Bringing Up Detroit

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Searching for serenity: A Detroit family's quest for stability Dec 30, 2015

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Desiree Foster stands at her stove. She’s cooking up some hamburgers and white rice for her two daughters. I’m hovering near her refrigerator when I notice the tattoo on her neck. It has her two daughters' names, Alyssa and Brianna, scrawled across the nape of her neck. Below the names is the serenity prayer: God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference. Desiree Foster, who was born and raised in Southwest Detroit, and remains there to this day, says she decided to get the tattoo because she thought the prayer’s message might seep into her soul. “I’m still waiting for that serenity sometimes,” she confesses. Foster, along with her 12-year-old Alyssa and her 13-year-old, Brianna, all have a rare bone condition, called hypophosphatemic rickets. Foster wasn’t aware that it was a hereditary disease until after both her children were born. “The rickets, it just makes the bones a little more

Making a way out of no way Dec 18, 2015

Show notes

This story is part of Michigan Radio's year-long series Bringing Up Detroit , which examines the inner-lives of four Detroit families as they navigate the city’s often unpredictable school systems, economy, transportation networks, and neighborhoods.

From Laos to Detroit, an intergenerational journey Nov 13, 2015

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The Detroit neighborhood where Richard Chang lives has changed. A lot. Chang moved into the Osborn neighborhood in 1980 “because the economy in Michigan was really good,” he says. That changed dramatically, of course. And now Chang is wondering what the future holds for his children. After living in Detroit for nearly two decades, the Chang family moved to Warren in the ‘90s. A lot of other Hmong families did the same thing. But then Richard Chang lost his job and house during the recession. So he moved the family back to Detroit, where he was able to buy a house for $10,000. He eventually found a new job, at a stamping plant in Livonia. He works every night until 10 p.m. He’s exhausted and overworked, and he’d like to retire. But he thinks he’ll need to work for another 10 years. He just hopes his kids can find their footing in an economy that’s a lot tougher than when he arrived in the U.S. All these years later, Chang has been married twice. He has 11 kids and stepkids. Six of them

A Detroit family's long journey to the first day of school Sep 10, 2015

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On her first day of school, Franca Grassi woke up, ate a bowl of oatmeal with diced nectarines and maple syrup. She brushed her teeth with the help of a Mickey Mouse iPhone app. Then her parents, Nikki Rittenour and Marc Grassi, drove her to school in their station wagon.

For one Detroit family, finding the right school in a sea of choices Jul 15, 2015

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Five-year-old Franca Grassi is only looking for two things in a kindergarten: She doesn't want to be forced to nap, and she wants to see her mom every day. Franca's parents, on the other hand, are a lot more discerning. “We actually have a google doc spreadsheet of pros and cons of some of the schools,” says Nikki Rittenour from the family’s long, wooden dining room table.

For kids in Detroit, a good school may not last Jun 30, 2015

Show notes

This fall, it’s looking like Alyssa Nuñez and and Brianna Foster- Nuñez might switch to a new school. Again. It’s a pretty common experience in Detroit, where students switch schools 2.5 times more frequently than kids in the rest of the state.

Family's struggles inspire WMU nursing student to make mom proud Jun 09, 2015

Show notes

Back in March, I introduced you to 57-year-old Christina Lumpkin and her family . At the time, they were navigating a crisis. Lumpkins’s daughter, Maya, had lost her job at McDonalds, and the family didn’t have any money coming in.

Meet one of Detroit's last remaining Hmong families Apr 23, 2015

Show notes

When we talk about immigrant communities in Detroit, the Hmong don’t usually come up in that conversation. The ethnic group from Southeast Asia began settling in Northeast Detroit’s Osborn neighborhood in the years after the Vietnam War.

This Detroit family knows when you don't have what you need, you improvise Mar 26, 2015

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Think about most of the news stories you read about kids in Detroit. What comes to mind? Something about dysfunctional schools? Maybe a crime story? When’s the last time you felt like a story transported you into the life of a family? Where you really got to know a child? Where you felt what it might be like to be a parent raising kids there?

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