Foundation grantmaking focuses on four major program areas. These programs touch upon a number of major issues. Each grantmaking program also works within clearly stated geographic parameters or regions.
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Arts Education in Michigan: Fostering Creativity and Innovation
Since it was established in 1926, the Mott Foundation has maintained a deep commitment to its hometown of Flint, Michigan. This longstanding support reflects the Foundation’s belief that through involved people partnering with strong organizations, the greater Flint community can face its challenges and create a more vibrant and sustainable future.
This grantmaking, done primarily through the Foundation’s Flint Area program, includes support for educational and cultural programs; economic and downtown development; job training; and emergency and human services.
By ALICIA KITSUSE, Flint Area program officer
Like many other cities with a strong industrial past, the Mott Foundation’s home community of Flint, Michigan, saw its fortunes decline as manufacturing jobs and people moved elsewhere, leading to widespread property vacancy, high unemployment and rising crime.
Gradually, Flint is regaining vitality, in part through efforts — many of them funded with the help of Mott — to revitalize the city’s downtown core. However, broad-based recovery will depend on engagement by all of Flint’s stakeholders in creating a blueprint for the future.
“Imagine Flint,” the city’s first comprehensive planning process in five decades, is designed to do just that.
Through a variety of approaches, “Imagine Flint” is involving a broad cross-section of community members in creating the vision, values and strategies that will guide the community’s physical, economic and environmental development over the next 20 years. The project is funded by the Housing and Urban Development Department’s Office of Sustainable Housing and Communities, with additional support from Mott.
The Foundation recognizes that positive, sustainable change is possible when people work together to face their challenges, build on their assets and plan for a more vibrant and opportunity-rich future. If you’re a citizen of Flint or simply care about the city, share your vision for its future by visiting www.imagineflint.com.
The recent recession has led many business leaders and economists to call for a retooling of the American economy, especially in places particularly hard hit like Michigan. The next economy, according to this view, should be driven by the growth of exports, the use of low-carbon energy sources, a reliance on innovation, and the expansion of opportunity for all citizens. The Metropolitan Policy Program of the Brookings Institution, an internationally known think tank, is well-positioned to assist in the development and deployment of such a strategy for economic renewal. Over the next year, the grantee will conduct research, engage in policy work, and develop best practices designed to advance the next economy in Michigan and the Great Lakes region.
The Greater Flint Arts Council is providing the leadership for a coalition of downtown Flint stakeholders aimed at improving the image of downtown Flint through increased participation in existing summertime festivals and events. This is the third year of funding for a marketing and promotion campaign designed to maximize the impact of established events, and to cultivate newer and smaller events in downtown Flint. The 2001 Parade of Festivals will include a lunchtime concert series, and eight multi-day festivals.
Flint STRIVE provides employment training, placement, and support for hard-to-serve Flint-area residents seeking private-sector jobs. As a replication of the East Harlem Employment Service's workforce training program, Flint STRIVE prepares participants for the workforce through a 19-day intensive workshop that emphasizes the attitudinal prerequisites for successful entry-level employment. This renewal grant will allow Flint STRIVE to train 200 new clients in 2013, and provide follow-up support services to all existing clients. Replication of the STRIVE program in Flint is one of three grants in the Flint Workforce Development cluster.