June 2, 2025 • 5 mins
Chris Palusky, CEO of Mel Trotter Ministries joins us to discuss how Mel Trotter is working with other organizations to tackle homelessness and invites you to an event this coming Thursday.
More information can be found here: https://www.meltrotter.org/events/meet-the-mission-business-leaders-summit/
More information can be found here: https://www.meltrotter.org/events/meet-the-mission-business-leaders-summit/
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
I want to tell you about a summit, a business
person's lunch which will happen in Meltrotter Ministries, which includes
a pretty big keynote. Michael Horgan is the president of
Upjohn Institute and has been since twenty nineteen, and you
could have lunch see him. But let's talk a little
bit on West Michigan's Morning News, what it's all about.
(00:20):
In the background Steve Kelly and Brett Makita joining us.
Chris Polsky, CEO of Meltrotter Ministries, Thanks for coming in today, Chris.
Speaker 2 (00:28):
Thanks for having me. I'm excited to be here. It's
a first time here and great view.
Speaker 1 (00:31):
If you've not seen. Speaking of which Meltrotter Ministries, we're
going to give you a little tour on Thursday. You'll
hear some great information about the economy here in West Michigan.
But when it comes to the economy, nonprofits always need
a little bit of help. And what's fascinating about the
face of homelessness in West Michigan and having a lot
(00:52):
to do with you at the Helm. There are some
differing ways to deal with it, like prevention. Before we
get to some fundrais seeing that you guys are doing.
There's a golf tournament that's coming up outside of the
Thursday event. Talk to us a little bit about the
buzz around prevention of homelessness.
Speaker 2 (01:09):
Sure, at Meltrotter, we want to look at root causes
and we want to try to keep people from becoming homeless.
So how do we do that with diversion and prevention
And people ask the question, well, what is that, Well,
it could be negotiating with the landlord, it could be
finding child care for a single mother, it could be
it could be with all these different programs. The average
cost of these interventions is around five hundred dollars, but
(01:30):
the average cost of somebody going to homelessness for a
year is around forty thousand dollars. So we try to
look at the root causes, try to keep people from
becoming homeless. And yeah, we don't want to have to
have people living in shelters.
Speaker 3 (01:42):
And Chris, we've had this conversation before with you when
we've talked about different things or turkey drop whatever. People
don't choose homelessness. A lot of times, it's something that
happens in their life that just all of a sudden
it alters it, right, and they need help to get
back on track and need that helping hand, and that's
where mel Trotter comes in and all the great partners
that you have.
Speaker 2 (02:03):
Absolutely, so we're part of an ecosystem and we work,
you know, we try to keep people from becoming homeless,
so we work with diversion of prevention. We've got a
great shelter if people do become homeless, but we don't
do it alone. So we've got a shelter in downtown
Grend Rapids where we take care of families, individuals. We
have great partners up the street like Degage Ministries who
take care of women, and even in our shelter, we've
got Catherine's Health who is taking care of the medical
(02:24):
side of it. We've got Network one eighty taking care
of mental health care. So we've got this shelter where
we're doing it with partners, but we're taking care of
well people are just going through a really tough.
Speaker 1 (02:33):
Time and training people an actual skill to be involved
in that tiny home community that you pointed out that
governor was here. We're getting national attention for what we're
doing with with Hope Village. Tell us a little bit
about that.
Speaker 2 (02:48):
Sure, So we work in a continuum, So we try
to keep people from becoming homeless. If they do become homeless,
we have them a shelter, but we don't want them
to be in the shelter, so we want to get
them out. We want them to launch success. So we
do that through workforce development, and that's hard skills and
soft skills. With the hard skills, we teach people to
work in a restaurant, to work in city services, to
(03:09):
build homes from the ground up. So we provide these
skills the soft skills. You know, how do you work,
how do you i would say, work in a workplace
that maybe you've never done before. How do you deal
with conflict in the workplace? How do you pay a bill,
how do you sign up for you know, your government forms.
So we teach the hard skills and the soft skills,
helping people to launch so that they can have a
(03:31):
job and have a successful job, to launch them out
of the shelter.
Speaker 3 (03:34):
I invite people to go down whenever you guys have
some type of event that's open to the public, because
just to see the reaction of people and think of
it in your own lives. If you had your home
or where you live, your apartment or whatever taken away
and you didn't know where you were going to sleep
that night or whatever. And then you see people that
do the full circle and get a chance now to
(03:55):
have a tiny home or get a home or an apartment.
What a life changer for them, And there's so grateful
and they want to help other people who are in
that pathway exactly.
Speaker 2 (04:05):
So again, we're working this continuum, so we're helping people
to launch into jobs, but we also want them to
have homes. So again this is part of the ecosystem.
So we're building a tiny home village. We've got sixteen
homes going up. Ten of them are under construction right now.
We've got apartments, we've got transitional housing, we've got complex
care housing. But we don't do it alone. ICCF, another
(04:25):
great organization in Grand Rapids are helping to manage these
units for us. So again we're preventing people from coming homeless.
If they do become homeless, we want them to launch successfully.
But we don't want to do this alone. So we're
helping people to find homes, affordable homes, transitional homes, and
we're doing this with partners.
Speaker 1 (04:41):
You can find out more actually come to the luncheon.
There is no charge for this. We might add Michael
Horigan is the president of Upjohn Institute. He will be
the keynote speaker, and then you can find out more.
On Thursday, from eleven forty five to one point fifteen,
we'll put the link to meltrotter dot org for you
to sign up. I know there's just a couple of
seats available, so sign up in the next hour or
(05:04):
two when you get into work today, and you'll be
able to be a part of the first of many
of these. Chris Pouloski, CEO of Meltrotter Ministries, we're out
of time, meltrotter dot org. Thank you for coming in,
Thanks for having me
I want to tell you about a summit, a business
person's lunch which will happen in Meltrotter Ministries, which includes
a pretty big keynote. Michael Horgan is the president of
Upjohn Institute and has been since twenty nineteen, and you
could have lunch see him. But let's talk a little
bit on West Michigan's Morning News, what it's all about.
(00:20):
In the background Steve Kelly and Brett Makita joining us.
Chris Polsky, CEO of Meltrotter Ministries, Thanks for coming in today, Chris.
Speaker 2 (00:28):
Thanks for having me. I'm excited to be here. It's
a first time here and great view.
Speaker 1 (00:31):
If you've not seen. Speaking of which Meltrotter Ministries, we're
going to give you a little tour on Thursday. You'll
hear some great information about the economy here in West Michigan.
But when it comes to the economy, nonprofits always need
a little bit of help. And what's fascinating about the
face of homelessness in West Michigan and having a lot
(00:52):
to do with you at the Helm. There are some
differing ways to deal with it, like prevention. Before we
get to some fundrais seeing that you guys are doing.
There's a golf tournament that's coming up outside of the
Thursday event. Talk to us a little bit about the
buzz around prevention of homelessness.
Speaker 2 (01:09):
Sure, at Meltrotter, we want to look at root causes
and we want to try to keep people from becoming homeless.
So how do we do that with diversion and prevention
And people ask the question, well, what is that, Well,
it could be negotiating with the landlord, it could be
finding child care for a single mother, it could be
it could be with all these different programs. The average
cost of these interventions is around five hundred dollars, but
(01:30):
the average cost of somebody going to homelessness for a
year is around forty thousand dollars. So we try to
look at the root causes, try to keep people from
becoming homeless. And yeah, we don't want to have to
have people living in shelters.
Speaker 3 (01:42):
And Chris, we've had this conversation before with you when
we've talked about different things or turkey drop whatever. People
don't choose homelessness. A lot of times, it's something that
happens in their life that just all of a sudden
it alters it, right, and they need help to get
back on track and need that helping hand, and that's
where mel Trotter comes in and all the great partners
that you have.
Speaker 2 (02:03):
Absolutely, so we're part of an ecosystem and we work,
you know, we try to keep people from becoming homeless,
so we work with diversion of prevention. We've got a
great shelter if people do become homeless, but we don't
do it alone. So we've got a shelter in downtown
Grend Rapids where we take care of families, individuals. We
have great partners up the street like Degage Ministries who
take care of women, and even in our shelter, we've
got Catherine's Health who is taking care of the medical
(02:24):
side of it. We've got Network one eighty taking care
of mental health care. So we've got this shelter where
we're doing it with partners, but we're taking care of
well people are just going through a really tough.
Speaker 1 (02:33):
Time and training people an actual skill to be involved
in that tiny home community that you pointed out that
governor was here. We're getting national attention for what we're
doing with with Hope Village. Tell us a little bit
about that.
Speaker 2 (02:48):
Sure, So we work in a continuum, So we try
to keep people from becoming homeless. If they do become homeless,
we have them a shelter, but we don't want them
to be in the shelter, so we want to get
them out. We want them to launch success. So we
do that through workforce development, and that's hard skills and
soft skills. With the hard skills, we teach people to
work in a restaurant, to work in city services, to
(03:09):
build homes from the ground up. So we provide these
skills the soft skills. You know, how do you work,
how do you i would say, work in a workplace
that maybe you've never done before. How do you deal
with conflict in the workplace? How do you pay a bill,
how do you sign up for you know, your government forms.
So we teach the hard skills and the soft skills,
helping people to launch so that they can have a
(03:31):
job and have a successful job, to launch them out
of the shelter.
Speaker 3 (03:34):
I invite people to go down whenever you guys have
some type of event that's open to the public, because
just to see the reaction of people and think of
it in your own lives. If you had your home
or where you live, your apartment or whatever taken away
and you didn't know where you were going to sleep
that night or whatever. And then you see people that
do the full circle and get a chance now to
(03:55):
have a tiny home or get a home or an apartment.
What a life changer for them, And there's so grateful
and they want to help other people who are in
that pathway exactly.
Speaker 2 (04:05):
So again, we're working this continuum, so we're helping people
to launch into jobs, but we also want them to
have homes. So again this is part of the ecosystem.
So we're building a tiny home village. We've got sixteen
homes going up. Ten of them are under construction right now.
We've got apartments, we've got transitional housing, we've got complex
care housing. But we don't do it alone. ICCF, another
(04:25):
great organization in Grand Rapids are helping to manage these
units for us. So again we're preventing people from coming homeless.
If they do become homeless, we want them to launch successfully.
But we don't want to do this alone. So we're
helping people to find homes, affordable homes, transitional homes, and
we're doing this with partners.
Speaker 1 (04:41):
You can find out more actually come to the luncheon.
There is no charge for this. We might add Michael
Horigan is the president of Upjohn Institute. He will be
the keynote speaker, and then you can find out more.
On Thursday, from eleven forty five to one point fifteen,
we'll put the link to meltrotter dot org for you
to sign up. I know there's just a couple of
seats available, so sign up in the next hour or
(05:04):
two when you get into work today, and you'll be
able to be a part of the first of many
of these. Chris Pouloski, CEO of Meltrotter Ministries, we're out
of time, meltrotter dot org. Thank you for coming in,
Thanks for having me
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