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Made In Walker
The Made In Walker Podcast connects you to the people, stories, and ideas shaping our community. From local innovators to everyday change makers, we are diving deep into what makes Walker Michigan a great place to live, work, and grow.
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Made In Walker
The HOPE Collaborative: Empowering Walker from Within
What happens when a community decides to take care of its own? The HOPE Collaborative—Helping Others Prosper Every Day—represents a powerful answer to that question. This grassroots initiative brings together Walker's businesses, schools, churches, and police department to create an interconnected web of support for families and individuals in need.
Born from conversations between Zinser Elementary Principal Brooke Johnston and Pastor Jim Richter of The Vine church, the collaborative addresses a fundamental truth: we all have assets to share and needs to be met. With Walker Police Officer Mitch Harkama joining the leadership team, this citywide initiative fills a crucial gap in local support systems by connecting people directly to resources they might otherwise never discover.
The collaborative tackles pressing issues like food insecurity, housing instability, mental health challenges, and financial burdens—problems that have intensified since COVID-19 disrupted community connections. Current projects include enhancing family programming at the Three Mile Project with parent education on topics like social media safety and budgeting, maintaining a free pantry at Walker Ice and Fitness, and providing emergency assistance through the police department's Community Care Card program. One touching example shows how a simple 30-minute interaction changed someone's entire month, transforming a recipient into a contributor to the same system that helped her.
Ready to join this movement of compassion? Businesses can donate gift cards, community members can share their insights on needed resources, and families can connect with the collaborative through the Walker City webpage, Zinser Elementary, or the police department. Together, we're rebuilding the connections that make Walker not just a place to live, but a true community that cares for every resident.
Welcome to Made in Walker, a podcast that connects you to the people, the stories and the ideas shaping our community, from local innovators to everyday changemakers. We're diving deep into what makes Walker a great place to live, work and grow. Here's your host, nicole DiDonato.
Speaker 2:What happens when local businesses, churches, schools, even the police department, come together not just to talk but to actually act. In this episode, we're introducing the HOPE Collaborative, built on the simple idea of helping others prosper every day, and I'm here with two of the main leaders of this collaborative Walker Police Officer Mitch Harkama, and we have Brooke Johnston from Zinsser, the principal at Zinsser Elementary School. Thank you both so much for joining us today. Thanks, for having us.
Speaker 2:And it's an important episode. We're talking about this new collaborative that has really come together since the beginning of the year and it's got a lot of motion coming on. What really started all of this?
Speaker 4:I'll speak to that because at the beginning of the school year I had just started back at Zinsser as the principal. This is my first year there, after having my kids attend many years ago, and the the mission for Zinsser Elementary has always been kids who care and we're families who care. And then when I was looking around I realized we need to do more to care for our community. How can we get connected with other people in places that need our help? But then also how can we connect with businesses and churches and nonprofits that can help the needs of our students? So I began to have a discussion with the church across the street. Pastor Jim Richter is the pastor at the Vine and kind of shared my thoughts and he had the same thoughts. How can we build this network of people that can come together and support each other? And we realized, like we all have assets but we all have needs and if we can just share those things, we can really make a difference in our community and partner together.
Speaker 2:Yeah, absolutely. There's not a lot of citywide initiatives like there are at the county level, so this is just a way for all of us to come together at a more local level to connect with people, and what do you think the purpose really should be?
Speaker 3:So when we started meeting you know I was invited to the first meeting by Brooke and Pastor Jim, who happens to be a chaplain at Walker Police Department also and doing some of the community engagement and community outreach things for the police department we realized pretty quickly that there are some hubs of resources in the city, whether it be through the police department, through the school, through faith-based businesses and things like that. So we started just bringing some people to the table and our purpose is truly what the initiative is called HOPE Helping Others Prosper Every Day. The businesses and the folks that are involved so far. They all do great work in the community already as part of their everyday jobs, but then collectively as a collaborative. Our goals are to then expand that reach.
Speaker 3:You know, for the police department side of things we see people in need every day and sometimes our road patrol officers need a little bit better connection to provide people the resource they may need. And having a network of these contacts, some of them very specific to a niche type need, is helpful, because when those reports come forward to me then I can send that right back and say, hey, officer, try connecting this person to this specific resource or this specific group or I can do that myself as well. So we've had some good momentum already in some of the projects that we've started and some of the ones that we're looking forward to. But really, yeah, the initiative is to help families prosper and help the city of Walker and the Walker area in general just really grow and be prosperous.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and what are some of the topics that you think we've already explored, that families may be looking for that extra assistance, mentorship in as well?
Speaker 4:When we talk to the different people that are involved, like what are the greatest needs, we see there's some food insecurity, there's housing insecurity, a lot of mental health issues and financial burdens and really just a lack of awareness of where can I go to get help. Some people are just completely disconnected from networks so really we just bring those connections for them. But our biggest push right now is how can we support families in providing the resources that they need to thrive?
Speaker 2:Yeah, and already trying to build off of some things that are happening in the community. We have a three-mile project that offers a chance for middle schoolers and high schoolers to come in once a week. So how will that be implemented into the bigger scheme of things?
Speaker 3:So one of the things we're going to try to add on to there is they already have a successful family day program there that happens monthly.
Speaker 3:So we're going to try to bring in some resources, some speakers, some different opportunities for the parents to also attend those days rather than just dropping their kids off to play for a few hours.
Speaker 3:Because a lot of times when we see the folks that need the connections, they are families and sometimes they struggle to get those connections because they don't have child care.
Speaker 3:So giving them an opportunity to know that their kids are going to be in a safe place, entertained in a positive way, and then the parents can stick around and either just network We'll have some booths and community resource tables through Network 180 and some different initiatives and things like that that the parents can check in on at their own speed and connect how they want to but then we're also going to have some speakers come in and talk on some topics like helping your kids navigate social media safety, which is a big one, I know, on the police department and we see a lot of that stuff. Um, budgeting is huge, you know. It seems like everything costs more these days and you know some people who maybe didn't struggle financially a few years ago are now um. So just different topics like that, different community resources that can come in and connect with these families in a different way, in a different venue, I think is going to be very helpful.
Speaker 2:Yeah, excited to see all this coming together and again happening pretty quickly. Where can folks start to? If families are out there listening to this, maybe try to get information? We're kind of working as a city level to compile all of that. We're trying to create a hub city level to compile all of that.
Speaker 4:We're trying to create the hub of information on the Walker City webpage so we can send parents there. They can, of course, also talk to me at Dinser Elementary and I can connect them with people that we're with. I'll call the police department and they'll be able. We have a list of partners that we work with so we can send them to the right person when they need it so, um, I think of like that's a big initiative that we're doing with the three mile parent events, but some smaller ones.
Speaker 4:We have the food pantry that now we're telling our team, hey, help us stock that at walker um this summer so families can go. Or a simple. We have a courtyard in our building and in the summer it looks like a jungle, so now we have people that come and kind of help care for that, because it really is a great learning space. I've had families at school that can't you know if they need support in different areas. I can just connect them with the right people that are really helpful and just even to be a listening ear too.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's been nice. You've had a lot of people whether it's businesses and police, churches that wanted to help, and now they have an opportunity and a place to go where their resources can be utilized. And if there's businesses out there that are listening too, what type of resources are you looking for from them if they want to donate, whether it's financial or physical?
Speaker 3:I would say the easiest thing for them to get involved in right now is so at the police department. For a little while we've had this community care card initiative where, if you can get us like the prepaid visas and bring those to the police department, we keep those on hand. We utilize those all the time for various things. Whether you know, we come across a family who has some food insecurity and we can give them some Meijer gift cards to help with that, or you know a victim of a crime that needs a place to stay. We recently had a family that had some damage to their home due to a fire and we were able to put them up in a hotel for a few nights while the insurance and everything was getting ready and they didn't have a place to stay until then. So that's the easiest thing to do, I think, as a business, is just throw some money at it and grab some of those gift cards and bring those back to us. And I said we're not shy about giving credit where credit is due.
Speaker 3:We have a lot of great business partners already at the police department with some of the things we've been doing, but you'll see us out in the community at some of our city events throughout the summer. Stop by the booth, talk to some folks who are involved in the Hope Collaborative already. We'll have some information gathering stuff out there like what would you like to see? Is there a community education seminar we could host at, you know, one of our partners, whether it's at a school, a church, something like that. And that's really what we're driving for is we want to give the citizens and the residents that need the help the voice to tell us this is what we need, this is what we think would be helpful to us, and then let us go back to the drawing board and figure out how do we bring it to them yeah, because it is all for the citizens here, and you know how do you feel like personally.
Speaker 2:You know you having families as well, but also working in the schools. How does it, um, you know, knowing that there's that you're able to help, or what's that kind of feel like?
Speaker 4:well, I, I think that people are, they need connections and they need community.
Speaker 4:And I think what happened with COVID we lost those connections, we lost those networks, we lost the community and the neighborhood feel for so long that it really has hurt some of our families, it's hurt some of our students and our community members, and I think it's time for us to um really support each other and look out for each other. And I think, um you know, I, for for me, at our school, I didn't want it just to be what can we take from the community, but what can we give back? What can our students do? Is there a resident like a nursing home that we can go and visit or is there a project we can do to support the police? Um, so we're teaching them at a very young age like, you need to be connected and you need to reach out and support and um care for others. Yeah, because that's going to make a big difference in their lives when they're older and it it's exciting to see the impact that even a young student can have on the community.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and Mitch, you know you're out in the community every day, interacting with so many different types of people and family. How does that, you know kind of impact you and your outlook and everything it is?
Speaker 3:So you know, on the community outreach side of the police department it's very different than your day-to-day going call-to-call. There's a lot of little things that kind of happen behind the scenes, the connections that the police department and I are able to provide. You know, recently we had someone who saw the pantry that Brooke spoke of. Again, for folks who don't know about that, there's a little free pantry inside Walker Ice and Fitness and you can go there anytime. The Ice and Fitness Center is open If you have something to leave. Fantastic, if you need something, take it, no questions asked. You can walk in and walk right back out with what you need. And we had someone who reached out to the police department because they saw a post on that and she was like I don't know how to get there. I don't have a car, um, but I think I could benefit from some of the things there. Um, I was able to chat with her on the phone um box up some things from the pantry and then um utilize some of the resource packets that we've already created as part of the hope collaborative um through some of the the different initiatives that schools are part of and churches are part of and the police department.
Speaker 3:It was very rewarding to get a call back from her a few days later, a very emotional call back from her about how that 30 minutes of my day impacted her month. Basically, through some of the community care cards that we spoke of, she was able to go to the grocery store and get some things that weren't ramen noodles. Through some of the resources she was able to call and connect with, that could give her some more long-term support than what just the little free pantry could. And then on top of that, she was then willing to be like hey, we also have some food that maybe aren't favorites in the house that we could put back on the pantry. So I want to do that. I want to get back out and then give back also. So it's just like Brooke said it's about getting out there and letting people know all these different places care. There's so many hubs of different resources in the community and having a network of them it's just rewarding work.
Speaker 3:It's a different side of police work and it's something you know. I've been with Walker PD for almost 11 years now and I found out pretty early on I had more of a passion for kind of the behind the scenes type police work than the call to call daily basis stuff.
Speaker 3:So I love being involved in things like this and you know we have a very supportive chief in administration at our police department and then even from city leadership as well. When we come to them and say, hey, this is something we want to kind of dabble in, they give us free reign to make those connections and do what we need to do to make sure that people are supported. So it's a very nice thing to be a part of and we love to see the benefits that it fosters within the community.
Speaker 2:Of course, and we are so grateful to have you in our community and to have that drive, as well as everyone else who is part of the HOPE Collaborative. Thank you so much for being here and, of course, we will get more information as the HOPE Collaborative comes out. Look for it on the City of Walker's Facebook pages or social media. The City of Walker Police Department's pages as well, because we want everyone to get involved and also to benefit from this project. Thank you both so much. Thank you and we appreciate you watching.
Speaker 1:Thank you for joining us for this episode of the Made in Walker podcast. If you have comments or questions about this podcast, or if you have suggestions for future episodes, we'd love to hear from you. Please drop us an email at podcast at walkercity. Made in Walker is the official podcast of the City of Walker, Michigan. You can find Made in Walker wherever you get your podcasts. Thank you.
