Category Archives: Blog
Announcing Over $500,000 in Wellness Grants for Detroit Schools with Metro Solutions
by: Ashlee Schmidt | Dec. 20th, 2021 This piece was co-authored with Ashlee Schmidt, program officer, and Michele Bourdo of Metro Solutions. For our kids to be able to strive for their futures, they must be well. And, for our kids to be well, the adults who champion them must be too. Over the past […]
Read more »Teachers are weary warriors
by: Angelique Power | Dec. 20th, 2021 I’ve been meeting with inspiring Detroiters and youth-service warriors nonstop since I joined the Foundation. Sometimes one-on-one. Sometimes in small groups. And a few times each month, in a curated dialogue with a specific group of visionaries and changemakers I want to sit among, learn from, and build […]
Read more »Call for Nominations: Young Black Detroiters Making History 2022
by: The Skillman Foundation | Dec. 15th, 2021 To celebrate Black History Month, The Skillman Foundation is looking for nominations of youth for our 20 Black Detroiters Making History campaign. The campaign will showcase Black Detroit youth making a difference in their communities. Detroit’s Black History is astounding. Black Detroiters have been on the forefront […]
Read more »Carrying lessons from principals forward
by: Angelique Power | Dec. 3rd, 2021 On Wednesday, I sat with Detroit Principals as part of my listening tour. Most of them joined the Zoom call from their offices at 5pm just one day after the Oxford High School tragedy and during Michigan having some of the highest COVID numbers. Most had come directly […]
Read more »We have a window. And then it closes.
by: Angelique Power | Nov. 24th, 2021 Nearly sixty days into the role as President and CEO with nearly sixty days left in the year of 2021 as I write this letter – and the plan for how we 1) build on The Skillman Foundation’s past important work and 2) live into this moment and our values – is beginning […]
Read more »Listening to and learning from you
by: Angelique Power | Nov. 22nd, 2021 As the newly appointed President & CEO of The Skillman Foundation—a role I began in mid-September after moving with my family from Chicago—my first order of business is listening to and learning from Detroit youth and the adults who have a great impact on their lives. Detroit is full of visionaries […]
Read more »Insights from our President’s Youth Council
by: Jessica Eiland Anders | Nov. 22nd, 2021 On November 3, 2021, The Skillman Foundation’s President & CEO, Angelique Power, launched a yearlong listening tour by holding her first listening session with the Foundation’s President’s Youth Council. The purpose of the listening tour is to understand the most pressing needs of Detroit kids, the unique […]
Read more »The Skillman Foundation & The Parade Company Announce Winner of the 30th Annual Skillman Foundation Float Design Contest
by: The Skillman Foundation | Nov. 17th, 2021 “The Class of Tomorrow” Float Designed by Amelia Earhart Elementary-Middle School 5th Grader to Debut in America’s Thanksgiving Parade® presented by Gardner White DETROIT (November 17, 2021) – The Skillman Foundation and The Parade Company today announced 5th grade student Jaiden Paynes-Hebron, a student at Amelia Earhart Elementary-Middle School in Detroit, […]
Read more »Out-of-school programs prepare students for success, help families
by: Angelique Power | Nov. 15th, 2021 This piece was co-authored by David Egner, president and CEO of the Ralph C. Wilson, Jr. Foundation, and originally appeared in The Detroit News. Read the original post. Fahria, a 17-year-old high-school student from Hamtramck, spent her summer attending the Detroit Food Academy’s virtual Summer Leadership Program. She […]
Read more »Let’s Talk: Youth Entrepreneurs Leading Their Future Beyond “Employability”
by: Ashley Aidenbaum | Oct. 27th, 2021 We often talk about workforce readiness, but what about Detroit’s next generation of job creators and business owners? How do we prepare young people not just for the jobs that exist, but to create and thrive in the jobs of tomorrow? Program officer Ash Aidenbaum highlights two young […]
Read more »Lights On Afterschool 2021
by: Terry Whitfield | Oct. 27th, 2021 On Thursday, October 28, we celebrate Lights on Afterschool, a nationwide celebration of the power and impact that afterschool providers have on the millions of youth across the country, around the state, and especially here in the city of Detroit. Since 2000, Lights On Afterschool has been celebrated nationwide […]
Read more »What’s Hope got to do with it? Everything.
by: Andrea Anderson, PhD | Oct. 14th, 2021 The Skillman Foundation’s Opportunity Agenda for Detroit Children is grounded in three key metrics: third-grade reading proficiency, meaningful high-school graduation, and youth perceptions of hope and opportunity. Since launching the Opportunity Agenda, we have tracked two of the three metrics through indicators like MSTEP and SAT scores […]
Read more »1,000+ Detroit K-8 students served via Safe Space Fund
by: | Oct. 13th, 2021 In anticipation of a heightened need for safe spaces and high-quality programming both during the school year and summer, The Skillman Foundation partnered with the United Way for Southeastern Michigan in early 2021 to establish a Safe Space Fund. Through this fund, UWSEM awarded $500,000 in The Skillman Foundation grant […]
Read more »Research on Detroit student homelessness shapes critical changes
by: Matthew Hoerauf | Oct. 13th, 2021 In 2019 and 2020, The Skillman Foundation made a $100,000 investment, matched by the McGregor Fund, to University of Michigan – Poverty Solutions for researcher Jennifer Erb-Downward to create a report of the true number of students experiencing homelessness in Detroit, key barriers they encounter and recommended actions […]
Read more »20 Black school leaders join inaugural Detroit principal wellness fellowship
by: Carmen Kennedy-Rogers | Oct. 13th, 2021 With funding from The Skillman Foundation, the inaugural Principal Wellness Professional Learning Community (PWPLC) launched on August 23, 2021. The learning community, a component of the Foundation’s Wellness Works initiative, is a unique learning community because of its focus on creating a safe space for Black school leaders […]
Read more »Father & son work together on “Mentoring Manhood”
by: Natalie Fotias | Oct. 8th, 2021 Collaboration was a key theme in our 2020 annual report—the myriad of people, organizations, and institutions who come together to care for children. At the center of that support system is the relationship between child and parent. As I pondered how to tell this story, a father-son duo […]
Read more »Afterschool Providers Put It All on the Line for Kids
by: Mark Navarro | Oct. 8th, 2021 When the pandemic broke, one thing was certain: kids needed support more than ever. Afterschool providers quickly stepped in to fill gaps and maintain connections with kids. For some this meant quickly moving their programming online. For others it meant providing a safe and nurturing space for children […]
Read more »Let’s Talk: What’s Hope got to do with it?
by: The Skillman Foundation | Oct. 6th, 2021 The Skillman Foundation conducted a survey in 2020 to gauge how hopeful and in control Detroit youth feel about their future. Overall, a majority of youth expressed feeling powerful and ready—though there were some dimensions that suggested potential factors in how strongly youth felt this way, including […]
Read more »Funding Opportunity: Wellness for Detroit Schools
by: Ashlee Schmidt | Oct. 4th, 2021 Over the past two school years, young people and their champions have said that their personal wellness is in a fragile state. We know that this has affected school communities – including students, staff, and families – on many levels. School leaders deeply understand the needs of and […]
Read more »Detroiters search for missing students
by: Natalie Fotias | Oct. 4th, 2021 The fall of 2020 was a back-to-school season like no other. It had been nearly six months since the COVID-19 pandemic had altered our daily ways of life, including shuttering schools. Few children returned to the classroom that fall, with the majority of school districts and parents opting […]
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