Stories

Feature Story This year, Opera Grand Rapids continues its Contemporary Opera series by presenting Peter Hilliard and Matt Boresi’s “The Last American Hammer.” This opera is centered on the flight of industrial jobs from America’s Midwest.

Published Together: A 400+-year-old art form still has relevance today

For non-operagoers, it may seem like opera companies have kept recycling the same classic repertoire over the past 100 years. Still, an examination of opera will reveal a genre bursting with new works, relevant stories and talented artists experimenting with new vocal styles.

Feature Story Renée Cummings, data science professor of practice at The University of Virginia, and nonresident senior fellow at The Brookings Institution, will speak at an AI conference in West Michigan this month.

Leveraging technology “in service of humanity”

While artificial intelligence continues to add value and find a home in more segments of our lives, it is important to identify and address potential unintentional biases and data injustices it can create. This week, Renée Cummings will speak about AI ethics and the future of our algorithmic society. Additionally, she will mentor five local young women during a day of education and career exploration.

Feature Story Voices of Youth is a Rapid Growth program that connects high school students in the greater Grand Rapids area with paid journalism experience and opportunities.

Grand Rapids students share perspectives through Voices of Youth

Voices of Youth is a Rapid Growth program that connects high school students in the greater Grand Rapids area with paid journalism experience and opportunities. The cohort, which launched this month, consists of three in-person workshops where students learn journalism basics and how to go from story idea to published piece.   

Feature Story The Mosaic Film Experience focuses on connecting students with cognitive disabilities with opportunities to continue their journey to other platforms.

Partnering up to make storytelling a creative outlet for all in GR

The Mosaic Film Experience focuses on connecting students with cognitive disabilities with opportunities to continue their journey to other platforms.

Longform Sanilac County Sheriff Paul Rich and Sanilac County Community Mental Health CEO Wilbert Morris

Michigan’s community mental health and law enforcement agencies team up to keep people out of jail

As awareness about how policing and mental health intersect grows across the state, more Michigan counties are involving community mental health agencies in law enforcement response and diverting people who are simply experiencing symptoms of mental illness from jail.


Feature Story The documentary, “Unseen: How We’re Failing Parent Caregivers & Why It Matters,” explores the lives of parent caregivers for children and adults who are disabled.

Documentary explores challenges faced by parent caregivers of children with disabilities

The public is invited to a Feb. 26 screening of a documentary that looks at parent caregivers for children and adults who are disabled or medically complex, and their lack of support from society.

Longform A mother holds her baby's hand.

Upper Peninsula program helps moms with opioid use disorder have healthier pregnancies

The program's goal is to identify and address the social determinant of health needs that create barriers for women with opioid use disorder.

Feature Story (Fom left) HealthBar Director of Sales and Marketing Michael Lomonaco, Rick Arnett with Lake Orion Public Schools, and HealthBar School Nursing Program Manager Quinn McGill.

HealthBar school nurses provide holistic care to area students

“The complexity of health care needs within the schools is increasing,” HealthBar CEO Nathan Baar says. HealthBar is that new front door to health care for students in districts that had previously gone without school nurses — a critical connection to health care for students.

Longform Washtenaw County Community Mental Health is a Certified Community Behavioral Health Clinic

Michigan's CCBHCs open mental health access to all

Michigan's 34 CCBHCs provide whole-person care by integrating physical health with a comprehensive range of mental health and substance use disorder services to vulnerable individuals no matter what a patients' income or insurance coverage.  

Longform Jenifer Murray, a contracted grant coordinator with Munson Healthcare, works on programs for new parents in her office.

Northern Michigan works to build supportive services for parents in "maternity care deserts"

Many in the Upper Peninsula and northern Lower Peninsula live in areas with a serious lack of resources, facilities, and practitioners for pregnant people, new parents, and infants.

In The News x

Lawrence Tech celebrates opening of state-of-the-art robotics and factory automation laboratory

"This is something no other university, no other campus, has done,” said Larry Smentowski, global automotive director of Rockwell Automation.

Feature Story Last year, Lowell United Methodist Church ended up exceeding its goal and providing 2,000 gift bags to four groups of essential workers.

Community Support Month in February: Where big ideas start small

Last year, Lowell United Methodist Church started small by providing gift bags for four groups of essential workers. The church not only reached their goal of raising $700 for the effort, but once the word spread in a grassroots way, that number reached $3,000 and they ended up recognizing more than 2,000 people in Lowell and surrounding communities.

Feature Story Sara Crookston directs a toy photo shoot.

How life is better in West Michigan for those designing our world

Sarah Crookston, Mimi Ray and David Allan are all leaders in design. While they could work anywhere in the world, they discuss why they choose to live and work in West Michigan.

Feature Story childcarephoto

A childcare solution: Marquette County to expand home-based childcare

In October, the Marquette County Board of Commissioners approved $100,000 in American Rescue Plan Act funding to support the Marquette County Childcare Business Lab Pilot, a business startup and growth accelerator program for potential home-based childcare businesses.

Feature Story  The DNSWM brain injury support group celebrates its first in-person meeting in the fall since the pandemic. (DNSWM)

How the pandemic made a brain injury support group more accessible

After going virtual during the pandemic, the brain injury support group hosted by Disability Network Southwest Michigan has shifted to a hybrid model as in-person meetings resume so more people can attend. 

Feature Story Lucia Rios's first time driving her new car. Her nephew Angelo Mata is in the front seat. He helped her identify how to work with the new technology.

Living with a disability is expensive

From buying a car to getting groceries, these necessities cost more when they need to adapt to someone who uses a wheelchair. Lucia Rios explains the hidden costs of living with a disability. 

Development News Grand Rapids African American Health Institute will expand and enhance programming aimed at reducing health disparities within the county's BIPOC communities with $1 million in American Recovery Program Act funds.

Grant expands GRAAHI’s power to eliminate health disparities

GRAAHI will expand and enhance programming aimed at reducing health disparities within the county's BIPOC communities with $1 million in ARPA funds.

Feature Story A Talentfirst panel

TalentFirst: Economic success through talent development

A declining labor force means more talent development is needed. Other issues targeted for the current state of the labor market include childcare shortage as well as racial and ethnicity gaps.

Feature Story Bagley

Detroit's hottest residential neighborhoods in 2023, according to realtors

Despite a cooling housing market, real estate agents in Detroit say due to low inventory, move-in ready houses near the city’s historic neighborhoods and thriving commercial corridors are still a hot buy.

Feature Story Help is just a phone call away.

Community mental health meets Northern Michiganders where they’re at with mobile crisis intervention

The Northern Lakes Community Mental Health Authority mobile crisis intervention services reach across Crawford, Grand Traverse, Leelanau, Missaukee, Roscommon, and Wexford counties.