Health and Well-Being

In 2007, Community Healing Centers set a goal to bring community members together “To enhance public and professional knowledge, understanding and attitudes toward persons suffering from addictive disease.” We believed that, with this knowledge and with community conversations, we could reduce the stigma associated with addiction and help more people receive treatment. This was the beginning of the Coming Together Conference on Addiction and Recovery.

Each year since, nationally recognized speakers, authors, and actors have come to Kalamazoo to share their expertise and stories to help educate and inform the community while enhancing conversations about addiction and recovery. The Specialty Program in Alcohol and Drug Abuse at Western Michigan University has been a partner in this conference from the beginning. In 2011, the Drug Treatment Court Foundation joined as a partner, and throughout the years, other local businesses and foundations have become supporters of the project.

Presenters have included Dr. Claudia Black, Sis Wenger, Dr. Robert Ackerman, William Cope Moyers, Martin Sheen, Earl Hightower, Mark Lundholm, Dr. Carlton Erickson, Dr. Carlo DiClemente, Dr. Robert Zucker, Dr. Lisa Najavits and Dr. Jeannette Johnson. Our conference and community event have a great reputation in the field and presenters are pleased to be a part of this.

Each year, the Coming Together Conference on Addiction and Recovery includes a community event that is free and open to the public and an all-day conference for professionals and community members that offers continuing education units for various professions. Community Healing Centers is proud of the growth of the conference, and especially of the community conversations that have resulted from it.

For more information, please visit:
www.communityhealingcenter.org

The Back to School Bash exists to not only celebrate wellness for at-risk children and families in Kalamazoo’s most vulnerable neighborhoods, but also to incentivize at-risk parents to prepare their children for school with Well-Child exams, immunizations and dental screenings. Last year, over 1,500 children attended the event. Not only do these children receive their annual exams and immunizations, they will also receive much-needed backpacks and school supplies in order to gear up for the school year. Organizers also hope the event serves as a means to educate and support parents who are struggling with poverty, single parenthood, and a variety of stressors that put their families at risk. Back to School Bash’s primary goal is to prepare and ultimately keep children in school. Every year in our community, literally hundreds of children are discharged from school due to inadequate immunization status. These children are not allowed to return to school until they receive proper documentation. Due to office backlogs and last-minute requests for service, children who are already at risk are delayed several weeks thus placing them further behind in their learning. Our goal is to proactively get children immunized, prepared for school, and help keep them well in school.

www.fhckzoo.com

One of the behavioral treatments used successfully with persons diagnosed with special needs is Music Therapy. Music Therapy is the skillful use of music as a therapeutic tool to restore, maintain and improve mental, physical and emotional health. Music Therapy is much more than a pleasant music interlude or entertainment. The non-verbal, creative and affective nature of music facilitates contact, self-expression, communication and growth. Music Therapy can be used to facilitate physical wellness, encourage positive social interactions, improve interpersonal relationships, nurture appropriate emotional expression, and increase self-awareness. Music Therapy is not overly concerned with the “correctness” of music or how the music is played, but instead is focused on the growth potential achieved through music. According to Dr. Clive Robbins, “Almost all children respond to music. Music is an open-sesame, and if you can use it carefully and appropriately, you can reach into that child’s potential for development.” The Nordoff-Robbins Music Therapy Clinic uses music therapy to help 100 handicapped children learn and to relate and communicate with others.

www.kresa.org

Community AIDS Resource & Education Services of Southwest Michigan (CARES) contributes to the vibrancy of the Kalamazoo community by keeping Kalamazoo healthy. We help our citizens living with HIV live longer and healthier lives. CARES also works to prevent HIV in our community through education and testing.

CARES was started in 1985 by a group of volunteers concerned with their friends dying of a disease that no one was talking about. That group began supportive services for people dying and their families. As the disease has changed, so has CARES. We now provide access for people living with HIV to life-saving medications and treatment, and assist in removing barriers, including homelessness and poverty.

CARES relies on the existing comprehensive network of social service and health care providers in our community to help support the health of each individual and to help remove the barriers that may be preventing it. By providing direct services where we have the greatest experience and expertise and by referring our clients to other agencies specializing in complementary areas of expertise, we have created a community network
that can support everyone as we continue our journey towards healthier lives and a healthier community.

CARES is also addressing some of the long-term predictors of health by investing in minority youth leadership development programs, anti-stigma campaigns, and long- term HIV survivor programs. Through these initiatives CARES makes our community more inclusive and supportive. Indeed, CARES helps members of our disenfranchised populations to find their voices, connect with others, and engage in community conversations.

www.caresswm.org

Established by private citizens concerned about the impact of drugs on youth, Gryphon Place (Gryphon) has been a part of the Kalamazoo County Community since 1970. From very humble beginnings in the old fire station on South Westnedge, the agency has grown and changed in response to community needs ever since. Gryphon has stepped into roles that no one else was filling in our community and now is a critical part of the entire human services system across the county.

Early planners had a vision that “there should be a 9-1-1 for human services, … a single number to call to access a spectrum of human services and for help in crisis situations.” This is the essence of what Gryphon Place has become over the years. That human services 9-1-1 number is now 2-1-1, a simple-to-remember 3-digit dial-up for 24/7 assistance in accessing health and human services in our community. The place to call when in personal crisis, Gryphon remains the leader in Suicide Prevention in Kalamazoo County and throughout the entire state of Michigan.

Gryphon’s online searchable database of resources is available to all citizens with internet access, and is particularly useful to other human service agencies and professionals. Gryphon also delivers Youth Risk Prevention Services in schools across southwest Michigan. Add in community mediation services to resolve conflicts and you have Gryphon, helping people find solutions in Kalamazoo County for over 43 years.

www.gryphon.org