Located on the shores of little Lake Macatawa, just off the coast of expansive Lake Michigan, Holland is the epicenter of West Michigan’s Dutch history and culture. Not surprisingly, then, the city is perhaps best known for its annual Tulip Time Festival in May. But there’s much more to the Tulip City than, well, tulips. The city’s downtown is on the National Register of Historic Places and boasts as much retail activity as any urban core in the region. The community is flush with wildly popular waterfront beaches like Tunnel Park and Holland State Park. And Hope College lends the clean, conservative town a bit of youthful spirit.
The Rodriguez-Matos family will finally move into their own home thanks to the work of local nonprofits that are joining forces to more quickly move the needle on available affordable housing in the Holland area.
Hope professor Jordan VanHemert is the force behind the Holland Concert Jazz Orchestra, which is bringing high-quality jazz performances and learning along the Lakeshore.
Future Search 2020 – a new strategic planning initiative for the Holland/Zeeland area — is asking residents to take an online survey by March 31.
Lakeshore companies collectively invested more than $127 million in 21 primarily expansion projects in 2019, creating more than 1,000 new jobs.
Kids’ Food Basket will soon have the capacity to reach more children in Ottawa and Allegan counties with a new Holland facility.
A portion of the funds raised through the Feeding our Future Campaign for Allegan and Ottawa counties will go toward the purchase of land to create a second Kids' Food Basket farm.
In the last three years, Shelby Baumann's wages have steadily increased along with her skills. She has benefited from workplace training, partially funded through the state's Going Pro grants.
In 2019, the Going PRO Talent Fund awarded $32 million in 898 grants that helped pay for training more than 25,000 workers. Those new skills contributed to an average annual wage increase of nearly $6,000.
The first-of-its-kind assessment of Ottawa County organizations was undertaken by the Lakeshore Nonprofit Alliance. The data gathered covers a range of issues, from finance to diversity and inclusion efforts.
“How to be an effective board member” workshops teach new board members best practices of providing leadership for a nonprofit, from governance to fundraising. More than 700 people in Ottawa County have taken part in some kind of board training offered by the Lakeshore Nonprofit Alliance.
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