For Immediate Release
Jan. 26, 2017
CITY CONNECT DETROIT NAMED FINALIST IN THE ATLANTIC’s 2nd ANNUAL RENEWAL AWARDS
Online Voting Open from January 26-February 17; Details at TheAtlantic.com/Renewal-Awards
DETROIT, Michigan – City Connect Detroit has been named a finalist in The Atlantic’s The Renewal Awards, a nationwide competition recognizing local organizations driving positive change in their communities and bringing progress to the country.
Online voting begins today and runs through Friday, February 17 at: TheAtlantic.com/Renewal-Awards.
The Renewal Awards seek to illuminate grassroots solutions to challenges faced by communities around the country in an unsettling economic era. City Connect Detroit is nominated under the Allstate Youth Empowerment category. Other categories include: Community Action; Ingenuity; Neighborhood Revitalization and Self-Starter.
Ultimately, five organizations will each receive a $20,000 grant from Allstate.
“Detroit is in the middle of a great transformation and is a place where opportunities are constantly emerging for young people,” said Dierk Hall, President and CEO, City Connect Detroit. “It’s because of our spirit of collaboration in Detroit that we are able to create and implement innovative programs that directly benefit our youth. This honor is shared, of course, with our many partners, without whom we could not succeed in this work. To our partners, thank you.”
City Connect Detroit runs several programs that positively impact youth and families, including
Grow Detroit’s Young Talent (GDYT) program.
Administered on behalf of the City of Detroit and an array of public, private and community stakeholders in Detroit, GDYT is a well- recognized youth summer jobs program that provides paid work experiences to more than 8,000 youth each summer.
As the creator and program manager, City Connect Detroit is also facilitator of The Young Adult Education and Employability Program (YAEEP). YAEEP provides paid summer work experiences for 100 Detroit youth who complete the program. In 2015, 98 percent of program participants completed the employability skills component of this work, with nearly 73 percent showing academic gains.
YAEEP is made possible through a partnership led by City Connect Detroit and supported by four neighborhood-based partners: Alternatives for Girls, Detroit Community Schools, The Midnight Golf Program and The Youth Connection.
In addition to initiatives focused on academics and work force training, City Connect Detroit has served as a champion of violence prevention through its efforts with the Detroit Youth Violence Prevention Initiative. Between 2011 and 2015, City Connect Detroit convened community-based organizations, the Detroit Mayor’s Office, the Detroit Police Department, schools, and other partners to reduce exposure to and participation in violence among Detroit youth.
The Detroit Youth Violence Prevention Initiative resulted in the launch of several new Detroit programs, including walking school bus neighborhood patrols, Positive Behavioral Supports Interventions at several schools and an anti-gun crime initiative targeting high-risk youth and young adults.
The Renewal Awards are related to The Renewal Project, a social-first website and newsroom spotlighting people and organizations advancing social good and contributing to civic innovation across the country.
The inaugural 2016 Renewal Awards were presented in January 2016 after a yearlong search for America’s most promising social innovators. Six winning organizations, chosen from a pool of more than 230 nominees, were: B-Lab (Wayne, PA), Champlain Housing Trust (Burlington, VT), Global Detroit (Detroit, MI), P-TECH (New York, NY), WorkPlace (Bridgeport, CT), and Girlstart was the “Allstate Youth Empowerment” winner.
About City Connect Detroit
City Connect Detroit is a Detroit, Mich.-based, 501(c)3 nonprofit organization that strives to address community problems by facilitating and mobilizing funding in support of collaborative community solutions. Since its founding in 2001, it has organized, managed, and led four dozen community change initiatives and mobilized more than $135 million in support of this work. These resulting collaboratives have addressed a range of community problems, including the need for better data for decision-making, a lack of after school programming, the threat of home-based lead hazards and limited access to healthy foods and safe recreational opportunities. City Connect is also behind Detroit’s well-known youth employment program, Grow Detroit’s Young Talent. The organization is located at 613 Abbott St. in Detroit. For further information, call
(313) 967-5898 or visit CityConnectDetroit.org.
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