Discovering and applying new and innovative economic development tools, models, policies, and programs
Creating Jobs and Wealth in Distressed Michigan Communities
The Tendaji Talks
In 2012, Robert Brown, CCED Associate Director, Tendaji Ganges, and Flint colleagues, formed Neighborhoods Without Borders as an open network and platform in a grassroots and community effort to significantly improve the lives of children, youth, and families in Flint’s most distressed neighborhoods. To honor Mr. Ganges after his passing in 2015, Brown and colleagues initiated the Tendaji Talks in 2016, which is a community-based diversity, equity, and inclusion effort.
A New Jersey native, Tendaji W. Ganges (born Henry Ganges) graduated from Trenton Central High School, completed the Upward Bound Program at Princeton University, earned his Bachelors at Antioch College in Yellow Springs, OH, and his Masters at Newark State College in Union, New Jersey. Tendaji dedicated over 40 years of his life to pre-college and college level students by serving as a mentor, teacher, consultant, senior level administrator, and various other roles. He served on numerous professional and community boards and committees including, but not limited to the Board of Directors of The Urban League of Greater Flint, membership on the Flint Big Brothers/Big Sisters Mentoring Task Force, the Flint Community Action Group, the Flint Community Leadership Summit and Planning Group, 100 Black Men of Flint, the Flint and Genesee Chamber of Commerce, Vice President of the Board of Trustees for Antioch College and innumerable others. Notably, Tendaji spent nearly 20 years as the Executive Director of the Office of Educational Opportunities Initiatives and the Assistant to the Provost at the University of Michigan-Flint.