![Sample our Health and Social Care journals, sign in here to start your FREE access for 14 days]({"type":"image" , "src" : "/sda/5938/TOC-Subject-Sample-2021-Health-Social-Care.jpg"})
Abstract
Beginning in late 2003, the Detroit Local Initiatives Support Corporation, with Ford Foundation funding, began a yearlong community-based process to arrive at a conceptual idea of what regional equity means in the Detroit region. This process, called the Metro Detroit Regional Investment Initiative (MDRII), resulted in the formation of several coalitions of Detroit community groups and the local governments of some of the city's inner-ring suburbs. Three cross-border coalitions were funded and have embarked on a pilot project that seeks to implement the idea of regional equity. These three coalitions are currently working both to build relationships with each other and to work on joint community development projects. For those familiar with the Detroit of metro region and its history of contentious city–suburb relations, this collaboration is unprecedented. This paper studies the MDRII to examine the process and outcomes so far. Methods used include surveys, focus groups, and long interviews with members of the participating communities and governments. A critical examination of the process provides the opportunity to link regional equity to community development and draw specific lessons for practice.