The Angela Brown Wilson Gardens are our vision for an outdoor wellness campus that honors the life and legacy of Angela “Raine” Brown Wilson — a lifelong Eastside leader, ECN co-founder, social worker, youth advocate, and community builder. Through this project, we are carrying forward Angela’s commitment to healing, justice, and community care by creating a space where Eastside residents can gather, grow food, play, reflect, and build stronger connections with one another.

The concept is rooted in our vision of a “Mother Tree”: roots that draw people in, a trunk that connects people to the Wellness Hub, and a canopy that protects and nurtures the campus. The design connects the indoor wellness work of the Stoudamire Wellness Hub with outdoor spaces that support physical, mental, and environmental wellness.

Key features include green infrastructure, vegetative and tree buffers, urban agriculture, youth and adult fitness areas, meditative and gathering spaces, solar-powered lighting and charging stations, public art, outdoor classrooms, playfields, gazebo seating, bench seating, and a courtyard with water features. The campus is also designed to reduce the dominance of parking lots by removing pavement and fencing, while connecting the Mother Tree Campus to Manz Playfield.

The gardens are part of ECN’s larger effort to remove barriers to wellness on Detroit’s Eastside, responding to issues like poor air quality, fragmented healthcare, food insecurity, housing insecurity, concentrated poverty, industrial expansion, and climate vulnerability.