The Skillman Foundation

The 2025 Education Changemakers Summit brought together The Skillman Foundation grant and community partners who are dedicated to transforming Detroit’s education system. Under the theme of “Bridging to Accelerate Education Policy Change,” the Summit focused on what it takes to break down silos and work collaboratively with others to build common ground for education systems change. Activities included identifying examples of where collaboration is already happening and where it can be strengthened, and equipping attendees with skills to work across lines of difference.

Throughout the day of learning and connection, participants identified shared priorities, and common challenges. Participants raised the need for spaces and structures that are specifically designed and intended for relationship building to support collaboration across organizations, roles, and sectors to transform education.

In response to this need, The Skillman Foundation invited the 2025 Education Changemakers Summit participants to apply for $25,000 Accelerator Grants to fuel new partnerships between attendee organizations.

Applications were evaluated on the following areas:

• Strength of the “bridging” between partners: Successful applications featured a clear and compelling effort to meaningfully connect two or more partners serving in complementary roles in the ecosystem around a shared goal to advance education systems change.
• Clarity of the opportunity: An opportunity for alignment was clearly defined, and a compelling case was made that the proposed work would help the organizations develop an effective partnership.
• Feasibility within the grant period: Successful applications proposed activities that were focused and realistic for the timeline and identified milestones or other signals of progress.
• Potential to catalyze impact: Outcomes such as sustained partnerships, shared tools, agreements, or other ongoing coordination beyond the grant period were assessed.

The Foundation intended to fund eight proposals, but received so many promising ideas that 11 were ultimately selected for funding. We are excited to announce the following grants:

• 482Forward with Boldly Moving Education Ahead: To collaborate on a narrative initiative to surface and interrogate the deeply held beliefs that shape how people understand schools, each other, and responsibility for change.
• Autism Alliance of Michigan with Teach Plus Michigan: For a joint storytelling and advocacy initiative to bring educator and family voices together in support of education policies that support students with special learning needs.
• Detroit Public Broadcasting with Detroit Future City: To strengthen a partnership that connects data-driven research with accessible storytelling and community engagement to support education systems change in Detroit.
• Developing K.I.D.S. with Center for Success Network: To design a literacy-focused afterschool curriculum designed to strengthen reading outcomes for elementary and middle school youth.
• Eastside Community Network with Detroit Area Youth Uniting Michigan: To develop youth leaders through relationship-building and skill development, while increasing adult organizers’ knowledge and support of youth organizing.
• Launch Michigan with Autism Alliance of Michigan: To create a set of shared strategy goals for stakeholder engagement and strategic communications.
• Michigan Education Justice Coalition with Student Advocacy Center of Michigan and Michigan Center for Youth Justice: To develop and initiate an organizing strategy to push back on efforts to move struggling students out of classrooms and into online schooling.
• Michigan League for Public Policy with EFyTECH (The Park West Foundation): To co-design a storytelling project that embeds the voices of students into broader education policy goals.
• Michigan’s Children with The Park West Foundation: To highlight the need for connected data systems across the state to better identify and track foster youth and former foster youth, helping them access benefits that can support them to flourish.
• Sankofa Scholarship Collaborative with Boldly Moving Education Ahead: To create youth-led wellness systems for schools.
• Teen Hype with Data Driven Detroit: To ensure that Detroit’s data infrastructure, including the Neighborhood Vitality Index, takes youth-defined priorities into account.

The 2026 Education Changemakers Summit will take place in Detroit on Thursday, November 12, from 8:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m.

Participation is by invitation. If you work with an organization that is committed to strengthening public education in Detroit, or across Michigan for all students, please complete this interest form.