Entrepreneurship

Ryan Yates, dad and Duncan Aviation engine line technician.

Early care and education: A boon for children, families and the economy

Expanding access to affordable, high-quality early care and education could support working parents, strengthen the state’s labor market, and promote gender equity.

Latest in Entrepreneurship
Wendy Dreese is 70 x 7 Life Recovery’s relationship manager
70 x 7 Life Recovery mentors returning citizens through reconciliation, life skills

70x7 Life Recovery is a faith-based nonprofit that equips returning citizens with life skills and short-term support following incarceration

Monica Smith, Yevgenia Gazman, and Christine Sauvé, MIRC Detroit Office.
Attacks on immigrant families and what that means for early education

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.

Monica Smith, Yevgenia Gazman, and Christine Sauvé, MIRC Detroit Office.
ရ ွှေ့ရ ြောင််းရေထိိုင်သူမိသြော်းစိုမ ြော်းအ ား ပစ်မှတ်ထ ားတ ိုက်ခ ိုက်ခခင်ားသည် ကရ ်းသူငယ်မ ြော်း၏

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။ 

Monica Smith, Yevgenia Gazman, and Christine Sauvé, MIRC Detroit Office.
Ataques a las familias inmigrantes y lo que eso significa para la educación temprana

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.  

Julie Molenda
SBAM Nurture Benefits program enhances compensation for child care providers

The Small Business Association of Michigan Nurture Benefits will expand access to health insurance, life insurance, and retirement savings for Michigan's child care providers.  

Bret Docter, Kevin Costello, and John Burmeister
Lakeshore Advantage adds investors to drive regional economic growth

Three new board members join Lakeshore Advantage to help guide West Michigan’s economic future through investment-driven collaboration and strategy.

The Michigan West Coast Chamber team celebrates winning Chamber of the Year.
Holland-Zeeland Chamber earns national award for innovation and leadership

Michigan West Coast Chamber recognized for programs boosting careers, volunteerism, and community growth, earning national Chamber of the Year honors.

Stevens Hotel in 2012.
Fennville’s agritourism sector to be complemented by $4.8M ‘regeneration project’ of historic hotel

“The regeneration project will provide new jobs and tourism, boosting the local economy and helping to support Fennville as a premier West Michigan destination,” says developer Dori DePree.

Community collaborations help coordinate shelter, food, clothing, and other basic needs alongside behavioral health services. Community Action of Allegan County home-delivered meals drivers.
Mental health agencies strengthen services through community collaborations

Across Michigan, community mental health (CMH) agencies are expanding their reach through partnerships with local organizations that address housing, transportation, and other barriers to care. These collaborations aim to create a more coordinated and accessible mental health system, particularly for individuals with complex needs.  

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