Detroit’s First Word: Driving Community Impact Through NeighborHUB

• 360 Detroit Inc.’s park expansion project will include dance classes, sports activities, community resources, overnight camping, movie nights, art classes, and wellness classes.
• AGI Construction’s mixed-use development project supports programming, workshops, training, consulting, and advocacy to help build capacity for local minority contractors and assist residents on how to navigate the built environment process.
• Detroit is Different’s studio project supports outdoor interactive podcast and live music performance events in an urban garden, giving fruits, vegetables, and information on Detroit’s west side.

View the session recording below.

At the Detroit Regional Chamber’s Detroit Policy Conference, the Detroit Regional Chamber and General Motors announced the sixth NeighborHUB grant program of 10 nonprofits and 20 small businesses in Detroit, Hamtramck, and Highland Park, who will receive $600,000 in grants and additional consulting and support services. 

“I’m extremely proud of our collaboration with General Motors to empower residents, small businesses, and nonprofits to affect change in their neighborhoods through accessible grant money,” said Devon O’Reilly, the Chamber’s Senior Director of Community Engagement and Leadership Development. “The 2024 class continues suit of having diverse representatives and projects that properly represent neighborhoods throughout the Detroit and surrounding areas communities.” 

“For the past six years, the NeighborHUB program has inspired local nonprofits and small businesses to think big and enact change in their communities,” said Genna Young, Senior Manager of News Relations at GM. “Along with the Chamber, we are thrilled to support and celebrate the sixth cohort of community leaders and entrepreneurs, and we look forward to another great year of progress in our neighborhoods.” 

In addition to the announcement, past recipients of the grant, George Adams Jr., President and Founder of 360 Detroit, Inc., Khary Frazier, Founder of Detroit is Different, and Tanya Saldivar-Ali, Director of Business Development at AGI Construction, took the stage to reflect on the impact they have been able to make with the grant.  

“Being a Detroiter all my life and realizing how much the built environment impacts,” said Salvidar-Ali, whose Southwest neighborhood project was inspired by her experience as a minority contractor. “Construction isn’t just about brick and mortar. It’s about people, places, spaces, and who has access to those.”  

Frazier, whose project platforms culture, creativity, and community on the west side, warned about being too narrow in defining Detroit’s culture and who can influence it, saying, “The Detroit I know is a collage of everything.”  

Adams Jr., a two-time grant recipient, is changing the landscape of Virginia Park with thirty-six units of affordable housing to mitigate the residential displacement as housing prices rise.  

“We need to have some creative opportunities for people to stay in the neighborhood that they’ve been in,” he said. 

The 2024 cohort brings the total number of NeighborHUB grant recipient organizations to 94, receiving nearly $2.3 million in cash funding and consulting services to ensure projects’ success and sustainability.  

This session was sponsored by The Kresge Foundation.