The organization I have been so fortunate to be placed with this summer is Voices 4 Earth Justice. V4EJ is an interfaith non-profit that intertwines urban agriculture, ecology,and sustainability education to help foster community development and stewardship of the planet. I sat down to talk to director, Patty Gillis and she explained how V4EJ came into being. It was 2001, and the aftermath of the Twin Towers going down was just settling in. Patty said as she looked around at the state of the people in the community she quickly realized people weren’t prepared to do anything for themselves. And that is when Voices 4 Earth Justice began. No matter what religion, race, or way of life, we all have a duty to take care of the planet and V4EJ provides a space and opportunity to do so.
Situated in northwest Detroit’s Brightmoor neighborhood, V4EJ sits directly across the street from Hope Park on Puritan and Greydale. It’s a quiet neighborhood filled with huge beautiful trees, but every other house is vacant and falling over. Some may wonder why anyone would want to move into a neighborhood with so many vacant homes, but if things are to get better, there has to be a starting point. With help from the community V4EJ was able to renovate a property that sat vacant for over ten years. Hope House. That is what the property is now called. Still in transition, Hope House is on the way to becoming an ecology center/laboratory. With lab tables, microscopes, other donations and the sweat equity of a multitude of people, the space has transformed enormously.
I’m still finalizing the details of my project, but so far I will be assessing community attitudes toward urban agriculture and gardening in general. I will be meeting with people from all around Brightmoor, as well as professionals and small business owners. Next week I should have my first assessment participants. This past week went by fast. I feel like I’m starting to get a routine. I’m hoping to be more organized next week. Especially since I’ll be kind of flying solo because my boss went out of town and won’t be back for 11 days. I can handle things though. I always do.
I almost forgot!! Here are a couple of pictures from last Thursday’s scavenger hunt.
Voices for Earth Justice sounds awesome. I’d love to visit sometime!
There’s so much research around how much of a positive difference trees/nature/agriculture can make in a struggling neighborhood. I’ve read a few case studies of various gardens that have popped up around the city and how they’ve helped to improve the community. It gives the people a place to get together and to work on something positive, which is wonderful! It gives the people in the neighborhood something beautiful to look at and to feel good about. Plus, some even go on to be small centers for new development on the surrounding blocks.
I personally think urban agriculture/gardening has a ton of potential for helping Detroit (especially outside of downtown) spring back, but I’m really interested to hear what people who live here full time have to say about it and how they feel about it. Your research sounds very interesting, keep me posted! (: