Empowering communities through education

After-school programs play a crucial role in supporting the education, development, and well-being of students in Detroit. They offer a safe and productive environment for students to engage in educational, recreational, and skill-building activities outside of regular school hours. 

According to America After 3pm, the largest survey on afterschool, “Unmet demand has skyrocketed. For every child in an afterschool program, 3 are waiting to get in”. In 2020, the data highlighted the fact that of all parents surveyed, 57% of them stated that after school programming was cost prohibitive and 53% stated that they had no safe way of transporting their child to and from after school programming. 

Detroit has historically struggled with high levels of poverty and other socioeconomic challenges. As a result, after-school programs have been particularly important in providing support to children and families in under supported communities. 

 U.I. works to address these challenges by providing in-school after-school programming. By providing after-school programming at local schools it eliminates the hurdle of  transportation. Many families do not have the means to pick their students up from school to transport them to a secondary location. U.I. also eliminates the hurdle of program availability and awareness by creating programming specific to the school’s population and being accessible to all school students. Finally, to date, U.I. has offered programming either free or well below the market value for services.  

Over the years, we have impacted the lives of thousands of children through our various programs. We have seen children who were once malnourished and sick, now healthy and thriving in school. We are proud of the positive impact we have made in their lives.