Breaking Barriers: University strives to meld campus with community

Breaking Barriers: University strives to meld campus with community

Although he’s not a local native, Dr. Antoine Garibaldi is on familiar ground. Hailing from New Orleans, the University of Detroit Mercy president has family in the Detroit area and a background of scholarship that supported black Michigan youth during the 1990s. Today his ongoing challenge is to lead a campus of 5,000 in the […]

GM pilots STEM Camp in Cody Rouge Community

GM pilots STEM Camp in Cody Rouge Community

More than 2,500 GM volunteers put on work gloves, work boots and safety glasses and headed for the Cody Rouge community for the company’s week-long volunteer event July 24-28. Volunteers came from all levels of GM’s Detroit operation including Chairman Mary Barra, who spent time working in the community. Besides painting, cleaning, gardening and doing […]

Great places to meet up also help students eat up

Great places to meet up also help students eat up

For some Michigan youth summer is the hungriest time of year. While the season ushers in cookouts and picnics, a daily challenge for low-income households is stretching the meal budget to feed youth who’d normally enjoy one or more meals at school. With the annual closing of student lunchrooms comes the annual opening of Meet […]

Open jobs could be filled by Detroit’s invisible talent pool

Open jobs could be filled by Detroit’s invisible talent pool

At $1.3 trillion annually, the African American economy is larger than Russia’s gross domestic product.  But sources of talent and economic resources within the African American community remain undeveloped because they aren’t taken seriously, according to economist and author Ida Byrd-Hill. Byrd-Hill, whose book “Invisible Talent Market’’ identifies problems and potential solutions, will discuss them […]

Got a cool school program? Apply for a wellness award

Got a cool school program? Apply for a wellness award

Maybe your school is like Detroit’s Timbuktu Academy and has a “Try It Tuesdays,”  food-sampling program. Or perhaps your school participates in a Farm-to-School program, which brings fresh fruits and vegetables from Michigan farmers to local lunchrooms every month or maybe your school just introduced a school Smoothie Station or step competition. If you are doing something new and […]

More kids are paying attention in class, getting better grades, making healthier food choices and amping up activity levels thanks to Building Healthy Communities

More kids are paying attention in class, getting better grades, making healthier food choices and amping up activity levels thanks to Building Healthy Communities

Kids go off to school almost every day to learn reading, math, science and more. Now with the help Building Healthy Communities, they can also learn how to be a healthier person.  For the ninth year, elementary schoolers can fight childhood obesity and get healthier with common sense solutions with the school-based wellness program’s help. […]