INTERNATIONAL INSTITUTE OF METROPOLITAN DETROIT

The International Institute of Metropolitan Detroit (IIMD) was founded in 1919, by a group of YWCA volunteers who sought to help legal immigrants learn English, appreciate freedom and democracy, become citizens, be assimilated into their communities, and learn to understand each other's cultures. The International Institute of Detroit was one of 55 such institutes founded by the national YWCA in cosmopolitan cities all over the U.S., at a time of peak immigration into the U.S.

The International Institute movement was inspired by Jane Addams' Hull House, in Chicago (1889), and the "settlement movement" in England, including Toynbee Hall in London, founded in 1884. The first such International Institute was founded in New York City by Edith Terry Bremer, in 1911. The original International Institute of Detroit, starting in 1919, was located in a brick cottage at the corner of Adams and Witherell, in Downtown Detroit (at the site of the current Comerica Park Detroit Tigers baseball stadium). Newly arrived immigrants to Detroit were welcomed at this building, as they sat around what became a familiar fireplace in the building's living room.

Today, we still serve immigrants and Detroiters through a variety of services: English as a Second Language, adult education, workforce development, financial coaching, benefits coordination, cultural education, and immigration legal services.