2007 Promising Projects — Community Capital Projects

Saint Mary's Health Care (Saint Mary's) received a grant to construct the Hauenstein Center - a new 138,000 square foot, four-story clinical building with adjacent parking structure, that will serve a variety of uses including being the cornerstone of a coordinated, continuum of care for brain and nervous system conditions, and housing a new and expanded emergency department.

Too often, west Michigan patients experiencing neuroscience disorders must navigate a fragmented system of providers that requires patients and their families to make appointments with multiple providers and travel to multiple sites throughout the region seeking needed services. The proposed Hauenstein Center is designed to address that fragmentation by providing rapid access to care by employing an integrated team of highly trained professionals in a one-stop, multidisciplinary environment.

This project is expected to help establish Saint Mary's as the leading provider in neuroscience service delivery in West Michigan, which in-turn may lead to wealth generation for the community through service to non-local patients.

The Manna Project was awarded a grant to double the size of their warehouse and improve their equipment to accommodate double digit growth in requests for their service. Located between Petoskey and Harbor Springs, the Manna Project is a unique provider of emergency food relief in Charlevoix and Emmet counties. They not only serve as a food pantry that distributes directly to families, but also as a regional 'wholesale' food bank that serves as a distribution site for 38 partner pantries and non-profit agencies throughout the northern Michigan area.

Vulnerable families depend on the Manna Project for tangible help in the face of intense pressure to stay afloat. This project is designed to provide more efficient and more effective space for the distribution of food, with more nutrition, in useable portions for families.