Youth and Education
Investing in Our Future
Fall/Winter 2026 REPORT
Fall/Winter 2026 REPORT
We’re excited to share our Fall/Winter 2026 report. These stories celebrate the young people and donors whose generosity and big ideas help our region thrive.
Read the second installment of a four-part series about Community Foundation donors Suzanne and Raymond “Bud” Baber, Jr., whose flexible fund continues to meet our region’s evolving needs. Learn how PEDALS helps parents support their children’s emotional growth, how a Community Foundation grant connects young people with career pathways and how our scholarship program has awarded more than $7 million. Catch up on news about Project Play, our Youth Advisory Committee and more.
Do you have a story idea to share? Email [email protected].
A Message from Nicole Sherard-Freeman
We believe that realizing our vision of a thriving region requires investing in our focus area of Youth and Education, which prioritizes literacy, youth development and lifelong learning.
Last year, the Community Foundation made 28 awards totaling $1,489,576 to youth and education-serving nonprofits in southeast Michigan through our Community Impact Grantmaking program. The Community Foundation also manages several other youth and education-focused opportunities, including its Youth Advisory Committee (YAC), Project Play: Southeast Michigan, Positive Emotional Development and Learning Skills (PEDALS) and a robust scholarship program.
Supporting this work will ensure that your philanthropic legacy lives here, in southeast Michigan, for years to come.
Nicole Sherard-Freeman headlines inaugural Kohn Social Policy Conference
Community Foundation President and CEO Nicole Sherard-Freeman keynotedhe University of Michigan Gerald R. Ford School’s inaugural Kohn Social Policy Conference in Detroit, where leaders gathered around one question: What can a city do to promote human thriving?
“This is our chance to develop an allergy to silos,” she told the audience, urging leaders across sectors to build bridges and do something together.
PEDALS program helps parents manage children’s big emotions
In 2026, Positive Emotional Development and Learning Skills (PEDALS) — a partnership between the Community Foundation for Southeast Michigan and the Ralph C. Wilson, Jr. Foundation — expanded a pilot program to support parents.
The program, PEDALS Partnering with Parents, features practical skills and tips, coaching, food and prizes, and positive affirmations for participants. This fall, PEDALS began offering it to the public at local libraries throughout southeast Michigan.
Project Play: Southeast Michigan promotes lifelong benefits of youth sports
The benefits of sports, play and physical activity don’t disappear with the final buzzer or the end-of-recess bell. Project Play: Southeast Michigan, an initiative of the Community Foundation, works to help all kids in the region access them.
Learn how the initiative is supporting coaches, aligning programs around shared standards and championing the Children’s Bill of Rights in Sports.
Youth Advisory Committee celebrates service
A group of teens from the Community Foundation’s Youth Advisory Committee gathered in Ferndale to celebrate a year of giving, growing and learning.
The 2025-2026 cohort recommended $85,000 in grants to six youth-serving nonprofits, from a youth-led literacy initiative to a peer-to-peer leadership program.
‘Legacy Lives Here’: Flexible, endowed fund meets community’s evolving needs
When Suzanne and Raymond “Bud” Baber, Jr. established their fund in 1997, they made one request: no restrictions on the types of charitable organizations it could support. They knew they couldn’t predict what the community would need in 2025 or 2035.
In part two of our Legacy Lives Here series, see how that trust has become an endowed fund that supports all five of our focus areas, and has supported projects ranging from affordable housing to after-school music education.
Community Foundation grant helps nonprofit connect young people with career pathways
At Urban Alliance Detroit, young people ages 18-24 are getting the mentorship, training and internships they need to launch careers, with support from a Community Foundation grant.
“We believe that talent is equally distributed, but opportunity is not,” says Urban Alliance Detroit Executive Director Alphonso Amos. “So, our work is about closing the gap.”
Scholarship program invests in future of southeast Michigan students
Since 1990, the Community Foundation has turned donor generosity into direct support for students across our region. Today the scholarship program has awarded more than $7 million through 61 active funds.
From students pursuing bachelor’s degrees to those entering the trades, scholarship recipients are building their futures here. Learn how you can help.
Fund continues couple’s commitment to community
After her husband of 50 years passed away, Edythe Hayden Friley turned loss into a living legacy by creating an endowed fund with the Minerva Education and Development Foundation at the Community Foundation.
The Edythe Hayden Friley and Grant A. Friley III Fund helps returning citizens access education, transportation and housing as they rebuild their lives after incarceration.
“I ask you to think about how you would like to have your legacy and perhaps … you will consider joining us as a funder for charity work that will help so many other people,” Friley says.