"We're an organization of people helping other people in our own community," says Joe Rocha, Director of Helping the Community. "Our ideas are simple and basic - we give people a hand when they need it. What we ask in return is also basic. We want people to follow the rules."

Helping the Community provides housing and other necessities to people in need in Kalamazoo, Calhoun and Van Buren counties. The organization owns homes in Battle Creek that provide housing while also offering training and work for some of the clients.

Joe's son, Chace Rocha, founded Helping the Community in 2005. Chace was an assertive and determined young man who believed in giving assistance that would allow people to become self-reliant. When Helping the Community got its start, Chace contacted a large Michigan furniture retailer and arranged to receive significant donations of new merchandise, which went into the properties for client use. As a business-minded young man, he also took charge of all legal arrangements and IRS filings, wrote a mission for the organization and developed a Board of Directors. Things began to come together quickly. It's been a labor of love for the Rocha family since then, especially in the absence of Chace, who passed away in 2007. 

As the Director, Joe is a busy man; organizing work schedules for remodeling and maintaining his housing properties, talking to volunteers and clients, connecting people with the services needed and occasionally doing some informal counseling, all while maintaining a full-time job at Welch's. 

Through the workers provided by MPRI (Michigan Prisoner Re-entry Initiative), the organization became acquainted with KPEP and began to put its volunteers to work. Joe and Dennis, the site supervisor, are actively teaching skills to workers and consciously promoting positive behaviors and attitudes on the job and in life: simple, basic ideas for living peacefully in society. Learn something every day. Don't take things that don't belong to you. Be courteous and considerate of others. Take care of yourself and the place you live. If you must take, give something back.

Helping the Community believes that it's possible to change people's thinking by changing their environment. One of the recently acquired properties will be housing up to six KPEP residents upon their successful release from the program. The men are completing the remodel now and will be allowed to stay in the house up to one year, provided they keep a job, maintain the house and follow a basic set of rules. KPEP Calhoun County Program Manager Andy Jerue strongly supports the involvement of KPEP residents with Helping the Community and believes it to be a very useful and positive experience for the men to build their skills and work experience.

Chace Rocha left a powerful and important legacy and West Michigan communities are better because of it. Read more about Helping the Community's mission and story at www.helpingthecommunity.org.