- And welcome to this addition of Community Connection.

Let's catch up with those from The Right Place.

Tim Mroz, Senior Vice President of Community Development will join in.

Let's talk Right Place 101 and the importance of place in economic development and place probably means community.

You're all about community development.

So you picked a pretty cool niche I imagine.

- It's a lot of fun.

I will tell you that.

- [Shelley] Yes.

Tell me about the right place.

How do you describe this organization?

- Yeah, so The Right Place is west Michigan's regional economic development organization.

We're structured as a nonprofit, got our start way back in 1985.

So one of the few economic development firms around the country that has lasted this long without, you know, reorganization or, you know, some sort of a split in recreation.

So a great 30 plus year legacy to build off of.

Today we cover actually eight counties across west Michigan.

So we go all the way up to about Luddington over to Big Rapids and all the way down to Ionia and back to Grand Rapids again.

- Is the organization responsible for bringing in business and making dollars for west Michigan?

Is that kind of the blunt why you're here?

- Yep, we often get tagged as that because that's what makes the news a lot are those business attractions.

Everybody wants to see the new company coming to town, the new talent coming to town, but believe it or not, 90 plus percent of our work is actually working with local businesses right here in west Michigan.

We've always had the philosophy since 1985 that you need to support the customer base that is here.

And so every year we meet with 400 plus businesses from around the region, sitting across from owners and presidents and CEOs, and just saying, how's it going?

How's the business?

You know, what struggles are you going through?

What's keeping you up at night?

And then helping them face, you know, face those challenges, bringing the support and resources from the state and fed and local connections to make sure that they continue doing business successfully in west Michigan and ultimately creating new jobs for our citizens here in west Michigan.

- [Shelley] Two part question.

what's the key to attracting new business?

And what is the key to keeping your existing customers?

- Well, of course I'm gonna say place, but that's, you know, really, it's more of a comprehensive approach where The Right Place really has a philosophy on three pillars of people, place, and prosperity, and it takes all three of those to make sure that businesses have the resources they need to be successful in west Michigan.

The first one around people is really focusing on the workforce that's here, the talent that's here, but we take a unique perspective in that we work from the talent perspective through the employer.

So helping the employer make sure that they're doing everything they can to support their existing employees, but also where can they reach out to future workforce as they continue to grow and how can they be the most attractive, welcoming, and inclusive employer that they can be, you know, for their business.

So that's the people category.

The place category is what I do, which is about investing in place and we'll talk about that in a little while, but you know, you have to have a quality place that people can call home so that they stay in your community and remain employed with those employers that are here.

And then the final one around prosperity is the traditional economic development model of working with businesses, helping them expand, driving that capital investment which creates construction jobs, and then also ultimately jobs with those businesses in our community.

- Are you busy?

- [Tim] Yes, yes we are.

There's always opportunities out there.

- What is the current climate before we get into more place?

- So, yeah, I mean, we're really in a really interesting time I would say right now in that, you know, we're going into this post-COVID era.

More employers are welcoming employees back to work, but I think we've had a very transformational movement within employers across the country and across the world to a more digital, flexible work environment.

And so the opportunity for us moving forward is how do we as west Michigan and Grand Rapids engage in that, you know, there's opportunities to work, to live in Grand Rapids, to call Grand Rapids home and work for an Austin-based firm or work for a California-based firm.

There's also opportunities in west Michigan to access talent that you may not have been able to access before being in Grand Rapids.

And so it's creating a really unique atmosphere.

Obviously we've had some, you know, we're in an interesting time right now with the war going on in Ukraine and fuel prices and things like that.

We're continuing to have supply chain issues and so I don't wanna gloss over the, you know, the struggles that are traditional, you know, our manufacturing sectors going through right now.

You know, I think they're dealing with, you know, with a very difficult time right now, trying to make sure that they can fulfill orders and stay on time with their customers as well.

- The importance of place in economic development.

Tell me about this.

- Yeah.

So this is actually has been a new trend, I would say, in economic development.

The idea of investing in place has been around for decades, but more recently, we have seen the tie between the value of place in place making and its impact on future economic growth.

The idea is taking a more strategic approach of investing in public spaces, public spaces, experiences, things like that to create a unique community for folks to live in.

You know, I'm sure, I would challenge, you know, challenge you to say, you know, if you were to tell me 2, 3, 4, 5 different cities from around around the country that you've traveled to, and you said, you know what, this place is great.

You know, if I didn't love Grand Rapids so much, I would actually consider moving here and I would challenge you because I think when I would ask you why you wouldn't say it's because of the great businesses that are in that community, it's not because that municipality was run so well and efficient.

It wasn't because the roads were so nice.

It was the experience you had there.

It was what made it unique.

It was the cocktails or the drinks at a lakefront park or waterfront park, or it was a concert that you took in when you were there that made it unique and, and special.

That's what we're trying to do here in Grand Rapids.

And we've done a great job of it for, you know, for years and years and years.

The challenge for us moving forward is, what does that next level look like?

You know, what does that 201 market, the riverfront development look like for us?

You know, what does it look like to be even more inclusive in our community in terms of place making?

But that's the whole idea around developing place to drive future economic development.

- I'd probably say as the races that kept me here, or the dog parks.

Let's get into some examples of west Michigan place making, strategic redevelopment.

You wanna start with the Four Star Theater?

- Yeah, so the whole idea around strategic redevelopment is taking a step back in your community and saying, what are those specific sites, those overlooked sites, in this case, we talked about a theater and we'll get to that, but, you know, what are those specific areas that, if we were to concentrate our efforts there and redevelop that, what would that investment do for that local community, that local neighborhood, but also what potential ripple effects would it have moving out from that in the community and really create that sense of place?

The one that you mentioned there is the Four Star Theater, which is a long forgotten theater on Division and Burton, just in the south town area of Grant Rapids.

And there's a gentleman there that has recently purchased the theater and wants to bring it back to life.

It's an amazing theater.

He wants to not just breathe new life into it as a theater, but also have to be like a community center for quinceañeras and other things that happen, you know, in the south town area.

And it could be a great community asset.

So not only for that theater itself, but also once that theater's done, what other restaurants and shops and retail would want to be near that as it continues to bring hundreds of people to that neighborhood?

- Valley Field is another example.

- [Tim] This is my most recent favorite.

I love this thing.

So folks may know it as Sullivan Field, originally I think it was called Valley Field built back in the 1930s.

Rumor has it it was actually a WPA funded project, but it's an old historic ballpark that was built on the west side of Grand Rapids.

You know, it's the iconic wooden bleacher seats built right in a neighborhood setting.

Unfortunately, for the last probably 20 years, 20 plus years it has been again forgotten.

A group of local enthusiasts has come back and said, you know what?

What could this ballpark look like if it was brought back as a historic ballpark, you know, acknowledging that baseball legends throughout history have gone through this stadium.

Satchel Page and other folks, you know, African American baseball players that went on to the pros.

What would that look like for the west side neighborhood?

How would it create a sense of place for folks not just as a ballpark but also as a community gathering space, and, you know, just the potential of something like that that could happen here in Grand Rapids.

- Activating public spaces here, too, part of this.

- Yep.

So it's not just private development, you know?

The theater, the ballpark, you know, those are private developments, but it's also public spaces.

You know, you're talking things like, you know, things that are often overlooked like a simple alleyway, or, you know, what has come to be known as a pocket park, which is, you know, a popup park.

I think many of us have traveled to cities where you may walk along a downtown area and you look down an alley and it's nothing, but it's a little dark, and it's got, you know, a bunch of food dumpsters from the restaurants out front, and it's really kind of underutilized.

And then you go to some communities and there's stringed lights up above and there's bistro tables.

There may be a temporary bandstand down at the end where you can have acoustic music playing and you think that is a really cool, what do you call it?

Space.

And so that's the idea is creating these public spaces and revitalizing them, moving those dumpsters out, repaving those bricks and creating a space where people can gather.

Oftentimes in the summer it's shaded with those buildings and it's a comfortable breezeway where people can dine and gather, and oftentimes, you know, take in some music.

- Finish me with public art and festivals.

We have many here, Tim.

- We do.

You know, one of the things that Michigan is known for is its festival and cultural amenities.

But the important thing to remember again with place making is it's not only the physical space, you know we've talked about theaters and baseball parks and alleyways and pocket parks, things like that, but it's also simple things like just creating public art.

You know, you go to Austin.

I was in Philadelphia a couple weeks ago.

Philadelphia actually has a 1% policy for the city.

So any new development that goes in with the city, in order to be approved for that development, 1% of that development cost has to go back to public art.

And so when you look around large cities like this, and you're like, how do they have these sculptures and these murals and these paintings, that's how, is the public invests back in art.

We've seen it, there's a brand new mural that just went up on around Hops and Flats with around (indistinct), international artists from South Korea.

I mean just amazing artwork and what that does to create a sense of place.

People that travel here get their picture taken by these, you know, by this artwork.

A lot of our rural communities, you know, a lot of our rural communities have those historic murals that are on the sides of the buildings that were painted back in the '20s and '30s, and what that could potentially mean for folks traveling there and creating a sense of place for even those rural communities so you don't become Anytown, USA.

- [Shelley] Not here.

What do you need from our community, Tim?

- So, I think moving forward, you know, the community engagement piece of this place making effort and really making a concerted effort to make strategic, and I'm gonna say investments, in public space placemaking and experiences.

Everything takes money.

You know, redevelopment takes money, economic development takes money.

We have to continue to invest and double down on this.

The other thing is we can't always have that investment be in the urban core.

It has to be a regional and even a statewide investment.

So, you know, we're talking about rural communities, we're talking about other areas, even other areas of Grand Rapids having a more equitable investment.

And so that everyone in our community feels a sense of place in their local neighborhood, in their local neighborhood attaching to the city and to the region.

- Wonderful.

Thanks for your leadership.

Right Place.

How do we find out more information?

- Best place is rightplace.org, or even our social media channels, Facebook and LinkedIn.

- Great community, great you.

Thanks, Tim.

- Thank you so much.

(soft music) - Dégagé Ministries cuts the ribbon on an expansion project, plus hosts a film series on causes, realities, and solutions to homelessness.

Talk more about that with Executive Director, Thelma Ensink.

Thelma, good that you are here, and I need to have you out of a job, but homelessness still remains with us.

Not to make light of it.

Thank you for your service.

- Thank you so much for having me, Shelley.

- Tell me about Dégagé Ministries.

- So dégagé means to be at ease, do not worry.

We want people when they come through our front doors to find a place where they can have a meal, get a shower, get connected to employment opportunities, get connected to housing opportunities.

It is for those who are unhoused, but it's also for those who live in our community and who just need a place where they can build relationships and connect with each other.

- [Shelley] Where are you located?

- We are right on the corner of Division and Cherry, right in the Heart Side community.

- Yes, you are expanding, however, in little ways.

Yes?

- Yeah we have really realized the last few years that it's just a bit tight in there and so we have expanded all the way up the hill to Sheldon Avenue and our new community center and dining room just opened last week with a ribbon cutting.

We're so excited and we will be able to now serve up to 90,000 meals a year, previously 60,000.

We'll be able to keep that dining room open all day long serving breakfast, lunch, and dinner, and we'll be able to offer more nutritious options than we ever have.

You know, so many of the people we serve have dietary needs.

They might be a diabetic, or they might have cardiac disease.

And so we've just continued to listen to what our community needs and we've tried to flex to meet those needs.

- Tell me more about any housing that you provide.

- Yeah, so we provide shelter for up to 80 women a night, emergency shelter and then if they stay with us a bit longer they get into our program housing.

And then we just took on four properties on the north side of town and we will be providing some transitional housing and we're also partnering with Family Promise and doing some family housing, 'cause there's a real shortage for families right now.

- Why the niche for women?

- Well, we try to partner with other organizations and not overlap our services.

Mel Trotter is a wonderful partner organization and they provide shelter for men, and so we specialize in providing shelter for women and we think we produce better outcomes in this community when we really concentrate our efforts on a particular population.

- [Shelley] Back to your dining services.

Is it true that you do ask for your guests perhaps to pitch in financially if able?

- We do.

So every meal, every service at Dégagé Ministries is always $2 or less and if somebody does not have the cash to pay, we have vouchers available that they can earn.

And we also have vouchers available that the community can purchase and so when somebody is panhandling on the street we encourage our community to give them a Dégagé voucher.

It gives them that ability to buy those services, but it also connects them to other services.

- And you must need volunteers to assist with these services.

- We're especially needing volunteers after COVID, before COVID we'd have anywhere from 30 to 40 volunteers in our building every day.

And then during COVID people, you know, found other things that they needed to do, and so we're short volunteers every day.

We'd love for our community to come out and serve in the dining room, serve in our wellness center and our open door women's shelter or in Paul's Mom's Cookies.

- [Shelley] Oh, let's talk about the cookies.

- [Thelma] They are delicious.

We have seven different flavors and what's exciting about our cookies is they're not only great and sold in many of the area stores, but they are providing employment for women who are either currently or have previously experienced homelessness and so it's a way for them to learn new skills, to find employment.

And then all of the proceeds go right back into our open door women's shelter program.

- [Shelley] Are you a ministry?

- [Thelma] We are, yeah.

Ministry to us means that we see everybody in the image of Christ.

We believe that everybody's been created with incredible gifts and we want to see everybody thrive and reach their goals.

So we reflect the love of Christ to everybody who comes through our doors and we really focus on showing dignity and respect.

- Before we get into your great film series, tell me more about the expansion project and what it took to make that happen.

- Yeah.

So this has been a dream for many years.

The former Executive Director, March Parmley, started this with the previous board and finally it's becoming a reality.

So that expansion of the community center and dining room, but also adding a wellness center where people can recover from prolonged illness or from surgery.

Expanding the women's shelter, adding a retail store for Paul's Mom's Cookies right there on Division and Cherry at the front.

It just allows us to, you know, take our services to the next level and to expand our services as well.

- Yes, the retail store.

What do you need with this?

- [Thelma] So it'll open in October.

We'd love for the community to come out and support us, but it'll be a place to pick up your orders if you've placed an order, it'll be a place to buy cookies, you know, individually or in bulk, but also a place to have some coffee work on your laptop and enjoy some fellowship there.

- Yes.

So let's move into the film series that I understand kicks off tonight.

- Yes, Wealthy Street Theater, 6 to 9:00 PM.

The first film is Us And Them.

It is a documentary that follows four individuals over 10 years as they experience homelessness and it really helps us to drill down into what are some of those causes.

We have a lot of misunderstandings around homelessness and what causes it.

So we will have the film and then a panel discussion.

Dégagé will be there, Mel Trotter Ministries, and Network 180, we're partnering together on this, and just engaging the audience as well in this discussion.

And then July 20th, again, 6 to 9:00 PM we'll show the public and we'll be having a panel discussion with Grand Rapids Public Library following the film, and then August 10th we're gonna close the corner of Cherry and Sheldon and have a big block party celebration.

Celebrate the people we serve, the artistic gifts that they have, because the thread through all of this when you look at causes and realities and solutions, it is all of those wraparound services that Dégagé and other organizations offer.

But at the heart of it is relationships.

We know people become unhoused because of a combination of financial poverty plus relational poverty.

And so we need to build those relationships because that's what gives people hope to move forward.

- You mentioned that part of the film will discuss perhaps myths of homelessness.

Can you dispel one or?

- [Thelma] Yeah, I think probably the biggest misunderstanding that a lot of people have is that everyone that's out on the street has an addiction.

And so while that is true that some struggle with addiction, we often find that people become addicted after becoming homeless because of a way of coping with being homeless.

And many people are there because of health reasons or because of a mental health crisis or traumatic events that have happened or maybe military service.

So there's just so many causes.

It's really a complex issue and we can't simplify it and so showing these films and having these discussions is a way of us realizing just how complex this issue is.

- And what about the family that's homeless?

You mentioned a partnership with Family Promise of Grand Rapids and more.

How are we affecting the kids?

- Yeah, it's really heartbreaking to know just how many children and families are experiencing this.

Especially as you know we're seeing inflation and as we're not seeing a lot of affordable housing available in Kent County, so we've seen those numbers just continue to grow every single year.

So many of our kids in our schools, you know, teachers will find out or the counselors will find out that they're experiencing homelessness.

And so it's something that's really important that all of the organizations step up and partner and help in this area and that we felt that obligation as well.

And not only are we housing single women, but what can we do to help with this family crisis?

- You mentioned relationships.

Are relationships, friends, being made in the community itself?

- [Thelma] Yeah.

If you come into our community center and dining room on any given night, you will see laughter, you'll see people playing cards at the table.

It's not that stereotypical, maybe seeing somebody on the sidewalk with their head down because at Dégagé Ministries we believe that every human being deserves that, to deserve to have people in their life that are their friends that care about them, that want the best for them, that encourage them, that pray for them.

So that's what you will see in our community center and dining room.

You'll see the way that our staff interacts with these individuals.

They're our dear friends.

You know, any night I can walk into the dining room and just have a great conversation and those conversations are about family.

They're about relationships.

They're about our community.

What's going on in the city of Grand Rapids, what's going on in the United States?

So we have those normal friendship conversations.

- Is often, Thelma, the toughest step to walk in the front door and ask for help?

- Yeah, I think the hardest day, the best day at Dégagé Ministries, when somebody moves into their apartment and achieves housing, that's the best day, that's Christmas.

The hardest day is that first day when somebody walks into shelter, when they are sitting on the sidewalk with what remains of their belongings and when they walk up to one of our staff members and say, I'm so embarrassed, I never thought this would happen to me, but here I am, what do I do?

How do I move forward?

That's the hardest day.

- And would you take me through that scenario?

- [Thelma] Yeah.

So someone comes through the front door of Dégagé with their stuff.

Bus may have dropped them off.

A family member may have dropped them off and they meet with one of our advocates.

We do what we call an intake.

So we learn a little bit about their story, about their needs.

We find a locker for them.

We make sure they know that they're gonna have a safe place to sleep that night, that they're gonna have meals provided, showers provided.

And we just really try to lean into that word, dégagé, do not worry.

Like I know this seems really difficult right now, but you're not alone.

We're gonna walk alongside of you.

And today you don't need to think beyond just having a warm bed, a shower, and a hot meal.

Tomorrow we'll talk about some of those other pieces.

- And again, how can you use this community?

- We need this community.

This is not something that we can combat alone.

You know, it's part of the reason we're having this film series.

We're hoping that the next generation comes and learns more about this and partners with us, but we need volunteers in our building.

We need financial support and we need advocacy.

You know, just when those decisions come around for building projects we need to make sure that there's enough affordable housing in downtown Grand Rapids.

So we need the community in a variety of ways.

- And again you mentioned the vouchers that if there is that gentle man or gentle woman on the side of the road, perhaps, that's a preferred choice.

- Absolutely you can come to our building and purchase those.

You can go to our website at degageMinistriesministries.org and purchase those as well.

But we encourage our community to purchase those vouchers.

- Do you see the film series being an ongoing event after this summer comes and goes?

- You know, we're gonna see how this goes this summer.

Really excited and hopeful that a lot of people will come out and engage with us.

And then yes, if it goes well, we'd love to do it again in the future.

- [Shelley] Popcorn guaranteed?

- Popcorn will be there.

- What do you leave us with, Thelma?

I give you a minute or so for some final comments and maybe more detail on how to help out with your new expansion.

- Well, I just really encourage people to come down to the Heart Side community, come down, visit us at Dégagé Ministries, visit our thrift store, Thrift on Div, there on the corner as well, and just learn more about this issue.

It's not just a Dégagé issue or a ministry issue.

It's a community issue and it affects all of us.

So I just really encourage people to come down, to engage with us, to learn more about our ministry online, to volunteer.

You will be blessed.

Every single volunteer that comes through our doors will always say to me, I can't believe I didn't start doing this earlier.

It's such a blessing for me.

It fills my cup when I have this kind of experience, when I have this kind of perspective about what other people face.

So that's my hope.

That's my prayer for our community that we will learn and I just encourage you to say hello to someone on the street.

You know, give them your first name, ask them their first name.

Start that conversation.

You will be so blessed by what you learn.

- Great.

More information, where do we turn?

- Degageministries.org.

- It's easy as that.

I like this.

Beautiful new space where your patrons will enjoy meals and build relationships with others in our community.

Thanks to the leadership of the Executive Director, Thelma Ensink.

Thank you, Thelma.

Keep up your good work.

- Thanks so much for having me.

- And now we kind of fake talk and smile and get you back on your way to your home away from home.

Good, thumbs up.

Oh, we got your picture.

If your organization would like to be considered for a community connection segment or you have an event you would like to be added to our community calendar, email your information to irwinsh@gvsu.edu.

(soft music)