The Grand Rapids Center for Community Transformation is marking ten years of driving economic transformation around the Madison Square Neighborhood.
The center works as a hub for collaboration, helping residents gain access to networks, business contracts, jobs and resources.
CEO Nathan Beene says the center is based on entrepreneurship, social innovation, strategic investment and career pathways.
“Everything we do is about is about transformation. It's about transforming individuals; it's about transforming organizations and businesses and also it's about transforming the city.”
Over its ten years, leaders say the center helped more than 200 entrepreneurs grow their businesses, trained nearly 6,000 young people for the workforce, and assisted residents in earning more than 750 professional credentials.
The center is a partner in the “Thrive + Prosper “ movement, funding small businesses and nonprofits, and providing more than 12,000 economic mobility opportunities.
Founder Dr. Justin Beene says one future project is rebranding the 49507 zip code as “Southtown.”
“Reimagining it as this bustling innovation and entrepreneurship and cultures and cuisine and local art and entertainment. Really beginning to say, how do we put Southtown on the map, not as this place that needs to be saved, but rather place to invest in, a place to come to?”
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