With its striking murals and a mission as colorful as its walls, The Fledge has become more than just a community center in Lansing’s Eastside — some residents call it a cornerstone of the neighborhood’s identity.
Once a church, the building now pulses with art, innovation and social change. To MSU political science senior Anuja Sudarshan, it's a great place for college advocates to make a difference.
Founded by computer scientist Jerry Norris, The Fledge operates as a system designed to support under-resourced individuals by providing essential resources and a launchpad for opportunity. It empowers people to discover purpose through creative expression and entrepreneurship, he said.
"If I were at the bar telling a businessman about what we do, I would tell him about our four pillars," Norris said. "If it was a mathematician I was talking to, I'd explain it in terms of chaos theory."
The Fledge’s broad spectrum of community services are all connected in Norris's mind as fractals — pictures of chaos.
His model — involving the blockchain, punk shows and advocacy — has received attention from Gov. Gretchen Whitmer and the federal government for helping tens of thousands across the state.
Its inner-workings are complex, but can begin to be explained through the center’s tagline.
"We're 'radically inclusive,'" he said. "Which means we look for people across all backgrounds to contribute their ideas to our system."
Safety and basic needs
Some of the Fledge’s resources serve to keep individuals experiencing poverty and life-threatening substance abuse alive, Norris said. Others function to uplift them.
The Fledge partners with organizations like Punks with Lunch to serve the basic needs of Lansing residents, keeping individuals experiencing poverty and life-threatening substance abuse alive.
Punks with Lunch volunteers assemble sack lunches at the Fledge to distribute at a park downtown every other Saturday, said executive director Julia Miller.
Additionally, Punks with Lunch distributes harm reduction supplies for opioid users, like Narcan and clean needles.
Miller runs the Fledge's Harm Reduction Hub, where individuals can meet with her to find help managing their addiction.
"I always tell people that ‘your goal is my goal,'" Miller said. "You’re the expert, and we’re going to get you the help you want."
Norris said the Fledge's top priority is community safety, but managing addiction requires an individual has more than their basic needs.
"Some people are flipping a coin with their life every time they use," Norris said. "We want to get them out of that place."
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Norris said the Fledge’s model seeks to provide people the opportunity to "build something" and reach their full potential through innovation and starting a business.
"Once people are stable, they can come to us to do what I call 'leveling up,'" he said.
"Leveling up"
Getting opportunity from the Fledge starts with building trust, which the center does through a virtual token economy. Community members looking to get involved are given access to a virtual wallet app that can be used to earn and spend "Fledgecoin," a cryptocurrency that only really has value in the Fledge.
Helping at one of the Fledge’s community gardens or repairing their facilities are examples of ways to earn Fledgecoin, Norris said. The currency can be spent on unlocking the facility’s maker spaces, like a music production studio, screen printing tools for t-shirt and skateboard deck design and various STEM resources.
The Fledge is also a hub for experimental projects that push boundaries, like cryptocurrency-mining computers that function as the facility's heating system.
Other projects have clashed with city utility providers, Norris said, like DIY solar batteries that some Fledge members constructed and installed for neighbors.
The spirit of ingenuity is a natural result of the Fledge's values, Norris said, and it often helps begin careers. In collaboration with the Lansing Economic Area Partnership, the Fledge offers resources for aspiring entrepreneurs to develop and start a business.
In 2020, Lansing resident Jeremy Hurt reached out to Norris with an idea for a sustainable food delivery service: Red Bike Delivery.
Hurt earned trust through the system, buying and assembling an electric bike with the help of Fledge resources.
"The Fledge expanded my ideas of what I could do and who I could be as an entrepreneur," Hurt said. "It showed me things that I had never thought about before."
Red Bike Delivery stopped pedaling in December 2024, but Hurt said he's working with Norris to create "Recab," a taxi service to transport people to and from substance use disorder recovery clinics.
Hurt said he plans to use the Fledge's maker spaces to design brand materials for Recab.
A community of its own
The Fledge has fostered over 100 community groups and hosts dozens of events each month, Norris said.
One of the biggest names is The Rent is Too Damn High, a housing rights advocacy group.
The group started meeting at the Fledge when it was formed in 2023 said their co-chair, Ross Fisher. Since then, the organization’s protests and calls for action have caught the attention of legislators across the state — Whitmer used their slogan when calling for more affordable housing in her 2024 State of the State address.
Fisher said the Fledge fills a gap in Lansing's available "third spaces," or public gathering locations outside home and work. Other advocacy groups that use the facility include incarcerated rights group Nation Outside and Mid-Michigan Atheists and Humanists.
The Fledge’s facilities have the tools necessary to spread messages quick when these groups want to take action, Norris said. Fledge groups mobilized for a "Mask up" Lansing flyer campaign in 2020 and advocated for peace during the Israel-Hamas war in 2023.
Sudarshan discovered the Fledge in November through a drag performance. She now regularly attends meetings for the Rent is too Damn High.
Sudarshan said the Fledge has given her opportunities to help others that aren't available on campus — very few MSU students visit.
"I think it's very easy to stay in the East Lansing city bubble," she said. "This kind of advocacy — knowing there is people, power and collective action on this scale — it's been very empowering."
The Fledge regularly hosts public events including live music performances, craft fairs and "pop-up shop" markets. The majority are open to the public, Norris said, and all students are welcome.
"Just come. It’s that easy," Sudarshan said.
