CONNECT DETROIT’S PROGRAM DIRECTOR NAMED CRAIN’S 2018 NOTABLE WOMEN IN NONPROFITS IN MICHIGAN

DETROIT – December 11, 20178– Connect Detroit today announced that its senior program director, Shuna Hayward, has been named one of this year’s Notable Women in Nonprofits in Michigan by Crain’s Detroit Business, Detroit and southeast Michigan’s premier business news and information website. This annual award honors women in the nonprofit industry who are considered leaders in their workplace and in the community.

Crain’s Detroit Business’ Notable Women in Nonprofits build endowments, programming and relationships for the organizations that they help lead. They secure donors, advocate for change and search nonstop for new and creative approaches to fundraising. This year Crain’s honored 59 women who were nominated by their peers at work and in the community.

Hayward has been with Connect Detroit, a nonprofit organization that addresses community problems by facilitating and mobilizing funding in support of collaborative community solutions, for six years. She conceptualizes, manages and leads Connect Detroit’s work to improve community conditions for children, youth and families. Her duties include fund development, strategic planning and leading collaborative efforts with community partners. She’s directly responsible for leading Grow Detroit’s Young Talent (GDYT), a summer program that employs young adults between the ages of 14 and 24.

“Shuna is a nonstop champion for improving community conditions for children, youth and families in and around Detroit,” said Dierk L. Hall, President and CEO, Connect Detroit. “Within the past six years she has been with us, she has helped rapidly scale Grow Detroit’s Young Talent partnerships, infrastructure and funding resources simultaneously – while maintaining a relatively small team. The result has been to more than double community impact. It’s an amazing amount of work to complete in such a limited timeframe.”

Since joining Connect Detroit, the GDYT program has grown from 3,000 participants to more than 8,000. Hayward built out a technology structure to manage the volume of youth, funders and employers involved in the program, and shifted the program to implement a quality standard and framework for the experience the young people are going to have. She has expanded partnerships and, recognizing the need for evaluating outcomes, Connect Detroit brought in evaluation partners from the University of Michigan to evaluate GDYT and its results.