Brilliant Together

Episode 14: Growing Gardens and Young Minds in Detroit

Family Resilience Specialist Roberto Paredes of Brilliant Detroit interviews Lindsay Pielack, co-director of garden development at Keep Growing Detroit, an organization dedicated to creating a food sovereign city where over half of the fruits and vegetables consumed by Detroiters are grown by its residents. This discussion is centered around efforts to engage and support early childcare providers and provide families with young children tools and activities for garden-based learning. Both experts discuss the positive impact gardening has on children including the observation of plants, insects, and soil to deepening their connection with nature, each other and the food they eat.

Episode 13: Breaking the Mold and Inspiring Pathways for Young Girls

Brilliant Detroit host Roberto Paredes interviews Mellissa Foley, founder of Hopscotch Girls, an enterprise dedicated to empowering girls through activities that build self-esteem, spark curiosity, creative expression, financial fluency, and positive relationships. After her daughter was showered with princess gifts on her third birthday, Melissa has spent the past 10 years developing and shining a light on books, resources and activities for raising smart, confident and brave girls. This episode covers timely topics from skin care and sports to literacy, arts and crafts and identifies retail partners, products and online content available to parents and others dedicated to raising strong girls.

Episode 12: Championing African American Families with Autistic Children

In today’s episode, Rich Colon of Brilliant Detroit hosts a conversation about the unique challenges that individuals of color on the spectrum face with acclaimed expert, Camille Proctor. Camille founded and serves as the executive director of The Color of Autism, a non-profit organization dedicated to ending the stigma of autism spectrum disorders (ASD) in communities of color and empowering families to recognize the early signs and access tools, resources and guidance so their children may reach their fullest potential. Over the past few years, The Color of Autism has helped over 700 families around the country in addition to its partnership with Brilliant Detroit. Camille Proctor keeps her mission front and center through university speaking engagements, published articles and her work as an appointee to the Interagency Autism Coordinating Committee (IACC), a federal advisory position critical to shaping policy and future research.

Episode 11: Delivering the Joy of Reading

Brilliant Detroit host, Rich Colon interviews Alyce Hartman, STEM educator and founder of Birdie’s Bookmobile, a mobile library that provides exceptional literacy programming, children’s and young adult’s books to students at no cost. Since its founding in 2022, Birdie’s Bookmobile has provided over 20,000 books to children in Detroit. Alyce describes some of the dynamic programming, partnerships and favorite activities that Birdie’s Bookmobile conducts to inspire a lifelong love of reading.

Episode 10: The Benefits of Reading to Children

In today’s episode, Rich Colon of Brilliant Detroit and Crystal Jolly-Washington, Children’s Librarian at the Sherwood Forest Branch of Detroit Public Library, unpack the many positive ways reading as a family improves a child’s literacy skills and cognitive development. Crystal gives recommendations for optimizing the practice of reading, comprehension and language arts development through simple, everyday tasks like cooking. She also shares different programs that are available online and at the local library and even suggested activities available to parents by text. Crystal describes the benefits of social reading, one-on-one time and the power of squeezing in small increments of reading aloud to children whenever possible. Lastly, Crystal highlights lauded programming like “Mother Goose on the Loose,” available online and at select libraries, along with other ways to keep children engaged in reading over the summer months.