Detroit Summer

Close your eyes and envision a city a new Detroit where young people have assumed the responsibility to keep the streets clean and safe for the community; where youth working with elders are growing food for the city in organic gardens and greenhouses; where residents, conscious of human and ecological wastefulness, have expanded recycling to create cottage industries providing jobs and strengthening communities.

Detroit has become a vital center of social change and a model for other urban areas in the redefining of cities across the nation. Is it the year 2010, 2025, 2050, or just a dream for the future?

Now open your eyes and take a look around Detroit today. In South West Detroit, the Cass Corridor and on Detroit's lower east side, you will find the vision becoming a reality in Detroit Summer .

For the fifth year, young people not only from Detroit but across the metro-area were joined by youth from Louisiana, California, Massachusetts, Oregon and Kentucky. Volunteering for four weeks of their summer vacation, these young people came together to work on community projects, attend workshops and dialogues with civil rights, labor and community activists all part of Detroit Summer's ongoing effort to rebuild, redefine and respirit Detroit from the ground up.

Founded in 1992, by a coalition of community activists and organizations to respond to the downward spiraling crisis in not only Detroit but cities across the country, the youth program/movement develops social responsibility and civic spirit in young people through direct participation with community organizations. The practical activities of living and working together on activities such as urban gardening, housing rehabilitation, and public arts combined with the workshops and dialogue encourage volunteers to explore issues involved in creating cities of the future and empowers them to participate directly in the development of these cities.

A 501(c)3 status nonprofit organization, Detroit Summer is funded primarily by the financial contributions of individuals committed to social change and the resources of supporting organi zations. First Unitarian Universalist Church has donated office, meeting and dining space. Ford Motor Company has donated the use of vans during the program for transportation to worksites. Cass Corridor Neighborhood Development Corporation has provided food, tools, and other supplies. And many families and individuals have graciously opened their homes each year to provide host housing to out-of-town volunteers each year.

More than just giving youth something to do, the projects give them something to think about as well. While working with an energetic group of elders called the "Gardening Angels", the youth volunteers learn practical lessons on life, commitment and responsibility. Besides learning these "life" lessons from the Gardening Angels, these east side gardens have been the catalyst for discussions on new work for this new generation. From how we will feed ourselves (one garden alone has fed over thirty families in the neighborhood) to cottage industries, such as marketing seedlings grown in a greenhouse built by Detroit Summer in 1993, ideas are being planted in the fertile fields of these young minds.

Working in the shadow of the Architects Building, a prototype environmentally sensitive renovation in the Cass Corridor, helped volunteers focus on the environmental issues of toxic soil, recycling, reducing waste and pollution prevention. The result of their discussion was an above the ground, "no dig" garden in 1994. This year the garden was expanded, almost tripling in size, to include not only flowers and vegetables continuing the "no dig" process but to also include a series of raised beds for herbs.

Besides discussing how to reclaim toxic soil, volunteers also talked about how we could recycle discarded items into usable products. A Detroit volunteer, who is working on her Masters degree in Fine Arts at Wayne State, took the discussion to the next level and designed a sculpture from metal items found in abandon lots during the City-wide clean-up. This metal "scarecrow" was installed at a Community Fair July 14 at which volunteers held a petting zoo and provided games and activities for children from the Corridor and nearby Jeffries Housing Project..

Food scraps from the daily dinners provided at First Unitarian Universalist Church were composted in a worm bin also started by Detroit Summer volunteers. Although its viewing was accompa nied with plenty of laughter, the video "WORM MANIA" was a big hit and two volunteers even took "starter" worm bins home with them to Connecticut and Oregon at the end of the program.

Throughout the year Detroit Summer continues to host a series of youth dialogues which allow young people to discuss with civic, business and community leaders their concerns and their ideas on a number of issues. A recurring issue at each dialogue has been the search for a solution to youth violence and gang related activities. In South West Detroit volunteers working with the Clark Park Coalition involved former gang members and youth at risk to channel their artistic abilities from graffiti to helping in the design and painting of two murals - one at the Maybury School and the other in Clark Park. This year a new mural designed by a former gang member was painted on St. Hedwig's Recreation Center.

In 1996 we look forward to continuing these intergenerational community dialogues, as we all search for solutions to the challenges facing cities across the nation. Our continuing discussion on seeds of a new economy has born fruit in the development of products to be sold as fund-raisers including worm bins, "home grown" pot pouri in hand crafted containers, and other goods from recycled materials. The four week summer program will begin June 23, 1996. Besides our usual gardening projects, we hope to include workshops on drumming and filming community documentaries and developing an ongoing cooperative recycling-based enterprise.

Social change through the participation of youth empowering them to grow as future leaders in the community. New ways and ideas to respirit communities that draw upon the wisdom of our elders combined with energy and enthusiasm of youth. Talking about and then developing projects, programs and businesses to redefine how we will live in harmony with one another and the earth. Tomorrow's dream, today's reality -- happening day-by-day, neighborhood-by-neighborhood in Detroit Summer.

Detroit Summer' provide services and programs for youth throughout the year. For information or to be a part of Detroit Summer through participation or a contribution call (313)832-2904 or write Detroit Summer - 4605 Cass Ave. - Detroit, MI 48201.

Michelle Brown lives in the Cass Corridor of Detroit and is a founder of the Neighborhood Information Exchange as well as the co-chair of Detroit Summer. Michelle also helped found Great Lakes Hours, a non-monetary currency, that is beginning to function in the Metro Detroit area. Michelle lives with her cats, has a 20 year old son, Terence, and is a writer, a poet, a burgeoning artist, and a compost evangelist. She is also known as the "Worm Woman of the Cass Corridor."

Great Lake Hours, a past article written for Synapse by Michelle Brown

Return to the Index of Synapse 34, Winter Solstice 1995