United Methodist Community House

The organization's early childhood development center provides affordable childcare with the capacity to serve 86 children between the ages of 6 weeks and 5 years old. This program has been operating at nearly 76% of capacity. Staffing has been the greatest barrier to achieving full capacity. This program has provided resources for parents and their children through intervention and access to services; helping them be better prepared to enter kindergarten. New this past year is that we have partnered with early head start for infants and toddlers, grand rapids southeast promise neighborhood for 3 yr old preschool, and great start readiness program for pre-k. These partnerships allow us to offer free slots for families who qualify alongside our traditional private pay slots allowing children and families to learn and grow together enhancing our community. Additionally served are elementary and middle school-aged youth, through umch's oversight of seven (7) grps afterschool program sites, serving an additional 210 students with quality programming.

900 division project - the 900 division project is a facilities development plan to enhance services for our core program areas which includes early childhood development, engagement and education for youth, engagement and support for older adults, and an affordable fresh market. To support our early childhood development and youth education efforts, the facility will include an expanded child development center with an addition of drop-in services as well as evening care. To help expand our engagement and support for older adults, the facility will include several units of affordable housing for adults aged 60+, as well as a senior activity center projected to serve 500+ member per day. Once the planned facility is fully operational, third-party projections show that the senior center, housing, and fresh market will generate enough revenue to support their own operations and offset any operational deficits for the child development center.

Fresh market - the fresh market at umch is the newest initiative by united methodist community house designed to offer affordable access to healthy, locally sourced food in an equitable, non-charity setting, all while supporting michigan growers. Market prices follow a sliding scale, so it will always be affordable for everyone. Founded in 1902, umch has a long history of taking a holistic approach to meet the evolving needs of our neighbors in the southeast community neighborhood. The fresh market is a celebration of the diverse, vibrant community we inhabit.