Housing Commission To Dedicate Bobbie Butler Community Center At Creston Plaza Apartments
Grand Rapids, MI,—The Grand Rapids Housing Commission (GRHC) will host a special event to dedicate the Bobbie Butler Community Center at Creston Plaza Apartments on Friday, July 29, at 2:00 p.m.; the Bobbie Butler Community Center is located at 1080 Creston Plaza Drive NE. Members of the media are invited to attend the event, which will include tours of the center.
Constructed in 2015 as part of the redevelopment of Creston Plaza Apartments, the Bobbie Butler Community Center houses community meeting space as well as management and resident services offices. The center has been renamed in honor of Bobbie Butler, who recently retired from the Grand Rapids Housing Commission governing board after 45 years of exceptional leadership and service. Butler was instrumental in the development and oversight of many major housing and client services initiatives undertaken by the GRHC over the years, including the development of Ransom Tower Apartments, the Scattered Sites housing program, Hope Community, Mount Mercy Apartments, the redevelopment of Campau Commons Apartments and Creston Plaza Apartments, the conversion of Sheldon School to Sheldon Apartments, the development of Antoine Court Apartments and the establishment of Family Self-Sufficiency, Resident Services and Section 8 Homeownership programs.
"During her decades of service, Commissioner Butler represented the Housing Commission as a champion for housing equity in the local, state, regional and national arenas," noted GRHC Executive Director Lindsey S. Reames. "We are grateful for all she has contributed to our agency, the people we serve and the Greater Grand Rapids community."In addition to her service with the GRHC, Butler worked to advance equity and equal opportunity within our city and state in many other roles; she served as the City of Grand Rapids Community Relations Director from 1970 to 1976 and was the Director of the City's newly created Equal Opportunity Department from 1976 to 1988. Butler was responsible for creating the City's first Affirmative Action Plan, the first Contract Compliance Program, the first Sexual Harassment Policy and the first municipal Minority/Women-Owned Business Enterprise Program in our state. In the latter part of her career she served as the Equal Employment Opportunity Director for the State of Michigan in the Department of Corrections, where she wrote and implemented the State's first Diversity Program.
Butler's volunteer activities have included service with the International Association of Official Human Rights Agencies, the YWCA of Grand Rapids, the NAACP, the Grand Rapids Urban League, Project Rehab, the Michigan Women's Foundation and the Grand Rapids Chamber of Commerce "Leadership Grand Rapids" talent development program.
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