October 2019
We The People Opportunity Center
Message from The Director
Greetings WTPOC Community,
We The People Opportunity Center has seen many evolutions this past year. Here’s a brief recap of our history to bring you up to date. For the past three years our partnership with Grace Fellowship Church and the Community Family Life Center (CFLC) in Ypsilanti Township has provided fertile ground for our organization to grow and flourish. Although we were unable to secure the former Kettering Elementary School from Ypsilanti Community Schools as a future site, we’ve still gone from being a community garden to ‘growing into’ a relatively small urban farm. This most recent season WTPOC provided fresh vegetables to nearly twenty partner organizations in our community. Our farm business is morphing into a vision for a nonprofit Opportunity Center where men and women returning from prison (or jail) can find hands-on training and stable jobs as they begin to restart their lives at home. I personally know how empowering it is to earn a living and contribute meaningfully to the community one lives in, and WTPOC is being developed to extend those opportunities to many others.
In the last few months we’ve added new folks to our Board with a focus on creating internal financial and operational systems while re-tooling the returning citizens program. WTPOC is greatly appreciative of all the former board members contributed to creating a solid financial and programmatic foundation. We are committed to maximizing our impact and ensuring a stable plan that fits our vision for the future. Part of our internal capacity building involves a three-year strategic planning process to identify a long-term home for our farm and program operations that can grow in order to deliver on our mission, vision and strategic goals. We couldn’t have accomplished what we have without the support of many, including you, and we hope you will continue to be a member of the WTPOC community. Please join us at our Third Annual Harvest Festival of Thanks (details below) so I can thank you in person!
With appreciation,
Melvin Parson
