Following the 1967 Detroit Riot called the nation’s worst urban uprising at the time, many organizations across the city formed to address issues facing Black youth. However, in the early 1960s – many years before the riot and long before the city of Detroit and other local organizations created and sponsored summer and year-round programs for inner-city youth, the late Deloris Bennett launched the North End Youth Improvement Council (NEYIC), a nonprofit organization to meet the needs and concerns of the growing population of Black youth living in the North End.
The North End, according to the City of Detroit officials, is a community bordered by East Grand Boulevard to the south, Woodland Street at the border of Highland Park to the north, I-75 to the east, and Woodward Avenue to the west.
Under Bennett’s leadership, the organization provided Black youth with an “engendering sense of value, hope, self-esteem, self-worth, and self-respect.” NEYIC offered young people viable activities and programs, including mentoring, tutoring, recreational endeavors, drug awareness initiatives, peaceful methods of conflict resolution, employment opportunities, and out-of-neighborhood field trips and experiences.
While the current winter weather has its cold grip on Detroit, NEYIC is busy planning spring programming for youth, followed by summer activities and initiatives. The overwhelming number of the organization’s activities will be held at Delores Bennett Park, located at 444 Smith St., bordered by Brush, Bethune, and Beaubien Streets. The North End Park, complete with a playground and recreation area, is owned by the city and was named after Bennett in 1977 while she was living.
When the park opened near Bennett’s home, the community and children’s advocate reportedly showed up daily. She was known for confronting anyone who didn’t follow her park’s rules of no drugs allowed, no cursing, no littering, and refraining from starting trouble.
“She was fearless and talked directly to people who were out of line at the park because she wanted a safe space for youth and the community to gather,” said longtime NEYIC board member Dennis Talbert, a youth member of the organization decades ago. “It didn’t matter how tough they were because Mrs. Bennett didn’t back down, and people respected her and her rules when they came to Delores Bennett Park.”
Talbert said the park remains an intricate part of what NEYIC does in its quest to empower youth in the community through education and employment initiatives.
“We will be running educational enhancement activities and programs in the spring,” Talbert said. “This summer, we will provide scheduled activities, workshops, and programs that will assist in youth development. We hope to employ young people to actually run many of the programs at the park.”
While the organization facilitates mentoring, tutoring, educational, and youth employment initiatives, NEYIC’s signature endeavor – the brainchild of Bennett – is its Adopt-A-Child for Christmas Program, held annually in December for the last 63 years. The festive event’s goal is to ensure that underserved children – 12 and under – receive Christmas gifts such as toys, bikes, warm clothing, and other needed items. The gifts are presented by caring individuals, corporations, and other nonprofits and philanthropic organizations.
NEYIC’s Christmas event began in 1960 at Bennett’s North End home. As the yearly event grew in stature, Bennett moved it to the nearby City of Detroit Considine Recreation Center (now Considine Little Rock Family Life Center) before expanding downtown to Cobo Hall (TCF Center, now Huntington Place). For the last few years, Adopt-A-Child for Christmas has been held at the historic Eastern Market. According to Talbert, the annual event has served more than 50,000 children since its inception 63 years ago, a credit to Bennett’s vision and fortitude.
Born Delores Caudle in Clarksville, Tennessee, in 1932, her family moved to Detroit, where she later married Eugene Bennett in the 1950s. When the couple moved to the North End, the community was predominately White and Jewish, but Black people were moving in at a steady pace. Bennett saw the need to structure activities to empower the budding Black youth population in the North End. In addition, gang activities in the area intensified.
Talbert said Bennett regularly invited rival gangs to her home and facilitated interactive talks to broker peace and harmony. Her home was also a neighborhood haven for North End children in need of mentoring, educational empowerment, and interpersonal skills enhancement.
Bennett died on Feb. 6, 2017, at the age of 84.
Deloris Bennett’s daughter, Mary Bennett-King, an IT professional, is now NEYIC’s executive director and dedicated to keeping her mother’s passion, work, and legacy alive in the North End.
“She was an outstanding mother and community activist,” Bennett-King told the Michigan Chronicle in a previous interview. “It’s an honor to continue her work and build the North End Youth Improvement Council’s legacy of ensuring that children and families in the North End are safe and prospering.”
For more information about upcoming NEYIC activities and events, log on to www.NEYIC.org.
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