It seems the State of Michigan is finally stepping up to the plate to assume its duties of providing for the necessary needs of its citizens, especially the children.

This is what the child welfare system is suppose to do: work in tangent with other agencies which will open access to various federal funding streams.

 It seems the state is listening to me.

State to target blighted Detroit neighborhoods

Lansing— The state's plan to help Detroit demolish houses, cut crime and send social workers into at least three schools could be a template for efforts in other struggling cities, officials said Friday.
Gov. Rick Snyder's office said it is about to roll out a plan to send a SWAT team of police, bulldozers and officials from the Department of Human Services this fall to clean up east side city neighborhoods rife with crime. The effort's goal is to make routes safer for children walking to school.

The areas around two middle schools — Ronald Brown and J.E. Clark preparatory academies — and a high school, East English Village Preparatory Academy, will be the focus, said O'Dell Tate, president of the MorningSide neighborhood association, a community partner in the project.
The three schools are in or adjacent to the MorningSide neighborhood, which is bordered by East Outer Drive, Alter Road, Harper and Mack avenues.

DHS director Maura Corrigan said Friday as many as six Detroit schools could become pilot projects this fall. If proven effective, the effort will be expanded to Flint, Pontiac and Saginaw — the other Michigan cities among the nation's Top 10 for violent crime, according to the governor's office.
Snyder has made helping those four cities fight crime a priority, singling them out in a special address he gave in March on public safety.

"The goal is targeted and focused use of demolition dollars in neighborhoods that are identified for revitalization so that taxpayer dollars can be used in the most effective way," Corrigan said.
"Our goal is to take what we learn from these efforts and spread it around to other Michigan cities."
Detroit Mayor Dave Bing, in a statement Friday, said the plan "reinforces my position that tangible assistance from the state is critical to our efforts to transform Detroit."

Bing said Snyder plans to use money from the National Mortgage Settlement Fund to pay for the demolitions.

Last month, Bing said the city planned to tear down 1,500 dangerous and abandoned structures by the end of September. The 90-day campaign is part of a goal to demolish 10,000 vacant structures by the end of his four-year term in December 2013.

Corrigan said putting social workers into the schools will make it easier for families to get vital services.

"(Snyder's) goal is all 135 elementary schools in the four core cities," she said.

Details of the plans were reported Friday by Deadline Detroit, an online news publication.
State and local agencies have been working for months to identify rotting structures to be torn down, Corrigan said. Detroit firefighters with the help of the Army Corps of Engineers have spent hundreds of volunteer hours snapping pictures of vacant buildings near the schools.

It's unclear how much the plan for Detroit will cost.

Snyder spokeswoman Sara Wurfel said extra police and bulldozers will be brought in to clean up crime and raze abandoned houses.

"This ties into what the Gov. Snyder has been talking about for some time and is one of the ways the state can help support the city, Wurfel said in an email to The News.

It "builds upon the state's commitment to help address blight as outlined in the financial stability agreement between the city and state," she added.

Tate said the plan would be rolled out Aug. 2 at Clark Preparatory Academy.

"The governor's office, the mayor's office, the sheriff's office and many other departments are all involved and on board," Tate said. "This is going to be a phenomenal project."

Roy Roberts, Detroit schools' emergency financial manager, confirmed the district has been working on a plan with the governor's office and other agencies.

The plan "is centered around making the school the hub of the community," Roberts said in a statement Friday.

The plan addresses "factors that impact the academic potential of the students in those environments: Health, safety, secure routes, stable housing, community and volunteer support," he added.

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