Lisa DuRussel, U-M School for Environment and Sustainability (SEAS) assistant professor of practice of landscape architecture, and SEAS graduate student Nana Temple, alongside community partners Amanda Paige and Katrina Watkins of the Bailey Park Neighborhood Development Corporation, will lead a project awarded an Engage Detroit Workshops grant. 

The project is called "Greenprint Detroit: Advancing Ecological Literacy through the Lens of Legacy Soils." It aims to advance ecological literacy of the community members of the McDougall-Hunt Neighborhood (bounded by Gratiot, Vernor, and Mt. Elliot) on Detroit’s east side. This engagement project will consist of two workshops in Summer 2022, focused on the history and existing condition of neighborhood soils as a theme for education, exploration, and action. The major outcome of this work will be a change in attitudes towards science/research/ecology through participation in citizen science. The intention is that the materials used and created for this effort will generate transferable knowledge to other Detroit communities.

The Engage Detroit Workshops grant program supports small teams of U-M faculty, staff, students, and community partners in organizing workshops that will strengthen partnerships between the University of Michigan and Detroit.

Learn more in this The University Record press release.