When the Reverend Brian Bennett was first introduced to the option of moving his dream space to the heart of downtown Benton Harbor he says, “I had to pick my jaw up off the floor and ask if I could come see it, because I had just never bothered to look at that space with those eyes.” Well, Bennett’s jaw was seemingly affixed into a permanent grin today as he welcomed dozens of people to the formal ribbon cutting for the new Mosaic Resale Store at 38 W. Wall Street in Benton Harbor.
With his upbeat staff flanking the front entrance to the historic old former Benton Harbor State Bank Building, Bennett, who heads up the OCCDA organization that maintains the Mosaic family of agencies, told the crowd, “I’m just really excited about what’s happening and just so encouraged to see the progress. The opportunity to be in downtown Benton Harbor, part of some of the revitalization which for us isn’t just about the buildings, it’s about people.” Bennett voiced genuine excitement about the partnerships, too, saying, “They’ve already manifested themselves as you walk through this. Cornerstone Alliance and the Cornerstone Chamber, and the City of Benton Harbor have been spectacular partners. We did a private event for the city and their people a few days ago and they their receptivity has been so good.”
The Mosaic Resale shop now occupies the space that for nearly 20 years was home to both Cornerstone Alliance and Cornerstone Chamber of Commerce. The shop is staffed to a large extent by graduates of Mosaic Opportunity’s Jobs for Life program, with many on hand today wearing striking lime green polo shirts to help identify them as clerks at the resale shop ready to help customers shopping there.
Regarding that program Bennett says, “We’re about creating opportunities for people to take steps to greatness, and we believe that this building is a step for us towards greatness, and it is going to allow us to impact so many more people, not just from the Benton Harbor community, but even the surrounding region. So, we could not be more encouraged, even by the turnout today.”
For the most part, everyone working the store is a graduate, and Bennett says, “We’re graduating about 200 graduates a year right now, from our Jobs for Life program, which has been rebranded to Mosaic Opportunity. For the most part, when you interact with the store, when you interact with Mosaic on Main – the restaurant and our property services team, you are experiencing people that have been through the program, and are moving forward in life. For us, that is testimony and part of the big story, is that it’s really something we’re doing with the community, and their voices, their leadership.”
Bennett says those associates are now making many of the decisions, pointing to “Even the colors when you come into the resale store, that’s not a color palette that I necessarily would have chosen, but absolutely love it and the fact that it came from our team, who wanted to come up with a color scheme that would make this place vibrant, and exciting…and represents Mosaic and they did a great job.”
Reflecting on the history of the organization, Rev. Bennett says, “I started working on it nine years ago, and we went public in 2010, but, my goodness I never could have projected this to be the outcome. In fact, I was thinking the other day, that when we launched seven years ago, we had some of the vision, but today what we tell people is we do on the job training and we do bridge building, to try to forge partnerships with other organizations.” He admits, “It took us a couple of years to clarify, and laser focus in on some of that, and then somewhere in there I got a phone call from a community-minded leader who said ‘You’ve got to somehow get into downtown Benton Harbor,’ it might have been around 2012…so we began thinking about that. Our first location on Main Street was a step towards that, but I never would have imagined even a year ago that this facility here at 38 W. Wall Street would even be an option.”
Bennett voiced gratitude for, “Cornerstone’s willingness to relocate and to do what we believe is best for all parties and best for the community, and so we can’t do it without the help of others.”
Mosaic purchased the building to move from leasing to owning, and they now own both of that building, and the Mosaic on Main Cafe as well. Bennett says, “Actually, we’ll have a ribbon cutting coming up sometime in the near future for our Mosaic Property Services team. We’re working on relocating them right now, should have that building purchased and closed on in September.” Stay tuned.
In the meantime, Mosaic Resale is now open for business, so stop by and enjoy the experience.
