Overview:
-"I can't think of a better place to be, or nothing better to be doing, than what I'm doing to make a difference," says Calvin Colbert, executive director of the Detroit Impact youth center.
-The west side nonprofit is dedicated to uplifting low-income families and at-risk youth.
-The center's work has included Brothers on Patrol, which became a template for the national Safe Routes to School campaign.
This story is published as part of Planet Detroit’s 2025 Spring Neighborhood Reporting Lab, supported by The Kresge Foundation, to train community-based writers in profile writing. This year’s participants will focus on highlighting grassroots leaders driving positive change in metro Detroit.
In a room packed with the busy hum of children and parents, Calvin Colbert, who manages the Detroit Impact youth center on Detroit’s west side, oversees it all.
For nearly three decades, Colbert has started the day by making his morning sojourn to the center. You can hear the familiar jingle of keys as he unlocks doors, shuts off alarms, and readies the building to receive the children and families who have grown to count on his presence in the community.
“I can’t think of a better place to be, or nothing better to be doing, than what I’m doing to make a difference,” Colbert, 76, said.
On the day that Colbert chats with Planet Detroit, he’s meeting with parents and representatives from the Detroit Area Pre-College Engineering Program to discuss the possibility of developing science and math education programs for area students.
Through cooperative efforts with area churches, businesses, schools, and nonprofit agencies, Colbert has led the Detroit Impact Center’s vision to empower low-income families and at-risk youth to develop strong personal values, access to education, and the ability to rise above adversity.
“Technology is the wave of the future, he said. “We try to prepare young people in aspects of whether it’s educational pursuits or access to jobs where certification will get you a $70,000 or $80,000 position.”
Detroit Impact’s mission is to produce “productive members of society.” Through a multigenerational approach to creating more programs and collaborating with other community agencies to enhance technological and leadership skills, Colbert has led the nonprofit in meeting that mission so that Detroit youth will have equal access and be highly competitive in the marketplace.
Colbert, who is visually impaired, continues to dedicate much of his time, effort, and personal assets to growing and maintaining the youth center. He said he uses his impairment as a source of inspiration to others.
“I think that everything that we are has to be included,” he said. “I say to people that your handicap don’t prevent you from succeeding.”
How a compassionate ministry was built
In the early 1990s, Colbert became a member of the Church of the Nazarene, a suburban ministry. The congregation saw a need to impact the urban community through what was called Compassionate Ministries. This ministry was the birthplace of Detroit Impact.
After several years, the church decided that the youth center was not a sustainable endeavor, Colbert said. Instead of allowing it to close, he stepped into the lead position in 1995 that he continues to occupy.
Detroit Impact is situated in an area not far from the former Herman Gardens project, which had become a notorious place for drugs, violence, and heavy gang recruitment through the Young Boys Incorporated, a once very influential gang in the Detroit area.
One of Detroit Impact’s signature programs was to create safe passages for Cody High School students who walked to school through heavily blighted areas.
Men who called themselves Brothers on Patrol monitored the areas where students were bullied, beaten, and exposed to gang activity, which included shootings on the way to and from school.
At one point, Brothers on Patrol engaged in successful negotiations with gang leaders, tasking them to refrain from their activities during regular school hours and times when innocent people were out and about in the neighborhood.
Colbert, along with several other patrol members, was invited to Washington, D.C., to present the program before the U.S. Department of Justice. Brothers on Patrol became a template for the national Safe Routes to School Campaign, which promotes getting to and from school safely all over the United States.
Former Detroit Impact staff member Dana Stuckey described Colbert as a “fatherlike figure in a community where single mothers are raising most children.”
Stuckey, who is the daughter of this story’s author, said Colbert has always run his nonprofit “honestly and with great integrity.” Even without adequate support, he always finds a way to achieve his goals, she said.
“He never did anything for show, but he was a man who always showed up for the children,” she said. “Being in his presence made me feel protected.”
Colbert received the 2024 Biden Presidential Award of Excellence in Community Service and has received numerous other awards, including several Spirit of Detroit Awards for his continuous contribution to the advancement of Detroit youth and families.
The awards, for Colbert, are not the point.
“This work is too vast, you know? It requires commitment, dedication and compassion,” he said. “Our recognition is in achieving the goal.”
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Father figure in the community
Detroit Impact hosts family literacy game nights, peer mentoring, food distribution, and more. The organization also trains seniors in computer literacy.
The program’s “Shoot Cameras, Not Guns” photography program focuses on teaching the value and appreciation of life through the lens of a camera.
Colbert said he believes in a concept called “creative empowerment.” He said that in the days of his youth, music was one of the main creative forms that kept young Black males out of trouble.
Colbert said he once dreamed of becoming a recording artist and relocating to the West Coast. He worked as a songwriter for Westbound Records and wrote songs for groups that included the Fantastic Four and The Enchantment.
Though much has changed, he sees a throughline between that era and today.
“The social issues that created the need for Detroit Impact are still the same,” he said. “The oppression of the sixties brought violence and blight into the Black community after the riots, which led to the heroin and crack cocaine epidemics.”
According to Colbert, “these events destroyed the fabric of the Black community, and we are still struggling to recover.”
Black boys need positive role models, he said, and mentoring has been one of the center’s most successful endeavors.
He described the center as a “beacon of light” in a community with few other resources. The closing of neighborhood recreation centers and the lack of after-school programs in the area continue to challenge the community.
Colbert still holds a vision to one day renovate the Greenfield Road building or expand to a larger facility. He hopes for increased financial sustainability to ensure that services will continue.
Looking toward the future, Colbert said he is most proud of his executive assistant, Faith Marshall, who has been a part of Detroit Impact since she was eight. Now 22, Colbert refers to Marshall as a “ray of sunshine” and the future of the youth center.
Marshall described Colbert as “always being there,” and “a man of great knowledge and wisdom, a good Bible teacher, and a person who has great vibes.”
She said the years that she spent in Detroit Impact shaped her into becoming a hardworking, dependable, get-the-job-done young person. She credits her strong sense of responsibility to all of the extra help and resources that she received in the center.
For Colbert, these are the reasons to keep doing what he’s always done.
“I’m blessed every day to get up and to be able to come here and function,” he said. “With a sound mind, to innovate creatively. I’m still dedicated and committed and compassionate, and I still feel a blessing.”