2010 Promising Projects — Encouraging Civic Progress

Currently, families in need access the housing system from several different locations throughout the community with communication between clients and service providers occurring through multiple fax and/or phone calls, with referrals and appointments taking precious days to schedule and execute. With philanthropic support, Community Rebuilders plans to create a Housing Services Center that will co-locate and connect key community housing service providers, under one roof, near downtown Grand Rapids.

In the new space, families will have access to a simplified and accelerated process to prevent homelessness where possible and rapidly re-house where appropriate. This "hub of housing assessment and services" will allow overtaxed staff to focus more on serving clients and less on gathering and transferring information. It will also facilitate interagency collaboration and coordination, and make it possible to target immediate assistance to those who are most vulnerable. The result will be a more coordinated response, expedited service, and a shortened length of homelessness for vulnerable families.

In partnership with the West Michigan Strategic Alliance (WMSA), Upjohn will undertake a comprehensive analysis of the talent system in the west Michigan region as a part of the Talent 2025 initiative. The study will help identify key performance indicators of the local talent system; provide an asset map of high performance talent development systems that articulates key components of success; and provide a performance gap comparison between the desired high-performance talent initiatives and the current performance within the region.

Designed to encourage the development, attraction, and retention of a highly skilled talent pool in west Michigan over the next 15 years, this project is expected to encourage accountability for those responsible for the education and training of the next generation of workers.