The Greening of Detroit offers educational programs connecting residents with planting organizations, and runs tree and productive planting sessions along streets and in parks. Group plantings build community and allow residents to immediately affect the form and feeling of their neighbourhoods. The Greening of Detroit is a training and advocacy organization founded in 1989 during a period of financial hardship for the city of Detroit, which has since lost about a further 13 percent of its population. Thousands of vacant and abandoned lots dot the city surface as a result, offering potential sites for urban agriculture and forestry, along with problems of low-density crime and neighbourhood disconnection.