How This Woman is Empowering Communities Through Youth Development and Innovation

The Skillman Foundation
Tonya Allen is a true champion for young people. As President and CEO of The Skillman Foundation, the Detroit based nonprofit that champions ‘ education, equity and economy’ for Detroit youth she has made it her mission to advocate for the underserved in her community.
Allen has spearheaded several initiatives to ensure that youth are at the forefront of all of the structural and organizational changes currently happening within the city. In her role as co-chair of the Coalition for the Future of Detroit Schoolchildren, she successfully championed $667 million for students in the Detroit Public Schools Community District for use across the city and increased accountability amongst the district. Allen has also been instrumental in introducing and growing the Grow Detroit Young Talent program that places youth in the city in paid positions with local businesses. More than 8,200 jobs have been provided to young people in Detroit since the program’s inception. Most recently, she led the MBK Detroit Innovation Challenge which was supported by The Skillman Foundation in partnership with the Campaign for Black Male Achievement, JP Morgan Chase and Ford Motor Company. As a result of the challenge, 6 new ideas to support youth of color were awarded $50,000 each in support of their programming.
I sat down with Tonya to talk about the future of education, why it’s so important to invest in high quality youth organizations and how to use generational wealth as a driving force to create sustainable change in communities.
Danielle Hughes: As Detroit recovers and rebuilds, you’re pushing equity and the importance of redesigning systems in order to create and expand opportunities for youth in Detroit. Why do you think this is important?
Tonya Allen: We’re a very young country. Most of us don’t think of it like that. Most think of us as a powerhouse, and we are, but, for the most part when we as a country face challenges as a part of that traditional life cycle, we don’t know what to do. Just to give you an example – if you go back just 30 years, you can look at Boston, New York, Seattle and San Francisco – they were all considered dead cities. Look at where they are now. I think about Detroit in that same way. We went through a life-cycle and we’re now going through this revival. Our challenge as a city is: are we going to recover in the same way these other places have recovered? I think a lot of other cities focus on economic recovery first and equity after. That’s the narrative that people say and that actually does not help everyone. The division around socioeconomic and racial issues in these cities is actually deeper and wider than they’ve ever been. My push on equity in Detroit is about us recovering in a way that everybody benefits everyone, especially young people. So, if we can focus on equity now and embed it into our systems of today, once we’re through that recovery, we’ll all share in that prosperity – not just a few of us.
Hughes : There’s a well-known saying in community work: “Power is organized people or organized money.” What does this mean to you?
Allen: That’s the quote that actually defined my career. There are a lot of people trying to organize people, but there are very few people who are trying to organize money. That really pushed me to think about philanthropy. I was trying to figure out how to use these institutions that hold wealth. How do we begin to use that wealth to lever additional money and capital to change issues? My responsibility is to build, exert and share power. I think if we can do those things in the pursuit of a common good then we’re creating a more just society.
Hughes: In terms of power, can you break down the different phases of power in your mind?
Allen: I would like for us to be more intentional about building black power. I think when people hear that they think about nationalists. I actually don’t think about black power in that way. I think about it as having the ability to re-write the rules and having the ability to have significant influence and not be looked over. I think in the ‘60’s through the ‘80’s we did a pretty good job of trying to build political power in the black community. It’s more important for us to build economic power. Political power is fleeting. You want political power to be anchored in the self- interest of community. I believe that comes from economic power. We know that when we have businesses in our communities that they hire people in our communities. We can begin to create that economic ladder. Wealth is created in 4 generations, not in one. At one point, Detroit was a very prosperous place and as a result of us not thinking about it from a generational perspective we’ve seen a lot of that dissipate and it’s time for us to reclaim it, and do that with a long view.
Hughes : Investing in youth leadership today is important. In what ways as growing leaders and entrepreneurs do our part?
Allen : We need to change our narrative when we talk about young people. I hear so many people talk about how they’re going to “save our youth” our youth don’t need to be saved! They’re full of talent and curiosity and they’re trying to navigate life. I think that We need to give young people opportunities to lead today. This whole notion that they are ‘leaders of the future’ is incorrect. They are leaders of today. Almost every social movement that’s ever happened in this country was driven by young people. No one gave them permission to do it. Young people don’t have to ask for permission to lead. I believe that we need to embolden and enable them to lead today. We also have to contribute, though. You can contribute with your time, your talent  or your treasures. It’s important that we support high quality youth development programs by putting money in them. It’s also important that we’re spending time with our young people through mentoring. Small things make a big difference in the lives of people. Close the gap and create opportunities in big (and small) ways.
Hughes: How must we re-imagine education to meet the needs of a rapidly changing economy and society?
Allen: Most of us don’t understand that we’re in a knowledge economy and we’re quickly moving into an autonomy era. Most of our children who will be starting school next fall – all of the jobs that they will have haven’t even been created yet. If we don’t begin to think about what their experiences are going to be and understand that technology is no longer doing production it also does cognition. It knows how to think just as we do. Not only does it think but it’s picking your brain every single time you use it. That’s what artificial intelligence is. We’ll be seeing a lot more automation and cognition happening in technology. With that being said, many of the jobs that we think of today will not exist in the future. We will have a cyclical nature of work and that requires a cyclical nature of education. It’s imperative that we focus on how we equip our young people to exist in that nature and not to be discouraged by it.