Healing Detroit

How do you heal the city of Detroit? To start, heal its residents, the individuals who make up its diverse community. And how do you do that? By planting trees and engaging with them in meaningful conversation about how they want to heal their city, as well as how they can take significant action to do so. The result? A stronger sense of community in Detroit that bodes well for the future of the city and everyone who calls it home.

The Healing House, founded by Kayana Sessoms, aims to heal her community through creative spaces for Detroit youth and other community members. We recently partnered with Kayana to plant trees throughout Cedarhurst and Longwood. When we were able to catch up to Kayana, she spoke about the significant partnerships helping her transform communities, like the one with The Greening of Detroit.

The partnership with The Greening of Detroit means a lot to just the beautification efforts that have been worked on over the last couple of years. We are bringing people together to show them these green and community spaces exist. We can now come together to beautify Detroit and these neighborhoods as it relates to John R and Woodward; so many residents feel forgotten, and there aren’t any community organizations or hubs in the area, so I created The Healing House. The primary efforts are to be a support system for the community and be a safe space, and we are grateful for the support we are receiving in return.

Efforts such as Kayana’s are one of the main reasons that Detroit is moving in the direction it is. Just as she mentioned how vital the partnerships are to her and her organization, they are just as important to us and our mission to beautify Detroit while bringing Detroiters together. Community hubs such as The Healing House do much more than provide neighborhood resources. They provide hope.