The 2024 NFL draft, which is being hosted in the heart of downtown Detroit, April 25-27, will have opportunities and implications for many kids in the Detroit area.
The Detroit Sports Commission and Visit Detroit announced during a Monday news conference with the draft 150 days out that they will contribute $1 million to community initiatives to support youth groups in the city.
Faye Nelson, Michigan director of the W.K. Kellogg Foundation and the co-chair of the community engagement committee for the 2024 draft, said the money will be focused on two main causes: addressing the youth literacy gap in Detroit and to provide equitable sports opportunities for young people, especially girls, to participate in. The announcement came on the back of two years of planning, Nelson said.
“In about six comprehensive listening sessions and a thorough review of 18 local nonprofit organizations, we have identified two primary pillars for our community initiatives,” Nelson said. “We aim to join the literacy movement and addressing the youth literacy gap across the southern district of Detroit. Second, we are dedicated to providing equal and inclusive opportunities for our youth to engage in sports and active play, both within Detroit and throughout the tri-county area.”
The community engagement committee will provide money to two Detroit-based nonprofits, Beyond Basics and the Project Play coalition. Beyond Basics is a nonprofit working in Detroit schools aiming to increase literacy rates and reading scores at all grade levels. Project Play, facilitated by the Community Foundation for Southeast Michigan, works with local sports organizations to provide opportunity, resources and coaching for kids in Detroit and surrounding communities.
Details were not provided about how the $1 million will be split between the two groups, but speakers said money will start flowing to the initiatives immediately for upcoming events.
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The Detroit Sports Commission is partnering with Project Play to promote participation in youth sports and girls sports in Detroit. The two groups will work together to host a series of events for kids in the community leading up to the draft, but none have been announced yet. Girls flag football, introduced in Michigan at the high school level in 2023, is a special emphasis during planning these events.
Nelson also said the Detroit Sports Commission and Project Play will announce grants to new community organizations during the week of the draft in April.
“The Detroit Sports Commission will work with a team there to execute a series of events in the lead up to the NFL draft,” Nelson said. “And these events will be designed to build access for all children to play, to build more opportunities for girls in sports and to support our youth coaches across the tri-county area. Furthermore, as draft week unfolds, our committee will be closely in partnership with Project Play and will unveil a series of grant announcements dedicated to deserving new organizations.”
The first phase of Beyond Basics’ plan for the draft funding will start at two schools: the Dixon Educational Learning Academy, an elementary school near Rouge Park, and the Detroit Lions Academy of Detroit, an alternative school for middle and high school-aged kids in Woodbridge.
Beyond Basics co-founder and CEO Pamela Good told the Free Press the money will primarily be spent on tutoring, and work in the two schools will begin in December.
“The conversations (with schools) are in place,” Good said. “And we’re hoping to be in those schools ready to roll out in December and actually assess and start our tutoring work in January.”
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Nelson said the plan was to continue to these efforts past the 2024 draft and continue to integrate community initiatives in all sporting events secured by the Detroit Sports Commission through the 2027 Final Four at Ford Field.
“While we are launching this initiative in conjunction with the 2024 NFL draft, we have committed ourselves to an approach that will be built on the laws to integrate with all sporting events that will be coming to the city including the 2027 NCAA men’s basketball finals,” Nelson said.
The donations are a part of the Detroit Sports Commission’s community commitment but are far from the only events taking place in the lead-up to the draft. Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan alluded to other events such as an interactive football theme park during the draft on location.
“I’m really pleased at what the whole team is doing with the Detroit experience to make sure our children and our families can participate,” Duggan said. “They will be running youth programs that include football clinics, flag football competitions, tailgating and a million dollars in investment in youth programs. We are going to make sure our own community is a part of this draft.”
Travis Burnett
A pioneer in the flag football community, Travis helped co-found the Flag Football World Championship Tour, FlagSpin and USA Flag. Featuring 15+ years of content creation for the sport of flag football, creating and managing the largest flag football tournaments on the planet, coaching experience at the youth and adult level as well as an active player with National and World Championship level experience.
