Kresge’s Detroit Program today announced 25 projects across the city in the fifth and largest round of initiative which was first announced in 2014. These 25 were chosen from a pool of 163 applicants.

Planning grants:

• Bailey Park Projects, which serves the McDougall-Hunt neighborhood, will develop a plan to repurpose vacant lots into an environmentally sustainable, multigenerational green space for neighborhood residents.
• Brilliant Detroit has been dedicated to youth enrichment and school preparedness since its inception in 2015. The organization will develop plans for a youth- and family-centered community hub in the Morningside neighborhood.
• Detroit Justice Center in collaboration with DLIVE will develop plans for a supportive housing unit for those affected by physical trauma and gun violence.
• Dream of Detroit will develop plans for a commercial kitchen and walk-up restaurant space for food-based entrepreneurs on Woodrow Wilson Street on Detroit’s west side.
• Foodlab Detroit will develop resources and materials for the community on the cultural impact food has on the preservation of place, including planning for a Dream Café to highlight those narratives.
• Michigan Humane Society will conduct extensive community engagement in Detroit’s North End to design and develop a pet-friendly park for neighborhood residents.
• The Greening of Detroit will plan for the Greening Hub, which will serve as a center for meetings, classes, workforce training, educational programming and more. The Greening Hub will engage the community in activities that promote climate change resiliency, environmental stewardship and sustainability, and a healthier urban ecosystem.
• Detroit Block Works, which serves a northwest Detroit community, will use KIP:D support to build its organizational and planning capacity in the development of a community gathering space and resource hub.
• North End Neighborhood Patrol will use KIP:D support to build organizational and planning capacity; the organization has engaged youth ambassadors to lead their peers in community-based projects.
• Russell Woods Sullivan Area Association will use KIP:D support to build organizational and planning capacity; the organization as a steward in the Russell Woods neighborhood to elevate resident priorities through placemaking projects.
• Nardin Park Improvement Rock will use KIP:D support to build organizational and planning capacity as a steward in Nardin Park to engage residents in a community design process for neighborhood spaces.

Combined planning and implementation grants:

• The Brightmoor Alliance and Sidewalk Detroit will restore habitats and strategically design pathways in Eliza Howell Park in northwest Detroit, augmented by arts and culture programs that increase visitor engagement.
• Cody Rouge Community Action Alliance will develop a pavilion in Stein Park in the Cody Rouge neighborhood for health and wellness activities, community gatherings and placemaking activities.
• Auntie Na’s House will develop a shared commercial kitchen space for resident cooperatives. The group will also expand the Village Park and adjacent community gardens in Detroit’s Nardin Park/Russell Woods neighborhood.
• Boggs Educational Center Project Team will work on a community play space and park as a gathering space near the Grace Lee Boggs School on Detroit’s east side. The community play space will be designed by students and residents, and staffed by resident ambassadors.
• Chandler Park Conservancy will develop a fitness zone at Chandler Park which features outdoor fitness equipment for residents of all ages.
• Detroit Hispanic Development Corporation will develop spaces for social entrepreneurship training and innovation at its facility on Trumbull in Detroit’s Corktown neighborhood.
• Mexicantown Community Development Corporation will design and develop an art gallery and community-centric cafe in the MCDC-owned Welcome Center to preserve and promote artistic, cultural and culinary arts activities and entrepreneurship.
• Congress of Communities will design and develop a youth hub in southwest Detroit that will use arts and other activities to support young residents, with a particular focus on vulnerable youth populations.

Implementation grants:

• Urban Neighborhood Initiatives will develop a youth activities hub at the Lawndale Center centered on three themes: art, video gaming and a comic book store. This will be a youth-led, youth-programmed space open to adolescent aged youth and young adults.
• Young Nation will transform a vacant lot in the Springwells neighborhood into a community-designed park that residents will use for informal gatherings and outdoor recreation and that the organization will use for formal programming.
• Woodbridge Neighborhood Development Corporation will reactivate an abandoned elementary school into a neighborhood hub and center for resident engagement in Detroit’s Woodbridge neighborhood.
• Eden Gardens Block Club will purchase and rehab a house on Detroit’s east side to use as a center for literacy and improvement of life and work skills.
• Community Treehouse Center, following a KIP:D Round 4 planning grant, will create an inclusive community space in the Jefferson-Chalmers neighborhood that can accommodate multi-generational users and those with disabilities.
• Clark Park Detroit will support the implementation projects identified through a participatory community budgeting process, including revitalizing park gazebos, walking paths, and reinstalling soccer and volleyball facilities.