New City Urban Farm
New City Urban Farm Steph Harding
Mitten Brewing & Boys and Girls Club
Mitten Brewing & Boys and Girls Club Steph Harding
Ambrose - Holland
Ambrose - Holland Steph Harding
Spring GR - Restorers
Spring GR - Restorers Steph Harding
Gerald R. Ford Job Corps Center
Gerald R. Ford Job Corps Center Steph Harding

Urban Innovation Exchange

Tuesday, July 1, 2014

Headlines

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Innovator
Sowing sustainability: Michelle Boisvenue-Fox keeps the KDL seed library growing

Sowing sustainability: Michelle Boisvenue-Fox keeps the KDL seed library growing

Sowing sustainability: Michelle Boisvenue-Fox keeps the KDL seed library growing

Matthew Russell Tuesday, July 8, 2014
With the KDL’s new seed library, a self-perpetuating collection of heirloom seeds, borrowers are entreated to take seeds and propagate them in their personal gardens. UIX editor Matthew Russell learns why Kent District Library's Michelle Boisvenue-Fox is ...
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Innovator
Marcel Thibert and Jordan VerBerg seamlessly integrate message, medium, and talent to grow

Marcel Thibert and Jordan VerBerg seamlessly integrate message, medium, and talent to grow

Marcel Thibert and Jordan VerBerg seamlessly integrate message, medium, and talent to grow

Matthew Russell Tuesday, June 17, 2014
Marcel Thibert and Jordan VerBerg are starting to notice that they've created their own market with Vizidef Display Technology, to which they supply the talent.
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Innovator
Lance Kraai, Shanna Greer, New City Neighbors sow community seeds for year-round harvest

Lance Kraai, Shanna Greer, New City Neighbors sow community seeds for year-round harvest

Lance Kraai, Shanna Greer, New City Neighbors sow community seeds for year-round harvest

Marla R. Miller Tuesday, June 10, 2014
Whether planting crops, watering or weeding, Kraai, farm director, and Greer, field manager, maintain New City Urban Farm prior to the arrival of student workers in early June. Kraai manages the operation year-round, spending long days in the trenches spring through ...
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Innovator
Author, athlete, inspiration Chris Sain, Jr. helps city youth

Author, athlete, inspiration Chris Sain, Jr. helps city youth

Author, athlete, inspiration Chris Sain, Jr. helps city youth

Marla R. Miller Tuesday, June 3, 2014
Chris Sain, Jr., a social innovator, educator, and mentor to Grand Rapids’ inner-city youth, credits God’s grace and guidance, along with a combination of book smarts, street smarts, and common sense, with helping him escape the hustle and hopelessness of ...
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Innovator
Joe Jones delivers social enterprise strategies to the inner city

Joe Jones delivers social enterprise strategies to the inner city

Joe Jones delivers social enterprise strategies to the inner city

Kevin Lignell Tuesday, May 20, 2014
How do you transform a 75-year-old organization to address some of the most complex inequalities in your community? Joe Jones believes he has the answer.
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Innovator
John and Shawn Tol know how to make a deal

John and Shawn Tol know how to make a deal

John and Shawn Tol know how to make a deal

Matthew Russell Tuesday, May 13, 2014
Created by John and Shawn Tol, MI Deals for Charity allows visitors to purchase a deal outright, with a percentage of the full price going to a local charity of their choice or they can purchase the deal at a discount, with the charity receiving a smaller percentage of ...
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Innovator
Pat Evans and team are brewing up community pride

Pat Evans and team are brewing up community pride

Pat Evans and team are brewing up community pride

Matthew Russell Wednesday, May 7, 2014
In our fair Beer City, USA there is a growing number of craft breweries, each with a loyal following stretching past where their bars end and the community begins, as Mitten Brewing's Pat Evans explains.
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Feature Story
Raising a glass to people over products, collaboration over competiton

Raising a glass to people over products, collaboration over competiton

Raising a glass to people over products, collaboration over competiton

Matthew Russell Tuesday, May 6, 2014
In the private and nonprofit sectors, a more human approach is called for: finding identity in how an organization can be useful to customers above the products they sell or the categories in which they compete.
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Innovator
Gayle DeBruyn: Helping solve wicked problems is a prize in itself

Gayle DeBruyn: Helping solve wicked problems is a prize in itself

Gayle DeBruyn: Helping solve wicked problems is a prize in itself

Marla R. Miller Tuesday, April 29, 2014
Gayle DeBruyn is assistant professor and chief sustainability officer at Kendall College of Art and Design, where the Wege Prize champions finding solutions to "those tangled problems of climate change, food security—challenges that many people have to come ...
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Innovator
Jordan O'Neil and team embrace the profound effects of failure

Jordan O'Neil and team embrace the profound effects of failure

Jordan O'Neil and team embrace the profound effects of failure

Kelly LeCoy Tuesday, April 22, 2014
Jordan O'Neil, with Brian Dokter, Austin Dean, and Jonathan Williams, make up what is now the team behind Failure:Lab. They’re all on a mission, “to eliminate the fear of failure and encourage intelligent risk taking.”
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Innovator
Melvin Eledge and his Ambassadors lead the way through Grand Rapids

Melvin Eledge and his Ambassadors lead the way through Grand Rapids

Melvin Eledge and his Ambassadors lead the way through Grand Rapids

Katie Jones Tuesday, April 15, 2014
"You do a lot of walking around, and you're involved in making Grand Rapids a better city," Melvin Eledge says about the Grand Rapids Safety Ambassadors.
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Feature Story
Let's spring forward and interact with each other

Let's spring forward and interact with each other

Let's spring forward and interact with each other

Matthew Russell Tuesday, April 1, 2014
While UIX GR is only designed to cover one innovator and related project a week, we’re relying on every other resource we have at our disposal to facilitate more conversation.
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Innovator
Jenna Weiler and Ambrose are designing the blueprints for kids' careers

Jenna Weiler and Ambrose are designing the blueprints for kids' careers

Jenna Weiler and Ambrose are designing the blueprints for kids' careers

Kelly LeCoy Tuesday, April 1, 2014
Two years ago, Jenna and Adam Weiler set out to turn their four-year after-school experiment into a brick-and-mortar social enterprise, a collaborative design and screen printing studio called Ambrose that seeks “to develop sustainable spaces where mentoring ...
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Innovator
Kafi Carrasco helps restore entrepreneurial roots to local neighborhood

Kafi Carrasco helps restore entrepreneurial roots to local neighborhood

Kafi Carrasco helps restore entrepreneurial roots to local neighborhood

Matthew Russell Tuesday, March 25, 2014
The business mentoring program Spring GR is facilitated by Restorers, of which Kafi Carrasco is executive director, and is structured on the model of Partners Worldwide, where Rudy Carrasco is United States Regional Facilitator.
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Innovator
Jahaun McKinley, Keith Maki prove not all doors are closed after serving time behind bars

Jahaun McKinley, Keith Maki prove not all doors are closed after serving time behind bars

Jahaun McKinley, Keith Maki prove not all doors are closed after serving time behind bars

Kevin Lignell Tuesday, March 18, 2014
For someone leaving the prison system, the path to flourishing is clouded with myriad obstacles. Finding housing, securing employment, and adapting to new cultural expectations are just a few of these barriers.
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