We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Cindy Eggleton a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Cindy, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. We’d love to hear the backstory behind a risk you’ve taken – whether big or small, walk us through what it was like and how it ultimately turned out.

In 2015 the Brilliant Detroit Founders met. They bonded by a desire to create a radically new approach to kindergarten readiness in Neighborhoods. They saw that the best way to do this was to create a unique model delivery in how early childhood success was approached.

Jim Bellinson brought an amazing investment and scaling background. Carolyn Bellinson brought a focus on building people through clear pathways. Cindy Eggleton brought early childhood, impact and community expertise.

Jim and Carolyn had no idea if this would work or not. None of us did, but I knew in my heart it was what was needed.

Together we envisioned what could be and then, while on a daily run, Jim realized that the underused housing stock in Detroit could be used to create early childhood and family centers in each neighborhood. The homes would be a much more accessible and welcoming than the other institutional settings that were available. All three of us reached out to others for input and built a model that is with, for, and by neighbors to deliver holistic services for kids 0-8 in a home in their neighborhood with existing evidence-based programs around health, family supports, and education.

Brilliant Detroit was born to create kid success neighborhoods.

At the time there were very few models for this type of work. Now you hear of more for sure, but in 2015 and 2016 there were only a few.

But the three of us believed that a Detroit could exist where a child’s zip code no longer determined their success in school or life.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

Cindy Eggleton is the co-founder and CEO of Brilliant Detroit, a nonprofit organization that builds kid success neighborhoods where families with children ages 0-8 have what they need to be school-ready, healthy and stable. They do this by establishing and operating Brilliant Detroit home-based hubs in high-need neighborhoods that provide proven programming to families with children.

Eggleton co-founded Brilliant Detroit with Jim and Carolyn Bellinson, applying a community organizing early childhood education model from Los Angeles, called Magnolia Place, to Detroit’s underutilized housing stock. Her drive comes from her belief in people and communities to advocate and make decisions for themselves, so she made sure that the model they created prioritized the leadership of program participants, creating a philosophy of working “with, for and by” neighbors. She ensured that neighbors joined in envisioning new sites and expressing feedback through listening sessions prior to starting each new house. Each Brilliant Detroit hub has an advisory board formed to ensure neighbors always have an outlet to provide feedback, and a formal way to continue to set the vision for each neighborhood hub.

During the first six years of her time as CEO, Cindy grew Brilliant Detroit to serve 16,000 children and caregivers with more than 130 organizational partners operating out of 14 home-based hubs. At the center of all Brilliant Detroit is the belief that transformation starts at the family level, through coordinating holistic supportive services along early childhood and building community connectivity. Community based staff work in centrally-located hubs that bring about this transformation, which then expands throughout neighborhoods.

Through ensuring that families are connected to one another and have what they need for their children to be successful, Brilliant Detroit seeks to break cycles of poverty for Detroit families. Eggleton’s goal is to continue scaling the model throughout the city of Detroit so that by 2024 there will be 24 hubs working to impact population-level change, and ultimately expand to other cities requesting to replicate the Brilliant model.

Brilliant Detroit is Eggleton’s true purpose and her most exciting and impactful work yet. It combines her expertise of more than 25 years in the field of education services to truly make a change and the neighborhood level. Previously, she moved from a consultant with the United Way for Southeastern Michigan to the Senior Director of Education Preparedness and oversaw a $60 million education portfolio. In this position, she was responsible for bringing the Social Innovation Fund to Detroit, which added over $20 million worth of education support to the city. In this position, she worked tirelessly with other people and organizations, improving high school graduation rates, leading efforts to train over 15,000 early childhood caregivers, overseeing a foreclosure collaborative, and more.

Most recently, Eggleton was named one of five recipients of the prestigious 2021 AARP Purpose Prize award, the only national award that celebrates people 50-plus who are using their knowledge and life experience to solve tough social problems. She also is the recipient of the following recognitions and awards:

AARP Purpose Prize Winner (2021)
Promising Ventures Fellow (2020)

Catalyst Fellow–Stand Together Foundation (2020)
Silver Stevie Award-Woman of the Year–Government or Nonprofit (2018)
Crain’s Detroit Business’ Notable Women in Nonprofits in Michigan (2018)
The Skillman Foundation’s 50 People Who Represent the Heart of Detroit (2018)
Authority Health’s Best of the HealthNet (2018)
Wayne State University Award for Community Leader of the Year (2017)
American Express Global Leaders Member (2016)
Dr. Arthur L. Johnson Leadership Award from Wayne State University (2016)
Esteemed Woman from Gary Bernstein Clinic (2016)

Eggleton’s involvement in related industry organizations and associations currently includes serving on the Board of Directors for St. Suzanne’s Community Center (Don Bosco) and on the Advisory Board of FII.

No matter where she is serving, Eggleton is most comfortable when listening and engaging with the community. To her, solving for kid success is truly her mission. As she shared with AARP in 2021, “When I introduce Brilliant Detroit, I often say that I live in a fairy tale…This is my legacy – to move the needle on early childhood education, and family well-being, in a way that I have not yet seen.”

Can you tell us about a time you’ve had to pivot?

For me and our organization, and like so many others, 2020 was a year unlike any other. A year that tested us all, a year where many of the structures put in place to protect us simply were not enough. Much like the motto of our great city (Detroit), we hoped for better things.

Our neighborhoods reached out to one another to see, support, and love. And out of the ashes of ‘business as usual,’ we rose and are still rising.

I am so incredibly proud of how our board, team, volunteers and so many partners pivoted based on what we were hearing from families. Instead of reducing or pulling back our programming, our ability to reach families grew and resources we offered were in direct response to the shifting needs of our participants during the pandemic. Daily, our Brilliant Detroit families still connected with one another, learning each other’s gifts and how those gifts can come together for not just kid success, but to truly hold each other together during our toughest moments.

Despite the trials of the pandemic, we saw reading levels largely stabilize, launched more neighborhood hubs, and continued on the path to population level change of literary statistics in Detroit.

What do you think helped you build your reputation within your market?

Most important to us in reaching our mission and our north star is that we do so “with, for and by” each of the communities we are in and every partner we work alongside. I really value the intentionality of creating partnerships that matter and the genuine desire to be in community, learn from community, and provide help at the same time.

A critical part of building not just our reputation, but more importantly trust and relationships, is creating the space to support and grow together. When communities, partners and families come together, and not work against one another, it is truly a transformative and powerful thing. We believe that by being in the work, showing up for our families, neighborhoods and partners who choose to work with us, we can absolutely create population level change for our children.

I know without a doubt the key to our growth is we do everything together. We are not individuals or one organization alone. We are a community of many all committed to Kid Success Neighborhoods.      

Contact Info:

• Website: www.brilliantdetroit.org
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/BrilliantDetroit/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/BrilliantDetroit/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/brilliantdetroit
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/brilliantd313
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@brilliantdetroit5234

Image Credits
We have permissions for all photos to be used without a credit.