Lansing Empowerment Network

09/23/2026

Join us today , to be a part of the solution! In person at REO 1221 Reo Rd Lansing MI, 48910 or Via Zoom https://us02web.zoom.us/j/89861932384

09/12/2026

Catch us TODAY at the former Reo Elementary School from 12-4pm for the Village Lansing's 2nd Annual Rebuilding the Village Block Party! 🎉

Here is what we have lined up for you and the family:

🎯 Dunk Tank Fundraiser for TVL Boxing – Step up, take aim, and dunk local leaders, elected officials, and community figures to support our youth boxing program!

🍔 Free Food & Ice Cream Truck

🎟️ Raffle Giveaways & Live DJ

🏰 Inflatable Obstacle Course & Yard Games

🤝 Community Resource Tables

This event is all about celebrating our neighborhoods and strengthening our connections with one another. Bring your family, bring your friends, and help us spread the word!

Check out the flyer for more details—we can't wait to see you there! 🎈🙌

09/10/2026

This Saturday! Dunk list for this Saturday’s The Village Lansing Rebuilding the Village Block party is growing. Reo Elementary Saturday September 12th noon-4pm!

09/07/2026

This is for the people who keep showing up, to a job many refuse to acknowledge is necessary.
Happy Labor Day!

For the nonprofit leaders, organizers, advocates, outreach workers, educators, mentors, and everyday people who have decided that silence isn’t an option.

For those standing against racism, hate, fascism, discrimination, and systems that continue to leave marginalized communities behind.

For the BIPOC leaders carrying the weight of this work while often having to fight twice as hard just to be heard.

And for the allies who understand that solidarity is more than words, it’s standing beside people when it’s uncomfortable, speaking up when it would be easier to stay quiet, and using your position to help create real change.

Some of this work will never make the news, most of it will never receive an award.
Some of it happens in meeting rooms, neighborhoods, schools, churches, nonprofits, courtrooms, city halls, and on street corners where somebody simply refuses to give up on another human being.

We see you. We appreciate you. And we stand with you.

Keep organizing,advocating, protecting,building and pushing forward!

Because stronger communities, safer neighborhoods, dignity, opportunity, and justice don’t happen by accident.

People make them happen.

✊🏾.

08/28/2026

We have an update from our Director of Cradle to Career collaborative Caitlin Cornell.

Mark your calendars! Cradle to Career will be reprising monthly community meetings every third Wednesday starting 9/16/26.

Hybrid meetings will run 6:00-7:30PM, in person at Reo (1221 Reo Rd., Lansing, MI 48910) and ALWAYS with a virtual (Zoom) option.

Those monthly community meetings will always be hybrid for greatest access and accessibility. Planning meetings in between those monthly community meetings might be different, depending on on the access needs of those planners.

"Cradle To Career Lansing is a community-driven initiative focused on helping young people succeed from early childhood through adulthood. By bringing together schools, nonprofits, businesses, and families, the effort works to align resources, share data, and support youth every step of the way. It is about building a system where every child has the opportunity to thrive, educationally, emotionally, and economically."

Who can participate?
-Families, educators, community members and partners are all welcome; you don't have to be affiliated with educational spaces to care about the 0-24 concerns of Lansing youth!
-YOUTH are not only welcome to join our meetings, but we are also committed to CENTERING their voices in our conversations. Bring the kids!!!

Learn more about Cradle to Career and the Lansing Empowerment Network: https://www.empowerlansing.org/copy-of-lansing-360

Fill out our interest form to get on our list: https://forms.gle/JxBSkk87Y9SjWg7Y8

Stable Zoom link for C2C: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/83002374836

Email questions to [email protected]

See you soon!

https://www.empowerlansing.org

08/24/2026

❤️

08/24/2026

We have found that it is a lot harder to actually do this job, than it is to talk about it.

Most folks currently working in CVI are under paid, or volunteers, Lansing is no different. No other community issue that has been labeled a Public Heatlh crisis is expected to bare fruit un funded, we have to change the narrative.

These are professionals, Experts in their fields, doing real work, that takes sustainability to keep progress.

Here’s a good article chronicling the struggles of grassroots CVI work.

When Sheri Pruitt’s 17-year-old son, Richard, was shot and fighting for his life in Lansing, Michigan, in August 2014, all her attention was on tending to him. She wasn’t worried about paying the bills or any other day-to-day responsibilities. She was worried about Richard’s survival. Her son ...

08/21/2026

Major opportunity for community development! Bring your ideas to our next Economic development meeting September 1st, 4-5:30pm @ Reo elementary 1221 Reo rd Lansing MI 48910

🏗️ **Major Redevelopment Opportunity in Lansing’s Stadium District**

Envision what’s next for the Kalamazoo Gateway, a highly visible redevelopment opportunity located along E. Kalamazoo Street near downtown Lansing.

The City of Lansing is seeking proposals to purchase and redevelop three parcels totaling approximately 2.34 acres. The site is strategically located in the Stadium District, just over half a mile from the Michigan State Capitol and near Jackson Field, the Lansing Center, Impression 5 Science Center, Riverwalk Theatre, and other major downtown destinations.

📅 **Proposals are due September 14.**

🔗 Explore the Kalamazoo Gateway opportunity, review the RFP, and learn more through Build Lansing: www.lansingedc.com/build-lansing

08/19/2026

07/29/2026

At the Lansing Empowerment Network, we use a Covenant Agreement because this work has to be built on trust.

The covenant is a commitment we make to each other about how we show up in the work and how we treat one another while doing it.

Respect. Truth. Love. Peace. Freedom. Justice.

These aren’t just words on paper. They are the values we agree to carry into every meeting, every conversation, every disagreement, and every decision.

We know we won’t always agree. We know difficult conversations are part of this work. But the covenant gives us something to come back to, a shared understanding that how we do the work matters just as much as the work itself.

If we want to build trust in our community, we have to practice trust with each other.

If we want accountability from others, we have to be accountable ourselves.

And if we want people to work together across differences, we have to create spaces where people know they will be respected, heard, and valued.

That’s why we have a covenant.

It’s our commitment to each other, to the work, and most importantly, to our community.