building from the Youth Development Commission in 2012 More college student interns Along with growing its core staff Developing KIDS continued to build partnerships with area colleges and universities drawing interns and volunteers to DK In addition to Dr Yoon s Wayne State graduate students interns began coming from Baker College Marygrove College through a partnership Community Connections built with Marygrove Oakland University Siena Heights University and University of Michigan Dearborn More summer teen workers The larger core staff enabled Developing KIDS to take on more summer teen workers and to offer summer jobs to more of its participants through the Grow Detroit s Young Talent city program It hosted 11 summer workers in 2012 and 13 in 2013 During these years however it scaled back its summer enrollment to about 75 youth to maintain quality More funding From 2011 through 2015 Community Connections continued to support Developing KIDS with annual grants starting with 5 000 in 2011 and in 2012 When grants of up to 10 000 became available in 2013 thanks to increased Kellogg Foundation support of Community Connections Developing KIDS got yearly grants of 9 455 to 10 000 in 2013 2014 and 2015 Its increasing skill at raising funds from diverse sources meant it didn t need to seek the maximum two grants per year from Community Connections any longer as in earlier years Touchstone Center for Collaborative Inquiry 52

Strengthening Grassroots Community Leadership in Detroit In addition to its SDOP grants and grassroots fundraisers Developing KIDS began attracting grants from other sources The Junior League of Detroit gave two grants to support family nights Bright House funded science technology engineering mathematics STEM activities In 2014 in recognition of its expanded performance and capacity Developing KIDS became the first Community Connections grantee to win a Skillman Foundation major grant of 75 000 The grant was renewed in 2015 More facilities After operating primarily out of the Don Bosco Hall Community Resource Center since 2007 Developing KIDS in 2014 began renting a space of its own a former car wash on Plymouth Road about two miles from Don Bosco Hall This enabled it to offer programming at two sites after school on Mondays and Wednesdays at Plymouth and on Tuesdays and Thursdays at Don Bosco Hall and during the six week summer season at both sites 10 5 on Monday through Thursday More youth participants With two facilities Developing KIDS could expand its number of summer teen workers and program participants In 2014 it hosted 25 summer workers all former program participants and 100 participants In 2015 it hosted 43 summer teen workers 28 from within Developing KIDS plus 15 other Cody High School students assigned by Grow Detroit and 150 participants Into the future While all this growth is impressive Kim still is mostly a volunteer CEO Since 2012 she has held staff positions at Don Bosco Hall first as program director for the Youth Development Initiative and since 2015 as chief administrator overseeing the YDI and Community Center Toy and Denise provide most of the day to day leadership at Developing KIDS Kim continues to serve in Cody Rouge and citywide networks and committees focused mainly on youth development issues If there s a gap I look to fill the gaps she said My heart is to help people Kim hopes to keep growing resources for Developing KIDS so that it can keep expanding its programmatic reach Attracting more large funders beyond Skillman is one goal working with her board to build a robust individual donor base is another She also is open to partnering with schools or other organizations to engage children and families at more sites Toy agrees with this vision I just want to touch more families she said We ve been small and people don t know who we are Given her success since 2007 expanding from working by herself with fewer than 30 kids to Developing KIDS current scale with multiple staff sites partners and hundreds of kids per year the odds look good that she and her colleagues will succeed in expanding its size and impact further Which will be a good thing for youth and families in Detroit Touchstone Center for Collaborative Inquiry 53

Strengthening Grassroots Community Leadership in Detroit Case 4 Join In to Revitalize Arab American Neighborhoods JIRAN and Chadsey Condon Youth Committee CCYC Cultivating young community leaders Two closely allied Community Connections groups Join In to Revitalize Arab American Neighborhoods JIRAN and the Chadsey Condon Youth Committee CCYC work intentionally to build young people s capacity for community leadership JIRAN was founded by the large organization ACCESS Arab Community Center for Economic and Social Services in 2008 partly in response to Skillman s desire to ensure Arab American residents involvement in Good Neighborhoods efforts Its name was chosen strategically JIRAN in Arabic means neighbor Anisa Sahoubah now director of the ACCESS Youth and Education division was the first coordinator of JIRAN Aswan Almaktary a Yemeni American woman who had worked for ACCESS in community engagement in Hamtramck another Detroit area community with many Arab American residents joined as JIRAN assistant coordinator in 2010 and became JIRAN s coordinator in 2011 Listening to Arab American residents JIRAN began as an adult centered intergenerational group Its first step was to reach out and listen to Arab Americans in the Good Neighborhoods A handful of committed residents were trained as JIRAN community organizers and in 2009 they surveyed more than 500 Arab Americans across the three southwestern neighborhoods They learned that people cared about safety youth recreation leadership and beautification One major concern of Arab American families was the safety of children walking to and from school particularly when they had to cross busy streets such as Michigan Avenue in Chadsey Condon In 2009 a student was hit by a car and injured in one of these crossings Three fathers came to JIRAN and developed a plan for recruiting training and installing crossing guards at three dangerous intersections Having learned of Lisa Leverette and the Community Connections grant program through their Good Neighborhoods networking in April 2010 JIRAN submitted an application for a Safe Crossing Project to place crossing guards at these intersections Using the Community Connections grant process to build leaders The group that came up with this project is genuinely concerned about the safety of the youth and felt empowered when they realized that there is something that they can do to improve safety in their community Anisa wrote in the application Together this group identified the streets of concern created a plan for identifying guards discussed the training that each guard must attend and with the help of ACCESS talked about ways of sustaining this project beyond the grant period This is the group s first grant request and they are learning the process of applying for grants and what their role will be as grantees If the project is funded the JIRAN organizers will be actively involved in hiring the guards supervising them facilitating their training and in ensuring that grant funds are expended They have been involved from the Touchstone Center for Collaborative Inquiry 54

Strengthening Grassroots Community Leadership in Detroit onset they have selected this project created the project design and participated in putting the budget together The Safe Crossing Project strengthened relationships with two schools in Chadsey Condon with high Arab American enrollment Universal Academy and O W Holmes School and the students and families involved there Later the project also focused on students crossing to Priest Elementary and Middle School ACCESS also coordinated a successful effort to obtain a milliondollar Safe Routes to School grant from the state This paid for street and sidewalk repairs near several Chadsey Condon schools Aswan had also organized a Safe Routes to School project in Hamtramck bringing together public schools charter schools and community organizations Along with engaging Arab American residents JIRAN s vision was to build relationships between Arab Americans and their diverse neighbors That s what join in means said Aswan We wanted to bring multiple communities together said Anisa They encouraged adults and youth to participate in neighborhood planning and governance boards and began building relationships with schools nonprofit organizations and city officials in the neighborhoods Aswan herself became active in the Chadsey Condon Community Organization chairing its Safe and Healthy Committee In 2010 and 2011 JIRAN volunteers participated in neighborhood clean up beautification and gardening projects in Cody Rouge and Chadsey Condon working with Cody Rouge Community Action Alliance Chadsey Condon Community Organization and other organizations such as Tawheed Academy Such hands on projects and the planning that goes into them are an easy way to build relationships among diverse people according to Aswan because everyone gets used to being together in the same room That group of Arab American fathers has continued to run the crossing guards project In 2013 they affiliated it with another grassroots group to which they belong the Yemen American Benevolent Association YABA Since then YABA has received three grants from Community Connections to continue the crossing guards project Evolving toward youth leadership Meanwhile by 2010 most of the leaders in JIRAN were high school youth and JIRAN decided to make youth leadership development its core focus We found more energy in youth and we wanted to build for the future explained Aswan Anisa elaborated The adults were less focused didn t attend as many meetings were less confident in their abilities to make change They were discouraged by decades of having limited impact But the youth had lots more energy Maybe they were less jaded It was easier to get them involved They had more time too many adults had two jobs and were busy and tired JIRAN s main focus is on building cross cultural relationships among young leaders starting with a series of dialogue events over the past six years These dialogues designed and led by high school leaders for their peers bring Arab American Latino African American white and other youth into conversation about identity stereotyping and the power that they have in their communities Participants have constructed action plans for confronting prejudice in their Touchstone Center for Collaborative Inquiry 55

Strengthening Grassroots Community Leadership in Detroit schools and communities The first Dialogue in 2010 was largely designed by adults but then youth evaluated how the Dialogue went and they went on to re design it in subsequent years We ve been deliberate in making sure it s youth led said Anisa Encouraged to grow by Community Connections In the spring of 2012 JIRAN applied for a second Community Connections grant this time to support their third annual Youth Dialogue We were able to expand in both numbers and scope because of Prevention Network support said Aswan Prevention Network is the organization that operates Community Connections with Skillman Foundation support In the first two years it was smaller and worked with just one group We expanded with Community Connections support Lisa Leverette encouraged us She told us If you work with more we ll support you So we expanded into Southwest Chadsey Condon and Cody Rouge Lisa is fantastic She encourages us to expand I can talk with her She s open to discussion She s like a guide to me The 2012 Dialogue drew on several partners Forty five youth came from the three neighborhoods via Chadsey Condon Youth Committee Cody Rouge Community Action Alliance Youth Council and Partnership for Youth in Southwest Detroit as well as JIRAN Michigan Roundtable for Diversity and Inclusion led small group discussions on Diversity and Inclusion 101 MOSAIC Youth Theatre performed an original play Speak for Yourself Young Detroiters Speak About Race with discussion following Welcoming Michigan prepared young leaders from JIRAN and Partnership for Youth to facilitate small mixed group dialogues on people s own experiences around race Lunch included Arabic African American and Mexican food Later in the day students gathered by neighborhood to create action plans to take back to their schools and communities The day closed with a visit to the Arab American Museum where students learned and performed the Debkka dance together The Youth Dialogue has continued to evolve with Community Connections support as JIRAN s young leaders have had new ideas In April 2013 the number of participants was held to 30 but they came from 10 different organizations across the three neighborhoods At the close of that day participants were invited to join an ongoing Youth Planning Committee for future Dialogues The new YPC created a two session version for 15 participants which could be hosted by different organizations The first session was designed by the Committee and the second session planned by the first session s participants so that they could claim ownership and exercise their own creative leadership abilities This version was conducted six different times from November 2013 through April 2014 at different organizations across the neighborhoods In 2015 the design was revamped again to enable participants to delve even deeper It offered two five session series each for 30 participants Sessions took place on Saturday afternoons every other week from late April through June with each session located at a different school or organization in the three neighborhoods We feel that it is essential for youth to visit each other s communities and experience their cultures firsthand explained their Community Connections application Sessions were led by youth who had experience in previous Dialogues This is part of JIRAN s strategy for youth development first participate and become Touchstone Center for Collaborative Inquiry 56

Strengthening Grassroots Community Leadership in Detroit comfortable with what we do here and then as you grow in understanding step into larger leadership roles Allied spaces JIRAN and Chadsey Condon Youth Committee While JIRAN continues to evolve its youth dialogue projects the Chadsey Condon Youth Committee has emerged as an allied space in which teens can build their community leadership abilities and act on their interests The Youth Committee was founded by JIRAN youth who wanted to engage a broader range of young people both Arab Americans and others It is affiliated with the Chadsey Condon Community Organization Aswan Almaktary is active on the CCCO board and she is the primary adult partner and supporter of its Youth Committee Many youth in JIRAN also choose to participate in CCYC In 2013 the Youth Committee collaborated with CCCO to do Sensational Summer Clean Ups in the neighborhood In both JIRAN and CCYC the approach to developing young leaders begins with listening and building relationships encouraging youth to speak up for themselves and talk about what s important to them One of the early leaders of CCYC reminded Aswan Youth won t come until we address issues that youth care about Aswan also encourages students to take their educational dreams seriously This led in 2014 to CCYC starting a College Prep and Community Leadership Initiative with Community Connections support The main leader of this project was a young woman Hanan Yahya who had started participating in JIRAN in 2009 as a high school freshman By 2012 she was a key planner of the JIRAN Dialogue In 2013 by now a college student at University of Michigan she became an intern at Chadsey Condon Community Organization and helped lead the Sensational Summer Clean ups project The 2014 College Prep and Community Leadership Initiative reflected the passionate priorities of Hanan and Chadsey Condon Youth Committee members It included a preparation course for the ACT college entrance exam taught by the American Association of Yemeni Students and Professionals AAYSP and tours of four local colleges Henry Ford College University of Michigan at Dearborn Michigan State University at Detroit and Wayne State University It also included a series of youth nights with speakers on topics related to college career and life success and also fun social activities Speakers were recruited based on findings from a youth survey conducted by the Youth Committee The Initiative also included a set of youth leadership and civic engagement trainings and two community clean up projects In one clean up project the youth led a workday cleaning up a public space in the neighborhood In the other they collaborated with residents of six streets who asked the youth for guidance The Youth Committee helped the adults create and pass out flyers and contacted nonprofit organizations and city offices to provide supplies for the clean up efforts CCYC reported that 72 youth and 17 adults participated in this initiative About two thirds of the youth were Arab Americans with African Americans and Latinos each comprising about 15 percent and one white youth involved Those on the Youth Committee met weekly to make sure everything was coordinated Aswan reflected This was the first project they did as the Committee leaders The level of Youth Committee commitment in all events really surprised me They took the lead and worked hard to ensure the success of each event This project Touchstone Center for Collaborative Inquiry 57

Strengthening Grassroots Community Leadership in Detroit taught them leadership how to be responsible for the different stages of holding an event from planning to creating flyers and recruiting youth and leading the projects A rhythm was starting to emerge in which CCYC College Prep and Community Leadership efforts alternated with JIRAN Youth Dialogues on Diversity efforts Many youth along with Aswan are active in both CCYC and JIRAN CCYC conducted a second version of the College Prep and Community Leadership Initiative in 2015 starting in July after the JIRAN Dialogues finished Reflecting the interests of the youth who were leading CCYC by now including America Yahya Hanan s younger sister the 2015 version offered an SAT prep course college tours and youth nights that combined educational speakers with social activities This year however instead of community service projects the initiative included three fun field trips for students who attended the youth nights Even more youth participated this year 80 in total The JIRAN and CCYC approach to developing young leaders Guided by Aswan JIRAN and CCYC nurture youth to develop their community leadership abilities through observation and participation in diverse community settings Aswan encourages students to participate in their schools get involved in student government National Honor Society and so on Through these organizations they can do fundraisers that can build up resources She coaches them to approach school officials boldly asking for what they think they deserve She also teaches them to learn how to navigate community and institutional systems If the principal doesn t listen to us it s not going to stop there She advises youth on how to navigate beyond the principal if necessary JIRAN and CCYC both expect youth to volunteer in the community to be of service and to learn what organizations programs and groups there are in the community and what different people care about So these youth participate at Bridging Communities Alternatives for Girls CCCO projects and other venues Aswan also welcomes youth to go with her to community meetings such as with the City Council member and to forums on receiving refugees an important topic among Arab and Muslim Americans They are active in Partnership for Youth activities attending its monthly meetings steering committee meetings meetings of its grants review committee and participating in its projects and trainings Aswan coaches youth to listen to what a range of people and youth are saying and to care for their Detroit community She says she encourages them not to run away from Detroit and its problems but go to college and return to Detroit to face its problems Aswan encourages her young leaders to learn how to navigate their community physically too to recognize vacant parcels that could be used for gardens and to notice the parking problems that have local businesses concerned Along with these voice and navigational skills Aswan coaches youth to bring in other people and learn how to work with others You can t achieve as much by yourself she reminds them Don t try to control others she advises you must care about them According to another adult active in Chadsey Condon and Southwest Detroit youth development who has known Aswan for Touchstone Center for Collaborative Inquiry 58

Strengthening Grassroots Community Leadership in Detroit several years She s always had an ear to listen for what young people want She s always had that value Listen to what they want and help them get there She relates to young people on an equal peer level in his view yet there s an inherent level of respect for her by them Because of what she s done she has a history that youth respect And she communicates with them in a respectful way not an authoritative tone She allows young people to be the leadership to make it happen Over the years he has seen her grow She has a learning mind She s moved from an active adult support to walking with them Now he says she will intentionally create spaces to let them lead When youth first show interest in JIRAN or CCYC Aswan encourages them simply to attend and observe Periodically JIRAN will hold a training for new participants to explain this is what we expect this is what it means to be a leader Aswan says As youth gain understanding they can move into leadership roles Last year s participants can be this year s leaders One key way that Aswan helps young leaders grow is by letting them shadow her as she participates in community activities There are always a youth or two that are constantly with Aswan notes the community observer naming a series of eight young people he s seen over the past five years They self select Aswan doesn t select them They make themselves available to go to the spaces Aswan goes to such as Partnership for Youth Chadsey Condon Community Organization and a city immigration task force that she has recently joined As youth get familiar with these spaces and the people issues and processes in them Aswan advocates for them to play larger public roles In 2014 the Youth Development Alliance held a conference Three hundred people attended its dinner and young people including two from CCYC served as masters of ceremony They practiced rehearsed and they were the highlight of the night this observer recalls One of these two CCYC JIRAN leaders has become my go to person he says the one he contacts whenever anything arises She embraces it It s natural youth development because she s been in these different spaces she s grown to be more comfortable in them Currently Aswan and two CCYC youth are participating in 482 Forward a Detroit wide youth led effort with adult allies which is working to create a model for youth organizing around education When the 482 Forward group decided to hold a retreat in December 2015 Aswan said I asked for my two youth to co lead the retreat with adults It will be good for other youth to see these youth using their voice Aswan intentionally uses the smaller safer spaces of JIRAN and CCYC meetings to help young leaders prepare for larger public roles Youth plan the agendas and chair these meetings with support from Aswan And she asked the two young leaders to polish their 482 Forward retreat leadership plans at a JIRAN meeting two weeks before the retreat Touchstone Center for Collaborative Inquiry 59

Strengthening Grassroots Community Leadership in Detroit Lessons from JIRAN and CCYC This case illustrates the complexity in place based resident centered work Sometimes large professional agencies and skilled paid staff who live outside of the chosen neighborhoods make important contributions to surfacing and strengthening resident engagement and leadership in the chosen neighborhoods Cultural affinity networks that reach across neighborhood boundaries play a vital role in facilitating resident engagement and leadership in neighborhood affairs JIRAN came into being because Skillman asked a major service agency based in a suburb to help get residents of the Good Neighborhoods involved in Good Neighborhoods activities Both JIRAN and Chadsey Condon Youth Committee owe much of their effectiveness to the contributions of Anisa and especially Aswan who are longtime ACCESS staff members doing this as part of their job These two organizations guide participants both to become more active and skilled in their own neighborhood and ethnic enclave and to learn about and participate in institutions and networks that reach across neighborhood lines These include citywide and even regional state and national systems for accessing opportunity developing capacity and solving problems This big strategic multi layered vision is part of what attracts youth and adult residents to participate in JIRAN and CCYC Community Connections grants provided vital resources that enabled JIRAN and CCYC to conduct meaningful community action projects and to build competence and confidence through the experience of these projects Community Connections staff encouraged JIRAN and CCYC leadership to think bigger reach across neighborhood and ethnic lines and participate and wield leadership in larger systems Other Skillman supported resources such as the University of Michigan Technical Assistance Center also provided useful training guidance and networking opportunities for these grassroots groups and leaders This case also shows how community leadership grows through experience accelerated by wise mentorship through the experience of taking one s own ideas and concerns seriously finding interests in common with neighbors through listening and dialogue devising and implementing action plans with one s colleagues mentors and allies Leadership grows as people figure out where resources and opportunities can be found and how to access these and when people use safe close to home spaces to prepare for public roles in larger more distant spaces People learn by reflecting on and evaluating these experiences and they grow further as they go through the cycle of discernment outreach planning action and evaluation again adjusting or building fresh plans as they combine what they are learning with the callings of their personal family and community commitments Touchstone Center for Collaborative Inquiry 60

Strengthening Grassroots Community Leadership in Detroit Appendix B People interviewed for this report Amistad case study Randall Mosley leader Jackie Conley leader Susan Hooks Brown New Paradigm College Preparatory Academy LuVenia Perkins New Paradigm College Preparatory Academy Mildred Jones Perry Outreach Center Father Ed Zaorsky Saints Andrew and Benedict Church Brightmoor Wellspring Youth Adventure Leadership Programs case study Peter Lisiecki leader and Wellspring youth development specialist DeSean Myree Wellspring director of recreation Cherie Bandrowski Wellspring co founder and co director Jason Carter youth participant Teddy Chandler youth participant Demetrius Metcalf youth participant Jamal Mitchell youth participant Zarria Roberts youth participant Sharla Carter parent and Wellspring staff Sylvia Collins parent Almeda White parent Dorel Hall PEEPS Developing KIDS case study Kim Newberry founder president and CEO Tenecha Toy Bland program director Denise Cranford Burke youth services coordinator Semaj Moody youth participant Christopher Suggs Rivera youth participant 2 young men interviewed by Ebony on Sept 1 2015 Cynthia Caldwell parent James Coakley parent Cheryl Suggs parent Sara Plachta Elliott Youth Development Resource Center Touchstone Center for Collaborative Inquiry 61

Strengthening Grassroots Community Leadership in Detroit JIRAN CCYC case study Aswan Almaktary ACCESS JIRAN coordinator Anisa Sahoubah ACCESS director of youth and education Ahmed Nasher youth participant Alhan Nasr youth participant America Yahya youth participant Raya Yahya parent Al Nasir Yemeni American Benevolent Association Terry Whitfield Southwest Partnership for Youth Touchstone Center for Collaborative Inquiry 62

Strengthening Grassroots Community Leadership in Detroit Appendix C Youth contributions to project applications and reports Youth Contributions to Project Applications N 38 Volunteer Staff 8 Grant Writing Training 3 5 Program Content 84 Youth Contributions Program to Final Reports Content Program Feeback on N 35 Content Program Impact 14 14 Presentation on Outcomes 3 Final Report Content 23 Feedback on Program Impact 46 Touchstone Center for Collaborative Inquiry 63

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