In 1977, Sister Ryan left Bloomfield Hills for the inner city of Detroit, where she served as the assistant and acting pastor at St. Agnes Parish. When she arrived at St. Agnes, she found a depressed and struggling community with nearly half of the residents unemployed, most of whom were teens and single mothers. The lack of job skills, Sister Ryan believed, could be addressed through a job-training center. She found that there were opportunities for jobs in silk screening but few places that taught the craft. Sister Ryan shared her idea of a job-training center with her friend Sister Nancy Fearon, assistant principal of St. Martin de Porres High School, whom she met while teaching part time at the school.
Together they started the job-training center, “Neighborhood Artisans,” with twenty dollars to purchase materials to construct a simple silk screening machine, and began teaching area residents. Once under way, they applied for and obtained a federal grant that provided for newer equipment and a professional staff. The government-funded program started in May 1978 with four staff persons and twenty-six applicants in the auditorium of the former parish grade school converted into a studio. Because of the training, all of the applicants were offered jobs as silk screeners, and some even chose to enroll in higher education. Once the grant expired after six months, Neighborhood Artisans incorporated as a non-profit organization, seeking private funding and subcontract work. Some of the customers of Neighborhood Artisans included the local Catholic high school and the Academy of the Sacred Heart at Bloomfield Hills. Besides silk-screening, the center also employed community residents for light industrial work, subcontracted from area companies. Sister Ryan found the people who benefited from the job-training center to be highly skilled, reliable, and needing jobs to support their families. In a year’s time, Neighborhood Artisans brought an estimated $95,000 worth of salaries to the parish neighborhood. Sister Ryan served as co-director of Neighborhood Artisans for eight years. The center is still in operation today, located in Highland Park, Michigan. To read more about Oonah, click on the link under her picture
