Editor’s Note: The Nonprofit Spotlight is NowKalamazoo’s collaboration with area nonprofits, providing space for them to highlight important work that might not be known to Kalamazoo County at large. Know of a group that should be in the NowKalamazoo Nonprofit Spotlight? Submit a nomination here.
Nonprofit name
LEAN on Healing with Healing on Purpose
Year formed
2025, as a fiscally sponsored project of Stara Collaborative
Mission & population served
LEAN on Healing with Healing on Purpose exists in response to the profound and ongoing trauma experienced within our community. Many individuals and families are directly impacted by incarceration, addiction, violence, family instability, and systemic barriers. These experiences often manifest as quiet grief, unresolved pain, and unlabeled anger, frequently misunderstood as attitude or behavioral issues rather than signs of trauma. When left unaddressed, this pain is transferred across generations, shaping family dynamics, relationships and overall community well-being.
Co-Founder Alisa Watkins-Monroe says the foundation of this work is both personal and collective, reflecting her lived experience and years of community engagement. Having once been a child navigating hardship while spending weekends at the YWCA — wishing life felt easier and feeling unheard — it became a driving purpose for her to ensure that children, mothers, and families have spaces where they are listened to and truly seen. This work was born from recognizing how often families move through trauma without support, unintentionally passing pain onto their children instead of being given opportunities to heal it themselves.
Co-Founder Lena Shorter comes to this work as both a parent and a survivor. Through her lived experience, she spent years in survival mode, doing everything possible to provide, without realizing that unresolved trauma had left her emotionally unavailable and, at times, unintentionally harmful. Through her own healing journey, Shorter came to understand how deeply unaddressed trauma was impacting her children and witnessed a powerful shift as she healed: When she got better, her child’s behavior improved as well. This awakening, coupled with her recognition that many families face barriers to accessing clinical services due to financial limitations, stigma, and a lack of culturally responsive spaces, became the turning point and foundation for her work…