KINGSFORD, Mich. (WZMQ) – Northpointe Behavioral Health ushered in new leadership and discussed budget renovations at its recent board meeting. Wendy Mattia was welcomed as the new Board Chair, with Robin Elsner as the Vice Chair. Mattia expressed her enthusiasm, stating, “I really look forward to working as a team, with everybody, and you know, being the leadership.” Elsner, with over 40 years of experience in health and human services, expressed optimism at being on the board, saying, “I’m happy to be on the board, and I hope that my background will be helpful to this committee.”
Meanwhile, the Forever Friendship Drop-in Center, facing funding challenges since October, received support from its new liaison, Andrea Kayser, through Northpointe Behavioral Health. Kayser highlighted increased participation, secured grant funding, and community donations, including a van. Seeking a 10% budget increase to accommodate rising costs, Kayser explained that the drop-in center is also proposing a new transportation staff member, since the current transportation assistant is working 7 days a week.
“I’ve kind of broken out where those high-dollar amounts are coming from. So obviously you have payroll taxes. Insurance we all know has gone up. And then utility costs as well. So those are some main key points for that increase. They did add that new part-time transportation employee,” Kayser said.
She further explained, “That’s going to help them locally get out into the community. Right now, they have a transportation assistant that currently works almost 7 days a week, so it’s going to help him have his time, and then help get out in the community a little bit more.’
Kayser also emphasized the importance of community outreach, stating, “We want to create the opportunity for Iron County to come and utilize the center, so what we have done, we actually had a community member donate some funding, and they were able to purchase one of the Northpointe vans. And that payment went towards their license registration, title, sales tax, and maybe their first month of insurance. And then we’ve also had a liaison available to offer support and transport twice a week from Iron County. We’ve seen a lot of good success there. Also, they want to reach out into the community, so what they’re doing is designing a website so we can broaden the knowledge in the opportunities that they offer. We’re going to internally work towards billing Medicaid for those services at some point. They’ve also developed a schedule meeting the needs of the community, so they have changed their schedule and their group times.”
Talitha Nelson, Executive Director of the Drop-in Center, expressed hope that the new budget would be accepted, mentioning, “We’ve taken advantage of some new private grants that became available.”
Looking ahead, Kayser expects the budget to be considered at Northpointe’s next meeting, stating, “So tonight we presented the new budget for FY 24. And what will happen is we’ll move forward, put that on the contract grid for approval on the next agenda.”
Additionally, the Forever Friendship’s nonprofit board is actively seeking at least two new members to join their ranks.
