Economic Development

Deadline nears for Midland construction talent attraction program

The Midland Area Community Foundation’s Construction Talent Attraction Program offers $5,000–$20,000 awards; applications due Aug. 15, 2025.

Latest in Economic Development
Dennis Pilaske and Kevin LaDuke
Rooted in nature: Dennis Pilaske reflects on a life of outdoor learning and community connection

Dennis Pilaske, Executive Director of Chippewa Nature Center, shares his journey from camp counselor to leader, blending nature, education, and music into lifelong community impact.

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.  

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.

Stewardship Series continues this summer and fall with two additional all-ages workshops. 
Little Forks Stewardship Series builds momentum for Nelson Woods Nature Preserve

Little Forks Conservancy’s free 2025 Stewardship Series offers hands-on workshops at local preserves, teaching conservation skills from insect habitats to invasive species control and native seed collection.

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.  

Midland River Days 2025: Family fun, food, live music, and hot air balloons

Once a tribute to Midland’s history, River Days has evolved into a major family festival featuring balloons, food, music, and community fun at the Tridge.

Midland brings summer fun with sidewalk sales, adult recess, and photo contest

Downtown Midland comes alive this summer with sidewalk sales, weekly adult recess activities, and a photo contest inviting residents to capture life in their community.

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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