For Briana Mason, separating life from work is not an easy task. She was born and raised in Detroit, and except the four years she spent studying political science at Howard University, she has lived and worked there ever since. Her mother’s family moved to Detroit from Mississippi during the Great Migration in the 1940s and both parents and her siblings are deeply connected to community work and local government.
After working for the city of Detroit as an urban planner, Mason joined Enterprise four years ago as senior program officer to work with community development organizations through the Elevating CDO Fund program and HUD Section 4 program, connecting small community organizations to resources they need to have an impact. She was recently recognized by Michigan Chronicle's 40 under 40: Emerging Leaders Defining Detroit's Next Generation.
Mason's connection to the city feeds her expertise and passion for her job and her family in equal measure. As the mother of four-year-old twin girls, she is busy from dawn to bedtime, attending community meetings after work and sometimes bringing her kids along.
Here’s what a typical day in December looks like for Briana Mason.
It’s important to me that my kids are a part of the community. We were never put in a position to be in this world alone. That’s a lesson I see in my work, and a lesson I want to pass on to my girls.
Briana mason
Calendar, kids, coffee: First thing I do in the morning is check my Outlook calendar to make sure I know where I’m going. Some days I’m meeting up with people in person, and other days I’m not, so I’m just trying to make sure I’m not supposed to be downtown or somewhere else.
Then, it’s time to wake up my twins and get them ready for preschool. We have our morning routine, which often includes Honey Nut Cheerios and milk. Then I drop them off, get them signed in, and I pick up a coffee.
One of my favorite spots is Cred Café, a Black-owned, family-run business on the east side. There are these intimate areas where you can have conversations with a small group in different rooms, but they also have other opportunities for people to connect—a speakeasy in the back, a book club, different vibes for different moments.
Zooming in to work: Once I’m in the office, I log in to facilitate our monthly ECDO cohort meeting. We talk about our recent learning exchange in Baltimore and D.C., where the CDO funds grantees had the opportunity to connect with CDCs in Baltimore and senior officials from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development and White House.
I’ve been working with this cohort for the last three years, and what I love most is seeing these seven organizations evolve. When we first launched the ECDO Fund to support emerging CDOs, many of which are led by Black, Indigenous, and people of color, a lot of these groups only had one or two staff members. They were taking a grant for a couple thousand dollars to do a pocket park, but now these same organizations are handling million-dollar projects, developing homes, and learning how to manage a growing staff.
This is a space where they can be vulnerable enough to express where they need support. As smaller organizations, they’re so deeply responsive to the needs of the community, and thanks to the ECDO Fund, we can provide the flexible operating resources and technical assistance they need, so they don’t have to be a bootstrap operation.
Checking in with the dream team: After the call, I check in with my supervisor Rachel Yamakura and Melinda Clemons, who leads the Detroit Market office, about anything going on with the grantees they need to know about, before heading into our CDO team meeting. ECDOs are a subset of the CDO Fund, and my colleague Rashanté Carbin oversees another cohort of larger or more established CDOs.
I’m lucky to work with them. Rachel is always pushing us to think outside the box, and since she’s joined the team, it’s given Rashanté and me more flexibility to be where we need to be, out in the community, strengthening relationships. And seeing Rashanté come in as a fellow, become a program officer, senior program officer, and scale fundraising for the CDO fund has been amazing. But she’s also a really great friend, and we have a lot in common. We’re both twins. We both went to Eastern Michigan University — I went for grad school and she went for undergrad.
I also really look to Melinda as a mentor, and not just because of the work, but because of her personal life too, and how she became who she is today. She grew up on Detroit’s east side like I did, so she understands from the ground level what these organizations are going through day to day, and everything she does reflects that.
Noshing and Talking: Lunch with the team is a time to come together and talk about anything other than work: current events, our kids, things we’re excited about. It’s nice to catch up, because often times, we’re all running around, or flying out to different places, so it’s rare that we’re all in the same room at the same time.
Making connections across Enterprise: One of the last meetings of the day is our Detroit Family Call. We get updates on each of our programs: Thome Aging Well, Detroit Home Repair Fund, Section 4, CDO Funds, and we hear from our capital team about any projects we’re investing in across the state. They’ll let us know about deals they’re trying to work out, so we can make connections between the solutions and capital divisions of Enterprise.
Winding down with family: Even after the workday is technically over, I’m still thinking about what’s going on in the community because it’s my community. Sometimes I’ll take the kids to events hosted by ECDO Northwest Goldberg Cares or maybe 360 Detroit has something going on.
Often, I’ll take them to my mom's house (aka Nana). She used to watch them before they started preschool and they miss her, so I make sure we stay connected. My mom had 11 brothers and sisters and is so deeply tied to Detroit and all its history.
It’s important to me that my kids have that kind of family and community connection. We were never put in a position to be in this world alone. That’s a lesson I see in my work, and a lesson I want to pass on to my girls.
