Neutral Zone Concert Venue
In 1995, a survey of high school students by the Ann Arbor Area Community Foundation's Youth Council pointed to the need for a local teen center. At the time, Ann Arbor did not have a safe place for teens to go for after-school activities. Youth Council set out to change that, and in partnership with a group of local teens and parents, sparked a community-wide conversation.
From the beginning, teens felt this place should be more than just a hangout. They wrote the mission statement, and with start-up funding from AAACF and generous community support, transformed an old brick and timber warehouse to open the Neutral Zone’s doors in 1998.
Since then, AAACF, its Youth Council, and our donors have awarded more than $800,000 in grants to help the Neutral Zone grow. A $150,000 grant--the largest in AAACF's history at the time--dramatically expanded arts programming at its new location on Washington Street, where attendance has grown to 25,000 visits a year. As Executive Director John Weiss notes, "AAACF and its Youth Council have played a major role in making the Neutral Zone what it is today–a safe place where hundreds of teens from diverse backgrounds come together to find and create something meaningful."
One of the many ways the Ann Arbor Area Community Foundation supports all that is good in our community.
Read more "good" stories at: aaacf.org/stories
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