The Detroit Neighborhood Entrepreneurs Project (DNEP), initiated by the University of Michigan in 2016, has already made a significant mark on nearly 700 small local businesses, and is poised to make an even greater impact from its new home at the university's Ross School of Business. According to University of Michigan's news release, the move is intended to further harness entrepreneurial expertise and help Detroit's minority-owned businesses bridge the race and wealth gap that persists within the city.
Christie Ayotte Baer, managing director of DNEP explained the evolution of the program, "DNEP was successfully incubated at the Ford School as a race/wealth gap intervention as about 90% of the businesses we work with are minority-owned. Ford gave us an economic and community development lens for our work." She continued, business strategy and marketing being among the services rendered. In discussions with WXYZ, Baer also stressed the importance of the program's collaborative nature, involving faculty from various university schools and student participation across campus disciplines.
The Ross School, recognized for its top-tier entrepreneurship programs, hosts the Impact Studio, a business incubator fostering student-led impact businesses. It offers a crucial course concentrated on green business creation in Detroit paired with a summer internship program attached to DNEP to support local ventures. Lutalo Sanifu, director of Neighborhood Resilience, Safety & Business District Services for Jefferson East Inc., expressed his enthusiasm about the transition to BIZNET, "We appreciate the value that's added to our business owners when they get to sit with a team from DNEP and really dive into their business and figure out what could be done to improve it."
Moreover, DNEP's renewed focus zeroes in on specific neighborhoods in need, like Jefferson Chalmers, Southwest, and Six Mile/Livernois, actively recruiting businesses to these areas. Matching students with real-world challenges, Baer has often reminded them, "The business owner is the hero of the story always. But, we can be really important nonplayer characters who help the hero succeed." The synergy between DNEP and the Ross School aims to encompass comprehensive support for these community business heroes—extending from consultation to the pragmatic, such as accounting and legal assistance, as per the University of Michigan's news release.
