About TCC
Community Report Card
Links
Meeting Evaluation
Meeting Schedule
Membership
Presentations
Referral Trees
Workgroups

Contact Us

   
Greater Battle Creek Homeless Coalition:
    A Year in Review
    By: Patrick Coyne

A yearly look at the GBCHC can be encapsulated in a quote from Ken Kesey, who said, “From here on down, it’s all uphill!”
     A look at the preceding year’s highlights’ has to include the entry of a new Continuum of Care Coordinator, that being Angelique Vega-Santana. Angelique has brought a fresh, objective vigor to the Coalition. She was responsible for coordinating the past years’ homeless conference, which was themed: “Turning the Key; Alternative Solutions to Ending Homelessness”. Our Expert-In-Residence was Dr. Gary Morse from St. Louis, MO. Dr. Morse brought a great deal of expertise from St. Louis, where they have explored many alternatives to homelessness, especially among persons with mental illness. There were eighty-five conferee’s from all across southwestern Michigan, and our workshop evaluations were all in the 90 percentile range of approval.
     This past year also saw the adoption of new By-Laws, paid memberships’, and a Mission Statement, which states: The Greater Battle Creek Homeless Coalition is a broad-based, collaborative body that meets regularly to share information, and develop and implement strategies to address the issues of homelessness in Calhoun County.
     Towards those strategies, the average attendance at the monthly meetings has increased, as has the dialogue within those meetings.
     Recently, there has been elections of new officers’, with Patrick Coyne being elected for an unprecedented third term, (we don’t have term limits in the Coalition), and Jennifer Schrand was elected as new co-chair. Jennifer is the managing Attorney for Legal Services of South-Central Michigan, and brings with her a wealth of expertise of issues surrounding homelessness. Also, Diane Beckley was elected as Secretary. Diane is in the Community Development area for the City of Battle Creek, and has a working knowledge, not only with issues around homelessness, but also with virtually all of the member agencies.
     In summary, with all of the retrospective look we have taken in this article, the Coalition is always looking to the future. As was mentioned in the beginning of this article, “From here on down, it’s all uphill!”
     For more information, contact Patrick Coyne at (269) 964-8133.