At DJJ we hold many partnerships with the greater organizing community in Metro Detroit.

Every year we ask our partners about their political plans and take a wide-lens look at the local political landscape of Metro Detroit. Then we synthesize those responses, and our staff and leaders come together to commit to honing in on a handful of particularly important issues.

This year we are launching two teams — Immigration and Fund MI Future — to focus our impact and build cohesive organizing hubs to fight for racial and economic justice in Metro Detroit.

Immigration

The DJJ Immigration Team is a collective of DJJ-niks working with our partner organization, the People’s Assembly, an immigrant community defense org in South West Detroit. Our team focuses our efforts on monthly canvassing days, helping disperse key hotline and KYR resources to local businesses and coordinating KYR trainings for them. We also partake in Migra Watch patrol by pairing up our members to take on 1-2 patrol shifts a month.

Contact Stevie to find out more and get involved at [email protected]

Fund MI Future

The Fund MI Future Team is a group of DJJniks working with our partner, Fund MI Future, in a broad, statewide coalition to pass a slate of progressive ballot initiatives in 2026 and further organize and grow the State’s progressive base while we’re at it.
Our main focus is the Invest in MI Kids ballot initiative, a 5% fair share surcharge on the top 1.8% of earners in the state that will raise $1.5 billion annually for public education. Let’s make Michigan a place where many can thrive, not just the wealthy few!

Contact Laura to find out more and get involved at [email protected]

Other partnerships

Our leaders and staff are organizing around other issues with our partners, including: 

• A statewide coalition of disability advocates strategizing for a hub for disability rights information alongside Detroit Disability Power and other partner organizations
• Protecting Black homeownership in Detroit by stopping unconstitutional property tax assessments with the Coalition for Property Tax Justice
• Advocating for water affordability by passing legislation at the state level to ensure water is accessible to all, no matter your income, with the People's Water Board Assembly

If you would like to be involved in other issue areas, email Lisa at [email protected]