Youth murals on display at Kik Pool
Youth murals on display at Kik Pool Fran Dwight
Youth murals on display at Kik Pool
Youth murals on display at Kik Pool Fran Dwight
Battle Creek Community Foundation’s Lynn Gray speaks with volunteer Helen Ostien at the American Red Cross’s volunteer training on June 12.
Battle Creek Community Foundation’s Lynn Gray speaks with volunteer Helen Ostien at the American Red Cross’s volunteer training on June 12. Courtesy

Charting the Road to Success: A program from El Concilio Kalamazoo boosts Latinx entrepreneurship Read Article

Zac Clark for NowKalamazoo

Trazando el Camino al Éxito: Un programa de El Concilio Kalamazoo impulsa el emprendimiento Latinx Read Article

Zac Clark for NowKalamazoo

Kalamazoo Climate Crisis Coalition Executive Director learned early to leave only footprints Read Article

Youth murals on display at Kik Pool
Photo: Youth murals on display at Kik Pool Fran Dwight

Battle Creek Community Foundation takes annual report to the streets with Block Party Read Article

Features

Longform CHAMPS DEN SWMI COLLAB/Now Kalamazoo Healthy Communities

A different kind of fight club: ChampsDen is a place to spar and a safe haven for young people

Kristen Aguirre / NowKalamazooWednesday, August 20, 2025
ChampsDen Boxing Club in the basement of a home in the Edison neighborhood was created in 2019 by Kalamazoo native Jadschi Green who has boxing in his blood.
Feature Story WKKF Fellowship Building Communities

Devon Wilson elevates Battle Creek’s food justice work through national WKKF fellowship

Jane ParikhTuesday, August 19, 2025
“I’ve been on this mission to create access to healthy food and nutrient-dense food, and why people should care. The Community Leadership Network was a great place to hone my skills and be a better leader."
Feature Story David Marquardt flying a kite at the 2016 reopening of Mary Waters Park following renovations.

New Kalamazoo Deputy City Manager reflects on decade of transforming GR parks

Shandra MartinezThursday, August 14, 2025
After a decade of revitalizing Grand Rapids parks, David Marquardt steps into a new leadership role in Kalamazoo.
Longform Kalamazoo MetroTransit Transportation

Routes and roots: How Kalamazoo’s buses keep the county moving — and connected

Al JonesWednesday, August 13, 2025
“A community the size of Kalamazoo... has an excellent, robust public transit system, and we have a group of employees here that care about being community servants and taking care of people’s needs to get them where they need to go.”
Feature Story Battle Creek Symphony Orchestra Arts and Culture

'Spooky Symphony' kicks off Battle Creek Symphony Orchestra's spectacular season

Jane ParikhWednesday, August 13, 2025
The Battle Creek Symphony kicks off its 127th season on October 11 with “Spooky Symphony,” a fun, family-friendly Halloween-themed concert featuring costumes, classic eerie music, and a live theremin performance.
Longform Monica Smith, Yevgenia Gazman, and Christine Sauvé, MIRC Detroit Office. Second Wave - MichiganDiversity

الهجمات على العائلات المهاجرة وما تعنيه لتعليم الطفولة المبكرة

Brianna NargisoTuesday, August 12, 2025
في عام 2024، لاحظ معلمو الطفولة المبكرة في جنوب غرب ديترويت انخفاضًا كبيرًا في تسجيل الأطفال في مرحلة ما قبل المدرسة، وذلك بعد تصاعد نشاط تنفيذ قوانين الهجرة. وعلى الرغم من أن هذا الانخفاض لم يتم توثيقه رسميًا في ذلك الوقت، أفادت منظمات مجتمعية أن ما يقارب 15٪ من الطلاب تم سحبهم من برامج ما قبل المدرسة في المنطقة خلال أسابيع قليلة.
Feature Story Red Cross Training Safe Communities

Fires, floods, and FEMA fears: One Battle Creek Red Cross volunteer’s call to action

Jane ParikhTuesday, August 12, 2025
Karen Wosje helps respond to local disasters as FEMA’s future remains uncertain. The Red Cross urges more volunteers amid rising climate-related emergencies.
Longform Tacos El Jefe SWMI Journalism Collab Economic Development

Trazando el Camino al Éxito: Un programa de El Concilio Kalamazoo impulsa el emprendimiento Latinx

Por Kristen Aguirre, NowKalamazoo Monday, August 11, 2025
La Corporación de Desarrollo Económico de Michigan otorgó a la Cámara de Comercio Hispana del Oeste de Michigan 2.5 millones de dólares. Ese dinero se destinó a cuatro organizaciones, entre ellas El Concilio en Kalamazoo. Ahora proporciona acceso a recursos de desarrollo económico en español a negocios como Tacos El Jefe.  
Longform Tacos El Jefe SWMI Journalism Collab Economic Development

Charting the Road to Success: A program from El Concilio Kalamazoo boosts Latinx entrepreneurship

Kristen Aguirre for NowKalamazooMonday, August 11, 2025
The Michigan Economic Development Corporation awarded the West Michigan Hispanic Chamber of Commerce $2.5 million. That money went to four organizations inlcuding El Concilio in Kalamazoo. It is now providing access to economic development resources in Spanish for businesses like Tacos El Jefe.
Second Wave - MichiganEconomic Development

Global Detroit program helps immigrant entrepreneurs grow Michigan’s tech economy

Misty BarronMonday, August 11, 2025
Global Detroit’s Global Entrepreneur in Residence program helps immigrant tech founders secure visas, build startups, and create jobs, fueling innovation and economic growth across Michigan’s expanding tech sector.
Feature Story Pappas Britle SWMI Journalism Collab Economic Development

Sweet Success: Papa's Brittle driven by owner's desire to invest in her community

Robert M. Weir for Encore Wednesday, August 6, 2025
In the summer of 2021, the Rev. Doreen Gardner began making her large batches of brittle in the commercial kitchen space at the small business incubator Can-Do Kalamazoo. Papa’s Brittle went on to win the national NAACP’s Black Entrepreneur Award, which came with a $25,000 award and mentorship from an investor on the ABC reality television series Shark Tank. Now they operate from a state-of-the-art commercial kitchen on Stadium Drive.
Feature Story Jenny Dozema SWMI Journalism Collab Economic Development

Kalamazoo Climate Crisis Coalition Executive Director learned early to leave only footprints

Katie Houston for EncoreWednesday, August 6, 2025
"I try to spend time outside every day, and every time I get out in nature, I just fall in love with this world that we live in," says Jenny Doezema is the new executive director of the Kalamazoo Climate Crisis Coalition.
Longform Monica Smith, Yevgenia Gazman, and Christine Sauvé, MIRC Detroit Office. Second Wave - MichiganKids and Education

Attacks on immigrant families and what that means for early education

Brianna NargisoTuesday, August 5, 2025
Community-based organizations report that approximately 15% of students  withdrew from preschool programs within weeks due to immigration enforcement activity. Advocates and policy researchers attribute these shifts to the growing climate of fear among immigrant families in Michigan.
Longform Lauren LaPine Second Wave - MichiganHealthy Communities

Community mental health and hospitals partner to fill care gaps

Brianna NargisoTuesday, August 5, 2025
Michigan's hospitals and community mental health agencies are working together to address gaps in behavioral health care that contribute to long emergency department stays and delays in treatment. Several recent initiatives aim to improve care coordination and create new models of crisis response.  
Longform Monica Smith, Yevgenia Gazman, and Christine Sauvé, MIRC Detroit Office. Second Wave - MichiganKids and Education

Ataques a las familias inmigrantes y lo que eso significa para la educación temprana

Brianna NargisoTuesday, August 5, 2025
En 2024, los educadores de la primera infancia en el suroeste de Detroit observaron una caída significativa en la inscripción preescolar tras el aumento de la actividad de control de inmigración. Aunque el descenso no fue documentado oficialmente en ese momento, las organizaciones comunitarias informan que aproximadamente el 15% de los estudiantes fueron retirados de los programas preescolares del área en cuestión de semanas.  
Longform Monica Smith, Yevgenia Gazman, and Christine Sauvé, MIRC Detroit Office. Second Wave - MichiganDiversity

ရ ွှေ့ရ ြောင််းရေထိိုင်သူမိသြော်းစိုမ ြော်းအ ား ပစ်မှတ်ထ ားတ ိုက်ခ ိုက်ခခင်ားသည် ကရ ်းသူငယ်မ ြော်း၏

Brianna NargisoTuesday, August 5, 2025
2024 ခုနှစ်အတွင်း၊ အနောက်တောင်ပိုင်း ဒက်ထရွိုက်(Southwest Detroit) ရှိ အစောပိုင်း ကလေးသူငယ်ပညာ ရေးဆိုင်ရာ စာပို့ချသူများ၏ လေ့လာတွေ့ရှိချက်အရ လူဝင်မှုကြီးကြပ်ရေး တင်းကြပ်မှုတိုးမြှင့်လုပ်ဆောင်ပြီးနောက် မူကြိုကျောင်းများတွင် ကျောင်းသားစာရင်းသွင်းမှု သိသိသာသာ ကျဆင်းသွားပါသည်။ ကျဆင်းမှုနုန်းကို ထိုအချိန်က တရားဝင် မှတ်တမ်းတင်ထားခြင်းမျိုး မရှိခဲ့သော်လည်း ရက်သက်တစ်ပတ် အနည်းငယ်အတွင်း ကျောင်းသား ၁၅ ရာခိုင်နှုန်းခန့်သည် မူကြိုကျောင်း အစီအစဉ်များမှ နုတ်ထွက်သွားကြကြောင်း ဒေသတွင်းရှိ ရပ်ရွာအခြေပြုအဖွဲ့အစည်း များမှ အစီရင်ခံထားကြပါသည်။ 
Feature Story Battle Creek Community Foundation CEO Building Communities

Battle Creek Community Foundation takes annual report to the streets with Block Party

Jane ParikhTuesday, August 5, 2025
The Battle Creek Community Foundation is hosting its second annual Block Party on August 20 to share its annual report, celebrate community progress, and gather input from residents to shape future initiatives.
Feature Story Football Camp Kids and Education

High schools huddle up with Police Athletic League to kick off Kalamazoo Youth Football Camp

Al JonesMonday, August 4, 2025
Kalamazoo’s Youth Football Camp brought together local high schools, the Police Athletic League, and families for a free, skills-based event aimed at teaching kids the fundamentals of football, building community unity, and keeping youth active and engaged.
Longform Brandon Mion A Way Home housing solutions Community Development

As a Homeless Navigator works to help the unhoused, he says, 'I just try to be a good person'

Mark WedelWednesday, July 30, 2025
As Brandon Mion works with those facing housing insecurity or who are already homeless he doesn't often bring up his story, but he will if he needs to tell a youth in crisis, "Hey, I've been there. You've got to fight through it because you can get through it."
Feature Story Max von Wel Second Wave - MichiganEntrepreneurship

From Hamburg to Michigan: How Global Detroit helped a biotech founder stay, work, and build

Misty BarronWednesday, July 30, 2025
After immigrating from Germany, Max von Wels co-founded a biotech startup in Michigan. With Global Detroit’s help, he secured a visa and a future in tech.
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Battle Creek

Former local shelter transforms into lifeline for Southwest Michigan Veterans

“We are the only Veterans organization in Southwest Michigan doing what we’re doing. I like to call us a neutral spot. We don’t care what branch of the service you were in or what your discharge status is. People I’ve talked to have said it’s about time." For more On the Ground Battle Creek stories, please visit here.
 

Kalamazoo

Helping Vets in Kalamazoo who were 'smoked by life'


In 2024, 32,882 veterans experienced homelessness in the United States, and 68 of those were in Kalamazoo County, though local officials say they are sure that number has since increased. Many unhoused veterans don’t know there are benefits and programs that can help. Here’s how to get connected.Read the full story here. Read more stories here.
 

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