“A lot of my research is really predicated on the strengths in community, and so today, as I’m doing in cities across the country, is saying, ‘Hey, Grand Rapids, there’s a lot of strength here that you can build upon.’”
Before he was a Senior Fellow at the Brookings Institute, Dr. Andre Perry was the Founding Dean of Urban Education at Davenport University. A guest on WGVU’s The Shelley Irwin Show, Dr. Perry expressed the importance philanthropy plays enriching communities.
“In this very fractured political environment we’re in, I think I bring some good news, that investing in groups that need the investment improves the quality of life for everyone around them.”
Perry also refutes a 2012 Forbes report stating Grand Rapids was the second-worst place for Black people to prosper.
“There are a lot of factors where Grand Rapids scores high on. Not on everything, but there are many things that you can build upon in order to build up the entire community, so we’re going to focus on those mechanisms, everything from special purpose credit programs to educational programs, initiative cash transfer programs.”
Perry was the guest of The Steelcase and Kellogg Foundations.
