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// Who We Serve

Living Arts focuses most of its programs on at-risk youth ages 3-17 that live, attend school, or worship in Southwest Detroit – a community that is at once culturally rich, rapidly growing, and vulnerable to a range of social and economic problems. A relatively large geographic area in the city of Detroit – composed primarily of the zip codes 48209, 48210 and 48216 – Southwest Detroit begins just a stone’s throw from the massive Ambassador Bridge and extends several miles north, south and west to the border with East Dearborn. According to the 2000 Federal Census, these three zip codes had a total population of approximately 85,000 – forming almost 10% of the total Detroit population.

The rapid growth of the southwest Detroit community is largely due to the large influx of Mexican and Puerto-Rican families to the southeastern Michigan region within the past fifteen years. This recent immigration wave has contributed to making the racial and ethnic composition of the area uniquely diverse – and this is one of the community’s greatest assets – especially when considering that metropolitan Detroit is considered the most racially segregated area in the country. Such diversity is reflected in the youth population of southwest Detroit. According to the National Kids Count Database (a highly reputable project of the Annie E. Casey Foundation), the total under-18 population in southwest Detroit includes: 13,692 Hispanic, 10,899 White and 7,025 African Americans.