Site Visit - The Youth Connection

Alex, Marin, and I headed to the outskirts of Detroit on March 24th to meet with the CEO of The Youth Connection and her team. As we exited I-94 we immediately noticed the vast amount of abandoned houses and buildings in the area. We saw stray dogs, burials at the numerous cemeteries, and closed stores overgrown with brush. We questioned whether the area was safe, but proceeded knowing the nonprofit had a huge task in front of them working in this area.

When we got to the old hospital building The Youth Connection is housed in we walked in to find the CEO, who immediately greeted us with a huge smile and brought us into their conference room. We started off by telling them a little more about the Learning By Giving Foundation and what our class hoped to accomplish through this project. The CEO and her team members showed us videos of their work. The program this grant would go towards funding is the “Ticket to Float” program, which allows inner-city Detroit kids to kayak on the Huron River for a day for free. With this program they spend half the day kayaking and the other half learning about aquatic life in the river and other historical aspects of the river. Going into the site visit our team was unsure that the “Ticket to Float” program aligned with our mission, but after hearing the stories of the participants and the lasting effects of the organization our views changed.

As we left, the CEO showed us around their offices, which were clearly old and out of date for the kind of work they were doing. Connecting to the college student in us, she showed us their study room (a part of their other p

rogram) complete with pennants from every college their members have gone off to after participating in the program. I think we were all surprised with the affect the site visit had on us. It just shows that it’s important to make informed decisions, especially since the grant can make such a huge difference for the nonprofits and in the lives of the people they serve.