The Greening of Detroit is an urban forestry program and non-profit partner in The Detroit Partnership; it was founded in 1989. In addition to planting trees in the Detroit area, the organization engages in urban forestry education, job training, and other community programs. In 2011, Greening planted 12,156 trees in Detroit, and as of November 2017 has planted over 100,000 trees in the city since the organization's inception. The organization is involved in urban farming, working to maintain and improve urban farms in Detroit. Greening is also working to improve air quality. Its annual operating budget is approximately $3.8 million. Lionel Bradford is the president of The Greening of Detroit.
Programs
The organization works to coordinate and utilize vacant lots in Detroit for urban gardens and tree nurseries. Produce grown in the gardens is used to provide Detroit citizens with food, and trees grown in the converted vacant lots are replanted in the city. The conversion of the vacant lots also improves their appearance and serves to reduce vandalism. At Romanowski Park in Detroit, The Greening of Detroit has partnered with area schools to educate students about nutrition and gardening during the growing season. The group is working to use bioremediation techniques to restore contaminated land in the city, including an abandoned lot owned by Detroit Public Schools.
Detroit Conservation Corp
The organization's Detroit Conservation Corp. workforce development program was started in 2006, in partnership with LaSalle Bank. This job training program was developed "to provide unemployed Detroiters with valuable job training and certification in the green industry." This partnership has continued with Bank of America, which provided a $200,000 grant for the Detroit Conservation Corp program in 2012. The Detroit Conservation Corp program provides training for jobs in landscaping, agriculture and forestry, and upon completion of the program, participants are afforded an opportunity to take the Landscape Industry Certification exam.
The Greening of Detroit employs 200 students in their Green Corps program every summer. The employees are picked from a pool of 2,000 prospects, and the jobs payminimum wage. In the process of their work to maintain various plantings in Detroit, Green Corps employees also learn about urban ecology.
