Kresge’s Detroit Program collaborates with civic, nonprofit and business partners to promote and expand long-term, equitable opportunity in Kresge’s hometown for its current and future residents.

We place our highest priority on neighborhood-based, resident-led organizations, seeking to join with them in strategies for tomorrow’s transformations. It is imperative that the city’s resurgence be broadly inclusive of neighborhoods and their residents, the city’s heart and soul.

We invest through these focus areas:

Along with our partners, we are reimagining the city’s neighborhoods by putting the essential building blocks in place that will support the healthy development of young children and prepare them for educational success.

We support metro Detroit arts and culture at multiple levels, from operating support to organizations of various sizes, to support for neighborhood-based efforts and projects in the city of Detroit, to unrestricted financial support for individual creators. Support for individual artists is through the Kresge Arts in Detroit initiative administered on Kresge's behalf by the College for Creative Studies. We actively promote the power of arts and culture to enhance identity, connectedness and opportunity.

We support an array of activities and investments that make transformative changes to improve the conditions and prospects of residents. We particularly seek to bolster – through project and operating support – a range of community development organizations best positioned to involve the voice of residents in neighborhood-level change.

We aim to build the beliefs, knowledge and skills necessary for residents, their nonprofit organizations and representative government bodies to work together to enhance the collective ability of Detroiters to self-direct their future. This includes support for citywide organization networks and intermediaries, the development of resident leaders and the elevation of community voice.

Combining the right resources at the right time in the right place has proven catalytic possibilities when there is a strong neighborhood steward organization with deep connections to residents. Stewards are key in connecting these layered resources to amplify the strengths and enhance the unique character of the neighborhood. Today we seek to extend and adapt these lessons in Live6 (Livernois-McNichols), in Eastern Market, and in the New Center and North End.