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Neighborhood Strengths, Strategies, Spirit Intersect At Detroit Policy Conference

Prior to and during the upcoming Detroit Regional Chamber's Detroit Policy Conference, Detroit Unspun/TheHUB, Comcast and WWJ Newsradio 950 will bring you stories that showcase the transformation of our city's neighborhoods.

By E.B. Allen

Detroit for Detroiters. It's a phrase that echoed deeply at the Detroit Policy Conference, a gathering where the city's need for neighborhood revitalization was a persistent theme of the day.

That means creating new leaders. It means stabilizing neighborhoods with block clubs. It means having the difficult conversations around race, responsibility and gentrification. The message, you could say, was loud and clear.

The message and the mission of moving the city forward were apparent as about 800 community activists, non-profit leaders, entrepreneurs, elected officials and philanthropists converged on MotorCity Casino Hotel for the Detroit Policy Conference Feb. 24.

Hosted by the Detroit Regional Chamber, the fifth annual gathering of stakeholders and organizers engaged in strategy on topics ranging from revitalization to public safety in Detroit's neighborhoods.

"Leadership is the key to everything," Luther Keith, founder of ARISE Detroit! told an audience in the Sound Board auditorium.

Keith was a panelist in the breakout session, "Sustaining Neighborhoods: Champions of Revitalization," with Tom Goddeeris, executive director ofGrandmont Rosedale Development Corp., Quincy Jones, executive director ofOsborn Neighborhood Alliance, and Henry McClendon, Skillman Foundationprogram officer. DTE Energy Foundation head Faye Nelson Foundation moderated the conversation.

"Secondly, there's got to be collaboration," Keith said. "Who in your neighborhood thinks like you? Who identifies the problem the way you identify it? Leadership and building organizations, that's how you fight crime, and that's how you build quality of life." [Read more here].

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