May 28, 2025 | Articles Homepage News Philanthropy
Henry Ford Health’s facility donation to JRLA fueled by partnerships with Detroit Pistons, Tom Gores
DETROIT – There was a surprise announcement before the start of the recent Jalen Rose Leadership Academy golfing fundraiser.
With JRLA co-founder Jalen Rose, Detroit Pistons and Platinum Equity representatives standing nearby at the Detroit Golf Club, Henry Ford Health VP Jerry Darby announced the healthcare system would donate a now-closed hospital to allow the public charter school to move into a larger space to further the educational mission of the school that opened in 2011.
“We are donating 70,000 square feet of space so Jalen can provide a new gym, and a space that will allow JRLA to educate more kids while doing more exciting things for the community of Detroit,” Darby said to cheers.
“We’re just so excited about it. For us, it’s about partnerships. Along with our partners, Platinum Equity and the Detroit Pistons, we’re building housing, we’re doing those types of things in the community, and now we’re able to provide the educational services which could lead to these students, we hope, coming to work with us at Henry Ford Health in the future.”
Darby made his announcement at the JRLA Celebrity Golf Classic, which serves as the school’s largest fundraiser. Forward Tobias Harris, front office executive George David and others were among Pistons representatives that were on hand.
With the donation, JRLA is planning to relocate the school approximately two miles away into the former Henry Ford Health Kingswood Hospital, which is located in Royal Oak Township.
The former hospital, which provided behavioral healthcare for decades, was shuttered earlier this year when Henry Ford Health opened a new facility further north in Oakland County. The existing JRLA space, located in northwest Detroit, and serves more than 400 9th-12th grade students, will eventually be converted into a middle school, allowing JRLA to serve 6th-8th grade students for the first time.
JRLA plans to launch a $20 million capital campaign to help fund renovations The school has raised $6 million from a previous capital raise that can also be used for the transformation.
“We’ve long said that it was crucial to us to find a use for the former Kingswood Hospital that contributed to the betterment of our community, and we couldn’t have found a better partner to make those goals a reality than the Jalen Rose Leadership Academy,” Henry Ford Health CEO Bob Riney said in a release. “It’s a wonderful feeling knowing that generations of future leaders – even future Henry Ford Health nurses or physicians – will walk those halls.”
Darby referenced the healthcare system’s partnerships with Platinum Equity CEO and Pistons owner Tom Gores and the Pistons. Henry Ford, Gores, the Pistons and Michigan State announced the $3 billion Future of Health development in 2023, which promises to transform the New Center neighborhood of Detroit with a new state-of-the-art hospital along with residential, commercial, retail, recreational and research components.
Platinum Equity and the Detroit Pistons helped to facilitate the relationship between JRLA and Henry Ford, bringing the two sides together to help the school fix the infrastructure issue. A routine part of Rose’s advocacy is a not-so-subtle reminder that the school’s basketball teams have never played a home game in 15 years of existence.
The Henry Ford donation is a needed step.
“This type of collaboration is exactly what Tom envisions when he calls the Pistons a community asset,” said Platinum Equity Principal Dan Whelan, who participated in the golf outing. “We can start to address problems, find solutions for the community when we talk to each other and not work in silos, and the Pistons provide a great platform to spark teamwork between like-minded institutions.