By Sherri Welch

Nearly halfway through its $100 million, decade-long initiative to improve the conditions for children and families in six Detroit neighborhoods, the Skillman Foundation has invested $46 million and leveraged an additional $300 million from private and public sources.

But it still has much work ahead of it.

"This is really unchartered territory to do this level of community transformation," said Edward Egnatios, program director for Skillman's Good Neighborhoods initiative.

It took Detroit almost 60 years of disinvestment to get to its current state, he said.

"It's ... going to take not just priming the pump with a grant but trying to change the entire playing field to rebuild the pipeline of public and private investment in the neighborhoods," Egnatios said.

Skillman launched the initiative in the fall of 2006 to transform six Detroit communities with many children into healthy, safe and supportive environments for families.

The neighborhoods are Chadsey/Condon and Vernor in Southwest Detroit, Brightmoor and Cody/ Rouge on the west side, Central in the middle of the city and Osborn in northeast Detroit.

Skillman spent the first two and a half years planning and an equal amount of time establishing community leaders and groups and educating them on how to improve their neighborhoods and how to advocate for change.

"The last half of the effort is transformation, actually making the connections necessary so we don't just have good programs, but we actually transform communities," Egnatios said.

Skillman set an early goal to leverage additional funding at a ratio of five to one or to attract another $500 million to those six neighborhoods. To date, it's exceeding that goal, leveraging $6 for every $1 it has invested, Egnatios said.

One example: In addition to providing a $100,000 grant to seed fundraising for a much-needed medical clinic in the Chadsey Condon neighborhood, Skillman wrote a letter endorsing the Covenant Care project. Its endorsement helped persuade Detroit Local Initiatives Support Corp. and New York-based Living Cities to guarantee construction loans for the renovation.

Skillman's efforts, along with other funders such as the Kresge Foundation, also helped bring $22 million in grants and loans from Living Cities to Detroit's North End or Midtown neighborhood.

Continued at: http://www.crainsdetroit.com/article...B01/305159986#

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