Nonprofit leaders across southeast Michigan will contribute their thoughts via journal entries on how this unique confluence of events (COVID, vaccinations, climate change, racial justice, etc.) is affecting their organizations and the nonprofit sector.
The stories and journals will narrate through nonprofit leaders and capture the impact and vitality that these organizations bring to their communities as well as their journey during these unprecedented times.
This series is made possible with the generous support of our partners, the Michigan Nonprofit Association and Co.act Detroit.
Sanctum House creates a living environment that is welcoming and safe for women survivors of human trafficking. We talk with Karen Moore, executive director, about the real challenges residents face in moving forward with their lives.
Kirk Mayes is the outgoing CEO of Forgotten Harvest. We talked with him about changes the organization has experienced and new models for combatting food security.
Looking back over the stories the series has captured during the past year, here are three valuable takeaways about how nonprofits are serving their communities, moving forward.
In our community, 61% of children under the age of 18 live in poverty," says Lisa Johanon, executive director of Central Detroit Christian. "We do affordable housing so kids have a safe, stable place to live, and so they're not uprooted from their home five times during the school year. We're raising up a community of kids whose outcomes aren't dictated by their zip code."
"Nationally, restorative justice has shown to cut recidivism rates by half," says Germaine Smith, assistant director of the Dispute Resolution Center in Washtenaw County. "It’s extremely successful because we get to the root of the trauma, or suffering, that brought everybody to that moment. The process goes deep, to consider how this harm impacts both individuals' lives. This is heart work, not head work."
In her new role leading Michigan Nonprofit Association, Kelley Kuhn talks the need for funding, her team's efforts to increase support for BIPOC leaders, especially, what organizations are carrying forward in the new normal, and a desire for a seat at the table. "There's this amazing infrastructure in the sector, that if leveraged," she says, "is efficient, effective, and understands the community, and its needs."
"Our main goal as an organization is to get our members employed," says Sean Kivel, director of Port Huron's Blue Water Clubhouse. "This is a right everyone should be afforded, yet 90% of people with serious mental illness are under-employed or unemployed. Our organization will continue to offer the services needed to change that reality."
"In our community, we have a lot of great programs," says Eisha Branner, founder and CEO of E-Community Outreach Services in Pontiac. "We have a lot of great resources. But we also have a disconnect, especially in the last few years with COVID-19," she says. "There was nowhere near enough support for our families."
"During this crisis, I think, finally, there was a real recognition of how critical direct care workers are, especially if you look at the residential providers," says Shaindle Braunstein, CEO of JARC, a nonprofit serving individuals with developmental disabilities across Oakland County. "We were the only people standing between many people and homelessness."
"There’s so much competing for people's attention so we strive to prove that a museum like ours needs to exist. It’s sometimes an uphill battle," says AANM director Diana Abouali. "That's my job, to continue to gain people's support as we tell this multi-layered story of the Arab American experience and the history of our community."
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