Home Academy

Setting up a nonprofit organization in Detroit’s neighborhoods to provide early child development and community services may seem straightforward, but as one founder reveals, to effectuate success is a whole different thing. // Photo by Josh Scott
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A Brilliant Detroit home.
A Brilliant Detroit home.

In Detroit’s Martin Park neighborhood, near Palmer Park, there’s a charming 1,400-square-foot home — part of a network of 15 bustling houses that offer various services including early childhood development and family support for children under the age of 8, along with their parents and neighbors.

The homes, located in different neighborhoods, are part of a community-enriching program funded and operated by Brilliant Detroit. As the organization’s leaders describe it, elevating a city means meeting the needs of families. And that starts with being present where the people are, which is why Brilliant Detroit is spread out among the city’s neighborhoods.

If elevating a city means elevating its people, the most fruitful time to do that is when they’re young. Jim Bellinson, owner of Riverstone Communities in Bloomfield Township, which owns and operates 70 manufactured housing communities nationwide, thought about that principle a lot in his role as a board member of the nonprofit Jewish Fund.

His focus serving the Jewish Fund was in early childhood development, but Bellinson says he believed there was an opportunity to go beyond the Jewish community and make an even larger impact on families in Detroit.

To bring the idea to life, Bellinson and his wife, Carolyn, in 2015 reached out to Cindy Eggleton, a consultant to the Jewish Fund. They shared the need for an outreach program that would address issues of concern in Detroit’s neighborhoods, starting with early childhood development. The couple donated an initial $250,000 to get things started.

“The light went off in my head that if you want to change literacy and change Detroit, you need to enter in the right way because people have come into the city and tried to do things, and they weren’t effective,” Bellinson says. “They help a little bit, but they don’t promote systemic change.”

And big doesn’t necessarily mean better.

Fireplace
Brilliant Detroit, a nonprofit organization that helps prepare children 8 years and younger for school work, operates 15 neighborhood hubs, or learning centers, within existing homes across the city. Three additional homes are under renovation.

As plans were formulated, Bellinson became intrigued by independent early childhood development centers, and he traveled to Los Angeles to see firsthand an ambitious project called Magnolia Place. Funded initially through a $10 million private donation, Magnolia Place offers a wide variety of services including early childhood education, family life education, child abuse services, and much more.

As Bellinson toured the facility, he thought Detroit would benefit more from neighborhood-based centers. “Magnolia Place has a beautiful building, but most people couldn’t get to it,” Bellinson says. “L.A. is a huge area.”

The three founders explored other successful programs, like the Harlem Children’s Zone, which was founded in 1990 and today is a national model on issues like pre-kindergarten education, health clinics, youth violence prevention, and related efforts. The Bellinsons also traveled to Israel nine times to learn about other nonprofit neighborhood programs.

Their research showed that individual communities need many diverse services, and each neighborhood’s needs are unique to its people and its history. In addition, one core truth kept popping up: Getting children on the right path early is the key to success.

“If you can get mothers to get their children interested in reading when they’re babies, and foster curiosity, we could change the whole city in one generation,” Bellinson says.

The more they studied the available models, the more the Bellinsons and Eggleton became convinced that Detroit’s best opportunity for success was a neighborhood-based approach. They developed a model in which the organization would acquire vacant homes, renovate them, and set up Brilliant Detroit operations in each neighborhood.

Cindy Eggleton, co-founder and CEO of Brilliant Detroit, above, works with more than 50 team members, including Karlita Johnson, outreach manager, Martin Park, below, with book.

“I was running one day, and it occurred to me that there are all these empty houses we could get inexpensively,” Bellinson says. “And we could rehab them and make them early childhood centers that people could walk to in these neighborhoods.”

The team members seemed perfectly suited for the vision, given the Bellinsons are experts in property development and Eggleton was becoming immersed in early childhood development.

Still, the founders disagreed on one point — at least at first. The Bellinsons believed Eggleton should run the organization, but she didn’t initially see it that way. Eggleton agreed to help the Bellinsons start the nonprofit, yet she didn’t see herself as its leader.

The more she learned, however, the more she started to see herself in the driver’s seat. “I decided six months later that I was wrong and Jim was right,” Eggleton says.

Growing up in a Detroit neighborhood, Eggleton credits her parents with teaching her not to accept that anything was beyond her reach. “I had parents who really wanted the best for us, and that was really the secret sauce,” she says. “We all need encouragement and people who are paying attention to what we’re doing and how we’re doing it.”

She eventually moved into the foundation sector. “When I was a little girl, I always thought I should be destined to help the world,” Eggleton says. “People are changing their own world. It’s not me, but I know how to do it now.”

Applying her knowledge, background, and personal experience to her job leading Brilliant Detroit, Eggleton has won multiple awards from groups such as AARP. In 2023, she was chosen as one of 12 winners of the Elevate Prize, which is given every year by the Miami-based Elevate Prize Foundation and comes with $300,000 in funding for each winner’s organization.

“She’s the reason we are what we are,” Bellinson says. “Anyone can have an idea, but to effectuate it is a whole different thing.”

Making things more challenging, Brilliant Detroit doesn’t select the neighborhoods where it will operate. The neighborhoods select Brilliant Detroit. “We don’t go anywhere we’re not invited,” Eggleton says.

When Brilliant Detroit is brought into a neighborhood, it becomes crucial for the families of that community to become partners. After all, each family understands what’s best for their children, and Brilliant Detroit values their input and listens to their needs.

The invitation can come from community groups, block clubs, or even an ad hoc group of long-term residents. Brilliant Detroit looks for neighborhood areas that are roughly 12 blocks by three blocks, making them readily accessible.

Anyone can show up seeking help, though. No one at the house checks where people are from, or whether they walked or drove. The only thing the organization prefers to see is children under 8 years old, along with their parents or guardians.

In addition to offering free literacy services, Eggleton and her team will engage in a series of listening sessions with the respective neighbors, who are free to share ideas. When a family walks in, the first thing they’re asked is, “If you could wish upon a star, what do you want for you and your family?” More often than not, the answer is connectiveness. As a result, there’s no single approach Brilliant Detroit takes at every location. It only provides what each neighborhood says it needs.

That can be anything from the standard offerings like tutoring to exercise sessions, GED programs, parenting classes, or mental health platforms.

Kids in driveway
Children from a given neighborhood have a safe zone to learn and play, all provided by Brilliant Detroit. Local families are offered a range of services, as well. The support comes from public and private donations, much of which is locally sourced.

“Some things are permanent,” Eggleton says. “Tutoring is all year. But people come in and dip their toes in and say, ‘I’m going to try this or that.’ This summer we’re doing an effort called Detroit Reads. Men will come in and read to the kids, and we’re also having architects come in and help design what a reading corner might look like.”

Outcomes can be measured by numbers, such as the 1,800 people Brilliant Detroit currently serves on an annual basis, with help from more than 3,700 volunteers — some direct and some through partner organizations.

But outcomes can also be measured by looking at individual transformations.

Eggleton tells a story of a young boy her staff noticed wandering the streets, often without a coat. His mother was working most of the time, and he had gotten into the habit of skipping school. A Brilliant Detroit staff member invited him into the house and got him involved with tutoring.

The process wasn’t always smooth. “About a week into the tutoring, he flipped a chair,” Eggleton says. “We talked to him and explained, ‘You can’t do that.’ And he ran out.”

When Brilliant Detroit comes into a neighborhood, they know the neighborhood — and they knew where the young boy lived. After having a conversation with his mother, eventually the boy came back and received tutoring five days a week from a professor who lived in the community and volunteered to help him.

It wasn’t just academic challenges he faced. Eggleton recalls him telling her, “I don’t know how to make friends. They taught me how to make friends here.”

The young boy expressed to Eggleton that he had always felt alone. But when people find each other, miracles can happen — they feel like they belong, like they’re part of something, and they come back. “Brilliant will never leave us,” the boy’s mother told Eggleton.

The young man has since enrolled in college, and a mural of him is painted on the side of the house where the Brilliant Detroit staff took him in. That sort of outcome, Bellinson says, is the reason the organization was put together; its mission is that no child will get left behind.

“We’ve built a great team of people who live by our core value and our mission, and we believe the work we’re doing is transformational,” Bellinson says. “We’re trying to make it a movement.”

Consider Dana, who came to a Zumba class offered at her neighborhood hub. She explained she had lived in the neighborhood for 35 years and still felt isolated. The Zumba class made her feel connected, and she soon was coming five days a week, eventually bringing her daughter and granddaughter to share her new connections.

“Connectedness is a big issue,” Eggleton says.

Another case involved a 26-year-old mother who struggled to support her four children. “No one could love them more than I do,” she told the instructors. Later, she revealed, “I never once felt cared about. Until now.”

From that time forward, she was at one of Brilliant Detroit’s east side homes five days a week, and is now learning alongside her kids. Eggleton says the mother’s experience follows a progression that has been shown to work with people who feel isolated and disconnected.

“Love, safety, and growth,” Eggleton says. “You can’t get it out of order. We all need community, and in this day and age, we have less of it.”

Brilliant Detroit has an annual budget of $8 million. Each acquisition and renovation of a home costs approximately $200,000. Annual operating costs — including a small full-time staff and items such as food, diapers, and clothing that are donated to the community — run another $200,000 per home. Volunteers supplement the staff to provide tutoring and other services.

Cindy Eggleton, left, and Karlita Johnson.
Cindy Eggleton, left, and Karlita Johnson.

Buying the homes seems straightforward, but the process is far from smooth or easy. What’s more, as homes come up for sale, Brilliant Detroit isn’t always the successful bidder. In the case of the Martin Park home on LaSalle Street, opportunity and sentiment combined to make something special happen.

“We usually do a massive renovation, and we’re good with that,” Eggleton says. “But we liked this one because we could get it open more quickly. I thought there was no way we would get it. There were eight bids, and I said I didn’t think we would get it. But the next day, our real estate agent called us.”

Their bid had been accepted.

“There were two sisters and they were crying when I walked in,” Eggleton says. “The home had been in their family for three generations. Their parents were social workers. When they saw it was us, they said, ‘We want you here.’ That was their dream for this house.”

When Brilliant Detroit held its first open house at the location, the sisters attended and helped with tours of the house. “It’s ridiculously sweet how these places get sort of blessed,” Eggleton says.

While $8 million is hardly insignificant as an annual budget, the delivery of the services, which are free to neighborhood members, is surprisingly economical on a per-person basis.

“People are recognizing place matters,” Eggleton says. “You need to fundamentally change a place, and we have to do this a different way. We’re able to reach more kids and families. We do this for about $500 per person per year, which is a ridiculously low price point.”

Ongoing funding comes from a combination of organizations and private donors including the Kellogg Foundation, Skillman Foundation, Kresge Foundation, Rocket Community Fund, and Children’s Foundation. There are several hundred corporate and individual donors listed in Brilliant Detroit’s annual report, as well.

As might be expected, the success of operating neighborhood hubs is getting attention outside the city. Eggleton recently appeared on the “Kelly Clarkson Show,” and people from other cities are now getting in touch and asking about the possibility of replicating the model in their areas.

Recognizing that dedicated learning homes could work elsewhere, Brilliant Detroit put together a scaling committee with a national presence.

“I’ve had (people from) 21 cities in four different countries reach out to us,” Eggleton says. “We weren’t ready, but we’re ready now. We’ve actually identified what will be our potential first cities, and we’re working on one of them right now.”

As the organization expands nationally, it will be called Brilliant Cities.

“It’s not about us being this big organization,” Eggleton says. “It’s about how do we really help communities and people be at the center of neighborhoods and own what they want? How do we get to early childhood? We know 90 percent of the brain is formed by age 3, so if you don’t start early, it’s harder to get to children in need.”

While today Brilliant Detroit has 18 neighborhood hubs — 15 active and three under renovation — its ambitious goal is to have 24 active homes by the end of 2024. That would put the organization in every district in the city. “We’re going to launch a Brilliant Cities fund, which will sustain Detroit for the next 20 years,” Eggleton says.

True magic unfolds when resources, expertise, neighborhoods, and communities unite, fostering a nurturing and supportive environment for all involved. Bellinson believes the key to unleashing more fortune is seizing on the curiosity of people who want something better.

“You have to take a holistic approach to a family,” he says. “You have to make sure that families are getting enough food, that everyone’s eyesight is good, and they can hear. That they have books. And we teach the community how a baby’s brain develops, and how important it is to talk to them and ask questions, and make them more curious all the time.”