INKSTER, Mich. (WXYZ) — A group of about a dozen people meet inside Inkster's City Hall once a month; they're all community activists, many of them former gang members who have turned their lives around.
The team is led by the founder of Nubit LLC and a non-profit group called Rosebuds, Joe Claybron.
“Bringing everybody together, there’s a lot of bridges that can be built and a lot of bridges that need to be crossed," he said in early December during one of the group's meeting.
You could the group Inkster's unofficial guardians; people using their past mistakes as a road map to bring their beloved city into a new era.
“My brother was killed here. Many of my friends either went to jail or lost their life here," said returning citizen and local recording artist, Raymond Gray.
Gray joins Machelle Pearson, who served 34 years in prison starting at age 17 and is now a spokesperson for prison reform, Earl Burton who spent 28 years behind bars and now works as a justice fellow with Michigan Liberation, local clothing designer and former gang member Jose Rivera, and several others all working together to create a brighter future for their home; the City of Inkster.
The group's goal now is a pretty simple. As Pearson puts it, the focus is "to better our community. To save our youth.”
“We kind of tore up the community, so we kind of want to give back," Rivera said.
He met Claybron while they were incarcerated; Rivera served 10 years. He now runs local clothing company Detroit Forever 313.
"I live right here in Inkster where I started. So, Detroit Forever 313 kind of built it’s way up all the through and through in the City of Inkster," he said.
“So many things missing inside of the community," Claybron told Action News during a recent community giveaway inside the Inkster Housing Commission.
Whether it's delivering free food or electronics to families living in public housing, or running after school and job training programs for young men in Inkster, Claybron said programming is key in keeping kids on the right path. It's something he and his peers didn't have enough of, he said.
"You have the older gentleman that were apart of the gang lifestyle but now they have turned a new leaf on life. And we’re trying to make sure the youth don’t follow in the footsteps of some of their older brothers and cousins," he said.
Raymond Gray, who goes by Ray, is focused on reaching people through is music, and changing the narrative surrounding his city.
“I’m not alone. So many people in Inkster have been taken from and they still stay here. So I’m kind of like a voice for them as well because they’re not going to leave either," Gray said.
Machelle Pearson, who has been home from prison since last August, wasted little time before getting involved with prison reform advocacy groups.
She first entered prison before she was even 18.
“I don’t want to see another 15, 16, 17-year-old go down the street that I went down," she said. Dec. 5 was her first time joining Claybron's meeting.
The group is getting support from city hall, starting with Inkster's newly elected Mayor, Patrick Wimberly.
Wimberly said he's not only behind Claybron's efforts, but feels a sense of gratitude to the group.
"I could be in this position alone. Be in this position, in this seat alone, cause without the community it doesn’t work. You have to have people that understand number one what is needed, but also two, to hold you accountable," Mayor Wimberly told Action News when he stopped into Claybron's recent meeting.
Wimberly feels Inkster is primed for new investment, something he wants the rest of the state to see also.
“[We're] right next to the International Airport, Michigan Avenue, historic Michigan Avenue, four freeways between us," he said.
Inkster has long been laden with violent crime. Compared to neighboring metro Detroit cities, it's well above the state average.
Claybron and his team, working with people who used to be on the inside of some of that violence, know first hand how hard it can be to escape, and also re-engage in a community.
Rivera spent months trying to get his business up and running . He's now taking orders daily, and runs his company primarily via social media. He wants to help other local entrepreneurs succeed, by offering the support and guidance he never received.
“Once they see that you’ve been incarcerated everyone’s like oh it’s a great idea but we’ll get in contact with you. It was a hurdle, I had to make sacrifices.”
Rivera hopes that the city's next generation of success stories, are from people who call Inkster home.
“Kind of give it the same treatment that the surrounding cities are getting right now. Hopefully that wave comes from Detroit over to Inkster.”
