Resources:
Sarah Rigg's Feature Article: Ypsi nonprofits faced an avalanche of need in 2025, and they’re preparing for more to come
Transcription:
Lee Van Roth: You're listening to 89.1 WEMU. I'm Lee Van Roth, and this is On the Ground Ypsi. As national policy changes continue to reshape access to housing, food, health care, and other basic resources, more people are turning to local nonprofits for stability and support. Here in Ypsi, that increased need is being felt every day by organizations working directly with individuals and families in crisis. Joining me today is Tyrone Kelsey, the executive director of Friends In Deed, a longtime cornerstone of human services here in our community. Tyrone, welcome! Thank you so much for being here!
Tyrone Kelsey: Oh, you're very welcome, Lee! Thanks for having me!
Lee Van Roth: So, for listeners who may not be familiar with your work over at Friends In Deed, can you give us a little bit of insight into the kinds of services that you're providing to the community and the role that you see Friends In Deed playing here in Ypsi?
Tyrone Kelsey: All right! Thank you for that! So, Friends In Deed, as an organization nonprofit, began back in 1983, and it principally started with sort of, what they called at that point in time, the "gap needs" there, etc. And that really related to how do you distribute direct assistance for people who don't have financial credit, income is less than what their expenses are, etc. and then also, the foundational service was furniture donations and furniture delivery. So, we contribute furniture to people who are in the midst of transitioning because of housing challenges, etc. for basic quality of life with dining, with beds, primarily. The exciting part about Friends In Deed, in terms of foundation, is the Washtenaw area churches came together because they began to see a pattern of parishioners showing up and asking for requests from the various churches. Those churches got together, and they then formed what is now Friends In Deed. And so, that community building dynamic really is part of our DNA. And so, our function, primarily, is how do we connect with people who are trying to navigate the network of nonprofit agencies to find services and what government programs are available through other nonprofits where there might be exceptions because we don't do primarily federal grants or programs there, etc. So, we have more flexibility to contribute to what those other agencies can do. So, for those agencies, they might meet 95% of the needs and we come in and we go, we've got funds for the 5% or for the 8%, etc. without any strings attached. So, that's kind of our unique purpose inside the community. Been doing it for a while. Pretty well known.
Lee Van Roth: And I know now there's been a kind of streamlining effort from Friends In Deed as far as, as you mentioned, making that navigation of services a little bit easier for the folks that you're serving. And this is now called the Essential Services Program. And I'm curious about why it was important on your end to be able to provide services in that way--in that sort of streamlined way. We're very fortunate here in Washtenaw County to have as many non-profit resources and things like that for folks that need them. But when you have an abundance, sometimes there's lapses in communication between agencies. It's hard to know exactly who to go to at what time. How is Friends In Deed kind of, again, bridging that gap, so to speak?
Tyrone Kelsey: We were trying to, and as was prior to my joining the team, I've been there eight months as executive director, but the essence of that was really when you consider the people who are in need and the effort that they have to go through just to get around and figure out who to contact, what's their phone number, what is their address to show up at their door, etc. So, what we tried to do was go, "Well we used to have multiple phone numbers for our different services." And we said, "Let's combine that into a single entry-point phone number, so that we digitize the receptionist, right?" So, select this menu option for routing internally to our various services and programs in order to shield them from having to figure out "Who do I call? When are they available?" especially when our service hours weren't aligned. And there were different hours for different parts of our programs. So, what we tried to do was go, "Yeah, that's external chaos. Let's not expose people to that kind of chaos. They're already going from one agency to the next."
Lee Van Roth: Sure.
Tyrone Kelsey: It's just tiring from that standpoint. So, internally, we put all that under one program functional area, even though there are different services, through one phone number and one set of operations hours.
Lee Van Roth: And looking at where we're at nationally and at the state level as far as need goes, there are a lot of folks in our community and across the country that are struggling with rent, with trying to figure out where to put their money and trying to find jobs to keep that money. Has Friends In Deed seen an increase calls and folks looking for assistance?
Tyrone Kelsey: Yes, we have. And I think that's characteristic of all the agencies here in the county. When you compare Washtenaw County with Wayne County, Oakland County, etc., we have a reputation of having money, right? But the challenge here is everything is being reduced from the federal government's perspective. Unfortunately, the paradigm that people in need or people in poverty are living through their own bad choices or the myths of consequences based on them not having enough education there, etc. So, the misnomer's around that here then presents a lot of challenges. And so, we've all seen an increase in the number of calls for people in needs. We've seen things related to rental rearage, utilities, the high cost of transportation, and car repairs. And so, the part that we play with our other agencies is the collaboration with them just based on the increased needs is to determine how do we put funds together to meet various case situations.
Lee Van Roth: This is On the Ground Ypsi on 89.1 WEMU. I'm Lee Van Roth, continuing my conversation here with Tyrone Kelsey of Friends In Deed. Tyrone, you are seeing increased need, which is not unique to Friends In Deed, as you mentioned. This is a sort of all-encompassing thing that nonprofits in the area are seeing. I'm wondering if, from your experience in this role, if there are things you would encourage other nonprofit leaders to explore or other methods to best reach the communities that they're serving.
Tyrone Kelsey: So, thank you for that question. And so, I'm one of the new executive directors in the street there. And I've got a little bit of a naivete and lack of experience there, etc. So, I've been asking sort of the naive questions, regarding how do we begin to address root cause and contributing factors? And how do begin to get together to have conversations strategically, so that we can align services and approach with sort of collaborative strategies to begin to not just meet situational needs, but begin to move the needle towards the percentage of people in poverty? So, that's sort of my paradigm at this point in time. I'm trying to figure out what does that really begin to look like.
Lee Van Roth: Yeah, it's really interesting, because a lot of this, as we've talked about, really there's a lot of systemic change that if that were to happen, a lot of people's lives would be very different, right?
Tyrone Kelsey: Exactly, exactly.
Lee Van Roth: And I don't think anyone has the perfect answer right now to that question.
Tyrone Kelsey: Right.
Lee Van Roth: But I mean, within the work at Friends In Deed, do you see maybe the potential for a needle shift, maybe soon, at least locally?
Tyrone Kelsey: Well, I think the framework for that is beginning to happen. I got to give kudos to United Way of Southeastern Michigan, who is really behind my idea there where they're working to get the Washtenaw County executive directors together as a forum to begin to have those kind of conversations. And with that forum, then, is the pursuit of the ideas of possibilities. How do we begin to address some of the structural kinds of things there, etc.? So, I suspect, ask me that question in a couple of years, and we'll see if we can make some progress.
Lee Van Roth: In the meantime, I know for these kinds of uncertain times for a lot of community members and people in general, having to play that waiting game can be a little bit anxiety-inducing. So, I'm wondering if there's anything that you want to say to community members who are looking at the work that Friends In Deed is doing or other non-profits in the area, is there anything that you would say to bolster their spirits? Or are there ways to get involved with Friends In Deed as well? Yeah, that sort of thing.
Tyrone Kelsey: Well, Washtenaw County has a huge capacity for generosity and kindness. The church community is a very netted community that really tries to go over or bend over backwards to figure out how can we help. And we're rich in that regard in terms of resources. We're poor in regards to there's no silver bullet. And so, as long as the people in the community can begin to see, yeah, we're working at it.
Lee Van Roth: Well, Tyrone, I want to thank you so much for joining us here today and for the work that you and your team do every day!
Tyrone Kelsey: Lee, thank you for having me! I always welcome the opportunity to be able to share and to help people!
Lee Van Roth: For more on today's conversation and a link to the full article, visit our website at WEMU.org. On the Ground Ypsi is brought to you in partnership with Concentrate Media. I'm Lee Van Roth, and this is your community NPR station, 89.1 WEMU-FM, Ypsilanti.
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