Our Challenges
The City’s Core Neighborhoods — Where the Need is and Where We Belong
For more than 50 years, MRC has empowered people with disabilities to live with independence, purpose, and connection. Every day, individuals gain confidence, build skills, and contribute meaningfully to our community.
Now, it’s time for MRC’s home to reflect the strength of its mission and the lives it impacts.
This campaign is about more than renovating a building. It’s about creating an inclusive, accessible place where people of all abilities feel seen, supported, and able to thrive.
Your support helps enrich lives, strengthen our community, and build a future full of possibility.
While MRC’s mission remains strong, having locations spread across Kalamazoo creates numerous challenges for our staff and our clients.
Multiple Locations Decrease Accessibility
MRC has three locations that are widespread across Kalamazoo. This geographical separation limits team collaboration for staff and creates logistical issues for clients.
Maintaining Multiple Buildings is Costly
Our three locations are not energy-efficient, and each one needs maintenance. The cost of maintaining these outdated buildings squanders resources that could be invested directly in client care.
Transportation Hinders Access to Care
Our current headquarters on 26th Street is far from the heart of the city. We’re set back from the main bus lines, and the service times often do not align with when our clients need support. As a result, they must rely on specialized van services that are costly, less flexible, and ultimately exclude them from the everyday rhythms of community life, such as riding the same buses as their neighbors.
Coordinating Care Becomes More Difficult
Our case management and skill-building programs are housed in different buildings. Instead of one seamless experience, the burden often falls on a client or their family to navigate across locations.
Testimonials
How You Can Help
MRC Industries’ Building for Belonging campaign is seeking $2 million in community philanthropy to fund a new home for their clients and programs. You can help us achieve this important goal by supporting this campaign through:
• A one-time cash gift
• A multiple-year pledge commitment (may be paid over three years)
• A gift of appreciated assets (i.e., stock)
• A gift from the Required Minimum Distribution of your IRA (only for donors older than 70 ½)
• An estate gift
Your charitable gift is tax-deductible to the full extent of state and federal law. Please check with your tax advisor to determine how your gift may affect your personal tax situation
To learn more or pledge your support, please contact:
Susan Terranella
269-343-0747 x 207
sterranella@mrcindustries.org
MRC’s Mission
MRC Industries champions the potential of individuals with disabilities and mental illness by promoting equity, inspiring independence, and creating inclusive pathways to thrive within the community.
What MRC Does
Belonging is a Basic Need, and MRC is That Community.
We are a safe place, free of judgment, where people can build confidence and connection. Many clients start with the belief that they don’t belong anywhere. Through compassionate relationships, they begin to see their worth and place in the community. MRC works with individuals who are courageously seeking greater independence and fulfillment.
#1
in 180-day client job retention
Stat based off the Individual Placement and Support (IPS) model in Michigan.
Our Key Programs
Clients build confidence, grow skills, form friendships, and thrive beyond the stigma of their disability.
Workforce Development
Personalized training that builds daily-living, social, and job skills through hands-on learning, community engagement, and paid work opportunities.
Community Living Supports
Personalized services that build life skills, strengthen relationships, and support independence at every stage of life.
Community Employment
Partnering with local businesses to connect individuals with meaningful work, supported every step of the way—from job preparation to on-the-job coaching.
Bridgeways Case Management
Helping adults with severe and persistent mental illness navigate complex systems and access essential resources like housing, healthcare, and employment.
Check out artWorks!
Empowering adults with developmental disabilities and those experiencing homelessness to discover their voice through art.
Leadership
Campaign Co-chairs
Campaign Cabinet Members
Andy Wenzel
Campaign Co-Chair
Kenneth A. Nacci
Campaign Co-Chair
David Polson
Campaign Co-Chair
Kristen Aguirre
Public Media Network (PMN)
Lisa Brink
Sherman Lake YMCA Outdoor Center
Steve East
CSM Group
Andy Dominianni
WWMT
Deb Droppers
Kalamazoo Experimental Learning
Center
Ron Foor
Mercantile Bank
Adam Jackson
Ron Jackson Insurance
Kelley Kellis
Disability Network
Dan Martin
Kzoom
Tim Matthews
Bodega Coaching
Carrie Nicholson
Nulty Insurance
Derrick Ricca
Greenleaf Hospitality
Tom Stanek
Owen-Ames-Kimball Co.
Tyler Stewart
Dement & Marquardt
Keith Thompson
WWMT
Marsha Tuinier
MRC Advisory Member
Roger Tuinier
Retired County Commissioner/
Business Owner
Natalie Valentine
Peregrine Companies