All his life, Benny Vann has been looking out for people. From tutoring classmates to helping junior employees navigate their careers, Benny has been coaching and mentoring for as long as he can remember. It is inherent of his identity – to help others.

Two years ago, I received a call from a woman representing the world renown National Geographic team wanting to learn more about Figure Skating in Detroit (FSD). She had been following our story and was interested in meeting with me and interviewing our coaching staff of women for a possible docuseries. I was very intrigued.

“One day everything was fine and the next we had a child fighting cancer,” said Craig Salyers about his toddler Claire’s recent cancer diagnosis.

I started as the CEO of Voices for Children in 2015.  In 6+ years serving these communities, I have seen some horrific things. Crimes against children are crimes against our humanity and against our future.  I’ve also seen hope, resilience, and opportunity to break cycles of abuse and create a generation of informed, empowered, and caring humans who will take care of themselves, each other, and our world.

Throughout the past two years, high-school junior, Adib, has received guidance, support, and friendship from his mentor, Benny. The pair participates in Winning Futures, a multi-year workforce preparation mentoring program for high school students

For fourteen years, Child Life Specialist Maureen has played I Spy, Skip-Bo and blown bubbles in the name of providing clarity, comfort and normalcy to hospitalized children of all ages and diagnosis. She has worked to build relationships with them and their families, helping all to understand procedures, conditions and talk through the “what-ifs.”

For fourteen years, Child Life Specialist Maureen has played I Spy, Skip-Bo and blown bubbles in the name of providing clarity, comfort and normalcy to hospitalized children of all ages and diagnosis. She has worked to build relationships with them and their families, helping all to understand procedures, conditions and talk through the “what-ifs.”

Prior to COVID-19, the University of Michigan TRAILS program was striving to reverse statistics demonstrating that mental illness was impacting nearly 50% of adolescents, yet only 20% were accessing effective treatment.

Did you know that in the United States, Black babies are 2.4 times more likely to die before their first birthday than White babies? “That is unacceptable,” said Cheryl Dickson, MD, M.P.H., Associate Dean of Health Equity and Community Affairs and Chair of Cradle Kalamazoo’s Safe Sleep Strategy Committee.