Detroit health officials hope increased access to child care services and information during pregnancy will reduce premature births and decrease infant mortality, Mayor Mike Duggan said Wednesday.

Make Your Date Detroit, a partnership with the city and Wayne State University (WSU), has served more than 5,800 women since launching in 2014. The effort is adding another partner, SisterFriends Detroit, to increase its reach with prenatal care, awareness of cervical length screening and treatment, pregnancy education classes and more.

“Make Your Date is having a significant impact in Detroit,” Duggan said. ” …we must ensure that even more women gain access to the highest quality care and a strong support system to guide them through their pregnancy. That’s why we’re connecting Make Your Date with SisterFriends Detroit.”

SisterFriends provides volunteer mentors for women during pregnancy and the year after birth. It received $2 million from the Ralph C. Wilson Jr. Foundation, $100,000 from the Michigan Health Endowment Fund and $70,000 from the Kresge Foundation for volunteer training, community outreach and professional development, according to a news release.

Read the full article at MLive »

Greenways will soon take Detroiters from 8 Mile to the Riverfront and everywhere in between. That’s the “gist” of the anticipated impact of a $2 million Ralph C. Wilson, Jr. Foundation grant announced by Mayor Mike Duggan today. Neighborhood residents, who remain largely disconnected by roadways that split neighborhoods and partial pathways that lead “nowhere,” will soon be fully connected by the Inner Circle Greenway (ICG), a 26-mile recreational path that will provide non-motorized access to city parks, commercial corridors, job sites, the riverfront and downtown.

The $2 million will be used to develop comprehensive design and construction documents for the Conrail property and all remaining unconstructed segments of the ICG, as well as an overarching ICG Framwork that incorporates the half-mile corridor to either side of the greenway itself.

Read the full article at The Hub Detroit »

The Detroit RiverFront Conservancy has received a $345,000 grant to fund a design competition to help transform the park that sits on property that was once home to the Detroit Free Press printing plant, officials said. The nonprofit dedicated to developing the city’s riverfront district and facilitate community access to the waterfront, the Conservancy said it received the grant from the Ralph C. Wilson, Jr. Foundation to help revamp Detroit’s West Riverfront Park.

Read the full article at The Detroit News »

Southeast Michigan is a diverse region. It covers broad swatches of farmland, suburbs, and urban neighborhoods. Half of our state population resides in metro Detroit, which contains both affluent and low-income families of many ethnicities. In our communities and neighborhoods, it is the next generation – young people of all ages, cultures and creeds – who will steward the enterprising tenacious spirit that is redefining us.

It is within this context that the Ralph C. Wilson, Jr. Foundation and our partners at the Aspen Institute Sports & Society Program and the Community Foundation for Southeast Michigan unveil “State of Play,” a report that analyzes the rate of participation in youth sports in the seven counties of this region – Wayne, Oakland, Macomb, Washtenaw, Livingston, Monroe, and St. Clair counties.

The study is anchored in the notion that everyone in the community will benefit if our children are provided access to quality sport experience, as such experiences lead to greater cognitive function, position mental health, better educational outcomes, and greater likelihood of lifelong healthy habits.

 

Read the full article at Detroit Free Press »

A computer tablet capable of connecting its users to a nursing station for face-to-face communication is changing the way one local hospice reaches out to its patients.  Angela Hospice in Livonia received a $2.1 million grant from the Ralph C. Wilson, Jr. Foundation to start a “telehospice” program that allows patients and caregivers to video chat with nurses via computer tablets.

Read the full article at Hometown Life »

Ralph C. Wilson, Jr. Foundation and Rochester Area Community Foundation release groundbreaking report on the state of play in Greater Rochester and Finger Lakes. It will serve as a playbook on how best to use a $5 million endowment for youth sports and recreation to build a healthier, happier community.

Read the full article at Democrat & Chronicle »

Ralph Wilson won a tennis trophy when he was 12. Mary Wilson, his widow, plans to bring it along to a (State of Play) news conference in Detroit on Wednesday. She sees the tinny token as a touchstone for his 95 years.

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The National Comedy Center in Jamestown, NY has reached its fundraising goal for completing what is to become the first cultural institution and visitor experience dedicated to comedy.

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The $1.8 million grant from the Ralph C. Wilson, Jr. Foundation was presented to Help Me Grow Western New York, an organization launched in 2011 by the Health Foundation of Western New York with more than 40 partner agencies, including Niagara University’s College of Education, to create an umbrella of access to the multitude of child development information and resources in Erie and Niagara counties.

Read the full article at The Niagara Gazette »

The Ralph C. Wilson, Jr. Foundation has made a $2 million grant to the Detroit Employment Solutions Corp. to help educate Detroiters for information technology careers.  The new grant will support the regional expansion of TechHire, a White House initiative launched to expand local tech sectors by building talent pipelines in communities across the country. Detroit was designated a TechHire city by the White House in 2015.

Read the full article at Crain's Detroit Business »