Help build the Kelly and Matthew Stafford & Friends Educational Center
Overview
At SAY Detroit Play Center at Lipke Park, after-school students commit to earning a 3.0 GPA and enjoy first-rate academic, athletic & arts programs in partnership with Detroit’s major sports teams.
Since opening its doors in 2015, SAY Play is revitalizing and empowering one of Detroit’s most-challenged and underserved neighborhoods.
Situated on nearly 15 acres in the Osborn community in northeast Detroit, the facility was formerly an abandoned City of Detroit recreation center until it was targeted by SAY Detroit to become a motivational learning center for Detroit youth with academics as its cornerstone.

A six-week giving project is soon to be a documentary! Click here to learn more.
Transforming Lipke
Academic Facilities
A 7,000 square-foot digital learning and tutoring center, equipped with latest computer tech and science lab (The D.E.E.P.). Dow’s STEM Ambassadors program and Cooper Standard’s STEM Accelerator program offer tutoring, science demonstrations, and career information.
FIRST Lego Robotics room
Recording Studio (through Notes for Notes National Program) to develop music talent
Individual study rooms
Library
Sports Facilities
The Problem
- Due to budget cuts, Detroit has had to close nearly all of its recreation centers, leaving its children with few options after school
- Also due to budget cuts, Detroit Public Schools has eliminated a huge number of once-traditional afterschool activities, leaving students with few options
- Research shows that from third grade to high school graduation, time spent after school doing homework, improving academics and growing socially are harbingers of college and career success. Those harbingers are shockingly scarce right now in the city of Detroit
Our Goals
- Increase academic performance, attendance and graduation rates, by offering sports as reward for study
- Increase job-readiness by working with students on social, self-esteem and professional presentation skills
- Increase community engagement through a multi-purpose recreational facility
- Save a neighborhood from an abandoned, blighted building
- Provide a safe, well-lit, state-of-the-art learning center for homework in the after school and early evening hours
- Engage Detroit kids with one-on-one tutoring unavailable in school system
The Solution
- Create a first-class multipurpose facility that serves the academic, social and physical fitness needs of underserved youth – and provides a positive after-school, weekend and summer destination
- Offer top athletic facilities and engagement with pro athletes to young people ages 8 to 18 willing to maintain a GPA and school attendance that bolsters their chances at graduation, college and employment opportunities
- Partner with professional sports teams and high-profile personalities, the Center will work with local school systems to identify kids needing help and monitor their success
We gratefully acknowledge the support of


