Leslie Fields, a lifelong St. Stephen’s church member, shares her vision for this outdoor garden space. Photo by Angela Lugo-Thomas.

A group of landscape architects is helping Detroit’s neighborhood spaces and houses of worship offer their communities a place for kids to get outside and improve their health.

The National Wildlife Federation, through its Early Childhood Health Outdoors (ECHO) and Sacred Grounds programs, is offering technical assistance to seven Detroit organizations. The support aims to help each group realize its vision to build wildlife habitat while creating high-quality, nature-based outdoor play and learning settings for young children.

The selected sites include St. Stephen Outreach Community Development Corporation, Community of Christ, Hope House, Children’s Technology and Education Center at Camp Restore, St. Suzanne Cody Rouge Community Resource Center ​​and Marygrove Learning Community. The Community Foundation of Southeast Michigan is providing funding for this initiative.

“They are all looking at adding spaces for families and children to gather outdoors and to improve their ecosystem around their faith community,” Rebecca Colbert, director of the ECHO initiative for the National Wildlife Federation, told Planet Detroit. 

Colbert, a landscape architect, said that the ECHO program focuses on early childhood health by designing outdoor spaces for kids aged 0-5. The spaces are meant to lay a foundation for developing healthy habits and increasing awareness about where food comes from.

Leslie Fields and Bonnie Whittaker, members of the St. Stephen Outreach Community Development Corporation, work on their design plans. Photo by Angela Lugo-Thomas.

Site visits and design workshops took place in Detroit during the first week of October. Before the in-person visits, groups met virtually to start the design process and will meet virtually for the next few months to finish renderings for each space.

During the design workshops, the ECHO team of landscape designers worked with representatives from the selected sites. The team led workshops to help stakeholders think through the potential for each location and get their ideas on paper. 

During site visits, measurements of the proposed sites were taken, and a plot map was developed to visualize and brainstorm on what the area could include. 

Brainstormed ideas included archways, sheltered areas, gardens, seating, pathways, murals, water features, outdoor classroom or event spaces, and more. The groups discussed where to source some items for the design from within the community. 

Participants visualized plans on a large overhead photo of the proposed areas, identifying locations for each element. At the end of the workshop, the brainstorming design ideas for each location were shared with a larger group.

According to Colbert, being on-site with each community is key in getting a feel for what is right for each location. 

St. Stephen Outreach and Community Development Corporation is looking at enhancing three of its vacant parcels, including a small garden area that the organization wants to expand and make more enjoyable for its community. 

Leslie Fields, who helps to tend the current garden space, wants to put up a fence around the garden to stop people from driving through it. She also hopes to add some trees for shade, stepping stone paths, new garden beds, benches and a small gazebo.

Fields also suggested a stepping stone pathway, a music and art wall, a gathering space with raised beds, used tires for planting flowers, a climb through tunnel, trees and wood fencing.

Leslie Fields of St. Stephen Outreach Community Development Corporation in Detroit presents the design ideas. Photo by Angela Lugo-Thomas.

Another church member, Bonnie Whittaker wants to develop four lots nearby with walking paths, raised beds, a pollinator garden, trees and a labyrinth. She wants an area for meditation. She wants a place where residents don’t have to go outside of the community to have a natural open space for gatherings.

A few organizations have acquired abandoned homes that they plan to renovate into community spaces. Camp Restore is currently converting one house next to the church on Seymour near Chalmers into an early childhood center and hopes to turn another into a place for teens to hang out and a third into a coffee and tea shop.

“Anything that we’re doing around natural landscapes and repurposing vacant property in the community, I love it,” said Sandra Turner-Handy, who recently retired from the Michigan Environmental Council and is a current board member at Camp Restore and a prominent community leader in the neighborhood. 

This brainstorming activity helped participants identify potential nearby collaborators. For example, Community of Christ is across the street from Crowell Community Center and a few blocks from the MSU Detroit Partnership for Food, Learning and Innovation.

Allen Jones and Dan Nowiski of Community of Christ pointed to two rain gardens installed last year and a plan to turn other street areas into demonstration areas for environmental and sustainable practices. They also have plans to add solar panels to some of the structures they own. 

The ECHO team will use these ideas to develop conceptual drawings for further review and iteration. During the next few months, the sites will receive a final illustrative plan, an action plan for implementation, training, and resources for teachers to engage young children outdoors and help them connect to nature.

“We are going from blight to bright,” Fields said.

Garden Development Manager at Keep Growing Detroit, overseeing urban agriculture initiatives and food sovereignty programs in Detroit.