CULTURE · CREATIVITY · STRENGTH

Showcase the beauty of Detroit.

Detroit Roses is a community organization from Grandmont Rosedale. We build pride in our neighborhoods through public art, youth empowerment, literacy, and the people who make this city what it is.

Book R.E.P. Book Y.E.P.
Rose Buds Youth Empowerment Program students gathered together with Detroit Roses backpacks
WHO WE ARE

Built in Detroit, for Detroit.

Detroit Roses exists to showcase the beauty of our city. Detroit's culture, resilience, and creativity deserve to be celebrated, preserved, and uplifted, and we do that through public art, youth empowerment, literacy, and community events.

We work alongside the residents, schools, and organizations already doing the work on the ground. We highlight what is good about Detroit, take on real challenges, and work to make this city a better place to live for everyone who calls it home.

OUR MISSION

To showcase the beauty of Detroit by highlighting the city's Culture, Creativity, and Strength.

OUR VISION

A Detroit that is a better place to live for everyone who calls it home, where every child believes the world belongs to them too.

Culture

Honoring the history, music, art, and people that make Detroit unlike anywhere else.

Creativity

Turning blank walls, empty lots, and blank pages into something a neighborhood can be proud of.

Strength

Building confident young people and a community that shows up for each other.

R.E.P. · READING EMPOWERMENT PROGRAM

Building readers, thinkers, and leaders.

R.E.P. brings high energy, in person reading sessions to K to 5 classrooms across Detroit. Each visit pairs a great book with our Youth Empowerment Program (Y.E.P.), so kids build confidence and critical thinking right alongside literacy. And they see someone from their own city who loves to read.

In class visitsRead alouds and discussion during the school day.
After schoolOngoing sessions with libraries and community centers.
AssembliesSchool wide reading events and family nights.
Book R.E.P. for your school
Every child a reader.
A community leader leading a Rose Buds workshop with students
ROSE BUDS Y.E.P. · YOUTH EMPOWERMENT PROGRAM

Growing confident young leaders.

Rose Buds Y.E.P. gives young people space to build self sufficiency, confidence, and a habit of giving back. Interactive workshops are led by community leaders and experts, and every Rose Bud leaves with something to carry forward, from service hours to a letter of recommendation.

Book Y.E.P. for your group
STORY TIME LIBRARY

Press play and read along.

Free videos and audiobooks of us reading children's books, for families, teachers, and anyone with a little one at bedtime. New stories added as we record them.

Our first stories are on the way.Follow @detroitroses to catch them when they drop.
EVENT RECAPS

What we've built together.

A look back at our projects: what we set out to do, how the community showed up, and what it left behind.

2019 · Public Art

Highland Park Water Reservoir Mural

THE GOAL

Preserve and celebrate the history of Highland Park and Detroit, from the 1930s to today, on the reservoir wall at Dequindre and 6 Mile.

WHAT WE DID

Detroit Roses served as lead organizer and design manager. A design team selected and guided the artists, and partners came together around the project, including ARISE Detroit, Community United for Progress, Motor City Paint Company, State Representative Wendell Byrd, community leader Shirley Burch, and the City of Detroit Mayor's Office.

THE IMPACT

A city approved public artwork that brought a large group of artists and neighbors together to tell their own community's story.

A volunteer painting roses on the Yorkshire Woods mural
2018 · Public Art

Yorkshire Woods Community Mural

THE GOAL

Give the Yorkshire Woods neighborhood in northeast Detroit a landmark of positivity and pride, shaped by the people who live there.

WHAT WE DID

We partnered with the Yorkshire Woods Community Organization, a nonprofit of local residents and businesses, to learn what the block needed. Artists, organizers, and neighbors turned those conversations into concepts, then drafts, then a custom mural painted together, with kids and residents picking up brushes alongside us.

THE IMPACT

A wall that now speaks to the people who pass it every day. The project earned Detroit Roses the Spirit of Detroit Award from Detroit City Council in 2018, and we stayed on as a liaison to plan upkeep with the community.

A volunteer painting large letters on the Four Angels Garden fence
June 2018 · Community Cleanup

Four Angels Garden Beautification

THE GOAL

Turn neglected lots on Kensington Avenue into a garden space the block could enjoy and keep up.

WHAT WE DID

Volunteers spent a Saturday morning painting the garden fence in bold color and clearing out the Four Angels Garden, working side by side with Yorkshire Woods neighbors.

THE IMPACT

A cared for green space where there had been overgrowth, and a plan with residents to keep it that way.

June 2017 · Service Day

Drew Farm Harvest

THE GOAL

Support Drew Farm, a Detroit Public Schools Community District food and education site whose harvest is served in school cafeterias.

WHAT WE DID

Volunteers weeded and harvested the farm's three acres under the guidance of a farm professional. No experience was needed, just willing hands. We also debuted the Detroit Roses Volunteer Cap that day.

THE IMPACT

Fresh food headed to Detroit students' lunch trays, and a group of first time volunteers who got their hands in the soil for their city.