| Pictured left to right: Sharon, Scottie
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Housing Success
Sharon and Scottie share their housing journey
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Sharon and Scottie had met once before, in passing, many years ago. Through a strange coincidence, they became reacquainted. Scottie had just moved into a new apartment when there was a knock on her door. She looked though the peephole to see two of her grandchildren. As she hadn’t even given her new address out to anyone yet, she was a bit dumfounded. Her grandchildren were equally dumfounded when she opened the door to greet them, as they expected their other grandmother to open the door. As it turns out, Scottie and Sharon share one grandchild, and Scottie had just moved into Sharon’s old apartment!
The coincidences didn’t stop there. Scottie had been referred to our Center for Nonprofit Housing (CNH) by MSHDA’s Key to Own program, which supports Section 8 housing clients transitioning from renters to homeowners. One of the requirements for that program is to attend nine separate Financial Literacy classes, followed by a Homebuyer Education program from CNH.
Shortly thereafter, Sharon was also referred to CNH for the same reasons. Both women completed the Financial Literacy and the Homebuyer Education classes. Sharon, in particular set a tight schedule for herself, going through the initial nine classes, in about 12 weeks. There were several other steps along the way, including proving her credit rating, in Sharon’s case, and improving hers, in Scottie’s.
After they both had finished all of that, they ran into each other again, and Scottie told Sharon about the Real Estate Agent she had been working with. Sharon worked with this agent, who was familiar with both Section 8 and the Key to Own program, and after seeing only two houses, Sharon found her dream home in White Cloud, within walking distance of her children and grandchildren.
Scottie’s search took a little longer, but she ended up finding a perfect house in Holton. Both women site the huge benefits of the knowledge they gained in both the Financial Literacy and Homebuyer Education classes, and how important it was having their CNH Housing Counselor walking alongside them through the entire process.
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| Entries from left to right from: Fremont Middle School, TrueNorth Community Services, Kent-Scott Family
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Fall Hay Art
Supporting Hunger Prevention through donations
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| Each September, the Fremont community shows their fall spirit by participating in the Harvest Festival, hosted by the Fremont Area Chamber of Commerce. One of the most anticipated aspects of the Festival is the annual Hay Art contest. Area businesses, organizations and households create masterpieces made out of hay bales for community members and visitors to enjoy.
This year, 50 entries took part in the fun with hay made up to look like a monster truck, a gumball machine, an angel, a camper, a snowman, TrueNorths’ Pac-Man, and even a jar of peanut butter! Local community members take part in voting for their favorite Hay Art by donating shelf stable food that supports TrueNorth’s Hunger Prevention Programs. The entries with the highest amount of food donated, by weight, is the winner. This year Fremont Middle School won for the business division, and the Kent-Scott Family won for the residential division. In total, 10,598 pounds of food were donated, which is the highest annual total of the event, and the cumulative total for the past 10 years is over 57,500 pounds!
“These food donations are so important to our Hunger Prevention Programs. The community support is greatly appreciated as we work to provide enough food for Newaygo County families” our Hunger Prevention Director, Mike Voyt stated.
View all the Hay Art entries here.
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| Pictured on Left, Complex Care Manager, Marissa Boerman; Pcitured on Right, Self-Sufficiency Advisor, Megan Black
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A Note of Thanks
Good news worth sharing
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| When Marissa Boerman, the emPower Comprehensive Complex Care Manager gets a call from a participant, it’s not usually good news. Expecting to hear a concern, she was pleasantly surprised when recently a woman called just to tell her about how great an experience she had had with her Self-Sufficiency Advisor, Megan.
emPower’s Self-Sufficiency Advisors work in communities all over the state of Michigan assisting participants with everything from preventing heat and energy shut offs, to signing up for affordable payment plans, to helping them set and reach self-sufficiency goals.
As Marissa listened, the woman on the other end of the phone told her how great it was working with Megan and how she had helped her through so many things, and how thankful she was that Megan was part of her life. She went on to explain she was so impressed, she decided to use time on her day off to find out who Megan’s supervisor was, without Megan knowing, so she could phone in her words of praise.
“All I could say was; ‘wow – that’s so great to hear!’… What we are most passionate about is caring about the people we interact with all the time,” said Marissa.
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| Community Activities & Events
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