Catching up with Cindy Eggleton, the founder of Brilliant Detroit. We first sat down with Cindy in 2018, to hear how Brilliant Detroit was creating kid success neighborhoods all across our city.
Mitch: Tell us what Brilliant Detroit has been doing since we last spoke with you?
Cindy: A lot of things going on. And I think most importantly, are the results that we’re seeing. We had four locations in the city of Detroit. And as of today, we are in 13. neighborhoods. We’re working with over 7000 individuals right now. And our programming has expanded tremendously.
Mitch: What do you attribute that to?
Cindy: The neighborhoods without question, but our approach is really to talk to the neighborhood to be invited in and to include them and what they want and how they want it. Our platform is Education, Health and Family Support, belly to eight. And as a result, right now, we have currently eight neighborhoods on a waiting list. We’ve been asked to be in other cities around the country, and also internationally. And it is all about putting people first and in the middle of what happens.
Mitch: Tell us about how COVID-19 has affected Brilliant Detroit.
Cindy: We’ve pivoted in some ways we’ve providing virtual programming. What that has meant on tutoring is we’ve doubled how many kids we’re serving. So for our kids, we are seeing grade level growth of about two grades, which is great.
Mitch: Congratulations, what you’re doing with Brilliant Detroit and continued success with it.
Cindy: Thank you, Mitch, really appreciate it. Glad to be here.
