River Rouge Resilience Initiative
A city-wide approach to mental health, built on what River Rouge already has in place and paid for by funding the City is eligible to pursue.
Working page · last updated August 9, 2026
Start here
What this page is. A working page, not a proposal. It holds the current thinking on a River Rouge initiative so there is one place to look instead of a chain of attachments. Nothing here carries a price and nothing is being asked of the City beyond a conversation. Where an answer is not yet known, this page says so.
The ask is time. A working session with the offices you think belong at the table, long enough to walk through what each one does today and where a tool like this would help or get in the way. Nothing to sign, no presentation.
The starting point is the library
River Rouge Schools are bringing in SEL360, an evidence-based social and emotional learning program built on a curriculum developed with the University of California, San Francisco, Langley Porter Psychiatric Institute of Mental Health. Underneath it sits the library.
It runs on a phone, a tablet or a laptop, so it goes where the person goes. It is an evidence-based curriculum rather than a clinical service.
Start with the library rather than with a program. Phase One would give city offices access to those exercises so a staff member already working with a resident can put a specific, relevant exercise in front of that person the same day. No cohort, no enrollment, no scheduled class. The heavier program build comes later, and only where it earns its place.
Three pieces that already fit together
River Rouge Schools
The district applied on July 27 for five years of federal funding through Project AWARE, with a decision expected in September. The district deployment moves forward either way.
The offices residents already reach
The same library, reached by the city offices that serve residents day to day. This is the piece this page is mainly about.
Under review with the Police Department
A separate draft is with the River Rouge Police Department now. It covers Handle With Care, the Michigan protocol for notifying a school when an officer encounters a child at a difficult scene; an optional resource card that reaches a parent or guardian rather than the child; and the diversion screening requirement below.
How access would work
Two different doors, because the situations are not the same. Which one applies is the City's call, office by office.
Staff assigned
Where a staff member already has a working relationship with the resident, the staff member assigns an exercise with the resident's written consent and can see whether it was completed. Staff never see what a person writes. Only completion.
Resident enrolled
Where the office holds something the resident needs, the resident enrolls themselves using a code the staff member hands over. Access is voluntary and declining it changes nothing about the service the person came in for. The City sees counts, never names.
Resident-level information would sit with mySHO and its licensed clinical partner rather than in a city file. How that is handled, and by whom, is one of the first things worth working through with the City Attorney.
Funding: what is due in the next 90 days
Every opportunity below has an application deadline inside the next 90 days and an eligible applicant here in River Rouge or at a body that serves it. mySHO is a for-profit company and is never the applicant on any of these. It contributes the program, the curriculum and the reporting.
2026-27 Out-of-School Time (OST) Grant
Due September 23, 2026Michigan Department of Lifelong Education, Advancement, and Potential (MiLEAP)
Allowable uses expressly include health and wellness, conflict resolution, leadership and social engagement, and contracted vendor services for specialized programming. Scoring rewards the share of low-income families served.
Worth knowing. The same eligibility sentence carries a licensing gate: the applicant must be a licensed child care organization for a school-age program, hold a Children's Camp License, have an application pending, or meet an exemption under 1973 Public Act 116. Whether the City meets that is the first thing to check.
Consolidated Youth Grant Program, FY 2026
Due September 8, 2026U.S. Department of Justice, Office on Violence Against Women
Two of its purpose areas fund middle and high school education and services, and programs engaging young people in prevention. Both are curriculum delivery rather than clinical service.
Worth knowing. The $350,000 floor rules out a small pilot, and every applicant must document required partners in a memorandum of understanding. The required partner type varies by purpose area and is published separately, so that needs confirming before anyone commits.
Safer Outcomes: Enhancing Crisis Response Training for Law Enforcement, FY 2026
Due August 27, 2026U.S. Department of Justice, Office of Community Oriented Policing Services
Funds de-escalation and crisis response covering mental health crises and community service referrals, which is the moment an officer needs something to hand a resident.
Worth knowing. The money is aimed at training officers, so this program would have to be positioned as the referral resource on the back end of a contact rather than as the training itself. Eighteen days of runway.
Community Health Matching Grant, concept paper
Due October 28, 2026 (concept paper)Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan Foundation
Funds community-led responses to an identified local health need with measurable outcomes. The poverty rate and the State screening requirement supply the need statement.
Worth knowing. The concept paper is the first gate; money is not decided until April 2027. The funder does not pay for computer hardware or software, so a request would have to be built around staff time, training and evaluation rather than the program license.
Primary Prevention Youth Homelessness Demonstration Program
Due August 17, 2026U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Administration for Children and Families
Primary prevention for ages 12 to 26, with named focus on community and school connection and healthy family relationships.
Worth knowing. Eight days of runway, and the $350,000 floor rules out a small ask. The funder's outcome of interest is housing stability, so this program would be a component rather than the project.
FY27 Child Care Fund Annual Plan and Budget
Due August 15, 2026Michigan Department of Health and Human Services, Bureau of Juvenile Justice
This is the closest match to the State screening requirement. The handbook names risk and mental health screening tool costs as allowable, and makes diversion programming reimbursable when it sits in the County's approved plan.
Worth knowing. This is a county plan submission rather than a competitive grant, so realistically it is a conversation with Wayne County about a future plan year or a mid-year amendment, not an August action.
Always open
These accept applications continuously, so they never fall inside a 90-day window.
- Foundation Grants, Preparing for Success, Ralph C. Wilson, Jr. Foundation. Applications accepted year-round from nonprofits in Wayne County. No published minimum or maximum. The focus area is described as the communication, teamwork and critical-thinking skills people need to grow and adapt, which is close to a restatement of this curriculum. Municipalities and school districts are not named as eligible, so a community partner would apply.. Details
- Grant inquiry, Skill Building and Employment, McGregor Fund. Rolling, nonprofit applicants in Wayne, Oakland or Macomb counties, minimum request $25,000. Reentry and workforce skills both sit inside published program areas. The Fund states it is currently focusing on existing grant partners and those already in its pipeline, so treat this as a low-probability door.. Details
Grant scan last refreshed August 9, 2026. Refreshed weekly.
Where this would sit inside the City
We do not yet know which office owns each piece. Some of it sits with the City, some with the River Rouge Housing Commission, Wayne County, or community agencies working here. Sorting out who is actually at the table is most of the value of a first session.
- Senior Activities. An established programs function with a defined resident population.
- Public Works, parks and recreation, and youth sports. Where young people already gather.
- Police Department. Already reviewing the public safety draft.
- Community Development and the Public Library. Points of contact for residents with no device or no private place to use one.
- Partners outside City government. Housing and human services reach residents here through other bodies, which would join as partners rather than as city departments.
A gap the State created and nobody has filled
Since October 1, 2024, Michigan law has required that before a juvenile matter can be diverted by agreement, the law enforcement official or court intake worker must receive the results of a risk screening tool and a mental health screening tool, conducted by a designated individual or agency trained in those tools. Michigan Compiled Laws 722.823, as amended by 2023 Public Act 287.
One thing to be clear about. mySHO does not perform that screening and is not a designated screening agency. The requirement creates a need at the front end that River Rouge would still have to solve. What mySHO carries is what comes after, once a screen points to a need.
What is still open
Kept here in the open rather than settled quietly, so the working team is looking at one list. Nothing below blocks a first conversation. All of it has to be answered before there is a number attached to anything.
Can the platform do exactly this today
Phase One assumes a city staff member can assign a single exercise to one resident outside a cohort. Parents already hold their own logins running the same exercises, and the core program is built from the library, so the pieces exist. What is not confirmed is a non-school staff user, a resident account with no roster behind it, and single exercise assignment with completion showing. Written answers are being collected from the platform team.
mySHO
Who holds the record, and is it disclosable
Michigan's mental health confidentiality protection attaches when the record is held by a department, a community mental health services program, a licensed facility or a contract provider. Michigan's Freedom of Information Act reaches a record used by a public body in performing an official function. Which of those applies here is a question for the City Attorney, along with who responds to a request and who owns the record under any agreement.
City Attorney
What the City can actually fund, and how
Three things would move this along faster than a general funding conversation: the current adopted budget with fund balance, the competitive bidding and Council approval thresholds, and whether the City has ever received a Wayne County opioid settlement subaward.
City of River Rouge
The Michigan billing relationship
Medicaid behavioral health billing in Wayne County runs through a provider contracted with the Detroit Wayne Integrated Health Network. mySHO does not have that Michigan relationship in place today and is working it. Until a contract is signed, the insurance half of the funding picture is intended rather than secured, and Phase One is built to stand without it.
mySHO
Who performs the juvenile screening today
The State requires screening results from a designated agency before a juvenile matter can be diverted by agreement. Who does that for River Rouge juveniles now, and what the wait is, is the open question. The answer names both a partner and the size of the gap.
Police Department and mySHO
Who to call
952.220.4922
248.240.1526
More on the program: the SEL360 overview video · workforce readiness · engagement snapshot