We Raise Awards New Emerging Leader Grant for Middle School and Healthy Living Program

We Raise Awards New Emerging Leader Grant for Middle School and Healthy Living Program

 In Education

Itasca, IL – We Raise Foundation recently awarded a $15,000 Emerging Leader Grant to Mr. Micah Williams, Central Detroit Christian Development Corporation in Detroit, Mich. Emerging Leader Grants are an investment in the development of leaders between the ages of 20-35 at Christian organizations who are leading new programs at the intersection of poverty, violence, and inequality.

Williams receives $15,000 over two years with $10,000 supporting the Middle School and Healthy Living program and $5,000 supporting leadership development. This leadership development includes attendance at a Leadership Fundamentals conference through The Center for Creative Leadership; attendance at the Global Leadership Summit through satellite locations; and individualized leadership coaching. Williams also receives an invitation to attend the annual Emerging Leader Convening in Chicago, hosted and paid for by We Raise, and promotion and networking within the We Raise community.

Proposals for the Emerging Leader Grant Program are accepted twice a year. The next deadline is September 30, 2021 with grants awarded in November. For more information regarding grant requests, please visit the website at weraise.org/emergingleadergrants.

Leader Profile:

Micah Williams has been involved with Central Detroit Christian Development Corporation in Detroit, Mich., since January 2020. After starting out as a volunteer, he joined the 2020 summer staff team to help run the day camp, then worked as an intern, and now serves as the newly-created Middle School Director. For the past few years, Williams has worked and served with youth all around Michigan. He was a summer camp counselor at Youth Haven in Rives Junction, Mich., and then began volunteering and interning with the youth at his home church, Woodside Bible Church, in Detroit. Williams currently serves as the part-time Families Director at Woodside Church. He graduated from Wayne State University in Detroit in the spring of 2021 with a bachelor’s degree in communication studies and minor in sociology.

Project Summary:

Central Detroit Christian’s Middle School and Healthy Living Program will engage up to 100 students in 6th-9th grades during the school year through Bible Study, healthy meals, mentorship, and various sports activities to increase their overall physical capabilities, mental health, emotional well-being, and Biblical knowledge. The economic make-up of the neighborhood primarily attracts convenience food sources. Children often grow up without an understanding of what foods are healthy and allow for peak mental and physical performance. The Healthy Living program will provide access to a variety of healthy food options. And students living in disinvested communities have often times spent little time outside of their own neighborhood. Students will have the chance to participate in overnight camps, giving them the opportunity to get outside of the city and experience something new.

“To receive this grant from We Raise will completely change our approach to what we will be able to do this year with the middle school program,” said Williams. “We will be able to get new sports equipment and discipleship materials for every student and will help broaden our reach of students we can assist and develop within the community. Praising God for this grant and the people that made it possible.”

About We Raise Foundation

Motivated by the belief that freedom is grace in action (Galatians 5:1a), We Raise Foundation partners with Christian nonprofit organizations and emerging leaders working at the intersection of poverty, violence, and inequality. We have a preference for funding solutions within the areas of education, workforce development, and criminal justice and employ a unique approach to our investing by coupling program funding with a variety of robust value-added services that empower our grantees to grow their solutions. As a result of these value-add services, every $1 that donors invest through We Raise multiplies into more than double the benefit to the organizations we support. To learn more, please visit weraise.org. You can also find We Raise on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.

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