Shared Prosperity Kala Shared Prosperity Kalamazoo (SPK) is the City of Kalamazoo’s initiative to share prosperity more broadly with everyone in the city, working towards a community where no one is left behind due to poverty or lack of opportunity. To achieve this, SPK focuses on promoting strong families; the healthy growth, development, and learning of children; and access to good jobs. SPK is driven by an organizing committee comprised of City Commission-appointed community members, and goal teams with experience addressing barriers to prosperity or opportunities.
Goal teams have worked with core neighborhood residents to develop program proposals, each rooted in the neighborhoods’ plans. These proposals were then approved by the full organizing committee and submitted to the City Commission, which approved them in May 2019. City Commission approval allowed these proposals to receive funding from the SPK High Impact Fund, which was allocated $2 million by the Foundation for Excellence.
STEAM Academy Over the past four years, Eastside Youth Strong (EYS) has implemented the Eastside Arts and Science Experiential Learning (EASEL) program for twenty elementaryage youth who live in the Eastside Neighborhood. EASEL is a sixweek summer learning program for youth based on the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) and focuses on enhancing Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, and Mathematics (STEAM) skills. Youth are also exposed to STEAM careers through field trips and guest speakers. As elementary youth “age-out” of the EASEL program, they have asked EYS for a middle school STEAM program. This proposal will allow EYS, the Kalamazoo Regional Educational Service Agency (KRESA), and the Kalamazoo Youth Development Network (KYD Network), to design a STEAM Academy in 2019 that will include an innovative
A Momentum and Warehouse Management and Inventory Control Graduate captured on the job inspecting quality of parts and fulfilling customer orders. Photo: KZOOM
math curriculum, hands-on science lessons, and field trips to relevant local employers. The Academy plans to partner with the Western Michigan University College of Aviation to support their aviation mechanics pipeline program. A six-week program will be implemented in 2020 for youth who live in the Eastside Neighborhood. In 2021, the program will expand to sevenweeks and also add programs in the Northside and Edison neighborhoods. The STEAM Academy also creates opportunities for K-12 educators and youth development professionals to learn innovative and culturally relevant approaches to teaching Mathematics and Science.
Patient Care Academy The Patient Care Academy will be a partnership between the Northside Association for Community Development (NACD), the Kalamazoo Promise, Kalamazoo Valley Community College (KVCC), Urban Alliance, and Michigan Works! Southwest to improve residents’ access to in-demand career training, and to provide healthcare employers a more qualified and diverse talent pool from which to hire. KVCC will provide programming for the Academy, which will be hosted at NACD. The partners involved provide accessible training opportunities to the residents of the City’s core neighborhoods that lead to industryrecognized credentials and living wage jobs.
