ABOUT DERRICK MILLER:
Derrick Miller is a mission-driven social service entrepreneur with over 25 years dedicated to community impact, equity, and sustainability. A proud U.S. Marine Corps veteran and Operation Iraqi Freedom combat veteran, Derrick transitioned from military service into education, where he discovered a passion for uplifting youth and under-resourced communities. That passion led him to Community Action Network (CAN), where, as Executive Director, he has transformed the organization from a modest grassroots nonprofit into one of Washtenaw County’s most impactful service providers—quintupling program delivery and doubling operational revenue over the past seven years.
Under Derrick’s leadership, CAN has expanded its holistic support model to seven community centers, offering educational programs, housing stabilization, and community building services in historically underserved neighborhoods. As a bi-racial (White/Latinx) leader, he has championed inclusion by launching CAN’s first Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Advocacy Committee and partnering with the Michigan Nonprofit Association to implement DEI assessments across the organization.
Derrick has also led groundbreaking work in environmental sustainability. He launched Michigan’s first and second resilience hubs, initiated a neighborhood-scale carbon neutrality project in the Bryant community, and helped secure major investments—including from the McKnight Foundation and a $500K MSHDA grant—to drive energy equity. Under his direction, CAN became one of the region’s first nonprofits to go fully paperless, with modernized systems that enhance service delivery while reducing environmental impact. Derrick’s work stands as a model for how social service, environmental justice, and community leadership can intersect to create transformative, lasting change.
RESOURCES:
Community Action Network (CAN)
TRANSCRIPTION:
David Fair: This is 89.1 WEMU, and there is an increasing demand on service organizations in our area. Housing and food insecurity are on the rise, the wage gap is increasing, and cuts to DEI programs are all having an impact on funding for programs that create access. I'm David Fair, and this is Washtenaw United. It's our weekly exploration of equity and opportunity in our community. One of the organizations working in under-resourced neighborhoods in Washtenetaw County is Community Action Network. Now, there are challenges and successes to talk about when it comes to meeting community needs. Here to discuss those is Derrick Miller. He is Executive Director of Community Action Network. And, Derrick, thanks for making time today!
Derrick Miller: Thank you for having me!
David Fair: The community of service organizations in Washtenaw County often work cooperatively and in supplemental ways. Those of you in the leadership positions have occasion to communicate with one another and coordinate and implement. What conversations are you having amongst each other about how quickly changes in federal policy and direction are taking place?
Derrick Miller: Yeah. I mean, that has become the bulk of my work over the last, I would say, four or five months with the constant changes and a lot of things that are going on, a lot of delays or cancelations, pauses with uncertainty, and it's caused a lot disruption in our programs and services for a lot of nonprofits, but certainly for Community Action Network. And so, we've been doing a lot of adapting, a lot of strategizing, and, on top of all of that, we've being seeing a pretty major uptick in demand.
David Fair: Now you've been leading Community Action Network since September of 2017, I believe. Challenges and overcoming barriers--that's nothing new. But have you seen anything like this in your experience?
Derrick Miller: Absolutely not! I would actually argue that this is worse than the pandemic--the amount of disruption and the resource reduction that we've seen, in addition to...even for some context, on just the food security side alone, compared to before the pandemic to now, our food program services have quintupled. And we're not seeing that slowing down anytime soon. And even for some more context, one of our sites in particular serve the entire county. It's the largest food pantry that exists in Washtenaw County, in partnership with Food Gatherers. And just in February alone, we saw 30% uptick. That is decided a little bit, but it really hasn't wiggled too much. And that site, in particular, I like to call our bellweather site, which whenever there's any significant change in what's going on the broader environment. Like, for example, the literal Monday after the shutdown from the pandemic, our food program numbers doubled overnight. And so, you can see the kind of sentiment and anxiety that under-resourced families have that are really just on the brink of any kind of reduction in resource can have a massive ripple effect. So, naturally, we see behavior changes in our food programs, depending on what's going in the kind of broader scheme of things. And so, it's not surprising that, given all these resource reductions, that there is a tendency for under-resourced families to obviously come to food programs a lot more frequently in anticipation for the resource reductions that are in the works.
David Fair: With demand on the rise and cuts to programs that would help meet that demand, how exactly are you going about trying to meet the needs of all who come to you?
Derrick Miller: It varies. So, at least in terms of Community Action Network, we've actually been planning this since we had a kind of assumption that the current administration would be in power, so even as early as September or October. And we had already made some financial decisions to be a bit more conservative in anticipation for increased demand and reduction in resources. And now, that has come to fruition, it fortunately helped us be in a little bit better position, not in a good position, but at least in a little bit better position than if we would just continue it to been operating as normally. And then, outside of CAN, it really depends on the sector. So, I will say, like, Food Gatherers is already leading the way in strategizing and figuring out how we can best.
David Fair: And they've lost over a million and a half tons of food!
Derrick Miller: Correct!
David Fair: Washtenaw United and our conversation with Community Action Network Executive Director Derrick Miller continues on 89.1 WEMU. Diversity, equity and inclusion is high on your list of priorities. In fact, you launched CAN's first DEI and advocacy committee. DEI programs, in particular, have been a point of focus in the new federal administration. You've seen some organizations and institutions abandoned DEI protocols for fear of financial retribution. Will DEI stay front and center at Community Action Network?
Derrick Miller: It will. And we were also, at least temporarily, affected by that as well. We're an AmeriCorps VISTA host site. It's worth noting that that program did get canceled illegally, and we called it out that it was illegal. And the states that were part of the litigation about the illegal action were able to get it reinstated. And so, even though we temporarily had lost five of our full-time AmeriCorp VISTAs, we were able to retain actually five temporarily that CAN had during the period. And then, when it got reinstated, we're able to maintain four out of the five. The other one had sought out other employment, which we are frankly encouraging just because of given circumstances as well. But what's also noteworthy is that, several months ago, is that we did get communications from AmeriCorps that had required us to purge anything that has any diversity, equity, and inclusion language in any of our grants and any of our job descriptions that relate to AmeriCorps. Ultimately, it was a deep purge that AmeriCorps had underway in order to be compliant. The irony of it is that the whole shtick, if you'll call it that, of DEI and trying to be compliant was an illusion that they weren't going to cancel AmeriCorps at the time. And so, why be compliant if they're going to just flat out cancel AmeriCorps? And so, CAN actually did go through the steps of being in compliance. We actually received communication about being in compliant. And then, about a month later, AmeriCorps is canceled.
Derrick Miller: You know, that is a whole lot of chaos. It's easy to get caught up in that and of the moment of uncertainty about the future. But you really don't have to look all that far to find the good that surrounds us. How have the residents of Washtenaw County responded to the additional challenges you're dealing with at CAN?
Derrick Miller: That is frankly one of the only very few silver linings that we have. Fortunately, there's a lot of philanthropy and just also understanding of the complexity of poverty and all the things that are tied to it, but also how these policies have major effects on a lot of families. And so, we have definitely seen a pretty substantial growth in philanthropy, both from individual donors, but even from some foundations, even like municipalities. Ann Arbor specifically had allocated a million dollars for helping kind of stop the bleeding for a lot of these organizations. CAN was one of the recipients of some of that funding as well. And so, they have helped buy us time in this uncertainty. And for some context, it's the first time I've ever had to put together three budgets. Historically, only one budget because you have a general sense of what's going to be going on in the course of the fiscal year. And there's just so much disruption and unpredictability, that I have to put three budgets together. There's another nonprofit, a big one, that works with the homeless population, and it puts five budgets together. And that is just causing, frankly, a lot of waste!
Derrick Miller: Yeah, in a variety of different ways as well. Once again, we're talking with Derrick Miller, Executive Director of Community Action Network. You mentioned that the community has been, perhaps, one of the only silver linings. What, if anything, are you most optimistic about as we move forward through the rest of 2025?
Derrick Miller: First and foremost, don't give up. Don't despair. Do as much as you can to be active and to be vocal. And frankly, we do see that growing where it's, like at the beginning of a lot of this disruption, there's a lot of fear, a lot of anxiety, and it's still there. But there's also a lot pushback because people are waking up to what's going on. And frankly, there's a lot of families that are getting harmed during this time, and they do need to see it. Because for under-resourced families, a lot of times our networks don't interact with under- resourced families, and they don't see the pain that they're going through. And fortunately, organizations like ourselves, we are somewhat of a conduit of that of connecting our community across the economic spectrum. And so, really just emphasizing that there is hope. There are people doing amazing things. And honestly, like, help partner with an organization. There's plenty of work going on!
Derrick Miller: Well, Derrick, there is a lot to be done and a lot to look forward to, and it's going to be a challenge. But I imagine that, in the successes, there's going be a great deal of reward as well. Thanks for the work you're doing, and thanks for the conversation and insights today!
Derrick Miller: Thank you!
Derrick Miller: That is Derrick Miller, Executive Director of Community Action Network, and our guest on Washtenaw United. For more information on CAN and links to resources, visit our website at WEMU.org. Washtenaw United is produced in partnership with the United Way for Southeastern Michigan, and you hear it every Monday. I'm David Fair, and this is your community NPR station, 89.1 WEMU-FM, Ypsilanti. Celebrating 60 years of broadcasting from the campus of Eastern Michigan University!
WEMU has partnered with the United Way for Southeastern Michigan to explore the people, organizations, and institutions creating opportunity and equity in our area. And, as part of this ongoing series, you’ll also hear from the people benefiting and growing from the investments being made in the areas of our community where there are gaps in available services. It is a community voice. It is 'Washtenaw United.'
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