Something powerful is happening across Detroit's neighborhoods. Changes are appearing in new and preserved homes, revitalized commercial corridors, community spaces filled with residents, and neighborhood organizations growing their capacity to lead increasingly complex development work. But beneath those visible signs of progress is something equally important: a community development ecosystem becoming more connected, more collaborative, and more ambitious about what we can accomplish together.

In this spirit, Enterprise Community Partners has launched Phase III of the Detroit Community Development Organization (CDO) Fund. Phase III is the fund's largest chapter yet, bringing 37 Detroit community development organizations together in a three-year initiative projected to invest $27 million in organizations advancing housing, economic development, and neighborhood stability. Since 2020, the Fund has grown from approximately $12.2 million in Phase I to more than $23.7 million in Phase II - a remarkable trajectory made possible by philanthropic partners who have continued to invest in Detroit's community development infrastructure.

That growth is worth celebrating. But the fundraising success represents something larger than dollars raised. It represents a growing and sustainable confidence: Confidence in Detroit's CDOs; confidence in the leaders who have spent years - and, in many cases, decades - building alongside residents; and confidence in the idea that when community-rooted organizations have flexible resources, technical assistance, strong partnerships, and room to innovate, they can achieve extraordinary results.

Phase II demonstrated that clearly. CDO Fund organizations served approximately 100,000 Detroit residents, created or preserved more than 1,400 affordable homes, and developed more than 30,000 square feet of commercial space. Ninety-seven percent of participating organizations reported diversifying their revenue sources, strengthening their ability to remain sustainable over time.

What's Next: Deepening Partnership with the City of Detroit

As we enter Phase III, our next opportunity is to become even better at doing this work together. And that requires strong partnership with the City of Detroit. Detroit's CDOs possess tremendous neighborhood knowledge. They understand the opportunities on individual blocks, the concerns residents are raising, the barriers facing families, the properties that can become community assets, and the investments that can help a neighborhood move forward.

City government brings another set of essential tools: policy, public investment, land, data, infrastructure, departmental expertise, and the ability to coordinate resources at scale. When those strengths come together, we can move from individual projects toward something much more powerful: a shared strategy for neighborhood stability. We have already begun building that bridge in Phase III. Several CDO Fund grantees, alongside Community Development Advocates of Detroit (CDAD), have had the opportunity to meet with Mayor Mary Sheffield to discuss key community development priorities and identify opportunities for greater partnership and collaboration.

Those conversations matter. They create space for the people doing neighborhood-level work to engage directly with City leadership about what they are seeing, what communities need, and where greater alignment can unlock opportunity. The City's Department of Neighborhoods has also convened with CDO Fund grantees as we continue building relationships across City departments. Our goal transcends pursuing partnership for partnership's sake. Rather, we are deliberately developing the connective infrastructure that helps good ideas move more easily between neighborhoods and institutions-and ultimately helps us create stronger, more stable communities that remain vibrant.

Extending Beyond Detroit

The commitment to learning and collaboration also extends beyond Detroit. Learning Exchanges, a key component of the CDO Fund, have taken Detroit leaders to Atlanta, Baltimore and Washington, D.C., and Oakland. Participants met with community developers, public officials, housing leaders, funders, and organizations exploring community land trusts, neighborhood investment, equitable development, community ownership, and other approaches. The exchanges were deliberately designed "What can we share with others and what can we learn, adapt, and make our own?" Our latest learning exchange brought Detroit CDO leaders and partners to Houston. to study another community development ecosystem, build relationships with peers, examine promising practices, and return home with ideas that make sense for our neighborhoods. That ability to learn across cities - and to contribute Detroit's own lessons to the national conversation - is increasingly important.

At the American Planning Association's National Planning Conference in Detroit this April, I had the opportunity to join DREAM of Detroit Executive Director Mark Crain and Keegan Mahoney, Policy Director with the City of Detroit's Housing & Revitalization Department, for a conversation facilitated by Detroit Justice Center Managing Attorney Mark Bennett about Community Land Trusts and their role in creating permanently affordable housing. The conversation allowed us to share nationally what Detroit CDOs are learning about community ownership, affordability, and the importance of aligning neighborhood leadership with public policy.

More recently, at the Community Opportunity Alliance Summit, I joined community development leaders from Cleveland and Baltimore to discuss heirs' property - an issue that can quietly destabilize families, threaten homeownership, and erode generational wealth. I was proud to highlight the work of Detroit CDO Fund grantees and the cross-sector approaches being developed here to address tangled title, property preservation, and neighborhood stability.

These national conversations reinforce something I believe deeply: Detroit has much to learn from other cities, but Detroit also has much to teach. Our CDOs have created the infrastructure to implement critical programs that serve Detroit's seven districts. They are helping us understand what durable, resident-centered community development can look like. Our philanthropic partners are demonstrating the value of investing in organizations for the long term. And our growing partnerships with Mayor Sheffield, the Department of Neighborhoods, the Housing & Revitalization Department, CDAD, and other City and community partners are creating opportunities to connect neighborhood expertise with the tools of government.

The future of community development is found in building ecosystems where knowledge is shared, relationships are trusted, resources are aligned, residents remain at the center, and partners are willing to imagine what is possible together. Detroit's neighborhoods are beautiful because of the people who have built, protected, loved, and invested in them for generations. As Phase III begins, our responsibility - and our opportunity - is to ensure those neighborhoods remain places where families can stay, grow, build wealth, belong, and envision their futures.

That work belongs to all of us.

And I could not be more excited about what we are building together.