FORCE (Faithfully Organizing Resources for Community Empowerment) is a culmination of interfaith, grassroots and public sector leaders committed to having hard conversations about complex community issues, pushing boundaries and generating creative justice oriented solutions. We leverage media and culturally relevant strategies to connect people least likely to be engaged to civic infrastructures.
Toward the goal of building a safer, freer Detroit, Force is committed the following programs and activities:
Participatory Research – we aim to drive and capture the experiences of their constituencies and support them to create academically sound research that gives voice to otherwise ignored community concerns.
Narrative Building – pairs participatory research efforts with media creation and communications strategy to ensure that community voice is represented in public dialogue.
Youth and Millennial Organizing – seeks to deepen the community organizing and civic leadership capacity of youth and millennials who statistically are least likely to be engaged to civic infrastructures.
Coalition Development – we build relationships with Detroit’s grassroots leaders and activists to foster increased collaboration, improve and deepen relationships and coordinate efforts for greater impact.
Core components of our approach include:
Leadership Development Trainings – national and local trainings and planning sessions to build capacity and coordination of leaders to support change-making efforts.
Community Events and Public Actions – Force hosts a variety of public events and actions to bring attention to, inform and engage the broader public in creating solutions to issues as well as support advocacy efforts.
1-1 meetings – leaders engage people in their community in dialogue about community issues to learn how they are being impacted
Detroit 2019 Cost Per Shooting Report
Live Free Detroit - Combating the Forced Criminalization of a City 2018 Community Survey Report
Alia Harvey Quinn
Director
Najanava Harvey-Quinn
Community Organizer and Project Manager
Social Justice Street Fighter Najanava Harvey-Quinn is an organizer and project manager with Force Detroit. Najanava has a passion for social justice and comes from a family of grassroots organizers; as a unit they have been actively involved nationally with the fight for 15, equal rights, women’s rights, violence reduction and criminal justice reform.
F. Carlton Peeples
Media Specialist
Karisha Vanzant
Program Associate
Karisha Vanzant is the current Program Associate at Force Detroit, a project of Faith in Action Network. She provides administrative support to the Director, Alia Harvey-Quinn, the Communications/Media Arts, and the Live Free Coalition Department.
Karisha is a Michigan native and has worked in the non-profit community in the Metro Detroit area for the last four years. She received her Bachelor’s in Communications Media Arts from Wayne State University and Certificate in Digital Media Arts from Specs Howards School of Media Arts and Studies. With a focus on Film Making.
She developed her intense devotion to non-profit work from volunteering at her local community center. There she sat as an Administrative and Communications Assistant for three years. She found a love for community organizing, advertising, promotions, and event planning. This experience gave her a deep appreciation for how non-profits seek to improve the quality of life for so many individuals and families, one program at a time.
Also, she loves working with youth, spoken word poetry, traveling, and painting. She is happiest spending time with her husband and four children.
James “Screal” Eberheart Jr.
Community Visioneer
James “Screal” Eberheart Jr. was born and raised in Inkster, Mi. After graduating from high school, he moved to Detroit. There, he began schooling at Wayne County Community College District (WCCCD) studying Computer Information Systems while working in the communications field as a Cable Technician. In 2014, after eight years of working in corporate America, Screal experienced an injury at work that changed his life indefinitely. Subsequently, he began his journey of activism full-time in the communities of Detroit. Understanding the psychological strain on African Americans living in destitute conditions, he began an independent study of how the mind works. Therefore creating an entity called Hopz Management and becoming an entrepreneur. Screal‘s dedication and marketing skill-set earned him a seat on the board of Directors for New Era Detroit (N.E.D) as Chief Visionary/Executive Officer in 2014-15. After 4 years of dedication, Screal was presented the role of Vice President of New Era Detroit, August 17th, 2018. N.E.D is a community based grass-root organization centered around socioeconomic issues that operate nationally and internationally in 13+ states and Nigeria.
James “Screal” Eberheart Jr. in 2017 also entered his hat into the Detroit Political Realm. Running in the Primary Election as a Write-In Candidate for Detroit City Council District 1.
Screal‘s passion for people leads him to create a prominent program called Black To Reality (BTR). A program developed to build character and social awareness among the youth in schools. Curriculum’s consists of developing remedial math and reading skills peer mentoring, and social development (self-esteem). His desire to have a better understanding of the mind motivated him to further his independent study to a major for Mental Health and African-American Psychology. Which led him to become a brand ambassador at Inception (The First Mental Health Gym). Since becoming a full-time community organizer, Screal has been able to help more people in the community with now, operating a leadership position in 2020 with TandemEd “Own Your Story” / “Detroit Is Us” as the City Manager and National Field Director. There he has built coalitions with local residents, other community organizations, black businesses, and assisted in developing more self-sustainable programs locally and nationally. With just a little over 5 years of full-time community organizing, Screal has been able to assist with the growth of community organizing across the nation and remains dedicated to the progression of our future generations and communities.
Advisory Council
Faith In Action National Network
Live Free
(Faith In Action National Campaign)
Link Up With Detroit Force
Are you ready to take action? Complete the form and let us know how you would like to make an impact.
In order to create community led solutions to violence in our community, we need the energy of the community. Please join us in creating a force for justice!
We are committed to connecting impacted people to opportunities to create justice oriented policies and solutions. Feel free to get in touch with us to learn more about our efforts and how you can get involved.
Phone: 313.600.8877
E-mail: ForceDetroit@gmail.com
Business Hours: 10:00 am – 6:00pm M-F
Detroit is Us
DETROIT IS US
After a period focused on collecting stories, young people from our community, Own Your Story Ambassadors, took the compiled information and designed a story-based, media campaign that reflects us and what it means and will mean to be Black in Detroit. The campaign theme our young people decided on is “Detroit is Us.”
Join us for the virtual portion of the “Detroit Is Us” Community Day and Campaign Launch Event. The day kicks off with a scavenger hunt across the city (8a – 4p), but culminates with the virtual “Detroit Is Us” campaign launch event (4p – 7p).
Driving FORCE awards
FORCE Detroit Executive Director Alia Harvey-Quinn and the FORCE Detroit team were joined by special guest speakers to honor our city’s heroes. The Driving FORCE awards were hosted at the historic campus of Marygrove College in Detroit, Wednesday, October 21, 2020. With presenters that included Victoria M. Burton-Harris, Esq, the recent progressive democratic contender for Wayne County Prosecutor, Kevin Ryan Program Officer City | State Department Ford Foundation, and McGregor Fund President Kate Levin Markel. Melanca Clark, President Hudson-Webber Foundation, delivered a keynote address that spoke of unity and community involvement in neighborhood safety.
