The Delta Project Helps Lead Statewide Youth Justice Coalition Awarded $1M IGNITING FUTURES Grant
The Delta Project, Michigan Center for Youth Justice, and Wayne State University Center for Behavioral Health and Justice have been selected as co-lead recipients of the IGNITING FUTURES: A Youth Justice Grant from Public Welfare Foundation.
The $1,000,000 grant will support the formation and work of a new statewide coalition focused on reshaping Michigan’s youth justice system through community-rooted programming, research, policy advocacy, and systems-level change.
The Michigan coalition was one of only two coalitions selected nationwide.
For The Delta Project, this moment represents both an expansion of the work and a continuation of the mission that has guided the organization since its founding: walking alongside young people, families, and communities impacted by the juvenile justice system while working to build something more just, humane, and effective.
“This grant is not a destination. It is the foundation,” said Cole Williams, Executive Director and Co-Founder of The Delta Project. “The Delta Project, Michigan Center for Youth Justice, and Wayne State University have come together to build something Michigan’s young people have needed for a long time — a coalition with the community trust, research infrastructure, and policy reach to produce real, statewide change.”
A Coalition Built for Collective Impact
The new coalition brings together three organizations with distinct strengths and a shared commitment to youth justice reform.
The Delta Project brings deep community trust and direct service experience working with boys and young men of color in Grand Rapids and across West Michigan. Through mentorship, fatherhood support, life skills programming, advocacy, and storytelling, The Delta Project has built its work around proximity to the young people and families most impacted by the juvenile justice system.
Wayne State University Center for Behavioral Health and Justice brings research infrastructure, evaluation capacity, and expertise in evidence-based practices at the intersection of behavioral health and the justice system.
Michigan Center for Youth Justice brings statewide policy experience, coalition-building capacity, and advocacy reach to help translate community-rooted solutions into broader systems change.
Together, the coalition reflects a simple but powerful belief: lasting change in youth justice cannot be created by one organization alone. It requires community credibility, research, policy, advocacy, and shared commitment moving in the same direction.
What the Grant Will Help Build
The IGNITING FUTURES investment will support three interconnected priorities across Michigan’s youth justice landscape.
First, the coalition will work to better leverage Michigan’s Child Care Fund, a state-local financing mechanism that reimburses counties for eligible youth justice services. The goal is to help ensure those resources reach the young people, families, and community organizations that need them most.
Second, the coalition will focus on expanding youth diversion options. Diversion creates better off-ramps for young people and helps reduce deeper involvement in the juvenile justice system, which can often create long-term harm rather than long-term healing.
Third, the coalition will work to bridge critical service gaps for families navigating the juvenile justice system. Too often, families are asked to move through complex systems without adequate support, guidance, or access to the right resources. This coalition will work to build infrastructure that can respond to those gaps directly and at scale.
“Youth diversion isn’t a soft approach,” Williams said. “It is the smarter, more effective, more humane alternative to systems that have failed young people for decades. This coalition exists to prove this is true — together, at scale, across the entire state of Michigan.”
Local Work, Statewide Impact
While the grant creates new statewide possibilities, The Delta Project’s direct service work will continue to grow alongside the coalition’s systems-change efforts.
Programs like Boys to Men-tors, the Young Fathers Initiative (Y-Fi), Healthy Connections, and the What I Know Now podcast remain central to The Delta Project’s mission. These programs create space for mentorship, healing, storytelling, leadership, and support for young people and families who are too often overlooked or misunderstood by larger systems.
That local presence is what makes this statewide work possible.
The Delta Project’s role in the coalition is rooted in the belief that the people closest to the challenges must also be closest to the solutions. As the coalition moves forward, community voice, lived experience, and direct service insight will remain essential to shaping what real reform looks like in practice.
Looking Ahead
The IGNITING FUTURES grant was created by Public Welfare Foundation to support local youth justice coalition work advancing transformative change, defending against harmful rollbacks, and sustaining hard-won reforms.
For Michigan, this investment creates an opportunity to build a youth justice system that is more responsive, more equitable, and more grounded in what young people and families actually need.
For The Delta Project, it marks a new chapter in a long-standing commitment: to support young people with care, challenge systems that create harm, and help build a future where justice is not only about accountability, but also about opportunity, healing, and belonging.
Reach out to Caton Vance or Joel Van Kuiken if you’re curious to learn more:
Caton Vance: caton@thedeltaproject.co
Joel Van Kuiken: Joel@thedeltaproject.co
