State of Opportunity from Michigan Radio

On the corner of South Washington and Garden Street in Lansing, you'll find a brown sign with the words "Welcome to Fabulous Acres Neighborhood" painted in bright yellow letters. The community is just south of where the Diamond Reo plant once turned out its cars and trucks. By January of 1980, the plant had been torn down. But Fabulous Acres lives on.

When a neighborhood's got a problem, sometimes all it takes is a few people coming up with solutions over drinks. About a year and a half ago, a group of Hamtramck neighbors decided they were fed up with the horrible road conditions in their town. They got together, bought some cold patch and started filling potholes.

Neighbors helping neighbors. That’s the motto of ShareCare of Leelanau County. Since 1994, ShareCare has been helping seniors stay in their homes. It’s truly a win-win proposition. Seniors in Leelanau get the support and help they need to live independently, at home. And volunteers get the reward of knowing they’re helping their neighbors.

What’s the most important thing to consider when you’re choosing a neighborhood? You real estate agent would probably tell you: location, location, location. But what makes one neighborhood different from another a few blocks over? One key factor is the relationships between the people living there. In other words: neighbors, neighbors, neighbors.

It doesn't take long for a line to form to try at the new virtual reality headset. Right as the event gets started inside the basketball gym at the MLK Leadership Academy in Grand Rapids, the kids spot the headset and want to try it. Nine-year-old Sydney McKinney is one of the first to get a chance.

It was a blisteringly hot summer afternoon in Detroit. East Lafayette street was blocked off from car traffic. A few hundred people walked in unison down the middle of the street. Some of them carried signs with photographs of gun violence victims. Others held posters that read, "Thou shall not kill."

For the past few years, a campaign has been building to change how Michigan handles 17-year-olds who commit crimes. As it stands now, those 17-year-olds are automatically charged as adults, and – when convicted – sent to adult prisons. Advocates say Michigan is one of only seven states in the nation that still do this. And, in the next few weeks, they’re hoping to finally push through a law to change it. The law already has a lot to say about turning 18. That’s the age you can vote, the age you

For this story, I have two hats. One is my reporter hat. The other is my dad hat. I like the daddy hat. But I do still have this reporter hat over here. And I’ve been thinking a lot lately with my reporter hat about my beautiful, perfect little boy. Because, the truth is, he is at risk. And I’ve been thinking about this risk because of what’s been in the news lately – about how men talk and act toward women. And what’s considered normal for those things.

On a brightly-lit stage inside a massive convention hall in downtown Houston, Texas, Ainslya Charlton made her introduction. "You can call me Ace," she said, as her friends cheered. Out in the audience, away from the lights, were of nearly 1,000 people assembled for what was billed as the nation’s largest-ever gathering of undocumented immigrants in the U.S.

The girls who live on the Vista Maria campus in Dearborn Heights have all experienced some kind of serious abuse or neglect. Some are the victims of human trafficking, all are in the foster care system. They come to Vista Maria to work through the trauma and heal. One way 17-year old Ashleigh works through the pain is by journaling. She brandishes her notebook as evidence, each paged filled with strong, deliberate pen strokes in blue ink. She mostly writes poems (for her eyes only), and has

The idea for today’s State of Opportunity story comes from you. After we ran a piece about how special ed placements vary from district to district, several of you got in touch and asked: How do schools pay for special ed? I went to Elliott Elementary in Holt to get some answers. The first thing you notice about the special ed room at Elliott Elementary is the student teacher ratio: four students, four adults. All the students in this room have Autism Spectrum Disorder, a developmental

Most kids will head back to school this week ready to learn. But some will have to spend a good chunk of time re-learning things they forgot over the summer. The dreaded “ summer slide ” has been linked to persistent achievement gaps between kids from lower-income families and their better-off peers.

As kids head back to school, it’s worth remembering that all kids have the right to a free education. But as we've pointed out time and again , free doesn’t necessarily mean equal. Where you live can have a big impact on the quality of education you receive, especially if you have a child with special needs. Lisa Kocab has five sons ranging in age from kindergarten to college, so she's no stranger to the back-to-school routine. But this school year she's nervous. "I am very non-confrontational

No doubt you’ve heard by now about Pokemon Go!. It was all the rage this summer. But we did manage to find a group of kids who put down their smartphones and picked up something much more old school. Seven weeks ago, Kennedy Craig had never held a violin in her hands, let alone play one. But here she was, seven weeks later, plucking out "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star" on a pint-sized violin. She likes the instrument so much she wants "to get one for Christmas!" Around the corner in another

That's the question we explored at our latest State of Opportunity live event. We had a full house at the Cook Library Center in Grand Rapids on Thursday for "Stories From the Shadows." The evening included personal stories from undocumented immigrants living in Grand Rapids as well as a panel discussion about the most pressing issues facing that community. State of Opportunity reporter Dustin Dwyer moderated the conversation with our three panelists: Leticia Huesties, Grand Rapids