Avalon Village Updates: Concrete Poured, $115K Raised through Crowdfunding

A few weeks ago, we brought you the story of Avalon Village, a sustainable eco-village rising in Highland Park. This project has been years in the making, is completely community-driven, and will include a marketplace for women, homework house for youth, and basketball courts/landscaping for activities. Avalon Village was created from a need in Highland Park, where kids have nowhere to go and unemployment is too high. Here are a few updates:

So far, the Kickstarter campaign has raised nearly $120,000 in three weeks. The goal is to raise a total of $241,900 in the next eight days in order to fund phase one of the project (which includes renovating the Homework House and creating the Goddess Marketplace).

Speaking of the Goddess Marketplace, the concrete has been poured and is currently settling. The group will use shipping containers for the Goddess Marketplace, where women can sell their wares and goods to boost economic opportunity in the neighborhood.

The Homework House is currently being internally gutted to make way for new walls and rooms.

Mama Shu, who leads the group, was recently interviewed by Charlie LeDuff to talk about the project. In this video, she discusses how her son Jakobi Ra was killed by a hit and run driver when he was two, and how she wants to transform the energy from her grief into joy and to bring opportunity into her neighborhood.

And more media outlets are starting to cover this story, such as this interview on WXYZ.

We’ll continue updating on the progress of this eco-village.

• A Sustainable Eco-Village is Rising in Highland Park [Curbed Detroit]
• Avalon Village: From Blight to Beauty [Kickstarter]
• WXYZ Interview