Outcomes

The Cradle-to-Career Neighborhoods strategy seeks to strengthen neighborhoods that can best serve the needs of children and families. In the short and long-term, we expect to see:

  1. An increase in African American middle-class neighborhoods in Detroit;
  2. An increase in the number of children and families raising children in Detroit’s neighborhoods;
  3. An increase in the number of children and families residing in middle class neighborhoods; and
  4. An increase in the number of households moving from lower incomes to the middle-class.

The Cradle-to-Career Neighborhoods strategy is also grounded in extensive research. We recognize from research that:

The Opportunity Index describes the five key pillars of neighborhoods that support upward socioeconomic mobility for children and their families, focusing on income inequity, school quality, family stability, residential segregation, and social capital.

Detroit’s Community Heath Needs Assessment and the Detroit Area Metropolitan Communities Study describe key priorities for families in Detroit’s neighborhoods, including access to resources that promote health, safety, and economic stability.

Detroit Future City’s research on Detroit’s African American Middle Class, which describes the lack of educational and economic opportunity as a driver of the loss of over 60,000 middle class households from Detroit over the past decade.

Thus, we expect that the Cradle-to-Career Neighborhoods strategy will contribute to these key research-based indicators of upward mobility:

  • Income Inequality: Decrease in child poverty and increase in household incomes within the target area; decreased rent and housing cost burden.
  • School Quality and Access: Increase in kindergarten readiness rates and increase in percentage of neighborhood residents in the top quintile of schools.
  • Family Stability: Increase in employment of adults with children, increase in rates of home ownership, and increase in the percentage of eligible households accessing public benefits.
  • Residential Segregation: Increase in rates of home ownership, especially among BIPOC homeowners; increase in housing density; and increased racial, cultural and socioeconomic diversity within neighborhoods.
  • Social Capital: Increase in inter-generational and cross-cultural mixing in public spaces, increase in youth engagement in public spaces, and youth and adult engagement and agency, increased sense of belonging, as measured by perception surveys.
  • Community Safety, Walkability and Access: Increase in neighborhood walk scores; increase in mode share/shift; decrease in the number of traffic injuries and fatalities; decrease in community violence; increase in perceptions of safety within a neighborhood.
  • Health and Well-being: Increase in health outcomes; decrease in rates of blood lead levels and asthma