Famous people's places / Detroit – North End
Focus: HOPE
A 40-acre Oakman Boulevard campus founded in 1968 by Eleanor Josaitis and Father William Cunningham after the 1967 uprising, still running food, education and job-training programs today.
01 / The story of this place
Make time for these
The day after Detroit's 1967 uprising, a Taylor housewife named Eleanor Josaitis and a Catholic priest named Father William Cunningham walked the ruined streets together and decided they had to do something about the racism and poverty behind the unrest. In March 1968 they founded Focus: HOPE with a small group of supporters, starting with a program that fed malnourished infants and mothers. The organization grew into a 40-acre campus along Oakman Boulevard, adding job training, a machinist institute launched in 1981, childcare and workforce programs that gave thousands of Detroiters, especially women and people of color, a path into skilled manufacturing careers. Josaitis worked there twelve-hour days for more than four decades until her death in 2011, and Cunningham led the organization until his own death in 1997. Focus: HOPE still runs its programs from the same Oakman Boulevard campus today.
- Founded in March 1968 after the 1967 Detroit uprising
- Started as a food program for malnourished infants
- Machinist Training Institute opened in 1981
- Eleanor Josaitis worked here for more than 40 years
Famous Detroiters
Famous people tied to this place 2
Lexicon entries for the people who lived, worked, performed or liked to spend time here.
- William T. Cunningham 1930–1997 · Catholic priest, co-founder of Focus: HOPE
Founded
The civil rights and job-training organization he co-founded in 1968; its campus on Oakman Boulevard still runs food and education programs.
- Eleanor Josaitis 1931–2011 · civil rights activist, co-founder of Focus: HOPE
Founded
The organization she co-founded and led; its Oakman Boulevard campus continues her food, education and job-training work.
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Sources & fact check · Checked: 2026-09-25
An independently written bilingual guide. This collection is not an attendance-based ranking.
03 / Events
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