2013 Grow Detroit’s Young Talent Campaign Launches with Nearly $2 million in Commitments
Detroit, MI, April 10, 2013 – A public-private partnership, the Grow Detroit’s Young Talent Campaign announced today that it has secured nearly $2 million in private-sector donations that it will use to place more than 1,000 Detroit youth in summer jobs. The announcement, made this morning at a kick-off event hosted by Compuware Corporation, came with a resounding message: more money, jobs, and partners are needed.
“There are literally thousands of young people in Detroit who are trying to find work,” said Dierk Hall, President and CEO of City Connect Detroit, which manages the Grow Detroit’s Young Talent Campaign. “What we have here is a really incredible start, but we need to do even more right now, because this region won’t have a workforce tomorrow if we don’t get these young people employment exposure today.”
Among the corporate and foundation donors who announced support for the campaign at this morning’s kickoff breakfast were DTE Energy Foundation, The Skillman Foundation, the WK Kellogg Foundation, the Max M. and Marjorie S. Fisher Foundation, Bank of America Foundation, Fifth Third Bank, Quicken Loans, and Compuware Corporation.
“We believe that youth employment readiness is a fundamental imperative for our region’s competitiveness, humanity, and attractiveness,” said Tiffany Douglas, Senior Vice President, Market Manager for Bank of America. “A gathering and partnership of people and organizations like these demonstrates the excitement and momentum around this work.”
About Grow Detroit’s Young Talent
The Grow Detroit’s Young Talent Campaign is an annual effort to raise money to coordinate employment services and subsidize wages for Detroit youth ages 14-24. The campaign has raised nearly $5 million since its inception in 2009, and used those funds to coordinate employment placements and support wages of 3,400 youth. The campaign and resulting program is an initiative of the Detroit Youth Employment Consortium, a public-private partnership comprised of more than 30 Detroit area business, nonprofit, and government partners. City Connect Detroit, a Detroit-based nonprofit intermediary backbone organization, provides staffing and management services for the effort.
Photo Caption: Dierk Hall, City Connect Detroit’s President and CEO, announces program support, in the presence of program leaders Tom Costello of the Michigan Roundtable for Diversity and Inclusion, Ed Egnatios of The Skillman Foundation, Tiffany Douglass of Bank of America, and Anita Ashford of DTE Energy.