A new 10-week program is pairing Detroit Black older adults with Wayne State University students to improve social connection and digital literacy.

Dr. Rodlescia Sneed is the program director for the Intergenerational Wisdom Exchange (WiSE). She’s an assistant professor in Wayne State’s Institute of Gerontology and Department of Psychology.

She said social connections are important for health and well-being, but many people depend on technology to maintain that social connection.

“It was our goal to increase social connection and reduce loneliness among older adults, while also improving their technology skills so that we could make improvements that impact their health and well-being,” she said.

Sneed said the program focuses on developing one-on-one connections to make it easier for older adults to learn digital literacy.

“One thing that’s really important when you’re trying to learn something is that you feel comfortable with the person teaching you. Many older adults express that they’re not comfortable speaking up when they don’t understand technology, especially when they’re trying to learn it in a group format,” she said. 

The first half of the program is focusing on sharing life stories of Detroiters. The second half is learning digital literacy.

Oral histories a focus of WiSE

The program is open to Black older adults who live in Wayne, Oakland, or Macomb County. Sneed said adults are paired with students who live nearby to reduce transportation barriers and increase accessibility. 

She said undergraduate and graduate students from psychology, social work, engineering, and other disciplines participate in WiSE.

The adults will share their personal stories with the students, who will write them down and give copies to the adults.

“We’re talking about a community that may not traditionally have a lot of written history, and so particularly, I think there is value in families being able to have written histories that they’re be able that they’re able to share across generations, and we’re providing that,” she said.

Racial and technological divide

Sneed said there are large racial divides when it comes to accessing technology and using it. The program aims to reduce those gaps.

“We see divides both in access to technology and comfort with use of technology. We’re trying to close that racial gap. That’s why we specifically selected Black older adults,” she said.

She said students will have an opportunity to learn about the history of Detroit from Detroiters.

“Students really benefit from being able to talk to older adults, hear their wisdom..it really is helpful to them when they’re trying to make plans for their futures going forward. It’s a really good opportunity for students and older adults to make connection and also to learn new skills,” she shares.

The program ends around Thanksgiving this year. The program will repeat next semest

The citywide coalition MoveDetroit is announcing the first 13 winners of a grant aimed at increasing and stabilizing the city’s population. 

The initial Make Detroit Home awards are worth $15,000 each.

One of the recipients is local entrepreneur Karissma Yve. She says she will use the money to invest in scaling her business. 

“We hire from the city right in our community. We are excited to grow both our factory and the work that we’re doing here…I’m really excited and honored to be able to…invest (it) back into the company, but ultimately (it’s) the investment into the people in the community that we’re hiring from.” 

The coalition will offer another 300 grants of $1,000 each to assist current and future Detroiters with business projects, down payments, home renovations, rent and relocation assistance. 

Additional Headlines for Wednesday, Oct. 7, 2026

Free speech survey says Michigan universities don’t make the mark

Multiple Michigan universities got failing grades in a college free speech survey. The Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE) conducted the study for the seventh year.

It found students felt like they can’t speak on controversial topics openly on campus. 
Data analyst Chapin Lenthall-Cleary says university policies, behaviors and student responses were evaluated. 

“Our goal is to protect free speech rights, both on and off campus, for all Americans…for instance, (with) the college free speech rankings…students can have a more informed idea of what the speech climate is at schools they’re considering attending.”

The University of Michigan and Central Michigan University got “F” grades for free speech and Wayne State University got a “D.” 

(This story was edited on October 14, 2026 to correct the name of the source.)

Detroit city council member Gabriela Santiago-Romero asks for data center moratorium

A Detroit city councilmember wants an 18-month moratorium on Al data centers while the city figures out how to regulate the facilities. 

Council Member Gabriela Santiago-Romero has asked council attorneys to draft an interim zoning measure that would pause permitting through March 2028.

Detroit city planners are separately developing zoning rules addressing data center infrastructure and environmental impacts. 

Mayor Mary Sheffield’s administration says it has effectively paused permits for new principal-use data centers while those regulations are being considered but her office has not formally adopted the moratorium previously requested by council. 

20,000 mail-in ballots received by the city less than a month before election

Detroit election officials say about 20,000 absentee ballots have been returned with less than a month remaining before the November election.

The city mailed roughly 100,000 absentee ballots between Sept. 19 and Sept. 24. 

Detroit has 38 absentee ballot drop boxes across the city. Election officials say the early return rate is encouraging as they prepare for the Nov. 3 election. 

Hamtramck’s last mayoral election is still disputed.

A judge has ordered that the 37 absentee ballots found in the former city clerk’s office must be counted, despite a year-long legal battle. The candidates are former Hamtramck city council member Muhith Mahmood and current Hamtramck Mayor Adam Alharbi.

The Wayne County Board of Canvassers originally decided not to count the 37 ballots, which were turned in days after the election.

Alharbi’s attorney says they are ready to challenge the ballots, even if they end up being counted, according to WXYZ.

They also plan to continue challenging Mahmood’s residency, despite a Wayne County judge dismissing a lawsuit over his residency last December.

Additional Headlines for Monday, Oct. 5, 2026

Forgotten Harvest hopes for 1 million pounds of food before year’s end

Forgotten Harvest is hoping to harvest 1 million lbs of food by the end of the year to feed people in need.

Lori Setera is the assistant farm manager at the Forgotten Harvest Farms in Fenton, Michigan. She says a pound of food is equal to a meal.  

“Our food here goes farmers market style, just how you see it here in these crates. A lot of our brick-and-mortar pantry partners don’t have the equipment or the space to store these giant crates. Because of that, a lot of it ends up in mobile pantries.”  

The farm supplements nutritious foods the organization distributes. They grow about 20 different crops such as cabbage, corn, broccoli, and peppers.

Around 3,000 volunteers are needed annually to help plant, weed and harvest food. Forgotten Harvest Farms still needs more volunteers to meet their goal this year. 

Virtual summit addresses race-based medicine

The Collaborative to End Race-Based Medicine-Detroit and Wayne State University’s Office of Inclusive Excellence are hosting a virtual summit about race-based medicine.  

The National Institutes of Health defines race-based medicine as “treating race as a biological or genetic trait rather than a social construct.” This leads to misdiagnoses and poor health care outcomes for minority patients—especially for those in the Black community.  

The collaborative is made up of international clinicians, legislators,  industry leaders and community members working toward ending race-based medicine through education, research and advocacy. 

Panelists at the virtual summit will discuss how bias shapes health care and public health in an age of artificial intelligence.

They will talk about how technology can help identify bias and potentially prevent harm.  

The “Held to the Light: Race, Code & Consequence in the Age of AI” event takes place Oct. 29 from 3 – 5 p.m. Register for the event here.

InterFaith Council 

The InterFaith Council of Metropolitan Detroit is hosting a program highlighting coming-of-age traditions.

The Rites of Passage Coming of Age Across Religions event will feature a bar/bat mitzvah, a confirmation, a Hindu tradition and a Muslim rite of passage.

The program will talk about what it means for family, faith, identity and belonging.

It will be held Thursday, Oct. 8 from 7-8:30 p.m. at the North Congregation Church in Farmington Hills, Michigan. The event is free with registration.

The Detroit People’s Food Co-op is seeking more residents to buy into the neighborhood grocery store.

The co-op is running out of money. They launched a campaign looking for 500 new owners and are asking customers to spend $10 when they come in.

The co-op opened in 2024 to fill a gap. The city had almost no Black owned grocery stores. The goal was for Detroiters to own their food system, not just to shop within it.

However, the people who this store was built for may not be able to afford it. The U.S. Census Bureau reports 34% of Detroiters liven in poverty. The co-op says it is bringing in close to $3 million a year. Before it opened, It projected about $80,000 a week— which is more than $4 million.  

Additional Headlines for Thursday, Oct. 1, 2026

Mayor Mary Sheffield makes effort to ensure a full Count Day

Detroit Mayor Mary Sheffield is partnering with school districts to make sure students are in their seats for Count Day. The city has launched a series of radio, newspaper, and social media ads. 

Fall count day is used to measure the in-school attendance of students—that number dictates how much money the school district receives from the state.  

Sheffield says she wants families, parents and students in the city to understand the importance of showing up for Count Day.  

“We oftentimes talk about schools being underfunded or Detroit kids not getting the quality education that they deserve. One way that we can control that is by making sure our kids are in school, that they’re accounted for, and that we get the funding that is allocated to us for books, for teachers, for facility improvements.”

This year’s Count Day is on Wednesday, Oct. 7.  

First of its kind Jim Crow museum to open at Ferris State University

Ferris State University will now feature more than 30,000 artifacts from the Jim Crow era in its new museum space.  

David Pilgrim founded the museum. He says the new building expands what can be taught about that period in American history.  

“In our old space, we did have room to show how African Americans pushed back against oppression with activism, with achievements and quite frankly, with just living everyday lives of dignity.”

The new building also includes a reading room, seminar space, and recording studio for visitors who want to share their own Jim Crow stories and how it affects them.  

Intergenerational Wisdom Exchange Program (WiSE) bridges generational divide at Wayne State Univeristy

A new 10-week program is pairing older Black adults from Detroit with Wayne State University students to improve social connection and digital literacy. 

Dr. Rodlescia Sneed, WiSE’s program director and an assistant professor in Wayne State’s Institute of Gerontology and Department of Psychology, says social connections are important for health and well-being. Many need technology to maintain a social connection. 

“It was our goal to increase social connection and reduce loneliness among older adults, while also improving their technology skills, so that we could make improvements that impact their health and well-being.”

Sneed says the program focuses on developing one-on-one connections to reduce barriers for older adults to learn digital literacy. 

The first half of the program is focusing on sharing life stories of Detroiters. The second half of the program is learning digital literacy. 

For more information on the program, you can contact Sneed at sneedrod@wayne.edu.

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