When Torrence, a card dealer at a Detroit casino, applied to enroll in a trades-focused job training program, he didn’t know much about construction—he just knew he needed a change. A married father of five who had just lost his own father and grandfather in the same month, he was struggling to support his family in the pandemic. He was seeking not just better pay, but a different life course.
His push to find a new career path brought him to Emerging Industries Training Institute, a Detroit nonprofit that offers fully funded, employer-led training programs. EITI Vice President William Aaron recalls reviewing Torrence’s application.
“He’s coming from the casino and he doesn’t really have any experience,” Aaron recalled thinking about Torrence. “But EITI opens doors, and we decided we’ve got to give this guy a shot.”
Soon, Torrence was an EITI star student. After training, he took a job with a local demolition company and later transitioned into a role with the local labor union. He’s making $30 an hour now, Aaron said, and more, his work has opened up his world.
“We affect the lives of individuals. But affecting that individual transfers into that individual’s family, and that family nucleus is a part of a larger neighborhood or community, which affects the city of Detroit.
Allies ‘don’t turn a blind eye’
Torrence’s story isn’t an anomaly at EITI: more than nine out of 10 alumni jump from the program into gainful employment, at a 95% job retention rate. Aaron and the team teach trades, from carpentry and electrical work to renewable energy; they also form partnerships that enable them to provide work gear, help students navigate barriers to job readiness, and set students on roads toward financial literacy and homeownership in the city.
“We are that bridge,” Aaron said. “We’re the boots on the ground. We love being with the people, about the people and for the people in the trenches every day.”
As communities across the country work to emerge from the pandemic, small, hyper-local grassroots organizations and nonprofits often make the largest direct impact because they have the best sense of what residents need. However, these organizations sometimes struggle to get the financial support they need to aid their communities.
“When you look at the history of grassroots organizations, especially organizations that are led by Black and brown leaders, oftentimes they have a difficult time getting access to capital and the type of donor commitment that larger nonprofits do,” said Natalie Brown, director of corporate citizenship at Ally Financial, who leads the company's trust-based philanthropy initiative.
As communities across the country work to emerge from the pandemic, small, hyper-local grassroots organizations and nonprofits often make the largest direct impact because they have the best sense of what residents need. However, these organizations sometimes struggle to get the financial support they need to aid their communities.
“When you look at the history of grassroots organizations, especially organizations that are led by Black and brown leaders, oftentimes they have a difficult time getting access to capital and the type of donor commitment that larger nonprofits do,” said Natalie Brown, director of corporate citizenship at Ally Financial, who leads the company's trust-based philanthropy initiative.
To increase the impact of their work, Brown said, she and Ally are working with organizations which, like EITI, are deeply embedded with residents and working to transform entire communities a few lives at a time.
“We affect the lives of individuals,” Aaron said. “But affecting that individual transfers into that individual’s family, and that family nucleus is a part of a larger neighborhood or community, which affects the city of Detroit.”
Recently, Aaron and EITI have begun providing training for 18- to 24-year-old Detroiters who are actively involved in gangs.
“This is one of the most difficult populations there is to work with,” said EITI founder and CEO Anthony Jackson, who teaches a job readiness course—focusing on attitude, attendance and behavior—to every incoming EITI cohort. A few weeks into the new program, he has watched students’ attitudes transform from disengaged and distracted, to motivated and eager to show up every day.
Recently, Aaron and EITI have begun providing training for 18- to 24-year-old Detroiters who are actively involved in gangs.
“This is one of the most difficult populations there is to work with,” said EITI founder and CEO Anthony Jackson, who teaches a job readiness course—focusing on attitude, attendance and behavior—to every incoming EITI cohort. A few weeks into the new program, he has watched students’ attitudes transform from disengaged and distracted, to motivated and eager to show up every day.
Being allies to these students isn’t just about passing on knowledge. “The approach we take is that we’re family, acting more so as mentors, fathers, mothers,” Jackson said. “You can talk to us about just about anything. We’re born and raised up in the city of Detroit. We don’t turn a blind eye.”
And for Aaron, both for students and their allies, success comes down to one key mindset shift: understanding that effort and discipline can yield positive results.
“When you deal with a city that has been historically depressed—whether it be unemployment, joblessness, crime, poverty—a lot of people are jaded,” Aaron said. “We’re here to give that one big hug to everybody to say ‘Hey, keep pushing, keep working on that discipline, and eventually you will get to your goals.’”
Allies ‘do whatever needs to be done’
Nonprofit leaders who live and work in the communities they serve are always fine-tuning their approach to achieve the most direct impact. For Alesha Brown, founder of Charlotte, North Carolina-based social justice nonprofit For The Struggle, uplifting her community starts with listening.
From a very young age and throughout her work as a civil rights attorney, Brown saw how race matters in every context, whether it’s employment, education, housing or the environment. At For the Struggle, she’s equipping her city to address many of these issues by following the community’s lead.
“Far too often, people come in and they want to tell people what they need,” Brown said. Making space for the voices of residents with pressing needs was a struggle, she learned—which is how her nonprofit got its name.
After relocating to the heart of the West End, a historically Black district of Charlotte, she met with and listened to elected officials, community leaders and her neighbors to lay the groundwork for what would later become For The Struggle.
“Far too often, people come in and they want to tell people what they need,” Brown said. Making space for the voices of residents with pressing needs was a struggle, she learned—which is how her nonprofit got its name.
After relocating to the heart of the West End, a historically Black district of Charlotte, she met with and listened to elected officials, community leaders and her neighbors to lay the groundwork for what would later become For The Struggle.
Above all, Brown heard two things: Charlotte was booming, and residents were afraid of being displaced by gentrification, and many seniors and longtime residents who have defined the culture of the West End for decades were in dire need of support, from critical home repairs to access to healthy food.
Leveraging her professional relationships and her experience working on civil rights legislation for the New York City Council, Brown set to work. FTS set up the Elder Response Initiative, providing property tax relief efforts to help keep West End seniors in their homes, as well as future and financial planning services like wills and trusts to ensure homes could be passed down through families, building generational wealth and preserving the social fabric of the West End.
The initiative also provides urgent home repairs and a Senior Feeding Program, which sprung up in fall 2020 as the pandemic deepened food inequities in Charlotte. Cooking in her own kitchen, Brown began preparing and delivering healthy hot meals for about 20 local seniors once per week. A year later, the program feeds nearly 100 seniors twice weekly, delivering healthy, home-cooked meals and groceries.
Allies step
up and fill
the gaps
For The Struggle’s Elder Response Initiative is supported by grant-making companies including Ally, and by local donors, like members of FTS’s Giving Circle, who make recurring gifts of $20 per month. These contributions make the work possible, Brown said, paying for the salaries of one full-time and four part-time staffers who prepare and deliver meals to local seniors, and helping the organization grow and plan for the future.
“Within five years, I want to be that nationwide organization that folks are starting to realize will really go to war for our Black seniors, for our Black constituents and for Black voters,” she said.
Aaron and Jackson have plans to grow within Detroit and to other urban centers with similar challenges across the state, including Flint, Benton Harbor and Kalamazoo. As the pandemic wanes, EITI is seeing an influx of new interest from jobseekers who, like Torrence, are chasing a change. Recently, a grant from Ally allowed the team to revive its Commercial Drivers License training. Set to launch as soon as December, the track will create new career opportunities for Detroiters while helping the region’s employers through what has become a global shortage of commercial drivers.
“Within five years, I want to be that nationwide organization that folks are starting to realize will really go to war for our Black seniors, for our Black constituents and for Black voters,” she said.
Aaron and Jackson have plans to grow within Detroit and to other urban centers with similar challenges across the state, including Flint, Benton Harbor and Kalamazoo. As the pandemic wanes, EITI is seeing an influx of new interest from jobseekers who, like Torrence, are chasing a change. Recently, a grant from Ally allowed the team to revive its Commercial Drivers License training. Set to launch as soon as December, the track will create new career opportunities for Detroiters while helping the region’s employers through what has become a global shortage of commercial drivers.
“When you’re trying to determine whether or not you want to be an ally, you don’t necessarily need to 100 percent understand the cause or the issue: you can’t, because you’re not living it.
For both organizations, outside support is make or break. “Partnerships with funders and donors are at the crux of everything we do,” Aaron said. While the staff can work with EITI’s students, donations, partnerships and philanthropy are critical to filling in the gaps. “Without it we’re nothing,” he said.
When people tell Alesha Brown they want to be allies in fighting racial injustice, her advice to them is to ask and listen before they act. “When you’re trying to determine whether or not you want to be an ally, you don’t necessarily need to 100 percent understand the cause or the issue: you can’t, because you’re not living it,” she said. “Once you embrace that, the second thing is to ask yourself, ‘What do I want to do?’ Because this is no easy job, let me tell you.”
When people tell Alesha Brown they want to be allies in fighting racial injustice, her advice to them is to ask and listen before they act.
“When you’re trying to determine whether or not you want to be an ally, you don’t necessarily need to 100 percent understand the cause or the issue: you can’t, because you’re not living it,” she said. “Once you embrace that, the second thing is to ask yourself, ‘What do I want to do?’ Because this is no easy job, let me tell you.”
Once you’re ready to dive in, Brown said, put your assumptions aside, ask people what kind of help they want, and get ready to do “whatever needs to be done.”