1355 Oakman Boulevard, Detroit, MI 48238
The Promise Program is a cross-school district, multi-cultural, urban/suburban student leadership development program. Participating students meet initially at a weekend retreat in August and one full day per month from October through April to focus on the resources, leadership, and critical issues that influence the quality of life in Metropolitan Detroit. Session topics include education, volunteerism, racial/cultural diversity, economic development, and youth leadership issues.
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The mission of the Generation of Promise Program is to build a community of young leaders who celebrate diversity and are dedicated to the elimination of discrimination in metropolitan Detroit. Our efforts are guided by the belief that building relationships among youth of many cultures and ethnicities results in stronger relationships, an appreciation of individual differences, and creates a valuable corps of future leaders.
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The Promise Program began as a cooperative effort formed by graduates of Leadership Detroit and Birmingham Public School Experiential Learning Center. The Promise Program was coordinated and administered by the Birmingham Public School Experiential Learning Center for nine years. The Program is now managed internally, while housed at Focus: HOPE, Detroit's leading civil rights and community development organization.
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Focus: HOPE is a leading civil and human rights organization founded to overcome racism, poverty and injustice and to build an integrated society. Because the missions of Focus: HOPE and the Promise Program are so clearly aligned, Focus: HOPE extended its hospitality, offering to house the Promise Program on its Oakman Boulevard Campus in 2000. While operating independently, The Generation of Promise exposes participants to the work of Focus: HOPE, offering them opportunities to partake in Focus: HOPE's annual walk to celebrate diversity and various volunteer activities.
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In many respects, the Detroit metropolitan community is currently racially, economically and geographically polarized. The Promise Program is designed to increase positive interaction between city and suburban youth, encourage mutual respect, dispel stereotypes and misconceptions dividing the community, and foster a shared commitment to the advancement of the metropolitan area.
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Events are coordinated and ultimately supervised by the Program Director, with the assistance of eleven experienced and committed facilitators, comprised of teachers, diversity trainers, professionals and community volunteers. On each program day, students are divided into groups of 12, accompanied by two adult facilitators. Students meet at a host school the morning of each program day as an entire group and are divided into small groups to visit destinations in the community related to the topic of interest. Students are never without adult supervision.
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We believe that experiential training provides the most effective learning vehicle for this type of program, especially for high school students. Rather than have students lectured to, students participate in carefully planned, supervised experiences in the metropolitan community. For example, on cultural diversity day, participants visit a religious institution, an educational institution, a restaurant and a marketplace from one of five possible ethnic communities under the direction of a resource person from that specific ethnic or cultural group.
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Depending on your level of connection to the program, there are many ways you can get involved. As a parent, we request that you keep in touch with you child and share in their experiences by regularly debriefing program events.
As interested community members, you can volunteer to assist with projects for the organization or donate to the program's fund. Please contact Christine Geoghegan at geoghec@focushope.edu for more information on getting involved.
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The Generation of Promise survives exclusively on funding support provided by private and corporate foundations as well as a variety of private donors. To join this list of supporters, please click here.
A complete list of program donors can be found on our Support Promise page.
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