AN ECOSYSTEM FOR TRANSFORMATION
To help a city thrive requires more from us than providing services to the community. It means creating wealth within the community. Systemic problems can only be solved systematically, through an ecosystem of ventures and support infrastructure. Our GRCCT model brings the best practices of business and innovation to bear on the challenges we face.
GRCCT BUSINESS ECOSYSTEM
4 KEY AREAS OF FOCUS
ENTERPRISE
GRCCT believes that businesses create flourishing communities, and we can achieve that through starting and scaling many different enterprises that work together synergistically — all making impact across multiple bottom lines: people, planet, profit, and purpose.
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This growing business provides professional services in residential construction, commercial and residential landscape design, property maintenance, and snow plowing. Building Bridges employs thirty local residents while providing discounted services to low income seniors, planting 500 trees each year, and sharing profits with its employees. This successful enterprise was a Grand Rapids Chamber of Commerce Minority Business of the year finalist (2021), and will double its operation in the next two years.
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The 1530 is a brand new event space available for public rental inside the Grand Rapids Center for Community Transformation. Originally erected as a furniture factory, The1530 combines past, present, and future with its 120-year history, original wood floors and pillars, freshly renovated interior, and modern appliances.
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Transformational Executive Coaching is a two-year journey comprised of eight full-day quarterly retreats. This coaching focuses on helping leaders learn not just what it means to be a good executive, but what it means to be a transformative executive. This experience is designed for leaders in business, non-profit, and hybrid organizations who desire to be part of a curated cohort, and who are looking for tools that build personal and practical leadership abilities in these rapidly changing times. TEC is committed to helping business leaders achieve efficiency in their work, effectiveness in their ability to manage change, and awareness and clarity in their vision.
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EOS is a set of timeless business tools and concepts that help leaders and organizations grow in three different areas:
Vision: Assisting organizational leaders in aligning their company goals—from individual contributions to long-term collaborative efforts.
Traction: Instilling discipline and accountability throughout the organization, so that each department, division, or business unit executes their vision with clarity and precision.
Health: Helping organizations create a supportive, collaborative environment that promotes honesty, transparency, and open discussion of varying perspectives.
The GRCCT uses EOS to turn vision into practical action. This model has been so transformative, the GRCCT is now pursuing certification to support other small businesses that could benefit from EOS. With this, the GRCCT hopes to assist leaders in creating engaged, organizational environments that execute their vision with clarity and impact.
SOCIAL INNOVATION
Social Innovation focuses on the process of transformation, how change takes shape and how new work and new forms of cooperation can meet social needs in a better way than existing solutions.
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Our three organizations are collaborating to create supportive employment capabilities for small businesses in the 49507 zip code. Currently, each company is working to hire a full-time staff, who will then form a team, share data, and work with employers to assist in hiring and retaining employees in the community.
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The GRCCT partnered with the Tabernacle Community Church to develop a social enterprise that combines economic development with the belief that all of life is sacred. In efforts to use business as a means for combating poverty, Good Honey transformed a vacant lot into an eco-friendly, community space with a working apiary that produced 25 gallons of honey in 2021.
CARER AND ENTREPRENEURIAL DEVELOPMENT
Creating more pathways for careers from training to direct hire, as well as mobilizing networks to support business development and increased contracts with BIPOC entrepreneurs.
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ProTrek is an immersive, eleven-week experience that allows participants to rise to new heights, achieve personal and professional goals, and broaden their horizons in a variety of contexts. This transformative offering provides youth and young adults (ages 14-18) with academic training, intellectual and emotional guidance, paid work experience, and most of all—fun!
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Dorothy Stoneman started the first YouthBuild program in East Harlem in 1978. Her vision was to get young people off the street and rehabilitate rundown buildings in the inner city. YouthBuild later received federal funding to expand their program throughout the United States. There are now 274 YouthBuild programs across 45 states, Washington, DC, and the Virgin Islands. Sine 1994, over 100,000 YouthBuild students have built 20,000 units of affordable, increasingly green housing.
The GRCCT has offered the YouthBuild program to Grand Rapids since 2011. It is designed to help teens and young adults (ages 18 -24) achieve personal and professional success.
INVESTMENT
The GRCCT platform allows for a multiplying effect in the community. The GRCCT has many avenues to attract capital: for-profit investment in new business ventures, ability to gain federal, state, and local government contracts, individual and corporate donations, and the utilization of volunteers and sweat equity. Combining these forms of capital allows us to scale investment, support businesses, and spread ideas that others do not have access to.
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In 2021, the GRCCT and its founding partners raised over $5 million to support operational expansion, as well as the acquisition and renovation of the 1530 Madison Avenue building. This collaborative effort was the first of its kind: one in which five individual entities came together for a common purpose. This campaign was able to leverage many forms of capital, including an impact investment, federal and state grants, private foundation and individual donations, and sweat equity from the community.
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The GRCCT regularly supports local businesses in acquiring landscaping contracts by providing them with legal and accounting support, access to commercial grade equipment, and mentorship opportunities.
The GRCCT has also assisted a local non-profit in obtaining a federal contract. This contract has allowed five local businesses to employ forty community residents, establish a $200,000 fund for businesses in Madison Square, and invest $150,000 in architectural improvements.
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The GRCCT and its partners have worked closely with housing developers for over a decade, providing two Low Income Housing Tax Credit deals that brought over $26 Million of investment into Grand Rapids. These two mixed-income housing developments have provided seventeen previously-homeless youth with permanent, affordable residences.
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The GRCCT and Building Bridges Professional Services were highly active in the development of the Construction Allies in Action (CAIA). This initiative aims to create generational change within the construction industry by assisting underrepresented contractors in sustaining their businesses. The GRCCT provides the CAIA with promotional, financial, and advisory support in efforts to advance their cause.
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The West Michigan Minority Contractors Association (WMMCA) is made up of minority- and woman-owned businesses in the construction trade. This program provides contractors with educational workshops and a network for business partnerships among members. The GRCCT works directly with WMMCA to develop business relationships and strengthen the contractor community in West Michigan.
INVEST IN CHANGE TODAY
The GRCCT annually conducts a Social Return on Investment (SROI) analysis. For every $1.00 donated to GRCCT in 2021, the estimated collective social return on investment equals $2.77 in impact.