Sheri Butters, from the Jackson Collaborative Network, gave a presentation on Jackson County and City demographics.
By ELIZABETH FERSZT
Contributing Writer
Sheri Butters, manager of the Jackson Collaborative Network, gave a presentation at the Feb. 24 Jackson City Council meeting that highlighted some sobering data about the demographics, health, and wealth of both the city and Jackson County.
“We work to build capa-city for systems change,” said Butters. “We are not an organization, we are not an initiative, we are a distributed network.”
She also provided the mission, vision, and framework for the network, which boasts over 500 members, including “local educators, business leaders, social service providers, physical and mental health providers and local elected officials,” according to their website.
“We have systems in place that are producing outcomes that are indicators that things are broken (like poverty and poor health),” said Butters. “We are not focusing on root causes, so we have not seen a shift in the data.”
“We keep throwing programs, services, and money at these problems” but they are not being fixed, Butters stated.
She made an analogy to a manufacturing assembly line — that is making a faulty product; “we need to stop the line and fix the machine before we restart it again.”
The JCN does a collaborative community assessment every three years, asking over 2,200 adult residents of Jackson questions about their living conditions, employment, housing, health, access to transportation, children’s services, and other public services.
Butters explained that many residents identify as Asset Limited Income Constrained, Employed households. For example, two adults in a household, working full-time would have to make about $16/hr. just to make ends meet; this is also called a survival budget, she said.
According to her slides and data collected, the average rent in the City of Jackson is about $900-$1,100 per month, which equates to about 60% of total annual household income, if making about $30,000/year; that’s well more than the suggested 33% of income to be used for housing, Butters explained.
She also stated that renters face high rent connected to “deplorable conditions” in many rental properties in the City. And that there are “barriers such as background checks and credit checks.”
Butters also showed in her slides that 28% of city residents report food stress — and stated that access to high quality fresh food is not evenly available, resulting in a food desert in their neighborhood, referring to the Martin Luther King, Corridor Improvement Authority’s priority to get a grocery store on the south side of Jackson.
Infant mortality rates were also reported by race, with Black or African American infants (under age 1) three times more likely to die than their white counterparts, across Jackson County, according to Butters and JCN data.
Life expectancy in the county also varies according to race, with overall life expectancy to be at 76.1 years for white residents; 67.7 years for Black residents.
Ward 3 City Council member Angelita Gunn asked about how city council might work with the Jackson Collaborative Network,
Butters said, “Our systems are very silo-ed” meaning they’re separate and non-communicating to each other — not collaborating or sharing resources. “Cross-sector collaboration” is needed, she added.
In an email, Butters also addressed several follow-up questions; for example, if the JCN had any data on gun violence for the City of Jackson or Jackson County. Butters stated that “the full report (that she delivered to City Council along with the presentation) includes violent crime data for Jackson County from the Michigan Incident Crime Reporting Dashboard. Because the report was published in Fall 2025, it may not reflect the most current data and includes all violent crime, not just gun violence (county-wide).”
When asked about data on the use of illicit drugs and/or gang-related activity, Butters stated that her report also includes “some data on substance use and drug-related deaths.”
When asked about her own professional connection to Henry Ford Hospital, Butters stated that “the connection with Henry Ford can be confusing,” but explained that the JCN is further organized by a council “made up of partner organizations and community members with lived experience that provides governance and strategic direction. Henry Ford has representation on this Council, along with more than two dozen other organizations.”
“The JCN Council further selected Henry Ford Hospital to serve as the employing entity for JCN staff and as one of our fiduciaries (partners with a trust-role). But neither the Council nor the JCN is a “program or initiative of Henry Ford. Their role is limited,” Butters said.
