DETROIT – On Sunday, people gathered to participate in the annual March for Hope.
The event brings a diverse group of Metro Detroit residents together for a celebration of unity and renewed commitment to overcome important issues.
Participants marched for change.
“We are here because we are hopeful,” said Julie Rice, who attended the event. “We are facing some major issues as a community, as a country, that we must address. We have to address those issues together.”
Jasahn Larsosa, director of Focus: HOPE, discussed the wide-ranging issues.
“We founded this organization 50 years ago, with the mission to overcome racism, poverty, social injustice. Certainly, those are still issues today. They evolved a bit, maybe look different at times, but we think our mission is more relevant today as it has ever been,” Larsosa said.
Focus: HOPE is a civil and human rights organization with a purpose of providing opportunities for all through education and personal and community empowerment.
Focus: HOPE CEO Portia Roberson said the organization's mission hasn't changed throughout the decades and its members are still fighting for many of the same things.
“Today, our purpose is a couple of things. Certainly racial harmony is one of those of things. Social justice is an issue, and then poverty. We’re looking at ways we can train people for jobs that get them out of the cycle for unemployment to becoming working-class citizens,” Roberson said.