From 2001-2004 Calvin College faculty, staff and students collaborated with the following organizations in the Burton Heights community.

Related to Housing and Business matters

Garfield Development Corporation (GDC)

Garfield Development Corporation is a nonprofit organization focused on housing and economic development in the Burton Heights/Garfield Park neighborhood. GDC's mission is to "be a catalyst for neighborhood revitalization and preservation by producting safe, decent, affordable home ownership opporunities for low and moderate income home buyers, and by providing economic development opportunities for residents and neighborhood businesses." GDC has done a lot to provide quality affordable housing to persons of low and moderate income in the Burton Heights area by buying homes that are in a state of disrepair, rehabilitating them to make them efficient and inexpensive to maintain, and then selling the upgraded and improved homes to first time home buyers with moderate to low family incomes. They also partner with the business association and neighborhood association to strengthen the community and foster opporunities for economic development.

Burton Heights Business Association (BHBA)

The Burton Heights Business Association has been working to preserve Burton Heights as a regional shopping district and to promote commerce in the district for almost a century. The Business Associaton is composed of neighborhood business owners and community leaders who meet together on a monthly basis with the purpose of promoting common business interest and improving business conditions for all businesses in the destrict through established economic development practices. BHBA meeting procide an opportunity for networking, information sharing, business recruitment and retention strategies, and the development of targeted marketing programs. Currently BHBA is working on developing ways to assist businesses through the Division Avenue construction project. While the project will greatly benefit Burton Heights, it will be a very difficult period for many of the small businesses in the district.

Neighborhood Business Specialists Program (NBSP)

The Neighbrohood Business Specialists Program provides economic development and organizational services to the 20 neighborhood business organizations in the Grand Rapids area. It represents an economic development partnership between the Grand Rapids Area Chamber of Commerce, the City of Grand Rapids, and the Neighborhood Business Alliance. An NBSP staff member works with the Burton Heights Business Association to support and promote the interests of the businesses in the Burton Heights area.

Related to Education Initiatives:

Buchanan Elementary School

Buchanan Elementary School is a public elementary school in northern half of the Burton Heights neighborhood. It's mission is to "equip children with the knowledge, skills and integrity to lead successful, positive lives." The staff at Buchanan has adopted the Success for All comprehensive reform model to help the students succeed. The school has also received additional funding to provide students with additional assistance in the areas of reading, math and language acquisition. With approximately 500 students, 65% for which Enligh is a second language, Buchanan is a unique and exciting school. Half of the classrooms include bilingual education where students study traditional academic subjects while learning English.

Related to Health Issues:

Health Intervention Services (H.I.S.)

Health Intervention Services is a faith based health center composed of Christian medical professionals committed to a ministry of physical healing, spiritual restoration and meeting family needs for the uninsured working poor in the community. Local churches assist H.I.S. in meeting the goals of physical,mental and spiritual wholeness. H.I.S. targets in uninsured populations in Grand Rapids and charges on a sliding scale with much of the cost absorbed by outside donations. Without H.I.S. many of these people would have no access to medical help and would have to wait to see a doctor until there was a major medical emergency.

Burton Health Center

The Burton Health Center is one branch of Cherry Street Health Services, which is an organization of nine community health centers around Grand Rapids. It provides medical and dental services to care for the needs of school children attending Burton Elementary and Middle Schools, the Migrant Summer School program and surronding community. It is located in Burton Elementary School in order to be easily accessable to students and their families.

Related to Community Organizing:

Garfield Park Neighborhoods Association

The Garfield Park Neighborhoods Association works to build community, strengthen businesses, prevent crime, and generally improve the Garfield Park neighborhood of which Burton Heights is a part. GPNA's stated mission is "to preserve and improve the unique human and physical characteristics of the neighborhood, developing community through resident inolvement." Each year GPNA hosts a community Easter egg hunt, the Peace Fest, the Annual Arts and Crafts Fair, and Eats for Cops as well as all the regular work done to build and strengthen community.

Calvin Administration

Director of Community Relations: Carol Rienstra, Calvin Office of External Relations, 201 Burton ST SE, Grand Rapids MI 49546-4388; 616-526-6175; crienstr@calvin.edu.

Director of Calvin Service Learning Center: Jeff Bouman,1765 Knollcrest Circle SE, Grand Rapids MI 49546-4404; 616-526-8610 or 526-6455; jpb4@calvin.edu.

Education: Sue Hasseler - Director of Teacher Education, Professor of
Education; Denise Isom, Assistant Professor of Education, Rhae-Ann
Booker, Director of Pre-college Programs

Health: Gail Zandee, community partnership development consultant for the nursing department; Renae Boss Potts, Assistant Professor of Nursing

Community Organizing: Lissa Schwander, Assistant Professor of Sociology; Henk Aay, Department Chair and Professor of Geology, Geography, and Environmental Science