Encyclopedia Of Detroit

Eleanor Josaitis was the associate director, executive director, then chief executive officer of Focus: HOPE until 2007. Focus: HOPE is a civil and human rights organization that Josaitis co-founded with Father William T. Cunningham in the aftermath of Detroit’s 1967 civil disturbance. Since its establishment, the organization has become a key community resource, supported by more than 51,000 volunteers.

Josaitis was born Eleanor Mary Reed on December 17, 1931 in Detroit. She married Donald Josaitis with whom she had five children. From her living room in Taylor she witnessed on TV the brutality in Selma, Alabama during the civil rights marches. Joining with her neighborhood priest, Fr. Cunningham, formed the non-profit Focus: HOPE to combat racism and poverty in Detroit.

Josaitis was instrumental in securing permanent funding and authorization of the Commodity Supplemental Food Program for which Focus: HOPE was the Detroit distribution center. The program, originally for women, infants and children grew to include the low-income elderly, a population which it now exclusively serves. Her collaboration with Fr. Cunningham provided a concrete vision for the organization as it developed ideas to establish job training and skills and a supportive day care facility for their students. The Machinist Training Program and the Center for Advanced Technologies are two results of their efforts.

When Fr. Cunningham died in 1997 Josaitis became the CEO and soon after overcame the effects of a damaging tornado by raising more than $80 million to restore the ravaged campus.

Josaitis served on the visiting committee for the University of Michigan, and the advisory boards of the Economic Club of Detroit, Covenant House, and the Karmanos Cancer Institute. She also hosted the White House Conference on Aging and made numerous contributions to the formulation of national policy on a variety of social service-related issues.

In 2002 Josaitis was named one of the region’s 100 Most Influential Women by Crain’s Detroit Business. She was inducted into the Michigan Women’s Hall of Fame in 1998 and received honorary degrees from the University of Michigan, Michigan State University, and Wayne State University, among others.

After a yearlong battle with cancer, Eleanor Josaitis died on August 9, 2011 at Angela Hospice in Livonia at the age of 79.