Tag Archives: Wege Foundation

Local organization addresses challenges women face in seeking substance use recovery services

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A grant from the Wege Foundation aims to help Arbor Circle remove barriers for women seeking substance use care (Courtesy, pxhere.com)



By Deborah Reed

WKTV Managing Editor

deborah@wktv.org


Caregivers often face unique challenges when seeking substance use care (Courtesy, pxhere.com)

Women experience unique challenges when faced with a substance use concern. A local organization is focused on providing solutions for those challenges.

Arbor Circle recently received a two-year grant from the Wege Foundation that will support programming specifically designed to provide in-home and community-based substance use disorder treatment services for women and their families.

Arbor Circle seeks to provide an environment of understanding, trust, and empathy where women can receive the support they need to overcome their challenges and thrive.

What are some of those challenges?

“Women especially tend to be the caregivers, so they potentially are the ones who have children with them as they are also trying to navigate their own personal journey towards recovery,” said Taylor Greenfield, Director of Development for Arbor Circle. “When they’re struggling with substance use, they may also be facing fear around what that means for the children in their home.”

Women may be concerned about legal issues, but they also may encounter barriers when it comes to transportation and childcare.

“They may have challenges around childcare and having someone who is able to come and watch their children while they are seeking or receiving services,” said Greenfield.

Because of this, Greenfield has seen a regional decline in women seeking substance use recovery services – and that is concerning.

Increased substance use, decreased pursuit of care

“What’s really concerning about that is we know substance use concerns haven’t gone away,” said Greenfield. “We know that substance use has actually increased. What that says to us is that women need additional support to engage in services.

Family-related barriers are preventing women from seeking support in substance use recovery (Courtesy photo)

“They are going to need those barriers removed differently, they’re going to need help with those childcare pieces, they’re going to need to know that the services they’re receiving are built on trust and empathy.”

Arbor Circle has worked to find funds that will provide that environment for women looking to begin their recovery journey.

Support from the Wege Foundation will help strengthen Arbor Circle’s community-based, family-focused, and culturally responsive treatment through peer recovery support. This is a unique opportunity for individuals with lived experience with substance use concerns to help keep those in recovery – and their families – engaged throughout their journey.

How peer recovery/support is different

Peer recovery supports are designed to assist individuals and families with achieving long-term recovery from a substance use disorder by acting as “coaches” to provide community-based and strengths-based ongoing support, case management, and consultation.

Those with lived experience can provide a unique perspective to those seeking recovery (Courtesy, pxhere.com)

“Peers are staff with lived experience in substance use,” said Greenfield. “They have been someone who has struggled with that, and they are on their own recovery journey. They are able to lend a really important and different perspective than a staff person who hasn’t gone through that.”

Greenfield went on to say that peer staff are still trained in their expertise, but have the additional element of their own background which allows them to share what the recovery journey is like later on down the line.

“They are serving as that catalyst for engagement, someone who’s able to encourage and support in a different way than a staff person might be,” said Greenfield.

Greenfield went on to say that a benefit to peers is that they are part of a team approach. Peers lend their unique perspective and are also surrounded by staff with a clinical background. Together, they ensure a mother has everything she needs to take that next step.

Peer-to-peer recovery support services are built on the recognition that individuals in recovery, their families, and their community allies are critical resources that can effectively enhance and improve formal treatment.

Community focus reduces barriers to care

Many of Arbor Circle’s 50+ services are based within the community. Staff often provide programming in homes and community centers. They also meet those seeking care at other locations such as churches or restaurants.

“There are folks that are really invested in reducing barriers wherever we can,” said Greenfield. “We have tried to build up programming that will meet folks where they are and regardless of their identity.”

Together, Arbor Circle and the Wege Foundation aim to increase accessibility of care for women raising children (Courtesy, pxhere.com)

Funds from the Wege Foundation will support Arbor Circle in increasing the accessibility of these services for women raising children with a substance use concern.

The Wege Foundation has a long history of generosity in the West Michigan community, with a strong focus on diversity, equity and inclusion.

“They are deeply invested and involved in so many of the nonprofit conversations in the community that it just felt like a good fit,” said Greenfield. “We want to express our thankfulness to the Wege Foundation for their generosity.”

Arbor Circle’s Director of Community Based Recovery Services, Cathy Worthem, agreed. “We are deeply grateful for the Wege Foundation’s support of this work,” shared Worthem. “These funds will enhance our ability to work effectively with women and meet both their needs and the needs of their families.”

Resources

Learn more about Arbor Circle’s women-focused services here.

For those seeking additional services, or for those interested in becoming involved with Arbor Circle, more information can be found on their website.

Wege Foundation awards Grand Rapids Symphony $1 million grant

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By Jeffrey Kaczmarczyk

Grand Rapids Symphony

 

The Wege Foundation has awarded the Grand Rapids Symphony a four-year grant worth more than $1 million to enhance initiatives in diversity, equity and inclusion to engage a broader audience and share live orchestral music with everyone in its community.

 

With help from the Wege Foundation, the Grand Rapids Symphony is creating a 21st century orchestra to serve a 21st century audience that’s made up, not just of classical music lovers, but of the entirecommunity.

 

Money will add new positions, create new concerts and events, and develop new educational opportunities alongside the Grand Rapids Symphony’s Gateway to Music, a matrix of 17 education and access programs that already reach 86,000 children, students and adults across 13 counties in West Michigan.

 

Music is supposed to be for everyone, and that includes music presented by symphony orchestras, according to Grand Rapids Symphony Music Director Marcelo Lehninger.

 

“Sometime people feel they don’t belong,” Lehninger said. “But I have a passion and a mission to reach the hearts and souls of everyone in this community. We’re trying to show them that, yes, they do belong.Hopefully, they’ll understand that it’s their orchestra, too.”

 

Marcelo Lehninger, GRS Music Director

The Wege Foundation’s total package of $1.1 million over four years will nurture the Grand Rapids Symphony by weaving diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives into all of the orchestra’s activities.

 

“A symphony orchestra in the 21st century has become a service organization,” Lehninger said. “We’rehere not only to entertain our audience but also to serve our community.

 

Thanks to the Wege Foundation, the Grand Rapids Symphony will expand opportunities for more people to engage with orchestral music.

 

“The Wege Foundation is pleased to support the Symphony in enhancing the diversity of itsprogramming, musicians and staff, as well as the inclusivity of its outreach,” said Wege Foundation President Mark Van Putten. “By transforming itself the Symphony can help transform West Michiganin enduring ways that reach beyond the performing arts.”

 

President Peter M. Perez called the Wege Foundation grant “truly transformational.”

 

“In the past, a symphony orchestra’s goal was to perform great works of classical music. Today, theGrand Rapids Symphony aspires, not just to play music for the community, but to make music together with its community,” Perez said. “Truly serving our entire community means we have to genuinely and faithfully be a reflection of everyone in the community.”

Grand Rapids Symphony’s Mosaic Scholar program

Past successes in collaborating with community partners include the Grand Rapids Symphony’sSymphony with Soul concert, launched in 2002, and Celebration of Soul dinner and awards ceremony, which has fostered connections between the orchestra and West Michigan’s African-American community for more than a dozen years.

 

Though the Grand Rapids Symphony touches the lives of 200,000 attendees per year, many more in West Michigan have never experienced great orchestral music performed live.

 

“The Grand Rapids Symphony is a community resource that provides a venue for all community members to enjoy the art of the symphony and to come together as a community to do so. This grant willprovide the resources to make it happen,” said Paul Doyle, founder and CEO of Inclusive Performance Strategies, which develops and implements progressive organizational transformation.

 

Three years ago, the Grand Rapids Symphony launched Symphony Scorecard to open its concert hall doors to a wider audience by providing free tickets to those with financial challenges or economic barriers. Since 2015, the program launched with funding from the Daniel and Pamella DeVos Foundation has supplied more than 8,000 free tickets to members of the community who receive financial assistance from the state or to the families of men and women serving in the U.S. Military on active, reserve or guard duty.

 

Grand Rapids Symphony Musical Instrument Petting Zoo

Opening doors and extending an invitation can be life changing, said Doyle, who grew up in Brooklyn and was introduced to classical music by his grandmother, who originally was from Trinidad. Doyle was in third grade when he attended his first concert in New York City’s Carnegie Hall, where the Grand Rapids Symphony recently performed. Doyle later played French horn through high school.

 

“Our community in Grand Rapids is growing. It’s exploding. But how do we make sure that everyone feels a part of it?” Doyle said. “We know the ‘why.’ This is working on the ‘how.’

 

Thanks to the Wege grant, the symphony’s next steps will be to take the orchestra out of the concert hall and into the neighborhood with a series of concerts and engagement events both large and small that foster authentic artistic and cultural expression by diverse communities within the larger community.

 

Community concerts begin in July with a free, outdoor concert in John Ball Park. Associate conductor John Varineau will lead a program of light classical music, featuring local special guests, at 7 p.m. on Saturday, July 21 in the park on the West Side of downtown Grand Rapids adjacent to John Ball Zoo. Future concerts will be held in familiar venues in other neighborhoods in the city.

 

Planning is underway to develop a series of neighborhood events that later will merge into a centralized major event, similar to Grand Rapids Symphony’s wildly successful LiveArts, which drew more than 7,000 people to the Van Andel Arena in 2015 for an evening of multicultural, multi-genre entertainment.

 

But the Wege grant also will transform the orchestra from within through new positions in the organization. Funds will establish:

 

A Community Engagement position on staff to develop, manage and coordinate all Grand RapidsSymphony activities to serve an audience that’s growing more diverse every day.

 

A Musician Fellow who will perform with the Grand Rapids Symphony. During the two-year fellowship, the musician will be mentored by GRS musicians and gain practical experience toward launching a career as a professional musician.

 

The Wege Grant also will fund the expansion of the Grand Rapids Symphony’s successful Mosaic Scholarship program, a mentoring program for African-American and Latino music students, created with funding by the W.K. Kellogg Foundation. Teens ages 13 to 18 are provided with musical instruments and private lessons with GRS musicians along with opportunities to perform and to attend concerts. A new component, Mosaic Music Majors, will collaborate with music students of color in local universities and colleges to mentor, advise and develop the skills and talents of musicians of color seeking to become professional musicians.

 

Over the next four years, the Wege grant will be a game changer for the Grand Rapids Symphony, according to Associate Conductor John Varineau, who just completed his 33rd season on staff with the Grand Rapids Symphony.

 

“It’s going to change the way we ‘do business’ and the way we approach all of our already outstandingartistic products. Without compromising our lofty artistic vision, and without sacrificing our dedication to the best in our symphonic heritage, I am confident that, with the help of the Wege Foundation, the GrandRapids Symphony is going to look and sound differently,” Varineau said. “In just a few short years, howand what we present will be even more representative of the entire Grand Rapids community so thateveryone will be able to truthfully call us ‘our Grand Rapids Symphony.’”

 

The challenge is to create and sustain intentional relationship building so that the wider community notonly participates in Grand Rapids Symphony’s activities, it also sees that it plays a role in supporting and providing for the orchestra.

 

“The key to this work is continuous commitment and effort. It’s about progressive improvement, not postponed perfection,” Doyle said. “I think we have the opportunity to create a best-practice model. For Grand Rapids to be on the front end of enhancing quality of life and community, I think is very cool.”

 

In the end, the goal is to have an orchestra in Grand Rapids that’s of the community, by the communityand for the community.

 

“The Grand Rapids Symphony is your symphony, and it’s my symphony,” Perez said. “And by workingtogether, we can make it our symphony.”

Ottawa County Park Foundation’s Grand River Greenway Campaign gaining momentum

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Jessica VanGinhoven

Ottawa County Parks

 

Ottawa County Parks Foundation’s effort to complete its Grand River Greenway Campaign is gaining significant traction with two recent gifts from regional foundations.

 

The Grand River Greenway Campaign is the culmination of the 30-year vision to protect thousands of acres of high quality natural and recreational lands along the Grand River in Ottawa County and then connect these lands with a multi-use ADA accessible trail. The proposed trail also will complete a contiguous connection from Millennium Park in Kent County to Grand Haven beaches and other destinations such as Grand Valley State University, downtown Grand Rapids, and the Bass River State Recreation Area. In order to accomplish this vision, Ottawa County Parks plans to acquire 700 acres of additional land and construct 27 miles of new trail (with 13 miles of the trail along or near the river or other water features). This will require $21 million in funding, with the Parks Foundation seeking $7.2 million in philanthropic gifts to leverage anticipated public funding.

 

Recent grants from two West Michigan family foundations, Wege and Frey, totaling $860,000 help build momentum for the Greenway Campaign, which is still pursuing “lead” commitments from donors.

 

“The show of support from Kent County donors demonstrates that the Grand Rapids area philanthropic community understands the regional value and impact of our vision,” said Peter Secchia, who is co-chair of the Grand River Greenway Campaign Committee and a major donor.

 

Secchia has long been interested in revitalization of the Grand River as a leading contributor and supporter of Millennium Park as well as other initiatives such as the MSU Gran Fondo, a fund-raising bicycle race from Grand Rapids to the lakeshore near Grand Haven. “One of the things that I love about this project is not only that it will make the Grand River more accessible to thousands of families, but that it will also connect Grand Rapids and Grand Haven together with a river pathway route for the first time. People will be able to start from Millennium Park, travel from park to park, have ice cream or a burger in Jenison or Allendale, and end with a sunset on the Grand Haven Pier.”

 

It was this type of regional impact that drew the support of Wege and Frey Foundation trustees.

 

“The Grand River is an important ecological and recreational asset. Improving riverside lands in Ottawa County and connecting them to Kent County will add incredible value to the on-going work in Grand Rapids to restore the Grand River and the City’s namesake rapids” said Mark Van Putten, President & CEO of the Wege Foundation.

 

While the Campaign has been successful in engaging donors, Greenway Campaign committee members say broad community awareness of the value of the Greenway is not widely known. “This Greenway, with its tremendous green space and natural wildlife offerings, will enhance the physical, mental, and economic well-being of our community by increasing access to the river’s natural spaces,” said Monica Verplank, co-chair of the Greenway Campaign Committee.

 

Recent gifts represent great progress; still the Grand River Greenway Campaign is actively seeking additional partners. “We are very thankful for the support from our neighbors in Kent County and we hope to have more announcements to come in the near future, but our work is not done yet,” said Tom Werkman, President of the Ottawa County Parks Foundation and a member of the Greenway Campaign Committee.