The mission of Y Arts & Humanities has at its core a commitment to the future of Detroit and its creative community. Capitalizing on the talents of our skilled employees and artist partners, we have reached out into the wider community to provide multiple educational and recreational services. We have been highly successful in these efforts and have been lucky enough to forge strong bonds with multiple partners with mutual goals.

Two of our most important partnerships represent fragile or disenfranchised populations.

The first is Freedom House. For nearly three years we have provided the political refugees of Freedom House with training, recreation and a way to keep physically fit whilst enduring the long process of asylum application. The men, women and children of Freedom House now count on us to be an extension of their safe haven. This partnership is in accord with the spirit of both Detroit’s past, where newcomers and immigrants helped build the city with their new energy and drive, and also with the historical mission of the YMCA.  Please spend some time at the Freedom House web site, http://www.freedomhousedetroit.org.

The second is the small and embattled school district of River Rouge. Recently the district was put under the superintendantship of the visionary Dr. Carlos Lopez. He saw the burgeoning film industry in Michigan as a potential future workplace for his high school students. Having experienced the Y Arts Summer Media Camp, he requested that we set up an internal production company at the High School to give the students a taste of the various careers available to them in the film and media industry. We are coming to the end of our first year with this district where we partnered with the US Census and local organizations to produce informational videos to be shared with the public. We will soon feature student work here on our Web site, so please visit us often.