There's a conversation that happens every few years about how to close the tech gap in Black and Brown communities. Most of the time it stays a conversation. What U-M and Black Tech Saturdays just did at Michigan Central is different: they built a free, real-access program and opened the door to everyone who's been shut out of spaces like this.
The program runs on Saturdays at Michigan Central and covers the skills that actually move careers in 2026: AI fluency, storytelling, marketing, design thinking. Not theory. Tools. Frameworks. Practice. The kind of curriculum that would cost thousands at a bootcamp is being handed to Detroit's emerging builders at no cost.
"The first 100 spots cost nothing. That's not charity. That's what real access looks like."
ANF exists to spotlight the people nobody else is looking at yet. And part of doing that work means paying attention to what's being built around them. A program like this doesn't just teach skills. It creates the conditions for the next Myles Davis, the next Javontae Anderson, the next builder who would have been overlooked if not for one Saturday that changed their trajectory.
Detroit has always had the people. It's the infrastructure that's been uneven. Michigan Central as a physical anchor for this program is intentional. That building carries history. Watching it become a place where 18-year-olds learn to prompt AI and think like designers is a different kind of comeback story than the one the city usually gets credit for.
Black Tech Saturdays has been doing this work quietly for a while now, building community for Black tech professionals and entrepreneurs when the industry was barely making room for them. Partnering with the University of Michigan to scale that mission into something structured and free is exactly the kind of move that doesn't get enough credit. It's not a grant announcement or a press release. It's a program that runs every week.
"The builders we write about always tell us the same thing: they didn't lack the drive. They lacked the room."
One of ANF's core beliefs is that building community isn't a side effect of doing good work. It's the work. When you create a free Saturday program in one of the most storied cities in the country and fill it with AI curriculum and design thinking, you're not just teaching skills. You're creating a network. You're building the room the builders needed.
If you're in Detroit or know someone who should be in this program, the information is out there. First 100 spots cost nothing. The bridge is already built. You just have to cross it.