#911 Freedom House Detroit

Freedom House Detroit ("FHD") will celebrate the National Day of Service through beautification and outdoor activation activities at our Southwest Detroit headquarters. FHD has held these types of events each spring since 2023. But because much of the site was under construction for the past year, the events were paused. Now that the East Campus expansion project is complete, it’s time to resume these service projects and turn it up a notch. The East Campus project included creating an improved outdoor area with a new patios, shelter pavilion and outdoor grilling fixtures. This space was designed to be shared by FHD residents and neighborhood residents. The service project will consist of 4 components. 1) Freedom Talks Introduction – Volunteers will be invited inside for short tour of the new building addition and invited into the new classroom for a brief Freedom Talks speech that describes the unique services that FHD provides in the community. Volunteers will also be given instructions for their work projects. 2) Neighborhood Beautification - teams of volunteers will pan out around the campus and surrounding neighborhood streets and remove litter, manage vegetation (mowing and tree trimming), plant flowers (on FHD campus and for willing neighbors). Volunteers will be provided with tools and equipment needed to perform the work. 3) Public Space Activation - Volunteers will Install a new youth soccer field on the improved outdoor space. (The original landscape plan laid out a space for this field to be used by the community, but due to budget cuts, it could not be included.) Just recently, the Detroit City Football Club (Detroit's semi-professional soccer team) offered to help install a youth-size field and teach a youth soccer class. The activation will also include installing a permanent steel sports bench at the perimeter of the field. FHD will pay a local contract to install the bench by embedding in concrete so that it can be a permanent fixture. This contractor, Navarro Construction, has agreed to perform the work at a discount and utilize volunteers to complete job. 4) Celebration – All volunteers will be invite to stick around for an informal bbq on the newly improved outdoor area using the new outdoor grilling equipment.