The University of Michigan’s Ross School of Business will be the new home of the Detroit Neighborhood Entrepreneurs Project, which has helped nearly 700 small businesses since its introduction in 2016.
The project was originally hosted by the University of Michigan’s Ford School of Public Policy. The move was made to better connect Detroit’s budding businesses to the entrepreneurial offerings available at the business school.
“DNEP was successfully incubated at the Ford School as a race/wealth gap intervention as about 90 percent of the businesses we work with are minority-owned,” says Christie Ayotte Baer, managing director of DNEP.
“Ford gave us an economic and community development lens for our work. As the program grew, it made sense to shift the focus to tapping greater entrepreneurship expertise and move to Ross. Plus, our accounting services and our summer internship program both originated at Ross and are housed at Ross.”
The business school is known for its entrepreneurship programs and runs the Impact Studio, an incubator focused on student-led impact businesses. It’s home to a grad course focused on spawning green businesses in Detroit and hosts a DNEP/Impact Studio summer internship program that supports Detroit businesses.