Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan's administration convened 100 potential funders last Thursday to ask them to buy into a $50 million fundraising effort for what's dubbed the People Plan.
Originally conceived before the pandemic, the city strategy was designed to provide a pathway to financial opportunity for all unemployed Detroiters — roughly 17,000 at the time — in an effort to lower the city's poverty rate by targeting individuals. The rate was 30.6 percent in 2019, according to U.S. Census Bureau American Community Survey data.
But officials reeled in expectations for the fundraising effort after COVID-19 struck, expecting donors to be stretched more thinly, said Nicole Sherard-Freeman, Detroit's executive director of workforce development.
Now Duggan's administration is seeking $10 million a year for the next five years to expand existing city programming and serve around 2,000 Detroiters annually, or 10,000 total for the full $50 million. Fundraising is needed to expand existing programs that require more money either to grow or to continue at all, and to replace federal funding that may be in flux next year.
"We hope we're funded at the same or better levels, but I can't wait around for that," Sherard-Freeman said. "The need exists right now. So, this gives me both funding and funding flexibility to continue these programs."
The city has a $1 million commitment from Detroit-based General Motors Co., according to GM and the city, as well as $500,000 from New York-based JPMorgan Chase, $500,000 from the Rockefeller Foundation, $300,000 from Amazon.com Inc. and $500,000 from United Way for Southeast Michigan that's directed at the mayor's Community Health Corps, according to Sherard-Freeman.
"It's really all about supporting a pipeline of skilled talent that's going to benefit our industry and our region for years to come," said Terry Rhadigan, executive director of communications operations and corporate giving for GM. "It's the latest example of our partnership with the city and with Mayor Duggan's administration."
Rhadigan added GM wanted to show support early as the city looks to raise more money.
Duggan said in a Wednesday evening announcement of his re-election campaign that he held a call with 100 "major corporations and charities" to pitch the People Plan. That's where GM announced its gift, according to Rhadigan.
"And this is going to be the vision for the future of this city," Duggan said Wednesday. "We want to say to the people of Detroit that whatever barriers have been put in your way that have kept you from your dreams, whether it's structural racism, whether it's poverty, whether it's a bad school system, whether it's a health challenge, whatever you have had that has been put in your way, the city of Detroit is going to find ways to step in and help you get over those barriers and make your dreams."
The plan's elements span a wide range, including a paid high school completion program in partnership with Detroit Public Schools Community District and a piece Sherard-Freeman says Duggan added himself: a gun violence prevention program in the 48205 zip code that uses work readiness and employment as tools to discourage violence in conflict resolution.
The Learn to Earn high school completion program, for example, has 120 participants and will be able to add another 500 next year with new funding. A program called Get Paid to Learn a Trade under which companies commit to hire employees for $15 or more that get certain certifications could add 600 participants to its current 25. There's also an entrepreneurship academy in partnership with Wayne County Community College District. For training through the city's employment initiative Detroit at Work, the philanthropic funding would allow the addition of math literacy and problem-solving education some need in order to successfully complete classes.
The People Plan started last August with a call between Duggan and Sherard-Freeman in which the mayor said the city needed a "broader solution" to lack of opportunity.
"We are expanding capacity, building capacity, and we really believe ... that this is going to prove to be a pathway to do two things: interrupt intergenerational poverty and help start or add to the work that's already underway to rebuild Detroit's Black and Brown middle class," Sherard-Freeman said.
Asked why the city rolled a variety of programming into one package called the People Plan, she said that officials hope it will "make it easier for Detroiters to see that this is a city with an opportunity, an on-ramp opportunity, for everybody."
She added that it's also a response to a desire from funders for a more holistic setup like the Strategic Neighborhood Fund, which funnels public-private investment into targeted neighborhoods and commercial corridors.
"What we heard from our philanthropic partners when we rolled out SNF was, 'OK, this is great, it's going to make the neighborhood look better. What are we going to do about the people who live there?" she said.
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December 11, 2020 at 06:07AM
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City of Detroit unveils $50 million 'People Plan' to potential funders - Crain's Detroit Business
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