Photo: “MGM Grand Detroit is a friend to the Midnight Golf Program (MGP),” says Renee Fluker, founder of MGP, which recently received a grant from the MGM Resorts Foundation. MGP prepares local youth to succeed in college and beyond through life-skills training, proactive coaching, long-term mentoring and the discipline of golf.
MGM Resorts International is a brand known across the globe. For guests at MGM properties worldwide, the expectations are high, as they have come to expect best-in-class hotels and casinos; state-of-the-art meetings and conference spaces; incredible live and theatrical entertainment experiences; and an extensive array of restaurant, nightlife and retail offerings.
However, in Detroit, some of our most respected and impactful charitable organizations think of MGM first as a caring, committed, community partner and they share this view because of the MGM Resorts Foundation.
Combining charitable contributions and volunteerism, the MGM Resorts Foundation provides MGM Grand Detroit team members with a platform to address community issues that matter most to the people of Detroit. The ultimate reward is to receive a thank you from an organization that has been positively impacted by MGM Resorts Foundation support because that thank you often speaks for hundreds, and sometimes thousands, of people that have been lifted up across our community, as our Alicia Elster explained.
“The 2021 MGM Resorts Foundation grant award will assist Cass Community Social Services in continuing the Sustainability Institute in the coming year,” said Elster, Development director for Cass Community Social Services. “Recently instituted, the Cass Community Social Services Sustainability Institute targets the hardest to employ people, including people who have experienced homelessness; individuals who are re-entering after incarceration; people with physical or mental health issues; and, individuals with limited literacy or low educational attainment.
“Through the Sustainability Institute, we train these members of our community for living wage jobs in the Green Economy. Our job training includes assembling solar generators and arrays; recycling by creating household items from discarded tires; and document destruction and recycling for reuse in an industrial system. To the MGM Resorts Foundation, we say thank you very much.”
Ida Benson, director of Development and Communications for Covenant House Michigan, shared a similar story.
“With continued support from the MGM Resorts Foundation, our youth in the Caritas Emergency Shelter have a warm bed, three meals a day and continued support and mental health services from our staff,”said Benson, director of development and communications for Covenant House Michigan. “Every day they are able to wake up and feel a promise for tomorrow because of the support from donors like the MGM Resorts Foundation. We are truly grateful for the generous gift from the Foundation and the continued relationship we have with them.”
The words of Elster and Benson are music to the ears of Dee Dee McKinney Odom, director of Workforce Management for MGM Grand Detroit.
“Through this challenging period for our community and the world, we never stop caring and giving,” stated McKinney Odom, passionately. “Our MGM Grand Detroit team members are fully invested in our community and it is comforting to our team members to know that we still have the power to help our community and city in significant ways.”
Following is a listing of some of the impactful local nonprofits that recently received grant support from the MGM Resorts Foundation. MGM Grand Detroit invites our community to visit the websites of these organizations and learn more about their important missions.
● Boys & Girls Club of Southeastern Michigan; bgcsm.org
● Cass Community Social Services; casscommunity.org
● Chaldean Community Foundation; chaldeanfoundation.org
● Covenant House Michigan; covenanthouse.org
● Detroit Association of Black Organizations; dabodetroitinc.net
● Detroit Public Schools Foundation; dpsfdn.org
● Girl Scouts of Southeastern Michigan; gssem.org
● Green Living Science; greeningdetroit.com
● Joy-Southfield Community Development Corporation; joysouthfield.org
● Mariners Inn; marinersinn.org
● Midnight Golf Program; midnightgolf.org
● Ruth Ellis Center; ruthelliscenter.org
● Sphinx Organization; sphinxmusic.org
● Winning Futures; winningfutures.org
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