Freedom Dreams : Our Time To Re-Imagine

Dear friends and supporters of Freedom Dreams,

More than 5 years ago, you and many others expressed support for a request from Janice and Rich to accompany folks from the east side of Detroit to create an Community Land Trust Eco-Village that would act as our NorthStar. We raised funds to create housing for people with and without disabilities and a culture uplifting the beloving community or we often call Peace Zones for Life.. Your funds and support were the basis of the “seed money” that has been generously supported by a local and a couple of national foundations. Our team has a strong core of committed individuals, and we have developed trust and a supportive, nurturing and working environment. Purchasing the land was stage one. We now have 40 parcels of land.

Let us also be clear, Detroit has declared war on the 50% of the population who earn less than $24,000. Gentrification expands and deepens which means homelessness increases and visions for this Eco-Village and Community Land Trust become more than symbols of hope and a more than a north star. We are intervening in the narrative and saying that All Detroiters Matter!

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Freedom Dreams

We have now completed two stages and are preparing for stage three. We began with the purchase of land. We now have 40 parcels of land. Since our work began in 2017, our team of Coach Kellogg, Sam Scardefield, Jasmine Noble, Pastor Robert Jones, Deacon Monroe and Rich Feldman have created trust, programs and we hope that one day you will visit and meet this team of Freedom Dreamers.

Stage two. Our commitment to healing the land is exemplified with simple projects and symbols of hope, community connections. The building of structures includes a stage, community garden, meeting spaces and repairing (seriously repairing) the Robinson Community Center to include an operating kitchen, community gathering space, and a carpentry shop in the carriage house. And our fab lab equipment is paid for and being delivered as we write to you.

Our first go-fund was to commemorate Rich and Janice’s 40th wedding anniversary and Rich’s 70th birthday. We were honored and your gifts totaled about $40,000. Some of you gave thousands and others gave $10 and $25. Jasmine continued this tradition and raised money for her birthday. Many family members, Jasmine’s family came from Romulus and from her decades long relationship as a teacher and now therapist at the James and Grace lee Boggs School (generously contributed donations and uplifted Jasmine’s Birthday celebrations as well. This “seed” money has grown, and we are honored to report that we have completed Stage 1 & Stage 2 of this Freedom Dream. We have purchased and have access (actual deeds) to 40 parcels of land, and we have healed the land.

In our commitment to resist gentrification and “others moving in” we recently purchased the house behind the Robinson Center that will become another Freedom Dreams Hub. This Hub was originally built in 1890 as one of Detroit's first styles of affordable homes known as the workers cottage. We plan to renovate and transform this house into our Community Hub to support small meetings, workshops, a fablab and support transitional//temporary housing. We have also allocated funds for a container to store garden supplies and tools as well. Our garden resource programming which maintains our gardens and land, also supports neighbors as a tool sharing resource, is rapidly expanding. The rehab and repair of the Robinson Center includes a remodeled kitchen, place for offices and large gatherings.

These past few years we have cultivated critical relationships across the city of Detroit and have provided a space for visitors from across the world to imagine the future with us. Our programming includes conversations, workshops with neighbors, carpentry apprenticeship programming, intergenerational conversation disability justice, and an outdoor classroom day with students. Additionally we have connected with the following:

We have hosted conversations with authors Robin DG Kelley and Author Michelle Alexander; collaborated with Sweetwaterfoundation.com, Emmanuel Pratt and the Emerging Values Based Network; worked closely with Feedom Freedom Growers, Birwood House, the James & Grace Lee Boggs Center as well as the Kenyatta Block Club, Bailey Park, Arboretum Detroit, and Chicago’s Sweet Water Foundation

Students from University of Michigan, University of Detroit Mercy, Carnegie Melon University, and Cornell University

This work has deepened our commitments to each other, and expanded. Our dreams and work have become a beacon of hope in our area. We have witnessed a number of young people gain skills in carpentry, designing and building, neighbors making furniture, repairing porches, bringing neighbors together to collaborate…we are moving forward.

We are now entering stage three, which is the actual planning, design and building of the houses.t has taken longer than we hoped. No surprise. Along the way we have learned a lot and have made valuable relationships with teams across the city, and most importantly we have built trust with our neighbors who regularly support our work and are ready to take these next steps in stride. The challenge to resist gentrification has not wavered us as we have kept our focus on our relationships and critical connections.

In 2025, we will be focusing on:

Actual Visioning, Planning and Universal Designed housing and the entire 40 parcels which include a commitment to food security (if we can feed ourselves we can free ourselves) We are currently planning and meeting with experts to develop long-term plans for solar energy. With the completion of the repair and upgrade of the Robinson Center and recent purchase of a community hub/house to support our launching of many youth and intergenerational programs, community connections, deepening our skills, our trust, our vision and study

Programs will include expanded carpentry maker space and fab lab workshops for community and students, Culinary Arts program, Pantry for Healthy Eating and Cooking, building musical instruments (remember Pastor Jones is also a Blues Singer and Story Teller), Urban gardening expansion and weekly markets, design and build furniture and even housing, and as home repair in the neighborhood, education classes, and Coach Kellogg has a program called “J.I.V.E talk” that utilizes intergenerational conversations to grow and nurture individual and collective capabilities.

The theme and focus for 2025 is: Our Time to Re-imagine

to Create our East Side Democratic Community Land Trust and Eco Village.

Housing, design, and create plans to build the eco-village universal design and invite folks to create the community land trust and thus our democratic Beloving Community. Some will call it a Freedom Zone; We will call it home!

We share this update to say thank you. The report back has been awhile and you have never been forgotten. Thank you. We urge you and others to contribute funds to stage three and our current work.

What can you do?

Our goal is to raise $35,000 with this go-fund. We also know that all of us are entering one of the most dangerous periods in our generation’s journey, our country and the earth The future is uncertain and dangerous AND we believe that our strength and commitment to resist gentrification, deportation, challenge the increased violence toward women, gay and transgender folks as well as the increased loss of housing, evictions, pain and suffering for those who have become outsiders to America requires hope and concrete expression of another way to live. Whether you raise money, “tithe” your own incomes and support organizations protecting immigrants and families providing funds for hospitals in Gaza Or resisting gentrification by supporting Freedom Dreams, we need each other, we need to turn to each other and accept that our government is not the answer. Our communities are up to us and our Freedom and Dignity is embodied in Freedom Dreams.

Go to our website Freedomdreams.org and donate. We are a 501C3 or use this go fund.

If you have any questions and you need something,

Email our Freedom Dreams East Side leadership team:

Kevin “Coach Kellogg” Jones,

Jasmine Noble,

Pastor Robert Jones,

Nathaniel “Deacon” Monroe

Rich Feldman

Sam Boyd-Scardefield

[email redacted]