Book Club

You are invited!

In honor of Homeless Awareness Month, the Lakeshore Housing Alliance, the Allegan County Local Planning Body, and the Fair Housing Center of West Michigan invite you to join a discussion of the book (and/or the Netflix series!) Maid: Hard Work, Low Pay, and a Mother's Will to Survive by Stephanie Land.  This memoir explores many relevant themes including experiencing homelessness and the constant pressures of staying housed, domestic abuse, navigating social service systems for housing and other immediate needs, low income jobs, and living in poverty.  It’s been called Evicted meets Nickel and Dimed and includes a foreword by Barbara Ehrenreich.

We will meet online on Tuesday, November 29th at 12 noon to 1 pm.  Register here.  There is no cost to attend.

You can learn more about what is happening in housing and homelessness in Ottawa County from the Lakeshore Housing Alliance Dashboards and Housing Data.
Check out the Facebook for more information about homelessness at https://www.facebook.com/AlleganCountyUnitedWay/ 
Interested in learning more about homelessness in Allegan County? Subscribe to the Allegan County Local Planning Body monthly newsletter by clicking Allegan County LPB News and Updates . Click here for an LPB Agency List. 

Host your own Book Club!

Looking for an inspiring read? Want to pull a group of people together (virtually, of course) to discuss it with you?  Let us help get you started!  We are choosing some of our past favorite Book Club selections and sharing a Facilitator's Guide and Discussion Questions.

• "A Mighty Long Way: My Journey to Justice at Little Rock Central High School" by Carlotta Walls LaNier - Facilitator's Guide and Discussion Questions
• "Evicted: Poverty and Profit in the American City" by Matthew Desmond - Facilitator's Guide and Discussion Questions

We've included some notes and quotes in each Facilitator's Guide to help get the discussion started but you can also add your own.  You can provide the Discussion Questions for the group at the time of your discussion or in advance.  Please let us know if you find these tools helpful, have suggestions for improvement, or have questions!  Enjoy!!

Please note the Fair Housing Book Club is on hiatus.  The Fair Housing Book Club brings together community members and fair housing staff to dialogue about issues of fair housing found in various novels. The discussion covers many different viewpoints surrounding the topic of where you live impacts how you live. The Center has even had authors call in to be part of the discussions, offering a unqiue perspective and a rich experience for the members as well as the author. Please check out the Books We've Read page to see the complete list!

What We're Reading