STATE OF OPPORTUNITY. Can Kids in Michigan Get Ahead?
Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations
This special reporting project wrapped up in May 2017. Read more.

Flint, a city of possiblity and community for young people?

courtesy of the Local 432

Flint is a much maligned city. While there is plenty of good happening in the city it does have challenges that go far beyond an image problem.

The city has financial problems serious enough to warrant an Emergency Financial Managerreplacing elected officials. Young people in Flint contend with poverty, obesity, crime and poorly performing schools of such magnitude that emotional and financial success looks statistically improbable. 

This is not a story about that improbability. Instead the unlikely event here is how Dan Moilanen, having made it far away from his suburban home outside of Flint, ended up moving into the city and found his calling re-opening the nonprofit music club that was a key part of his own teenage years, the Flint Local 432.

Moilanen's mother became ill and needed a bone-marrow transplant while he was working in Austin, Texas for Apple. After he came back home to care for her, he decided to give up his lucrative job permanently.

Click above to listen in to sounds of the club and a story from Flint.

*This story was informed by the Public Insight Network. Submit a story idea here.

Related Content