Groups worked inside and outside school buildings Saturday as part of ARISE Detroit! Neighborhoods Day.

The annual program targets blighted areas to re-instill pride in the community.

One group spent the day cleaning Gordon Park on the city's west side.

"Our objective with the park is to undo the bad energy that was there," Peace Project youth program director Al Taylor told The Detroit News Saturday. "It was kind of the catalyst, so our posture is to make that into someplace that's a cool place to go, someplace harmonious."

Volunteers also painted the cafeteria, walls and lockers at Paul Robeson Malcolm X Academy. An abandoned home was to have been boarded up near Beckham Academy. Wayne State University students were to remove old furniture and clean rooms at Benjamin Carson High School of Science and Medicine.

The grounds around Thurgood Marshall Elementary School also were to be cleaned.

A number of vacant houses were slated Saturday for demolition.

Some businesses and groups involved in the projects included the Kayrouz law offices, Wayne State University, Handyman Ministries and the Cody Rouge Community Action Alliance.