ABSTRACT
A large state government such as Michigan's has tremendous fiscal and human resources. The goal of the state in partnership is not to supplant any of the existing resources currently offered-by the city, the Urban League, or other community-based organizations that are making a difference-but to augment and complement what is already there. Reverend Perkins has spearheaded an awesome collaborative effort with the Urban Affairs Department at Michigan State University to inventory the area. He also offers a creative model for how clusters of churches can form the critical mass necessary to tackle the problems in any given neighborhood. Reverend Perkins is president of a cluster of twenty-three congregations known as the Detroit East Side Coalition of Churches, which is in its second year of existence. Detroit's churches are the way they cluster-on Seven Mile, on Gratiot, on Grand River, and in numerous other neighborhoods.
