Community
UDM News for our Neighbors
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Award-winning author Jim Daniels to read at UDM, March 17
Monday March 16, 2026
The Detroit Mercy English Department will host a reading and conversation featuring author Jim Daniels, recipient of the 2025-26 Michigan Author Award for lifetime achievement from the Library of Michigan and the Michigan Center for the Book.
This event will take place on Tuesday, March 17, at 12:45 p.m., in the Bargman Room, 2nd Floor of the McNichols Campus Library.
Daniels’ newest book, Late Invocation for Magic: New and Selected Poems, will be available for sale at the reading.
A native of Detroit, Daniels has authored more than 30 collections of poetry, seven collections of fiction and four produced screenplays. His collection of essays, An Ignorance of Trees, published in 2025, was recently named a Michigan Notable Book. He has also edited many anthologies, including RESPECT: The Poetry of Detroit Music.
Daniels is a recipient of two National Endowment for the Arts Fellowships and numerous writing awards including five Michigan Notable Book Awards and three Gold Medals in the Independent Publisher Book Awards. His films have won awards in film festivals around the world. His work has been published in The Best American Poetry and Pushcart Prize volumes.
This event is free and open to the community.
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Next installment of SACD lecture series set for March 25
Monday March 16, 2026
SACD will host Patrick Morrissy ’67 and Wayne Meyer on Wednesday, March 25, for the next installment of its lecture series with a presentation, titled Urban Neighborhoods: Strategic Intervention, Stability, and the Power of Street-Level Practice. The talk is a street-level view of neighborhood change rarely captured in textbooks.The lecture will be held in the Loranger Architecture Building Exhibition Space. A reception at 4:30 p.m. will precede the lecture, which begins at 5 p.m. All are invited to this event.
Led by Detroit Mercy alumnus Patrick Morrissy, a pioneer in high-impact urban neighborhood intervention, this lecture will explore how HANDS, Inc., a small, disciplined nonprofit, worked with neighborhoods around Newark, N.J. Morrissy and colleague Wayne Meyer will discuss how strategic property acquisition and resident-centered community engagement produced durable neighborhood stability. They will also outline how this work influenced property laws, funding programs and community development finance and became the model for neighborhood stabilization work during the foreclosure crisis and remains relevant in Detroit today.
Morrissy is the founder and former executive director of HANDS, Inc., where he pioneered a high-impact community development strategy that stabilized and revitalized declining urban neighborhoods in the two cities that border Newark, N.J. Morrissy is also a founder and former editor of Shelterforce, the online publication for affordable housing and community development practitioners, and is the author of the 2025 book, Staking Our Claim: The Fight for Better Housing in the 1970s.
Meyer is president of Brick By Brick Training & Development Corporation, a nonprofit focused on building generational wealth through affordable homeownership and community-centered real estate investment. He served as president of New Jersey Community Capital, where he led a transformative strategy benefiting more than 100,000 individuals and families nationwide. At HANDS, Inc., Meyer led a place-based revitalization effort that developed more than 400 affordable housing units and catalyzed neighborhood stability and reinvestment.
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‘Becoming A Better U’ returns March 28
Monday March 16, 2026
Becoming a Better U returns to campus this spring as the Alumni Relations team invites all faculty, staff, alumni and students to a morning devoted to personal and professional development.The free half-day event is set for Saturday, March 28, from 9 a.m. to 12:30 p.m., in the Student Union on the McNichols Campus. Registration opens 8:30 a.m. the morning of the event.
Enjoy a morning of inspiring speakers, hands-on sessions and a complimentary professional headshot. Workshops cover a wide variety of topics and are sure to have something for everyone. Click the registration link below for a full list of workshops.
Free breakfast is also provided. Please register by March 23. For more information or any questions, please call 313-993-1540.
Register for Becoming A Better U. -
Steven Brady to discuss Catholic perspectives on Vietnam War at CLASA Mercy Peace Forum, April 9
Friday March 13, 2026
Carney Latin American Solidarity Archive (CLASA) and Detroit Mercy collaborate with three other Mercy Universities — Gwynedd Mercy University, Saint Joseph’s University and Georgian Court University — along with the Peace History Society, to offer an online Mercy Peace Forum event each semester.
The spring 2026 event is set for Thursday, April 9, at 7 p.m. All are invited to this free event.
This webinar features Steven Brady, associate professor of History at George Washington University, who will discuss his new book Less Than Victory: American Catholics and the Vietnam War, and how an earlier generation of Americans responded to the moral dilemmas posed by a troubling war.
This semester’s event is hosted by Michael Clinton, professor of History at Gwynedd Mercy University.
For more information contact Clinton at clinton.michael@gmercyu.edu or Director of CLASA Gail Presbey at presbegm@udmercy.edu.
Register for webinar here.
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SACD to hold special preview screening of Resurgo: The Rise from Within, March 18
Friday March 13, 2026
The School of Architecture & Community Design (SACD) will hold a special screening of the film Resurgo: The Rise from Within, on Wednesday, March 18, at 2:30 p.m., in the Loranger Architecture Building Exhibition Space.The event will include a 45-minute preview screening of the film followed by a discussion. All are welcome.
Resurgo: The Rise from Within is a feature-length documentary that offers an immersive look at Detroit’s urban transformation through the eyes of filmmaker Stephen McGee. It explores themes of neighborhood resilience, community identity and the evolving built landscape. Co-produced with Detroit Poet Laureate Jessica Care Moore, the film highlights the voices of longtime Detroiters with sweeping visual sequences to challenge the dominant ruin narrative and present the city on its own terms. The film has earned critical acclaim and recognition in documentary film circles, including Oscar eligibility consideration.
McGee is a California-born photographer and filmmaker who has made Detroit his home since 2005. A former Detroit Free Press staff photographer, he has spent two decades embedded in the city’s neighborhoods, building relationships and an expansive visual record of a place in profound transition. His directorial work spans community storytelling, commercial campaigns and civic projects, always insisting that Detroit be seen with clarity, beauty and honesty.
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Resources, Centers and Clinics
Center for Social Entrepreneurship
The Center provides business expertise and acumen as well as mentors to assist local entrepreneurs, beginning with the “Boost” workshop that aids entrepreneurs in developing business plans to achieve a greater social impact.
Counseling Clinic
The clinic provides no-cost counseling services to Detroit residents who otherwise may not have access to mental health services.
Dental Center
Detroit Mercy Dental offers dental services and education through two clinics, nine outreach clinics, a mobile dental clinic and a school-based dental sealant program.
Dental Mobile Clinic
The clinic travels to local participating schools in Detroit and Wayne County to provide comprehensive care for K-12 children.
Detroit Collaborative Design Center
The design center provides design services to non-profit community and civic organizations to engage communities and enhance neighborhoods.
Detroit Mercy Eye Institute
The Detroit Mercy Eye Institute includes the state-of-the-art equipment and technology needed to diagnose, monitor, and treat numerous eye conditions. The clinic will also provide affordable eyecare to the uninsured and vulnerable populations.
Law Clinics
Detroit Mercy Law provides legal assistance to Detroit area residents through six clinics: Immigration Law Clinic, SADO Criminal Appellate Clinic, Criminal Trial Clinic, Veterans Law Clinic, Juvenile Law Appellate Clinic and Intellectual Property Law Clinic.
Pre-College Programs
Detroit area students in grades 4-12 participate in more than 15 outreach programs annually through Saturday classes, summer camps, and innovative curricula in the sciences, technology engineering, mathematics, architecture and design.
Psychology Clinic
The Psychology Clinic provides assessment and counseling services for approximately 300 clients annually. Fees are based on ability to pay.
Rx for Reading Program
This program increases access to children’s books and supports families in reading to their children. The program has distributed more than 2,000 children’s books a month at a variety of locations, including low-income health, dental and WIC clinics; homeless shelters; and Head Start programs.
Summer Camps
A variety of summer activities available on UDM Campuses. Some are hosted by UDM; some are simply located on our campuses.
Titan Equity Nourish Network (TENN)
TENN is a student-led and community-driven food justice program that delivers fresh produce to 60 families in New Martin Park Neighborhood and 80 seniors at Theresa Maxis Senior Apartments.
Alliances and Initiatives
Reimagining the Civic Commons
University of Detroit Mercy serves as one of the institutional anchors for the “Reimaging the Civic Commons” initiative, which is funded through the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation grant. The initiative focuses on the City of Detroit’s neighborhood revitalization priority: the Livernois/McNichols area. The project’s goal is to revitalize the neighborhoods between its two anchor institutions, Detroit Mercy and Marygrove College, creating a denser and more diverse urban community.
Live6 Alliance
University of Detroit Mercy helped to launch the Live6 Alliance in August 2015 to strengthen the Livernois Avenue and McNichols Road commercial corridor in northwest Detroit.
Service Immersion Days / Trips
These experiences give students opportunities to serve in shelters, soup kitchens, after school projects, urban farms and many other important community based projects both locally and nationally.
Directories
Media Experts Guide
Detroit Mercy scholars are experts in their fields and many have agreed to be available to media. Note that experts' views are their own and may not reflect the views of their colleagues or University of Detroit Mercy.
Migration Research Directory
The AJCU Migration Research Directory is an open-access resource for high-quality research on migration, provided by the Association of Jesuit Colleges and Universities. Faculty members from Jesuit universities around the world provide important migration and refugee research from a wide variety of perspectives.