The Skillman Foundation

This blog was originally published through Crain’s Detroit Business.

Detroit is truly a city in motion. You can see it in the buildings rising, businesses opening their doors and energy returning to neighborhoods across the city.

But if you want to understand where Detroit is headed, look to its young people.

Youth carry the creativity, determination and imagination that have always moved this city forward. In classrooms and neighborhoods, through art and organizing, they are not waiting for Detroit’s next chapter. They are already helping to write it.

Mayor Mary Sheffield recognized this and made young people a serious priority. Sheffield’s Rise Higher Detroit transition engaged more than 9,000 Detroiters through a citywide survey, 1,200 through community conversations and nearly 300 community leaders across 18 committees. Young people served alongside adults in shaping recommendations.

I was honored to serve on the Education and Youth Affairs Committee. Its work reached across district and charter schools, out-of-school-time opportunities and youth well-being. The administration has since created dedicated youth and education leadership within the Mayor’s Office to carry that focus forward.

That commitment to children and families is visible across Detroit and is supported by partnerships between government, philanthropy, business, nonprofits and community.

This year, Detroit became the nation’s largest provider of Rx Kids, offering direct financial support during pregnancy and a baby’s first six months. City funding for afterschool opportunities has grown 120% to $2.2 million, with a goal of placing a program within two miles of every school, and expanded summer efforts are expected to reach 30,000 more young people this summer. And every Detroit K-12 student can now ride city buses free year-round through Ride to Rise, opening access to school, afterschool programs, jobs, recreation and enrichment.

Sustained focus across the city is helping create the conditions for progress inside our schools, alongside the ongoing work of educators, students and families. Detroit Public Schools Community District’s graduation rate reached an all-time high of 83.2% in 2025, less than one percentage point below the state average. The district is also outpacing Michigan and similar districts in post-pandemic academic recovery.

Challenges remain, but Detroit’s story is not one of standing still. People are doing the steady work to move forward. Together, these efforts are building an opportunity infrastructure around Detroit’s young people. They reflect an understanding that education does not begin and end at the schoolhouse door. For Detroit to keep advancing, the institutions surrounding young people must listen to them, coordinate and act with shared purpose.

At The Skillman Foundation, we believe Detroit’s young people, families, educators and community leaders hold essential insight into what is working and what must change. Our role is to listen, support Detroit-led solutions, bring partners together and remain committed for the long haul. We know that lasting progress is not delivered to a community, but built with the people who live, learn, lead and dream here.

For those returning home, this moment offers more than an opportunity to witness Detroit’s momentum. It is an invitation to join it.

Listen to the people already leading, then find where your capital, expertise or influence can help Detroit-led solutions reach more young people. And most importantly, stay with the work to help it grow.

Detroit needs partners prepared to recognize and invest in the brilliance already here. Detroit is moving. Come move with it, ensuring every young Detroiter has the opportunity and support to lead where our city goes next.