As the final phase of its $66.4 million expansion and renovation project, Mary Free Bed Rehabilitation Hospital recently opened 10 additional new rooms at the Inn at Mary Free Bed, a lodging alternative that provides a practical solution to two challenges facing Mary Free Bed’s longer-term rehabilitation patients. One, the Inn provides a home away from home for their family members. Two, patients who no longer need nursing care but aren’t ready to go home can stay with their families at the Inn as they continue rehabilitation. In 2017, more than 3,700 people stayed at the Inn. Mary Free Bed plans on adding another six rooms to the Inn, for a total of 22 rooms.

What goes into a good speech? Step back and let Zoe Carmichael, seven-year owner and speaker coach at Zoe Carmichael Consulting, advise you.  

The healthcare industry experiences innovation at an astounding rate, but not all innovation is defined by the latest technology or the smallest tools. Interpersonal communication, and interprofessional practice, is the new face of healthcare innovation, and care professionals in West Michigan are helping this trend grow.

When you’re legally deaf and blind, climbing the seventh highest mountain in the world may seem foolhardy. Foolhardy that is, unless you’re Bill Barkeley, local adventurer who partners with nonprofits to provide hope and possibility for all.

Life with Asperger Syndrome isn't simple an straightforward. It's a collection of colors and experiences, and each person with the Syndrome is unique. In this VOICES essay, sixth grader Nora Standish describes her experience with Asperger's, shattering every stereotype about the Syndrome and inviting you into her world.

Eric Wynsma, Terra Firma Development, renovated  619 Wealthy Street SE, a building that has housed retail for most of its years since being built in 1925. The new space houses four new retail clients, including Fox Naturals and Thelma's Flowers.

Gold Coast Doulas, a group of 16 diverse doulas living throughout the greater Grand Rapids area, provide a wide range of services to women giving birth primarily in the hospital, but also at home.Their doula team includes African-American and Spanish-speaking doulas, doulas from different income levels, and doulas from all types of West Michigan communities.

They can support clients no matter what their race, religion, ethnicity, class demographic, or sexual orientation.

According to local professional Paul Soltysiak, The WestSide is diverse with lots of history. It has a wonderful flavor that is tough to define unless one lives, works, or plays here often. It needs to be experienced to be understood. Explore the Westside from Soltysiak's perspective in this installment of Neighborhoods of GR.

From “bricks” made of cedar wood and soaked in creosote to sturdy but expensive cobblestones, GR's oldest streets are rich with history.

This Rapid Blog comes to us from Carlos Garay Negrón, a Trans Latinx activist, community advocate, musician, and queer/trans theorist. Their theory work is centered around intersectional analyses of trans and queer experience through the media lens, and their praxis is focused on empowering marginalized communities to enact transformative change.