We're so keen on our Good Jobs Cohort and how much it will help our local economy we want to make it worth your time and effort. Everyone who goes…

The halls of Fancher and Mary McGuire elementary schools in Mt. Pleasant, Mich., have just received new vending machines. Book vending machines. Northern Initiatives customer Sleepy Dog Books has partnered…

Among the accomplishments we're most proud of in 2022: 67% of the businesses we funded in 2022 were startups. 1,600 entrepreneurs were helped by Initiate. We distributed more than $500,000…

In July, Tiffany Blackman's shop–Bread & Basket–will celebrate its second anniversary beating the odds, but not the financial uncertainty that disproportionately impacts many Black women-owned businesses. “I have debt,” she…

This article, in Second Wave, talks about the strides the W.K. Kellogg Foundation is making in Battle Creek - and Northern Initiatives is a huge part of that. “One of…

John Capers knows his way around a restaurant. He started working in his uncle’s barbecue in Tennessee when he was 8. “I had to work my way up by starting…

Snackwerks, a longtime Northern Initiatives customer, continues to amaze us with their workforce initiatives. The latest, an English as a Second Language class, is yet another stellar example of what…

  This is an essay by Dennis West, past-president of Northern Initiatives, that is still oh-so-relevant. As long as I have been involved in this field, there are some guideposts…

This article in Second Wave talks about food innovators who stayed in Battle Creek after they had left Kellogg. Jeff Grogg of Snackwerks is mentioned; they have been working hard…