JPMorgan Chase invests $1.5M to aid neighborhood revitalization for DPS families in southwest Detroit

DETROIT - Families of students in three Detroit Public Schools in southwest Detroit – Harms and Maybury Elementaries and Western International High School – will benefit from enhanced school-based services and additional neighborhood revitalization efforts, due to $1.5 million in grants from JPMorgan Chase announced today.

The programs support the state’s Department of Human Services “Pathways to Potential” programs and Detroit Public Schools’ strategic goal to make public schools the hubs of communities across the City of Detroit.

The largest grant, $1 million to Southwest Solutions, will fund expansion of the agency’s Centers for Working Families in the three DPS schools. An additional $500,000 in grants will assist a number of organizations that provide support services including job training for youth and parents and financial literacy.

“Michigan can’t be successful without a renewed Detroit and it will take the public sector and the private sector working together to make Detroit a great city again. We’re pleased that JPMorgan Chase wants to be a partner in that effort and is willing to make such a generous commitment to make a difference in the lives of these students, their families, and this neighborhood,” said Gov. Rick Snyder. “We can do great things by working together and it’s exciting to have JPMorgan Chase involved and investing in a brighter future for Detroit and for Michigan.”

“Chase is extremely proud to support Governor Snyder, Detroit Public Schools and Southwest Solutions as we embark on an effort that will change the vitality of this neighborhood,” said Sarah McClelland, Chase Michigan market president.

“Here in Detroit, our objectives are well defined,” McClelland said. “We must stabilize families living in high-poverty neighborhoods by providing high quality educational opportunities and by creating job opportunities.” Chase also committed volunteers to support the initiatives.

Detroit Public Schools Emergency Manager Roy S. Roberts lauded the partnerships as tangible examples of the focus of DPS’ just-released five year strategic plan, to ensure that quality schools serve as the hub of every community and the site for wide ranging child and family services.

“We are all responsible for supporting families to the maximum extent possible. We want the school to be the place where not only children, but adults receive education and training, where child care services are offered for infants up to pre-k and senior care may be provided,” Roberts said. “By starting earlier and working longer, working harder and working smarter, joining together and expecting more, we will enable our students to lead the way for their community and live productive, prosperous and rewarding lives.”

The Department of Human Services Pathways to Potential, begun in summer 2012, joins schools with DHS caseworkers known as “Success Coaches.” The Success Coach uses an iPhone as a mobile office to be available and accessible to students, staff, parents and other community members, with the ability to help quickly with client benefits and also to leverage other important resources in a solution and outcome-based model, addressing issues and problems as they arise, before they become harder to manage. A goal of the Pathways program is to ensure a major corporate or private sponsor partnering with the schools and local agencies in each community.

As part of today’s announcement, DHS Director Maura Corrigan announced the placement of a new Success Coach for Western High School. “One of the great benefits of our Pathways model is its flexibility, so that when opportunities and resources become available, DHS success coaches quickly connect clients and others with them,” Corrigan said. “We are thrilled that JPMorgan Chase, through their generous commitment, will provide crucial resources and partner with DHS and others in the efforts to free children from the grip of generational poverty.”

The $1 million in funding to Southwest Solutions is over three years and will support comprehensive community development services to southwest Detroit neighborhoods. These services include expanding the successful work of the Center for Working Families (CWF) to help families achieve economic stability and success; and implementing a Neighborhood Preservation and Home Repair Loan Program within a ten-block radius of the three designated schools. The CWF model empowers low-income individuals and families to attain long-term economic viability by providing simultaneous access to public benefits, workforce development, and financial coaching.

“The grant from JPMorgan Chase to Southwest Solutions is part of Chase’s long-term strategy to help families and the entire community of southwest Detroit thrive,” said John Van Camp, president of Southwest Solutions. “It will enable Southwest Solutions to operate the 'JPMorgan Chase Family Neighborhood Initiative' in the three schools, helping families to increase their financial wealth, become more involved in supporting their children’s academic success, and make needed home repairs along the routes children take to school.”

Income support coaches will partner with Department of Human Services’ Pathways to Potential staff to connect individuals with short-term aid such as food stamps and utility assistance while working alongside financial and workforce coaches who help clients achieve long-term goals like having enough money to get by month-to-month, gaining full-time employment at a family-sustaining wage, building wealth, and improving their credit.

The CWF expansion into the schools will scaffold on the English Language Learners Program in Harms and Maybury. This program, also supported by Chase and others, helps 60 parents with children in pre-kindergarten through third grade. It not only teaches parents English, but it enables them to spend time in their children’s classroom to help them with schoolwork. Parents both learn with their children and learn to support their children’s education.

Southwest Solutions’ Neighborhood Preservation Team (NPT) has set a goal to provide 115 homeowners with an average of $10,000 - $15,000 in home repair loans and/or grants to improve the exterior appearance and safety of the home, and to coordinate the deconstruction or demolition of 30 blighted properties near the schools.

Other agencies receiving grants totaling $500,000 include: Urban Neighborhood Initiative, Greening of Detroit, Southwest Solutions, Community Legal Resources, Detroit Parent Network, and Center for Empowerment and Economic Development. These will fund programs including family literacy at Harms an Maybury, STEM-focused family nights, vacant property management, safety initiatives around schools, neighborhood small business/start-up support, youth summer employment programs and business apprentice programs for Western students.

Detroit Parent Network Executive Director Sharlonda Buckman said, “The goal is to work with parent leader teams that are inclusive of volunteers, school personnel, neighborhood residents and other partners to narrow barriers and to maintain cultural competence and relevance in the community. DPN will conduct monthly fun, interactive family events including family dinners, field trips, children activities, STEM activities and opportunities for parents to interact with teachers and school personnel. They will also engage families in a community choir.”

Today's announcement is yet another major foundational building block in the DPS umbrella strategy of linking forward-thinking and concerned corporations, non-profits and governmental agencies with individual school communities in Detroit, much like the Lear Corporation/Clark Elementary/East English Village Preparatory partnership started last year.