'Detroit Is Us' Campaign Looks To Amplify Black Voices

(CBS DETROIT) - Powered by Own Your Story Detroit and TandemEd, "Detroit Is Us" is a community-led campaign that supports Black Detroit in showcasing Black voices.

"Unapologetically, we work to unite Black communities and build collective strength to protect and promote our spaces in the city of Detroit and beyond," said Screal of Own Your Story. "The community fund is money that will be allocated for all three of our flagship cities. These funds will be housed within a respected grassroots community based 501c3. To be regranted within the community to work on progressive development projects that the community have identified. We also honor that other funders and foundations can donate or match the contributions of those community funds and progressively support."

Own Your Story Detroit is a national, grassroots initiative dedicated to capturing, celebrating and protecting the stories of Black people.  With their complied information, Own Your Story Ambassadors designed a story-based media campaign that reflects means and will mean to be Black in Detroit.

"We collected these stories through a series of community lead conversations and a virtual survey distributed throughout the community utilizing research-based questions focused on the lived experience of black community members. Targeting the richness of the past, current context and their future aspirations for how they want the community to look, feel, and be," said Jason Rivers, national director of Own Your Story.

The campaign focuses on three pillars:

• Own the Block + Business | Wealth-Building
  • This pillar looks into the non traditional approaches of what wealth building looks like. Such as foreign exchange, monetizing, and etc.
    • Attendees will learn how to turn their phone into an ATM with a free virtual Forex training Wednesday, Sept. 23 from 6 to 8 p.m. with Arielle Martin of Metro Detroit who has helped impact over 10,000 lives globally through investing in the foreign exchange market, building businesses, and marketing platforms to scale and grow businesses in all fields. Click here to RSVP.
• Level Up: Mind, Body + Spirit l Recreation
  • This pillar focuses on the overall health of Black people becoming mentally, physically and spiritually fit.
• Advocate for Blackness | Education
  • This pillar focuses on changing the narrative for Black People who lack certain important tools or access due to lack of knowledge.

Screal and Rivers said the campaign's goal is to "own our stories" and "highlight the ways teaching and learning happens in black community in a most rigorous and relevant way."

To further support the sustainability of the "Detroit is Us" campaign, the Own Your Story Detroit Steering Committee, alongside FORCE Detroit, New Era Detroit, Three Thirteen Store, Campaign for Black Male Achievement - Detroit, and TandemEd, have established a community fund of $100,000. This will provide funding to support existing and future community-led projects aligned with the "Detroit is Us" theme and goals. Full application guidelines for resources dispersed through the community fund are forthcoming.

For more information on "Detroit Is Us", visit here.

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