New Beginnings: Looking Forward from the 10-year Wellville Project
An open letter to our Wellville communities, partners and friends: On my hike early this morning, I paused for a moment – immersed in stillness,
February 18, 2025
An open letter to our Wellville communities, partners and friends: On my hike early this morning, I paused for a moment – immersed in stillness,
This is the story of how the Muskegon YMCA, long a pillar of the community of Muskegon County, MI, wove itself into a broader supporting fabric, reaching out beyond a physical building to serve community members in the community.
At Wellville, we use our basic quadrant chart not so much to describe ourselves, but to explore the mindset shift we want to foster. Our two axes are “short-term thinking” vs. “long-term thinking,” and “benefits just me” vs. “benefits all,” otherwise called “self-interest” vs. “shared interest.”
Building on early successes, the Muskegon YMCA continues secure funding to expand access to its diabetes prevention program.
There is so much in our hearts and minds following these tumultuous past few months and intense past few days. This is a moment to consider the causes of the consequences that are now on full display. It’s time to call out what led to such health disparities and what will it take to improve outcomes for all.
When Covid-19 hit the US, we asked ourselves: Now that everyone is just trying to stay alive and save jobs, is Wellville just a distraction? We can’t just preach about the long term and what people want to achieve by the end of the Wellville project while they are busy responding to the short term. Instead, we tried a different question: How can we build a better long-term future even as we address current needs?
The Muskegon YMCA-run Diabetes Prevention Program (DPP) got a big boost earlier this summer, when the program earned Full CDC Recognition – a prerequisite for billing Medicare.
Officials with the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration traveled to Muskegon at the end of August to review the progress of MYalliance System of Care (SOC), a collaboration between youth, families, schools, and other child-serving agencies to better serve youth with complex needs and their families. The SAMHSA evaluators were inspired by “visionary leadership across agencies and youth and families” and said their experience in Muskegon was “not their usual site visit.”
A this year’s Wellville Gathering, teams from the Wellville 5 communities explored what it will take to shift long-term thinking and action among institutions, people and systems.
The theme of the 2018 Wellville Gathering was to ask a simple question: What story do we want to tell at the end of the 10-year Wellville project, on December 31, 2024? Each Wellville community answered this question.
Site Created By: MJ Web Consulting
