Good Neighborhoods

Background and Goals

The chief aim of the Foundation's three programs is to help develop good schools and good neighborhoods so that young people can be safe, healthy, educated and prepared for adulthood.  The Good Schools and Good Neighborhoods programs are the primary focus of the Foundation's grantmaking and changemaking activities. The Good Opportunities program area is designed to support the Foundation's primary work and to invest in special opportunities that can accomplish significant results for children. Though we make grants throughout Metropolitan Detroit, the bulk of our grant dollars are targeted in six Detroit neighborhoods – Brightmoor, Chadsey/Condon, Cody Rouge, Northend Central, Osborn, and Southwest Detroit – and on innovative and successful schools throughout the city of Detroit. Good Neighborhoods

History

Launched in 2006, Good Neighborhoods (GN) is a 10-year, $100-million program that focuses on six Detroit neighborhoods where today nearly 60,000 children live, roughly 30% of the city’s child population. Good Neighborhoods involves a range of neighborhood development and system change strategies in concert with various public and private partners, as well as with residents and other stakeholders. Believing that resident engagement and leadership is critical to sustained, large-scale change for children, GN is anchored in a community partnership process.  The community process is designed in the three stages listed below. 

1. Community Planning (2006-2007) – The Foundation convened meetings with neighborhood stakeholders and residents to begin planning and outreach. The community came together in a series of meetings to decide on the key goal and strategies for improving lives of children in their neighborhoods.  

2. Readiness (2008-2010) – The focus was on strengthening the leadership and capacity for neighborhoods to make and sustain change. Action Planning Teams consisting of residents and nonprofit stakeholders developed and implemented strategies for achieving short-term goals.  The neighborhoods completed a yearlong process in which they identified and elected residents (including youth) and agency representatives to form resident-stakeholder organizations, loosely referred to as governance groups — sustainable, results-oriented neighborhood-based planning and advocacy bodies that will identify the strategies, outcomes and indicators that will guide and inform child-centered neighborhood revitalization efforts through 2016.

3. Transformation (2011-2016) – Resources will be aligned, activities scaled, community strategies will be fully implemented, and improvements demonstrated.