Mayor Mary Sheffield’s administration is moving to expand youth jobs, extend recreation center hours and create a city-backed teen advisory cabinet after so-called “teen takeovers” of downtown Detroit exposed a shortage of welcoming spaces for the city’s adolescents. The effort, which includes a new Occupy the Summer series and a year-round out-of-school-time strategy, marks a deliberate departure from the curfew-centered enforcement that several other cities have imposed in response to similar mass gatherings organized through social media.
The city’s response is anchored in the Office of Youth Affairs, which Sheffield created soon after taking office in January, naming Umoja Debate League founder Jerjuan Howard as its director. She also appointed Chanel Hampton as Detroit’s first senior director of youth and education, tasked with coordinating across the public school district, charter schools, community groups and employers. Hampton said the new programming grew directly from conversations with teenagers, including a group that participated in an Opening Day takeover and later helped plan a city-supported “teen kickback” in Hart Plaza.
Occupy the Summer, an expansion of the Occupy the Corner events Sheffield launched more than a decade ago as a council member, will run from June 12 through Aug. 14 with activities six days a week. Recreation center hours will stretch to 11 p.m., Midnight Basketball will return with men’s and women’s leagues on Thursdays and Saturdays, and youth-specific activities will be held every Friday. Hampton said a website portal is also in development, allowing residents to enter their age, ZIP code or council district to find free programming from the city and partner organizations.
“All we’re hearing from young people is, ‘We want to have fun, safe, engaging spaces,’ and if they’re of age, ‘we want to make money,’” Hampton said. “There’s an entire office that I’m building out around out-of-school time and workforce.”
The summer push is only the first phase. “We want to make sure we have year-round, out-of-school time opportunities for young people,” Hampton added, saying a fall activation plan will be ready by the time Occupy the Summer ends.
Central to the administration’s strategy is a mayoral youth advisory cabinet, which held informal discussions in March and will hold its official kickoff this month. Program coordinator Angelica Williams said about 30 young people are already involved, with a target of 40 to 50 by the launch. The cabinet is open to people aged 14 to 26 with lived experience in Detroit, regardless of whether they currently live in the city, if they have been nominated by someone familiar with their leadership. One of its primary goals, Williams said, is to counter a widespread sense among Detroit youth that they are disconnected from civic decision-making and that positive futures in the city are out of reach.
Beyond the city government’s own programming, the Downtown Detroit Partnership, which operates Campus Martius, Beacon Park and several other downtown public spaces, has said it will continue partnering with the city to welcome young people. CEO Eric Larson said staff attended a recent listening session with Sheffield, Police Chief Todd Bettison and downtown businesses. Larson described the meeting as a “listening session on both sides” aimed at understanding how teen gatherings can coexist with the needs of businesses and residents. DDP will continue its slate of family-friendly summer activities, including Movie Nights in the D and pickleball at Beacon Park.
The takeovers have drawn national attention, and Detroit’s choice to invest in youth spaces rather than impose curfews stands out. On Opening Day, when hundreds of teenagers converged on downtown after an unseasonably warm spell, the Detroit Police Department issued 40 curfew violations and 24 parental responsibility tickets. Some social media videos showed teens running through streets and others being detained and placed on buses. The city had amended its curfew ordinance last summer; between July 2025 and mid-April 2026, it had issued 309 curfew violations and 184 parental responsibility tickets.
Youth advocates said the takeovers were miscast as a public-safety crisis. Ambra Redrick, CEO of the youth organization Teen Hype, recalled her own teenage years in 1990s Detroit, when she could ride the People Mover and walk through Greektown without feeling unwelcome. “We have built grown-up spaces and over the years, we continue to push kids out,” she said. “I don’t see them employed downtown. Are there reflections of them downtown? No. They are perceived as dangerous.”
DeLashea Strawder, executive and artistic director of Mosaic Youth Theatre of Detroit, questioned the premise that teenagers shouldn’t be in public spaces. “I don’t understand — unless it’s a 21 and up area — I’m unsure why we would even be discussing the fact that they shouldn’t be in a public space enjoying the celebration along with everybody else,” she said. “They live here.”
Council Member Gabriela Santiago-Romero, who has been meeting with young people since the takeovers, said the conversations have made clear that the city needs more third spaces, late-evening lighting and a skate park near the riverfront. “What I’m going to continue to do is meet the people, see how I can help them,” she said. “I think we need to invest money into actual third spaces.”
Among the teens who went downtown, Janiya Chavers, a sophomore at Renaissance High School, said she and her friends stayed near the riverfront and avoided the most crowded areas. She acknowledged that some young people were disruptive but believed most simply wanted to be together on a warm day. “I feel like people were just trying to connect with their friends and have a nice time on that one hot day of the week,” she said.
De’Ziaha McIntosh, a 16-year-old Cass Technical High School student and Teen Hype member, said she hopes to eventually see a downtown teen entertainment space with a movie theater, arcade, rage room and go-karts. Ryan Townsend, 16, a member of Mosaic Youth Theatre, called for a teen music festival and suggested that downtown businesses host teen nights so that young people are seen as welcomed guests rather than a disturbance.
“Caring for the youth who are the future of this country, in this city, is really important,” Townsend said. “If you don’t do that, you won’t have anything.”