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FOCUS Detroit

As an expression of Christ’s love, FOCUS Detroit exists to bring together Orthodox Christian churches, along with other communities and partners to help children experiencing poverty to succeed in school.

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Contact Us

Adam Murphy, Director
Phone: 866-267-3083 x716
Email: JavaScript required to view address
Address:
21931 Evergreen Rd
Southfield, MI 48075

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what we care about

Mission, Vision & Values

Mission Statement

As an expression of Christ’s love, FOCUS Detroit exists to bring together Orthodox Christian churches, along with other communities and partners to help children experiencing poverty to succeed in school.

Here in Detroit the greatest social justice issue of our time is the education of children living in poverty. Almost 60% of Detroit kids live in poverty and 90.6% of all elementary children attend a high poverty school. Some of the effects of poverty on children are poor academic achievement, under resourced schools, food insecurity, poor nutrition, substandard housing, and lack of access to basic needs. Children cannot benefit from learning if they are hungry, cold, and don’t have their basic needs met. FOCUS provides unique and creative programs that are designed to serve children experiencing poverty. Founded by Eastern Orthodox Christians, we now partner with over 80 schools and over 40 churches, businesses and organizations. All of FOCUS’s services are provided without discrimination of any kind. We do not require any faith commitment or religious affiliation from anyone who volunteers or from anyone we serve.

OUR VALUES:

We value the healing love of Christ for those who receive and those who give. We value serving with humility and compassion. We value “venerating” the human icon that is every person created in the image of God. We value seeing Christ in the poor as our Lord said. We value praying daily for our work, those we serve and ourselves.​ We value being present with the other person in this isolated, distracted techno-world. We value empowering others and giving a voice to those we serve for identification and solutions of local needs.​ We value bringing together and uniting, the giver and the under-served, recognizing that we all experience poverty in different ways and all are givers and receivers.​

Advisory Board

Michael Ansara, (Chair) of Public Storage, Inc.
Leslie Ayoub, (Vice Chair) Director of Sales at Gordon Food Service
Dr. Mark Zervos, Division Head, Infectious Disease at Henry Ford Health System
Paula Kalevas, Food Stylist at PK Styling
Christina Guirguis, Attorney at Wayne County Prosecutor’s Office
David Ayyash, Attorney and Restaurateur
Marika Pehlivanidis, Product Manager at Quicken Loans
Anne Randall, Partner/Attorney at Reiter & Walsh, P.C. 
Chrysia Carson, Master Tax Advisor for Block Advisors
Dr. Victoria Tarazi, Hospice Physician at Angela Hospice
Neveen Awad, Partner and Managing Director of Boston Consulting Group
Lena Gionette, Attorney at Varnum Law

Clergy Advisors: Fr. Jim King (Antiochian), Fr. Nick Marcus (GOA), Fr. Dimitrie Vincent (OCA), and Fr. Raphael Riwes (Coptic)

what we Do

Programs

Weekend Food Sacks for Kids

Churches and businesses sign-up to host a volunteer event of assembling 350 or more weekend food sacks. This is a great event that can be held at your location for kids, adults, families or groups of 10 or up to 200. FOCUS will bring all the food, baggies, boxes and supplies to you for a $500 donation. You may to participate with some kind of drive as well.

Summer Feeding for kids

Each summer FOCUS provides thousands of meals for hungry kids at a vulnerable time. We serve meals at various locations around Metro Detroit and utilize staff and hundreds of volunteers. This is a great volunteer opportunity for individuals, families (including children) or groups.

Group Volunteer Service Projects

Bring your group to Detroit for par of a day, a weekend or week long urban service-learning retreat! We will provide the service projects, lodging and other planning for a life-changing experience! This is a great opportunity for church teen and young adult groups and mission trips. $100 program donation plus $15 a night per person for overnight lodging at partner location in Detroit if needed.

Tutoring and Coding Classes

We need volunteers to support our tutoring and coding class for elementary kids in SW Detroit!

Drives for Kids

THANKSGIVING BASKETS Order laundry baskets from us for your parish/business/group. Hand out baskets with a provided shopping list to be filled and returned to your location with a $10 donation per basket to FOCUS.

ST. NICHOLAS SACKS Order sacks from us for your church/business/group. Participants take a sack, fill with wrapped gifts for enclosed family sheet, and return sack to your location with a $10 donation to FOCUS.

BOOKS FOR KIDS Order small crates from us for your parish/business/group. Hand out crates(with instructions) to be filled with new or used books and returned to your location with a $10 donation per crate to FOCUS.

ANGEL TREE for Hats, Gloves and Scarves: Order tree tag-ornaments from us for your church/business/group with a $100 donation. Hang tags on tree, members take and return with items listed on tag.

BACKPACKS AND BACK TO SCHOOL SUPPLIES Order backpacks from us for your parish/business/group. Hand out backpacks with a provided shopping list to be filled and returned to your location with a $10 donation per backpack to FOCUS.

SCHOOL UNIFORM SUPPORT Order color-coded bins from us for your parish/business/group with a $100 donation. Set up bins to be filled with designated colored shirts, pants or footwear.

COATS FOR KIDS Help us provide warm coats for kids who don’t have them.

HYGIENE KITS FOR KIDS Order toiletry bags from us for your parish/business/group. Hand out bags with a provided shopping list to be filled and returned to your location with a $5 donation per bag to FOCUS.

FOCUS is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization, FEIN: 26-4427803

About Us

Privacy Policy

FOCUS North America knows that you care how information about you is collected, used and shared.  We appreciate your trust and we are committed to protecting your privacy.  This notice describes our privacy policy. It is our desire that visitors to our website are aware of this privacy policy.

Personal Information

FOCUS North America does not sell, rent or otherwise share any personal information collected on this site or through other means, such as subscriptions or newsletters.  Though we make every effort to preserve user privacy, we may need to disclose personal information when required by law wherein we have a good-faith belief that such action is necessary to comply with a current judicial proceeding, a court order or legal process served on our website.

FOCUS North America does not knowingly allow other organizations or services to track individual visitors to our website. Our site captures limited information about visits to our site and we use this information only to analyze general traffic patterns (e.g., what pages are most/least popular) and to perform routine system maintenance. For example, we may log the name of your Internet Service Provider or use cookie technology to recognize you and hold information from your visit. Among other things, the cookie may store the user name and password that you use to access our site, sparing you from having to re-enter that information each time you visit.

In certain cases, you can choose not to provide us with information, for example by setting your browser to refuse to accept cookies, but if you do you may be unable to access certain portions of the site or may be asked to re-enter your user name and password.

We do not knowingly collect any personal information from a child without the consent of the child’s parent(s).

When you make a donation online, we ask for basic information to process your donations and to verify credit card data. We use your mailing address to send your tax-deductible receipts and to keep you informed about what we are doing in different parts of the world through our publications and appeals.

This site has security measures in place to protect against the loss, misuse and alteration of the information under our control. Any forms submitted online that contain personal financial information are submitted via a secure server using encryption technology. Credit card information and other personal information will not be released by FOCUS North America to any other party, except when required by law.

How do we safeguard personal information? 
We make every reasonable effort to ensure that personal information is accurate and complete. We rely on individuals to notify us if there is a change to their personal information that may affect their relationship with our organization. If you are aware of an error in our information about you, please let us know and we will correct it on request wherever possible. In some cases we may ask for a written request for correction.

We protect personal information in a manner appropriate for the sensitivity of the information. We make every reasonable effort to prevent any loss, misuse, disclosure or modification of personal information, as well as any unauthorized access to personal information.

Links

This website may contain links to other sites. Please be aware that FOCUS North America is not responsible for the privacy practices of such other sites. This privacy statement applies solely to information collected by this website and by FOCUS North America.

Conditions of Use, Revisions, and Disclaimer
If you have any concern about FOCUS North America’s privacy practices, please send a description of your concern to info@focusna.org and we will try to resolve it. You may also contact us by phone or postal mail. Changing circumstances may require that we make changes to this privacy policy from time to time. Any changes will be reflected on this website.

FOCUS North America expressly disclaims all liability for and damages of any kind arising out of use, reference to, or reliance on any information accessed at this site. Reference to any commercial product, process, or service by trade name, trademark, service mark, manufacturer, or otherwise does not constitute or imply endorsement, recommendation, or favoring by FOCUS North America.

Mailing lists 
FOCUS North America does not share, rent, trade or sell its mailing lists to other parties. Those who no longer wish to receive email or postal mail communications from FOCUS North America can have their information removed from our mailing lists by contacting FOCUS North America at the above-listed contact information or by email at info@focusna.org  An “unsubscribe” link is included in each of FOCUS North America’s e-newsletters, allowing you to unsubscribe from our electronic communications.

If you wish to opt-out of receiving all communications from FOCUS, please contact us.

Feedback Invited

FOCUS North America is always interested in hearing from you. Please communicate your suggestions, corrections, updates, questions and other comments using the above-listed contact information.

Privacy Policy

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