Our Story
MEP celebrates women and girls in Detroit.
Mercy Education Project's mission is to provide the tools for educational equity, economic stability and mobility; and cultural enrichment opportunities for women and girls who have limited access to resources - empowering them as they work towards a brighter future.
Founded by the Sisters of Mercy of Detroit in 1992 to provide tutoring for economically disadvantaged girls in southwest Detroit, Mercy Education Project (MEP) today offers a spectrum of programs to serve the basic educational needs of women and girls in Detroit.
Mercy Education Project began as a tutoring and summer program serving 14 girls. By the following year, GED classes for women were added. Witnessing a considerable need for remedial education for Detroit women who had dropped out of school, MEP added adult basic education and adult literacy components. With a growing number of GED graduates looking for additional career services MEP piloted several job training programs between 2004 and 2007.
In 2009, MEP started the Emerging Leaders summer program for middle school girls. With a focus on leadership and personal development and fostering a college and career knowing culture, Emerging Leaders helps girls – and their families – who have had little exposure to higher education, see its benefits and prepare for its possibilities.
In 2012, computer literacy instruction was integrated into the adult education services and ACT/SAT preparation was added for high school youth in the Girls’ Program. In 2013, a Spring Break College Camp was initiated as an intensive one week program immersing any interested high school girl in a college knowing culture.
In 2019, MEP began providing digital literacy education to its students, their family members, and the greater community. The COVID-19 pandemic of 2020 forced MEP to move all of its programming online that March. The move to remote learning brought to light the significant digital divide between those in the community who have access to a computer and reliable internet and those who do not. MEP provides assistance and referrals to students to obtain these vital resources.
Once a very small tutoring program, Mercy Education Project now helps hundreds of girls and women in Detroit each year to succeed in education and move toward personal greatness. MEP continuously adapts to meet the community’s needs, while we remain true to the vision of our founders.