Three community tech workers stand on stage holding a microphone with banner behind them for Digital Inclusion Week

DNEP’s Community Tech Worker Project Expands to Live6 with National Science Foundation Grant

The University of Michigan School of Information was awarded a $750,000 grant from the National Science Foundation to expand the Detroit Neighborhood Entrepreneurs Project’s Community Tech Worker (CTW) program from the eastside to Detroit’s northwest side by partnering with Live6 Alliance.
Started in 2022 as a partnership between the University of Michigan and Jefferson East Inc. (JEI), the CTW program began with the dual mission of bridging the digital divide and providing access to good jobs for local community members. Detroit residents are trained on different business technologies (website platforms, social media, and point of sale systems) to become community tech …

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

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

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 opportunities. Through her involvement with The Detroit Neighborhood Entrepreneurs Project she worked with Detroit small businesses like Fit4Life, Sister Pie, Pink Poodle Dress Lounge and Bags to Butterflies, all the while supporting and strengthening the local community. 
The Detroit Neighborhood Entrepreneurs Project connects small businesses with University of Michigan students and staff to help solve the issues they …

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

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

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 better understand the types and complexity of technology support that small businesses need, along with preferences around timing and delivery.
The researchers will work with U-M alum Lutalo Sanifu (MURP ‘18) and his colleagues at Jefferson East, Inc, a nonprofit community organization committed to developing work for Detroiters and reducing barriers to small business growth and expansion. 
The university project team includes Kristin Seefeldt, associate director …

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

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

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 group of business owners got fresh insights into how to grow thanks to some uniquely talented University of Michigan student consultants. 
These students in the Detroit Neighborhood Entrepreneurs Project, their advisors and community participants recently met on Zoom to outline the work seven student teams did for Detroit small businesses such as Ivy Kitchen + Cocktails, recapping problems Detroit business owners asked students to address …

First person: Learning from Detroit businesses and fellow students

First person: Learning from Detroit businesses and fellow students

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 interns come from the Ross School of Business, Ford School of Public Policy, Stamps School of Art & Design, and School of Information. The program began last year, with interns focused on creating tools for ecosystem-level problems in Detroit small businesses.
This year, we are working directly with small-business owners to solve the unique issues that affect multiple companies. To maximize our impact, each team is focusing on one …

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

Applying academic skills to real-world business challenges

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 coordinated by the Detroit Neighborhood Entrepreneurs Project (DNEP) at the Ford School of Public Policy and +Impact Studio for Local Business (ISLB) at the Ross School of Business. 
I have been fortunate to be a part of one of the multidisciplinary teams, collaborating with students from Ford and Ross as well as the Stamps School of Art & Design, the …

Stamps students join Detroit Neighborhood Entrepreneurs Project

Stamps students join Detroit Neighborhood Entrepreneurs Project

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 Local Business internship program.
From May 4 to June 24, they joined forces with the Ford School, Ross School of Business, and the School of Information. Stamps Career Development contributed part of the internship costs, ensuring that students were compensated for their work with undercapitalized small businesses.
They formed interdisciplinary teams to provide free services and resources to Detroit small businesses and entrepreneurs. Their goal was to assist with the …

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

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

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 DNEP offers year-round and aggregates a number of free digital resources for entrepreneurs. It better describes how small businesses and students can get involved in semester-long consulting courses, an internship program, free 1:1 accounting services, and free 1:1 technology training and support. 
“The Detroit Neighborhood Entrepreneurs Project is the CFLP’s largest educational program,” CFLP assistant director Christie Baer said. “As our collaborations across …

Dispossessing Detroit: How the Law Takes Property

Ford School involvement highlighted among growing U-M Detroit partnerships

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 Solutions, which created an Economic Mobility Partnership with the city of Detroit, and a partnership with four community organizations to help lower utility bills for residents are among a host of endeavors that touch on education, cultural expression, business, health care and the arts.
“Faculty, students and staff from all three of our campuses work alongside Detroit partners to learn and serve in ways …

Photo of Helina Melaku of Konjo Me and Ysahai Honor-Marie of Ice Creame Detroit

Konjo Me & Ice Cream Detroit Selected for DNEP Accelerator: Business+Law+Design

When most small businesses become clients in a Detroit Neighborhood Entrepreneurs Project class, they get a basketball team’s worth of researchers, data analysts, thought partners, and cheerleaders. Helina Melaku of Konjo Me and Ysahai Honor-Marie of Ice Cream Detroit, it’s more like getting an entire baseball team.
Melaku and Honor-Marie were selected as this year’s integrated semester clients, meaning that they are working with teams of students from three different classes at the Ross School of Business, the Law School, and the Stamps School of Art & Design. Students in the three classes work on different aspects of the business, but …