Detroit

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Ford School teams receive Boost support from U-M Bold Challenges Initiative

Sep 6, 2023

Three research teams with Ford School affiliations have been selected among eight programs across the U-M campus to participate in the first cycle of the Bold Challenges Initiative's newly-launched Boost program. The Boost program supports new and ...

Ford School teams receive Boost support from U-M Bold Challenges Initiative

News

DNEP's summer internship program kicks off May 8th with 15 interns

Apr 28, 2023

In just two weeks, the Detroit Neighborhood Entrepreneurs Project’s summer internship program, +Impact Studio for Local Business (DNEP+ISLB), will kickoff, training 15 interns to consult for a select portfolio of Detroit small business owners. During...

Photo of summer interns with Ross Professor Chris Mueller

News

Research centers give U-M students hands-on, practical policy experiences

Jan 27, 2023

With the guidance and support of the Ford School’s research centers, graduate and undergraduate students are creating a real-life impact in a range of areas by working with external partners. The Ford School is deeply integrated with a wide range of ...

Research centers give U-M students hands-on, practical policy experiences

News

Detroit Neighborhood Entrepreneurs Project Courses

Nov 18, 2022

Each semester, the CFLP’s Detroit Neighborhood Entrepreneurs Project recruits hundreds of Detroit small businesses to work with U-M students in course-long projects that address business’ legal, financial, operational, marketing, or design challenges...

News

CFLP convening: Fair Chance Lending Project

Sep 19, 2022

Pictured from left to right: Professor JJ Prescott (Law), Professor Emmanuel Yimfor (Ross), and Toni Meyers-Douglas (CCRC) Over the summer, the Center on Finance, Law & Policy partnered with the U-M Center of Racial Justice and Michigan Law to we...

News

Community Tech Workers seeking small business clients

Sep 19, 2022

Above: Detroit Center's Leeah Allen (center) participates in a role playing practice session with Danielle Basemore-Taylor (LSA) (left) and Casey Stoneback (Information) (right). With assistance from Detroit Center staff members Feodies Shipp III...

News

28 business owners begin marketing projects with U-M students

Sep 19, 2022

A new cohort of businesses, mostly from Detroit’s east side, began work with U-M Ross students in Prof. Amy Angell’s marketing class, Consumer Behavior, this month. Businesses include restaurants, a mobile grocery store, retailers, a local farm/compo...

News

Detroit small businesses can better access free U-M resources through new CFLP website

Sep 9, 2022

The University of Michigan’s Center on Finance, Law, and Policy (CFLP) is pleased to announce the launch of a new website specifically for the Detroit Neighborhood Entrepreneurs Project (DNEP). The new site showcases the full breadth of programming D...

News

Detroit small businesses can better access free U-M resources through new CFLP website

Sep 9, 2022

News

Ford School events for fall 2022 explore racial justice, international affairs, the state of democracy and more

Aug 30, 2022

The Ford School is pleased to announce an exciting lineup for the fall 2022 Policy Talks @ the Ford School series and other special public events hosted with partners from across campus. We are hosting distinguished policymakers, scholars, activists,...

Ford School events for fall 2022 explore racial justice, international affairs, the state of democracy and more

News

U-M students put skills to work through summer internship program, helping Detroit communities

Aug 24, 2022

Each summer many students scramble for the chance to gain work experience through an internship, happy to get even one company or business to bite. But for Samantha Lang, a junior in the Ford School of Public Policy, the summer was rich with opportun...

U-M students put skills to work through summer internship program, helping Detroit communities

News

Stamps students join Detroit Neighborhood Entrepreneurs Project

Jul 12, 2022

Students from the University of Michigan's Penny Stamps School of Art and Design spent a part of their summer in the city of Detroit, gaining valuable experience as interns in the Detroit Neighborhood Entrepreneurs Project (DNEP) + Impact Studio for ...

Stamps students join Detroit Neighborhood Entrepreneurs Project

In the Media

CFLP and School of Information lauded for Detroit Community Tech Worker project

Jun 14, 2022 Crain's Detroit Business

The Center on Finance, Law & Policy is partnering with U-M's School of Information (SoI) to provide Detroit's Jefferson East Inc. (JEI) neighborhood organization, in a tech program aimed at aiding small businesses. Crain's Detroit Business quotes JEI...

CFLP and School of Information lauded for Detroit Community Tech Worker project

News

Center on Finance, Law & Policy releases do-it-yourself digital resource guide for small businesses

Jun 8, 2022

This digital resource guide is filled with links to resources in most of the areas affecting micro-businesses. It begins with some resources to help business owners get access to the internet. From there, it moves in a progression one might follow wh...

Center on Finance, Law & Policy releases do-it-yourself digital resource guide for small businesses

News

DNEP +ISLB intern, Samantha Lang, shares experience

Jun 1, 2022

Throughout my life, I never thought of myself as a numbers person. Yet, with my goal being to pursue consulting after I receive my Bachelor of Arts in Public Policy from the Ford School, I knew I wanted (and needed) to improve that “not a numbers per...

DNEP +ISLB intern, Samantha Lang, shares experience

News

DNEP +ISLB internship begins May 4

May 4, 2022

A natural extension of the interdisciplinary Detroit Neighborhood Entrepreneurs Project, the DNEP +ISLB offers students an intensive hands-on experience working collaboratively with fellow students to run a multidisciplinary student staffing agency w...

News

DNEP Detroit tour 2022

Mar 21, 2022

During February, several students enrolled in classes at the Ross School of Business and Stamps School of Art & Design braved the cold weather. They attended a bus tour of the city of Detroit that included meeting with DNEP clients and our Detroit pa...

News

Michigan Ross students work with Detroit minority-owned businesses in partnership with DNEP

Mar 18, 2022 Read more

As part of the Capstone MAP course this term, 79 BBA students and 17 Master of Management students at the Ross School of Business are taking on complex business challenges and impactful initiatives facing a variety of companies and organizations arou...

Reprinted courtesy of the Ross School of Business

News

U-M awarded grant to support Detroit entrepreneurs in bridging digital divide

Sep 7, 2021

An interdisciplinary team from the University of Michigan was awarded $300,000 from the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation to train local residents and U-M students to provide one-on-one technology support to Detroit entrepreneurs. The project aims to ...

U-M awarded grant to support Detroit entrepreneurs in bridging digital divide

News

Detroit’s small business owners see summer boost through entrepreneurs project

Aug 22, 2021

Working through a pandemic has been stressful enough for Detroit’s small-business community. Finding enough time, energy and talent to expand their companies through innovative programs, social media or new strategy has been doubly difficult. But a ...

Detroit’s small business owners see summer boost through entrepreneurs project

News

First person: Learning from Detroit businesses and fellow students

Aug 12, 2021

This article was written by Michael Willard, BBA Ross School of Business/BA LSA ’23 This summer, I am one of 31 interns working in the University of Michigan Detroit Neighborhood Entrepreneurs Project +Impact Studio for Local Business. The intern...

First person: Learning from Detroit businesses and fellow students

News

Applying academic skills to real-world business challenges

Jun 29, 2021

Small businesses in Detroit, as across the country, have had to make major adjustments to survive the COVID-19 pandemic economic downturn. A cadre of students from U-M have been able to work with many of these businesses through an internship program...

News

Report leads to additional $5M investment in Detroit Land Bank Authority’s Rehabbed & Ready program

Apr 22, 2021

The Detroit Land Bank Authority’s (DLBA) Rehabbed & Ready program received good news recently in the form of a joint $5M new investment from the Rocket Community Fund, the philanthropic arm of Quicken Loans' Rocket Mortgage, and the City of Detroit. ...

Report leads to additional $5M investment in Detroit Land Bank Authority’s Rehabbed & Ready program

News

Ford School involvement highlighted among growing U-M Detroit partnerships

Mar 8, 2021

The University of Michigan ramped up its collaborations on a multitude of projects in the city of Detroit during the pandemic, including outreach to residents on issues ranging from unemployment to the COVID-19 vaccine. Initiatives such as Poverty ...

Dispossessing Detroit: How the Law Takes Property

News

Michigan Ross and Ford Students Work with the Detroit Neighborhood Entrepreneurs Project

Jul 15, 2020

COVID-19 changed everything for small businesses in Detroit. Now business owners have dozens of new issues to think through as they pivot business models, weigh costs & benefits, and figure out when and how to re-open. Thanks to the Ralph C. Wilson J...

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Ford students assist Detroit small business owners with re-opening challenges

Jun 29, 2020

The economic havoc caused by the COVID-19 pandemic has been especially disruptive to small businesses, which often depend on foot traffic and operate on smaller profit margins than their larger counterparts. As Michigan prepares to reopen its economy...

Ford students assist Detroit small business owners with re-opening challenges

News

Entrepreneur Resource for COV-ID: Update Your Business Hours

Apr 1, 2020

With a statewide shelter in place order in effect in Michigan, small businesses in Michigan are being forced to pivot or seek emergency/disaster funding to survive. In support of the University of Michigan's Detroit Neighborhood Entrepreneurs Pr...

News

Detroit neighborhood businesses blooming after tapping U-M expertise

Oct 18, 2019

Nawal Denard knows the quality of the hand-crafted clothing, jewelry and shoes from her native Ghana in West Africa, and she is proud to sell these dynamic textiles through her Detroit-based business, House of African Prints. What she didn’t know...

News

We asked Detroit entrepreneurs: What do you hate about accounting?

Oct 12, 2018

In a partnership between the University of Michigan's Detroit Neighborhood Entrepreneurs Project and Business + Impact at the Ross School of Business, accounting students provide free accounting assistance and advice every Friday at the U-M Detroit C...

News

Michael Barr quoted in Free Press on Bitcoin ATMs in low-income neighborhoods

Jun 29, 2018

Bitcoin ATMs in poor neighborhoods are "not a safe or sound way of providing financial services to low-income people," says Dean Michael Barr in an interview with Detroit Free Press journalist Susan Tompor. The article, titled "Bitcoin ATMs showing...

Dean Michael Barr sounds off: Washington politics put renters at risk