About Us

The name of the organization is Eden Gardens Community Association, formerly Eden Gardens Block Club. It was formed in July 2010 by two long –term homeowners to assess and address the neighborhood’s continued viability and to impede further devastation and abandonment of houses in the area.

The block club was incorporated on January 18, 2011 and granted 501(c)(3) tax exempt status on January 22, 2013.  

We previously ran three programs in the past from 2012-2017: The first program was neighborhood improvement, which included clean-up/board -up projects throughout the year and participation in the Detroit Summer Youth Employment Program overseeing youth in cleaning and landscaping 18 blocks in the community.  

The second program involved the creation of a community garden in 2013 in collaboration with the Isaac Agree Downtown Synagogue (IADS). The idea behind the garden and partnership with the Synagogue was three-fold.  One, it would address the lack of healthy foods in the immediate area; two it would beautify vacant lots turning them into edible green space; and three it would bring together two diverse communities in the hope of increasing understanding between multiple faiths and backgrounds through work in the garden. Community youth are also involved in the garden and are learning the importance and value of growing their own food.  How to eat healthy and developing entrepreneurship skills by selling produce at local farmers markets. 

We later added an international component to this program in 2015 through a cultural exchange with students from Germany, in 2015, 2016, and 2018, the students worked in the community garden and learned about the African American experience in Detroit.  In 2017, six youth from our community went to Germany to work in their gardens and learn about the German experience.  

Out third program involved the creation of a pocket park and orchard in 2016. The completed park contains a gazebo, three picnic tables and grills, trash cans, a bike rack and ash cans. A fruit orchard is next to the park and has 16 fruit trees. In 2018 we begin to enhance the community by building an intergenerational playground and park. The park opened in June of 2019. We added 8 more fruit trees across the street at the garden in 2020.