Development Finance and Economic Security

Fueling Michigan's Economy

Ford Foundation Supports Local Efforts to Revitalize the Region

NEW YORK, 25 November 2008 — Even before the financial crisis began, many of America's industrial cities were feeling economic hardship. In Michigan, home to the U.S. auto industry, poverty has been rising for the past three years while incomes have steadily fallen, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. In response, state and local leaders are coming together to help the regional economy regain its footing.

Supporting these efforts, the Ford Foundation has made a series of grants in Michigan. These grants support local efforts to revitalize depressed neighborhoods, expand access to education, training and equal employment, and encourage civic engagement and youth leadership. Recent efforts include:

• Michigan Roundtable for Diversity and Inclusion
  In October 2008, $1 million toward its Community Reconciliation effort, which addresses racial segregation and bias in Michigan
• Eastern Market Advancement Corporation
  In September 2008, $500,000 to support the oldest continuously operated public market in the United States, demonstrate the viability of urban agricultural practices, and make healthy foods available to low-income residents of Detroit
• Genessee County Land Bank Authority
  In September 2008, $1 million to rehabilitate the historic Durant Hotel in Flint, Michigan, and analyze how the land bank authority could serve as an innovative model for urban revitalization elsewhere
• Detroit Economic Growth Association
  In August 2008, $2 million to implement a foreclosure prevention and response program and to develop a neighborhood revitalization strategy
• Legal Services of South Central Michigan
  In August 2008, $880,000 to launch a statewide initiative to prevent foreclosures and to provide direct legal representation to homeowners facing foreclosure in the Michigan area
• Detroit NAACP
  In August 2008, $1 million to improve the social justice environment in Detroit, specifically developing a criminal justice toolkit to reduce the numbers of at-risk youth, building youth leadership and advocacy, and ensuring equal access to education and employment
• Metropolitan Organizing Strategy Enabling Strength (MOSES)
  In June 2008, $350,000 toward the anti-poverty and regional equity campaigns in metropolitan Detroit including the promotion of new transit services and establishment of a city land bank authority to help Detroit manage and redevelop its abandoned properties

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The Ford Foundation is an independent, nonprofit grant-making organization. For more than half a century it has worked with courageous people on the frontlines of social change worldwide, guided by its mission to strengthen democratic values, reduce poverty and injustice, promote international cooperation, and advance human achievement. With headquarters in New York, the foundation has offices in Latin America, Africa, the Middle East, and Asia.