City Mission

Jamail Aikens, a Brightmoor resident, spent his youth in extreme poverty and learned as a child to shoulder what Detroit poet Robert Hayden called "love's austere and lonely offices."

"I know what it's like to care for toddler siblings for days at a time, wondering if my mother would ever come home," Aikens says. "I know what it's like to be a child who looked into an empty refrigerator and wondered if I would eat that day, to not have heat in the winter time, and to live without electricity and running water."

Aikens succeeded, with the help of a caring adult mentor, in completing high school and went on through college, culminating with a masters in business administration. As an adult, he remembered the life-changing impact a mentor had on him, and decided to make this happen for other kids from similar circumstances. He and his wife, Nicole, moved back to Brightmoor to help restore life and hope to their old neighborhood, one child at a time. Jamail and Nicole are co-directors of City Mission, the nonprofit they founded to help children develop academically, giving them the opportunity to graduate and achieve their career goals.

What began with seven students and seven volunteer tutors in 1998 has grown steadily each year, and City Mission now tutors 80 students. In the City Mission subcommunity, approximately 1,500 children reside. One hundred of them are engaged at City Mission in one capacity or another.

"The problem with many programs is that they take on too much and the impact on any one kid is not that great, and doesn't last that long," Aikens says. "We decided to try and make a profound and lasting impact on a few kids and stay connected with them throughout their lives."

City Mission began with mentoring and tutoring services, and grew to include leadership development for children and young people. It now has an elementary school, City Mission Academy, serving grades K-4. Plans are underway to build a new school that will extend the grade level through middle school.

Parents who enroll their children in City Mission Academy or engage them in other programs find that they are also the beneficiaries of services as they are drawn into the City Mission family.

Learn more about City Mission here.