On Valentine’s Day, 40 University students showed their love for the city of Detroit.
For the third and final event of Detroit Week, students spent Saturday painting walls and building a cardboard school bus at Franklin-Wright Settlements, a human services organization in the city.
Detroit Week was a series of three Detroit-focused events organized by the Detroit Partnership, the Black Student Union, Semester in Detroit, LSA Student Government and the Black Volunteer Network. The other two events included a dinner called The Soup and a panel on race and food justice.
The events aimed to raise awareness of challenges facing Detroit, and promote action among the University community.
LSA senior Arnold Reed, BSU speaker, and Public Policy junior Blair Sucher, education director for the Detroit Partnership, began planning Detroit Week at the end of fall semester.
“We had the same vision,” Reed said. “When we came together, we were like, let’s do it. We said, ‘What if we could bring other organizations into the fold? There’s a lot of community service organizations on campus and a lot of orgs that would love to do this type of work.’ ”
Franklin-Wright Settlements is a neighborhood service organization on Detroit’s east side. Raymond Brown, a volunteer for the organization as well as the building operator, helped organize the art project students participated in on Saturday.
Brown said he has been involved in Franklin-Wright Settlements since he was born, when he received his first immunizations and dental work through the organization.
“We do programs from the cradle to the grave,” he said. “Our oldest senior is 101 years old.”
Franklin-Wright Settlements began as a day nursery in 1881, and now provides an array of programs and resources to Detroiters. They include a senior outreach program, an after-school program and an early childhood development program, to name a few. Every year, 40 to 50 high school students visit colleges across the country with Franklin-Wright. Ninety-nine percent of these students go on to become college graduates and Brown said 75 percent are first-generation college students.
Franklin-Wright also hosts events to help Detroiters with their daily needs. Last week, residents were invited to receive assistance signing up for DTE Energy’s Low Income Self-Sufficiency Plan, a payment plan which helps low-income families pay for utilities.
“You don’t want to give people a handout,” Jay Yule, director of human resources and preparations at Franklin-Wright, said. “You want to give them a hand-up.”
LSA senior Sidney Wiltshire is president of the Black Volunteer Network, an organization that provides opportunities for community service, as well as scholarships and college tours for high school students from low-income families. BVN runs weekly volunteer programs in Ann Arbor and Ypsilanti, as well as monthly programs in Detroit.
“We provide opportunities for people in underdeveloped areas,” Wiltshire said. “We try to promote social justice through community service, giving back and trying to uplift members of our community.”
During Saturday’s event, students painted a dance studio, a hallway and a bathroom. They also completed a cardboard school bus for an upcoming play.
Reed said he has high hopes for the future of Detroit Week.
“We’re definitely hoping it turns into an annual collaboration,” he said. “The more people we can have involved, the better.”