Kirk Mayes is the executive director of the Brightmoor Alliance. After graduating from Michigan State University in 1999, he started his career in sales as an insurance producer with a specialty in life and health products. It wasn’t long before Kirk realized that working every day to fill quotas and chase after riches was not his passion. He decided to try his hand at helping at a school in River Rouge as a substitute teacher and it was there that he discovered his passion for giving back to youth and the community. While still working with young people in the class room he started a nonprofit organization, Village Gardeners, with a mission to transform the neighborhoods of Detroit by focusing on improving the effectiveness and capacity of neighborhood block club organizations. Although he did not have direct contact with youth anymore. Kirk believed that if we could extend the safety net for our children to reach the members of the “Village”; then a sustainable impact could be made to change the educational, social and economic outcomes of the community. He has been working to mobilize the community around the needs of Detroit's children since 2001 with Village Gardeners and as a full time professional in 2006 while working with Communities in Schools Detroit. In 2008, Kirk joined National Community Development Institute and The Skillman Foundation to support the Good Neighborhood initiative in Brightmoor, a community in northwest Detroit. The goal of this effort is to ensure that the neighborhood's children; with the support of programs, services and caring adults, are safe, healthy, welleducated and prepared for adulthood. Kirk has played a vital role in developing resident engagement and organizational buyin, seeking to unite and mobilize the community's stakeholders behind a common vision. Kirk has also taken leadership opportunities in several citywide revitalization efforts, including helping to draft a policy agenda for the region's young professionals (known as the Detroit Declaration) and contributing his talents to the emerging leaders roundtable of the B.I.N.G Institute, an effort to "Build Innovative New Government." He also serves on as a board member for a number of nonprofits including Brightmoor Community Center, THAW and Global Detroit. While Kirk takes his commitment to service to the community very seriously his number one priority is as a loving spouse to Tamika Mayes and proud father to Kirk Mayes, Jr.
17421 Telegraph Rd, Suite 138 * Detroit, MI 48219