Grand Rapids Community Foundation

On my mind

February 16^th, 2009

I have commented previously on this recession and its impact on people in our community as well as the response from the area foundations in creating a fund that is connected to a long time collaborative effort known as the Essential Needs Task Force. This effort helps all the funders to join together yet continue to address our respective priorities. Bold community leadership and philanthropy are both so critical at this time!

Real accounts from around the country abound on the impact of the economic downturn on real people - real lives. I read an excellent but distressing investigative reporting piece from the February 9 & 16 edition of The New Yorker entitled "The Ponzi State" by George Packer. Daily local news reports chronicle the devastating impact on people in our community and the changing face of those affected by job loss and the need for the basics of food, clothing, shelter.

In today's edition of The Grand Rapids Press there is an article about the Grand Rapids Area to End Homelessness which is announcing a new model of prevention and rapid placement into homes with the lofty goal of ending homelessness by 2014. While this goal is challenging particularly in these times, I applaud this heartily and the Coalition members under the guidance of coordinator Janay Brower should be commended for their compassion and tenacity. The Foundation has played an active role in this coalition as well.

It is important to be connected with the "face" of what is happening given the recession. While reports abound re: the federal stimulus package, compensation packages of the Wall Street crowd, and the scrambling of all governmental entities trying to string together some semblance of a budget to keep things going, it is the impact on people that is critical to feel and understand.

I don't know the answer to all of this and frankly no one else does either in truth. President Obama announced this morning that he is appointing a Panel to respond to the auto industry crisis versus creating a "car czar" and further announcing an effort later this week to address the foreclosure crisis. Locally, many efforts are underway to address this crisis through the Home Repair Services (HRS), a coordinated effort creating a Community Foreclosure Coordinator through the Fair Housing Center (FHC) of West Michigan, the ICCF and other programs. The GRCF has funded HRS and the FHC and will keep working on this!

I hear from some who blame the greed of Wall Street or people who have lived off the value of their houses in better times - leaning on credit. Continuing to focus on "whodunit" has some value so we don't repeat our mistakes but we will. BUT playing the blame game distracts us from what we should be doing to move forward to counter all the devastation that is occurring.

Stemming the tide of foreclosures, meeting immediate needs of real people, job loss, and all things related to the impact of the economic times, is extremely difficult to resolve. It is proving to challenge all of us. It is definitely top of mind for me and this Foundation.

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Taking action when it is needed the most

February 8^th, 2009

Many of my blog entries have centered on the importance of collaboration. I have to say that collaboration is really difficult work. Many times the path seems blocked by the various agendas of the partners involved. And many times the path IS blocked by divergent agendas.

However, in spite of human nature and egos, collaborative efforts if done well and with respect to all parties involved, do have a chance of working. I have written quite a bit about the Kent School Services Network and the fact that this is a great example of a partnership that has enjoyed success in its pilot years. With the cooperation and enthusiasm of the school systems and the energy of the service providers and the resources of the funders - both public and private, I have hope that in the next few years we will find that families are served more humanely and that ultimately children and youth will have a good chance of achieving in school because obstacles to learning will be removed or at least lessened.

I could list other collaborative efforts that have demonstrated that working together no matter how hard it is to do so are successful even when the accolades for the partners seem to wither and in truth the recognition is insignificant. However, I could also wax on about collaborative efforts - that have crashed and burned.

BUT that is not the issue in the case of a funding strategy that the foundation partners in our community have developed in the past three months.

Buffeted by the enormous shakeup that has befallen everyone globally due to horrific economic conditions and turning to our own community, charitable foundations have banded together like they have in the past creating a pool of funds to help finance organizations that are on the frontline serving people affected by this recession. AND the great thing about this is that cumbersome application processes are eliminated. Further, the decisions about where the money will flow rest with a committee of another collaborative effort that has been in existence since 1982 known as the Essential Needs Task Force (formerly known as the Emergency Needs Task Force). The operation of the ENTF these many years has been supported by the Heart of West Michigan United Way, Kent County and the Kent County Department of Human Services.

So in essence - it is one collaborative effort working with another collaborative effort trying to respond in a more effective manner. The funding collaborative effort is working hand in hand with the ENTF partnership that has the knowledge and expertise to respond to the many immediate emergency crisis situations that people are facing. This is a tremendous response! The foundations are leaning on the knowledge that we do not necessarily have! No one funder or organization can own this issue and address it well and it takes a "community" of funders and service providers to work together. It is simply taking action when it is needed the most.

The ENTF was started by Ev Vermeer who was at the helm of the Kent County Department of Social Services (DSS) now the Department of Human Services. (I wrote about this back in November 2008.) His DSS team at that time included Andy Zylstra who is now the Kent County DHS Director and David Schroeder who was a key DSS staff leader and liaison to many community organizations. Ev's belief that structuring our emergency services by communicating directly with one another was critical to addressing the needs of people who suffer due to job loss, limited resources and who are just road weary due to the enormous stresses of everyday life. Ev Vermeer continues to champion issues relating to child welfare and is a voice that is heard regularly at the state level and here in our community.

Over the past 26 years, responding to immediate needs, which the ENTF members have impressed upon us is the phrase to use, has become much more systemized. United Ways across the country used to have Information and Referral telephone lines and now locally and in some places across Michigan and the United States, this service has grown tremendously and is known as 2-1-1. The 2-1-1 program locally is provided by the Heart of West Michigan United Way and Bob McKown is the Director of the program. The 2-1-1 phone lines are overloaded due to the large number of people who are experiencing loss and tremendous need.

I have high hopes that this funding approach will help to address to some degree the suffering that many are feeling and experiencing in our community. Kudos to our colleague foundations for their leadership and to the ENTF for their willingness to distribute the needed funding where it is needed the most.

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