Question: Tell us about your company and what you do.
Answer: I work at Focus: HOPE, a non-profit civil and human rights organization that unites a multicultural community in common efforts to overcome injustice and build racial harmony. We do this in a variety of ways, most simply stated by providing education, food, careers, and career training to a largely underserved and disenfranchised population.
At Focus: HOPE, I am a Business Development Specialist on the Community Development team; I work on tasks centered on increasing economic sustainability in individuals and businesses. My projects are largely focused on entrepreneurship, product development and, of course, business development.
Question: Describe an accomplishment or contribution you’ve made at your company.
Answer: Focus: HOPE partnered with an organization called ProsperUS Detroit, which provides 11-week entrepreneurship training sessions in low- and moderate-income neighborhoods. In my role as Business Development Specialist, I manage the ProsperUS program implementation at Focus: HOPE. This includes recruiting and interviewing entrepreneur candidates for the training program. I was able to recruit enough strong candidates to host two training sessions simultaneously, when we had originally planned to only host one at a time. This was such an accomplishment because we are helping more entrepreneurs, both aspiring and existing, realize their dreams and enhance their quality of life.
Question: What makes working for your company unique?
Answer: Focus: HOPE was started shortly after the Detroit riots in 1967, a time when the city was sharply divided on economic and racial lines. We were officially founded in 1968 with a mission that, in part, states we will use “…intelligent and practical action to overcome racism, poverty and injustice…” Our backstory, approach and mission is what makes working for Focus: HOPE unique; working as an organization to overcome such issues every day is so complex, awesome, difficult and beautiful.
Question: Why do you enjoy working in the Detroit community?
Answer: This city is tough yet vibrant, saddening yet hopeful, and gritty yet gorgeous. This is an intricate, stunning contrast that gives Detroit a character like no other city. I love working here and working to make it more vibrant, more hopeful and more gorgeous!
Question: What’s the biggest highlight of working at your company?
Answer: The biggest highlight of working at my company is doing work every single day that directly aligns with my personal mission and reason for moving back home – to help revitalize the city that raised me.
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Contributed by fellow Brittany Sanders