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personal values,” she said. “Now, it’s our
generation’s turn to plant seeds for those
to come.
“That’s really what motivates me to
do what I’m doing — it’s acting as the
next generation for the generation that is
going to come after,” DePriest said.
I met DePriest at Chroma — a fittingly
hip coworking and event space in
Detroit’s Milwaukee Junction where her
board had recently met — to learn how
she and NEXTGen Detroit will ready
today’s 20- and 30-somethings to invest
in the future of our community. Here’s
what she had to say.
A NEW TIME, NEW NEEDS
NEXTGen Detroit was born out of a
need to retain and attract young adults
to Detroit at a time of a significant
economic crisis [2011]. NEXTGen
Detroit evolved to keep people here,
to make sure they have programming
and to make sure they had access to
community leadership and involvement
opportunities.
But now we’re in a totally different
time. This is really the next generation for
NEXTGen Detroit. We know people are
here. We know people want to keep their
families here and are having amazing
career opportunities here. So, how can
we build up an infrastructure that meets
those people where they’re at?
There are two big challenges that I see.
The first is, peoples’ time is at a premium.
How do we make our programs
meaningful so that people want to
spend their time there? The other major
challenge is communicating to young
people the value in having a traditional
community infrastructure. Why does it
make sense that we have a Federation?
Why does it make sense that we have a
convening body for our community?
We’ve been able to shift our focus a
little bit away from attracting young
people to Detroit and really focus on
building and retaining the community
we have here, which has been exciting
for me because it’s very reflective of
my experience. I grew up in the Metro
Detroit area and was very involved in
the traditional Jewish community. I was
a Tamarack camper for my whole life. I
went to Jewish Academy. I had Hillel at
undergrad [at University of Michigan].
I had all those experiences, which was
why it was so meaningful for me to come
back and make sure that I had a place in
leadership and ensuring access for others.
A BOARD THAT WORKS
This space, Chroma, is where the board
kicked off our year together. In the past,
I think we would have taken our board
retreat as an opportunity to socialize —
maybe we would have done an activity.
This year, we said, “We’re going to work.”
I feel very fortunate that the Executive
Committee that I work with at NEXTGen
is largely people who are working full-
time or have families of their own. I feel
like everyone’s kind of on the same page.
[They] are truly, significantly invested
both with their time and their resources
in our community and are leading at the
highest levels.
I think that [professionalism] has
created an environment where we’re
looking at things through a different
lens and sometimes seeking a more
sophisticated approach to a question,
dialing in on something that [others]
might not. I think that is largely because
of the working nature of our board.
Something that I’m very proud of is
that our Executive Committee has a
significant number of women — women
on our executive committee, at this
point, outnumber men. There’s definitely
attention to gender parity on the
NEXTGen Detroit Board. We also focus
heavily on ensuring that our chairs for
events come from different backgrounds
because we want to meet different
segments of the community. It’s not just
“nice.” It’s what we’re responsible for
doing and it also ensures best outcomes.
I think that’s the case across the board
with Federation —there’s definitely been
attention paid to making sure that we
have people from all different segments
of the community because best outcomes
come from that.
AN APPETITE FOR DETAILS
Particularly as a woman leading this
organization, I think one of my strengths
is attention to detail. I think a lot of
women would tell you the same thing,
just because we have to keep a lot of
balls up in the air at the same time. We’re
asking different and exciting questions to
ensure that everyone feels comfortable at
our events.
A question I heard myself asking
repeatedly for events this year was,
“Do we have an exciting non-alcoholic
beverage option?” That matters. There
are tons of people who don’t drink;
there’s also a large group of women in
the community who are expecting or
immediately postpartum and are not
drinking. So, I want to make sure we’re
catering to that group of the community.
MEETING YOUNG PEOPLE WHERE
THEY ARE…
Young Jewish adults are everywhere —
we’re Downtown, we’re in Oak Park, we’re
in the Woodward corridor suburbs, but
we’re also out in Bloomfield Hills and
West Bloomfield.
We have people on the young,
The newly
installed
president at the
NEXTGen Detroit
annual meeting
in 2022
With NEXTGen Detroit
Director Tomer Moked