Lawrence Tech and Skillman team up to grow East Side microenterprises

Lawrence Technological University and the Skillman Foundation are teaming up on a two-year enterprise that will help launch micro-enterprises, meaning those with five employees or less that are frequently launched with small loans of $5,000 or less, in Detroit's Osborn neighborhood.

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Such enterprises have been extraordinarily successful at poverty reduction in developing countries. What is particularly heartening about the Skillman-Lawrence Tech initiative is that residents in the Osborn neighborhood asked for it. Rather than outside experts telling Detroiters what they needed, Osborn residents told Skillman that they wanted to create a sustainable entrepreneurial culture.

"Residents said they want to build small and intergenerational family businesses," says Jerry Lindman, director of Lawrence Tech's Center for Nonprofit Management. "They want a permanent cultural change to do that."

Read the entire Detroit News article here.

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