Programs & Services
YOUTH SERVICES
Contact: Xiomara Torres, Youth Services Manager
Urban Arts Academy
This hands-on program teaches entrepreneurial skills to youth ages 11 to 19 and provides tools for developing their own for-profit ventures such as: silk-screening, t-shirt production, graffiti art, music and video production. Youth create videos through this interactive program incorporating music and video production to tell their stories.
Funding for this program is provided by the Skillman Foundation.
Youth Leadership
The youth leadership program provides high-school age youth with positive development opportunities, internships, academic support, career exploration, job readiness, mentoring and training as public speakers and peer educators. Youth leaders organize activities, train other community youth and advocate for their issues to be included on larger community agendas.
Funding for this program is provided by the Skillman Foundation and the Community Foundation of Southeast Michigan.
Summer Youth Program
Youth ages 6 to 18 can participate in workshops, arts & crafts, recreation, field trips, community service projects, and a week-long camping trip. Older youth (14 – 18) are able to gain work experience and training while earning a stipend.
Funding is provided by the Youth Development Commission and Skillman Foundation.
ADULT EDUCATION
Contact: Maria Orozco, Adult Education Manager
English as a Second Language (ESL)
Classes are held during the daytime and evenings, Mondays- Thursdays from 6:00 – 8:00pm. Instruction includes teacher-led sessions as well as computer-based learning on applications such as Rosetta Stone and PLATO.
Funding is provided by Michigan Dept. of Labor & Economic Growth.
General Education Diploma (GED) Prep
Classes are held from 10:00am – 1:00pm Mondays- Thursdays.
Instruction is provided by Wayne State University.
Conversational Spanish
Classes are taught by a native Spanish-speaker and held Tuesdays and Thursdays from 5:30 to 7:00pm in 10-week cycles. Instruction includes teacher-led sessions as well as computer-based learning on applications such as Rosetta Stone.
Cost for registration is $350 per cycle ($17.50 per class) and includes all instructional materials and lab time.
FAMILY SERVICES
Contacts: Gloria Rosas, Director of Community Relations and Advocacy
Fernanda Sanchez, Salud Program Manager
Madres Unidas
This program was co-created and designed by Latina women from Southwest Detroit and includes the following components:
(1) Self-esteem and empowerment building: (2) Financial management and planning (3) Parenting Skills & Involvement (4) Health Literacy.
Funding provided by the Kellogg Foundation
Doñas
This program and provides skills-building workshops for Latina women over 50 years of age promoting HIV prevention through knowledge, safer-sex negotiation, and self-efficacy.
Funding provided in a collaboration with Adult Well-Being Services, Stop HIV/AIDS and Addiction through Prevention and Education Program (S.H.A.P.E.), by the USDHHS, Center for Disease Control
Salud
HIV Counseling, Testing and Referral – Certified counselors provide free, anonymous and confidential HIV testing. Counselors and clients work together to establish a risk-reduction plan, and connect those who test positive with necessary resources.
Funding provided by the Michigan State Dept. of Community Health.
Walk Your Heart to Health
DHDC is a host site for Walking Groups to promote active living. This project is conducted in collaboration with the Healthy Environments Partnership.
Funded through the National Institute of Environmental Science and is an affiliated project of the Detroit Community-Academic Urban Research Center.
Community Advocacy Project (CAP)
This project uses policy advocacy and community organizing of youth and adults to address health disparities and environmental justice issues in the Southwest Detroit community, and using that awareness to create a safer, healthier community. The program utilizes the community action model, a 5-step, community-driven model designed to build communities’ capacity to address health disparities through mobilization.
Funding provided by the Erb Foundation.
REENTRY SERVICES
Contact: James Phillips, Reentry Services Manager
Case Management Services are provided to adults who are returning home from prison and/or gang involved. This program helps individuals build on their strengths and remove barriers in order to change their life.
Gangsta’s Anonymous (GA)
Contact: Clifford Blackburn, Counselor
Weekly 12-Step Gangsters Anonymous support group meetings are held Thursday evenings with the purpose of provide an effective recovery process for anyone caught in the web of a destructive lifestyle addiction to criminality. GA consists of a fellowship of men and women who help each other lead a drug-free life, stay out of gangs and criminal lifestyle and cope with issues around gang participation.
Individuals with gang or prison tattoos are able to have them removed for free by a certified dermatologist through laser technology. This process takes up to a year to completely remove a tattoo, with monthly visits to both DHDC and the Skin and Vein Center. In return, participants must commit to a gang and drug-free lifestyle and perform 20 hours of community service.
This program is supported entirely through in-kind donations from Dr. Eric Seiger and the Skin & Vein Center.