Have a passion for engaging and educating youth?  As a local official are you working to improve the lives children, youth and families in your community?  Then the National League of Cities Institute for Youth, Education and Families is a great place to keep up to date with what your peers across the country are doing.

The IYEF is a excellent resource that provides educational and networking opportunites in a number of critical areas including early childhood, afterschool, at-risk youth, and youth civic engagement to name a few.  A list-serve is available that provides regular updates on programming and events. 

From more information, visit the IYEF website or contact Michael Karpman at NLC.

Arnold Weinfeld is Director of Strategic Initiatives and Federal Affairs for the Michigan Municipal League. He can be reached at 517-908-0304 or by e-mail.

annarbor.com reports, private equity investment company Greenfield Partners will be throwing big bucks at University of Michigan students’ startup businesses. Read the article, “Investment company moves to Ann Arbor to provide funding for University of Michigan student entrepreneurs,” by Tom Perkins, on annarbor.com

Ben Rye, who owns Greenfield Partners with his father Jon, told Perkins; “We’re interested in ideas started by students in the engineering and medical programs and really leveraging their ideas...because it’s difficult for students to know where to go in starting to look for assistance.”

Hopefully their investments will establish companies that will one day lead their industries in the 21st-century. Here on the The Center for 21st Century Communities (21c3) website, we’ve been blogging about entrepreneurship and seven other “assets” that make communities vibrant places to live and work. It’s good to see such investment happening here in Michigan.

The companies first project will grant $10K to the winner of a contest through incubator Techarb. After that, their startup investments will range from $10K to $150K.

“Beyond funding students’ start ups, Greenfield Partners is also interested in middle market companies they could purchase and turn around, for which typical investments would run between $2 million and $10 million,” Perkins reports.

Jennifer Eberbach is a professional journalist and writer. Find contact information on her website www.jenthewriter.info.

The Detroit Free Press featured a great piece that talks about how a few Detroit neighborhoods are seeing the return of investors and young professionals to the city. The article, entitled “Detroit’s profile grows as investors, young professionals return to city,” says there is good news for Midtown, New Center, and Woodbridge. Investment in the community, new businesses, art and culture, and revitalization efforts in these neighborhoods are bringing people back to Detroit. 

“Hotels, theaters, art galleries, charter schools, condos and dozens of restaurants have opened, primarily in abandoned buildings, in the past year or are to open this year in Midtown, New Center and Woodbridge neighborhoods,” the article states.

One of the best parts of this article is feedback from two 29 year olds who recently moved to Midtown from New York City and Washington, D.C. They talk about why they love living in Detroit and why they prefer it over places like New York City and D.C. It’s nice to hear; “Instead of finding the dangerous wasteland often depicted on TV and in the national media, the best friends discovered a city with friendly people, eclectic hangouts and great potential,” according to the article’s author Steve Neavling.

Jennifer Eberbach is a professional journalist and writer. Find contact information on her website www.jenthewriter.info.

The latest issue of the Michigan Municipal League's bi-monthly magazine, The Review, comes out this week, but you can view it online now here. The magazine focuses on how education is one of eight key assets the League has indenified for vibrant communities. The November-December issue of the magazine should arrive in our members' mailboxes later this week or early next week.

Our cover story is about newly elected League Board President Carol Shafto, mayor of Alpena, and how she used education as her ticket out of poverty. It's a stirring story that is worth your time. Read about how Shafto believes the success of the city of Detroit is important to every Michigan community no matter its size or location. Other articles include an overview about why education is one of the eight assets identified in our 21c3 initiative, a column by League CEO Dan Gilmartin, a column by Lou Glazer, founder of Michigan Future Inc., a photo story of our highly succssful 2010 Convention in Dearborn, and question and answer session with Adrian Mayor Gary McDowell, a piece about the city of Wyoming coming together to help students, and much more.

You can also view a full pdf version of our magazine here.

View pdf version of the magazine

Matt Bach is director of communications for the Michigan Municipal League and executive editor of The Review magazine. He can be reached at (734) 669-6317 or mbach@mml.org.