Detroit Diversity Group To Expand Programs With Grants

DETROIT, MI — A series of grants, including $225,000 from the Kresge Foundation, aim to expand programming to engage with southeast Michiganders and Detroiters most impacted by racism, poverty and marginalization, The Michigan Roundtable for Diversity and Inclusion announced recently.

The roundtable group, which aims to help marginalized groups through its ace2Equity Initiative, said in a news release that the funds will provide the opportunity to dig deeper in its efforts.

“By helping residents develop the organizing skills to combat disinvestment, poverty and gentrification, our work will encourage community development in the heart of Detroit’s Zone 8 neighborhood," Michigan Roundtable for Diversity and Inclusion Deputy Director of Strategy and Innovation Yusef Bunchy Shakur said.

Like what you’re reading? Invite a friend to subscribe to free Detroit newsletters and real-time email alerts.

Using an approach deeply rooted in neighborhood-level engagement, the Race2Equity program organizes trainings, helps creates community action plans, advocates for residents at decision-making tables and mediates community discussions and conflict, the group said in a news release.

Wendy Lewis Jackson, managing director of The Kresge Foundation’s Detroit Program, said the foundation is proud of the work the roundtable has done.

“We value the Michigan Roundtable’s decades of accomplishments and experience bridging sectors and communities to create leverage for sustainable change," she said.

The Kresge Foundation grant is just the latest in a series of funds awarded to the Roundtable in 2020. In June, the Consumers Energy Foundation gave the organization a $35,000 grant. In October, JPMorgan Chase Bank pledged $22,000 grant for the same efforts. In July, the W.K. Kellogg Foundation awarded a $200,000 grant to the Roundtable to facilitate the revitalization of neighborhoods within the 48208 Lives project in Detroit through racial equity and social justice. The investment in the Roundtable’s work in Zone 8 began with a generous $100,000 grant from the Ford Foundation in November of 2019.

“We’re dedicated to continuing our momentum in light of the changing climate,” said Steve Spreitzer, president and CEO of the Roundtable. “A deep sense of repairing the world is in our ethos. The Michigan Roundtable for Diversity and Inclusion is a living legacy of what it means to fight bias, bigotry and racism.”