Our roundup of the latest news from metro Detroit and Michigan businesses as well as announcements from government agencies, including updates about the COVID-19 pandemic. To share a business or nonprofit story, please send us a message.
Detroit Announces $2.5M in Neighborhood Grants for 35 Organizations
The City of Detroit Housing and Revitalization Department announced Monday that it has awarded almost $2.5 million in grants to 35 community organizations through the Neighborhood Opportunity Fund.
The Neighborhood Opportunity Fund (NOF) program is part of the city’s Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) program and provides funds for public services that improve the quality of life for low- and moderate-income residents in the city. The program awards grants in five areas: education, seniors, recreation, health, and public safety. The $2.5 million comes from the projected $33.8 million in CDBG funds allocated by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) to Detroit in the 2022-23 fiscal year.
“These are outstanding nonprofits and community organizations that provide important services across our city,” says Mayor Mike Duggan. “For years, the Neighborhood Opportunity Fund has been there to support them in their mission. This year is no different and we’re proud to announce the 35 organizations that will be able to take part in this grant opportunity this year. Between the Neighborhood Opportunity Fund and the upcoming Neighborhood Beautification Fund, we are providing more resources than ever to help Detroiters strengthen and beautify their community.”
“Our goal through this program is to support the organizations that help support Detroit on a daily basis, offering important programs and services on which so many Detroiters rely,” adds Julie Schneider, director of HRD. “The Neighborhood Opportunity Fund helps build capacity at public service organizations and helps keep these programs going, helping to create a better city for all Detroiters.”
The next application process for NOF funding will begin in September. Details will be available at www.detroitmi.gov/hrd.
For a full list of the grant recipients, visit here.
Geometric Results in Southfield Acquired by California Firm
Southfield-based Geometric Results Inc., an independent, outsourced workforce management company, is being acquired by PRO Unlimited, an integrated workforce management (IWM) platform provider in California.
This acquisition will increase the value of PRO’s IWM platform by adding GRI’s proven managed services program (MSP) capabilities to its portfolio of software as a service (SaaS), talent intelligence, and professional services solutions.
“Our number one priority is providing organizations with the most innovative and client-centric solutions to accelerate how they acquire, manage, and optimize talent,” says Kevin Akeroyd, CEO of PRO Unlimited. “GRI shares this same strategic approach for its customers. Combining two leading contingent workforce management companies allows us to reimagine and transform the future of work.”
GRI currently is owned by MSX International, a portfolio company of funds managed by Bain Capital Europe that provides technology-enabled business process outsourcing. GRI offers customized MSP solutions to more than 150 global clients, with more than $4 billion in spend under management. Its presence in both the UK and India further extends PRO’s established operations in these countries and increases its vast supplier network of over 10,000 agencies. With the proposed acquisition, the combined client spend under management for PRO will reach over $22 billion.
“GRI continues to exceed growth expectations due to the contributions of our team and partners at Bain Capital Private Equity, our ability to remain aligned with clients and our commitment to over-deliver with a broad suite of capabilities,” says Mike Wachholz, CEO of GRI. “Their strategic and operational expertise has helped us build a highly scalable model to support further market penetration and diversification, and we’re incredibly excited to continue our growth journey in concert with PRO Unlimited.”
Gale Primary Sources Releases New Archives Dedicated to Underrepresented Histories
Farmington Hills-based Gale, part of Cengage Group, is supporting academic initiatives in diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) with the release of six new archives on the Gale Primary Sources (GPS) platform.
These archives explore the stories of LGBTQ+ communities worldwide, women, Native Americans, and other underrepresented communities. Gale Primary Sources provide librarians, students, and scholars with historical context on controversial issues from a wide range of perspectives underscoring how the past has shaped today’s political and civil rights movements across the globe.
“No other resource gives researchers more insights from more perspectives than Gale Primary Sources,” says Seth Cayley, vice president of global academic product at Gale. “The original, first-hand content is meticulously cross-referenced to bring facts into focus and information to life in remarkable new ways. These new additions came from regular discussions with researchers, librarians, and students who have emphasized the need to support diversity, equity, and inclusion. Our work to bring these stories to life is ongoing at Gale. We are actively working on several projects that will provide a greater representation of the history of minority groups like these.”
New GPS Frontlist archives include:
- Archives of Sexuality and Gender: L’Enfer de la Bibliothèque Nationale de France
- China and the Modern World: Imperial China and the West Part II, 1865–1905
- Declassified Documents Online: Twentieth-Century British Intelligence, Monitoring the World
- Indigenous Peoples of North America, Part II: The Indian Rights Association, 1882–1986
- The Making of the Modern Law: Landmark Records and Briefs of the U.S. Courts of Appeals, Part II, 1891–1950
- Women’s Studies Archive: Female Forerunners Worldwide
These new archives are available on the Gale Primary Sources platform, enabling cross-archival searching to help users make new connections across topics. With digitization technology such as HTR, users can search the full text of handwritten letters and manuscripts, not just the metadata, and make new discoveries.
For those looking to explore even deeper insights, the archives also are available through the Gale Digital Scholar Lab. This allows researchers to apply natural language processing tools to raw text data (OCR) from the collections or Gale Primary Sources archives and perform textual analysis on large corpora of historical texts. Now researchers can analyze and explore historical text more interactively, generating new research insights and content sets not previously possible.
For more information, visit here.
Study: One in Five Older Americans Experience Food Insufficiency
More than 20 percent of older adults in the United States will experience food insufficiency at some point in their 60s and 70s, according to a study by the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor.
The study, led by U-M researcher Helen Levy, examined the probability that older adults will experience food insufficiency, or not having enough to eat, at some point over a long time period — about 20 years. She found the likelihood of food insufficiency over a longer period of time was about three times as high — 22 percent compared to 8 percent — as any single point in time. The study was published in the journal Applied Economic Perspective Policy.
“The extent of food-related hardship among seniors in any given year is well documented,” says Levi, a research professor in the Survey Research Center at the U-M Institute for Social Research. “In 2019, 2.8 percent of Americans ages 60 and older reported experiencing food insufficiency. From some perspectives, this is a relatively small fraction. But it still means more than 2 million seniors did not have enough food, and the prevalence of hardship over a longer time period will almost certainly be greater.”
To date, there is no research on how many older adults experience food insufficiency over a long period of time, says Levy, also a research professor at the Ford School of Public Policy and the School of Public Health. To address this, Levy examined a 20-year period in an older adult’s life, using data from the Health and Retirement Study, a longitudinal panel study of older Americans conducted by the Survey Research Center at ISR with funding from the National Institute on Aging and the Social Security Administration.
The Health and Retirement Study measures food insufficiency with a yes or no question. New respondents are asked, “In the last two years, have you always had enough money to buy the food you need?” Participants who have been previously included in a survey wave are asked the same question covering the period of time since the previous wave. For this study, Levy focused on individuals born between 1936 and 1953.
The rate of food insufficiency is particularly high for certain subgroups over the 20-year window of their 60s and 70s. Nearly 40 percent of those without a high school degree, 37.5 percent of non-Hispanic Black respondents, and nearly 44 percent of those in poor health at baseline will experience food insufficiency during that time period.
But even those who have low rates of food insufficiency at baseline — the year they first responded to the panel survey — can have higher rates of food insufficiency in the longer term, Levy says. The baseline rate of food insufficiency for college graduates is 3.9 percent, for example, but 13.2 percent of this group will experience insufficiency during the 20-year window. Just 3.9 percent of those in excellent health at baseline experience food insufficiency, but 17 percent will experience it in the longer term.
“These results suggest that food insufficiency is not concentrated among a small group of persistently disadvantaged elderly, but is instead a surprisingly common feature of later life, affecting 1 in 5 Americans at some point in their 60s and 70s,” Levy says.
Levy also found that food insufficiency is a transient experience for many seniors. About half of those who report food insufficiency at some point during an 8-year period report it only once, while about one-fifth of those with any food insufficiency experience it more than half the time.
While previous research shows that income is a major predictor of food-related hardship, most older adults who experience food hardship aren’t poor, Levy said.
“It could be that short and long spells of hardship arise for different reasons,” she says. “For example, if you can’t get enough work hours and your income dips, you might have a brief period of food insufficiency. But if the problem is a chronic health condition, they may face persistent hardship — even with benefits like SSI or SNAP.”
Levy says future research should use longitudinal data to explore the dynamics of food-related hardships, and whether they have consequences for the health of older adults.
