The Grand River Workforce Collaborative (GRWC) model has been making waves since its inaugural cohort showcased their work on Lyon Square in the Downtown Grand Rapids Corridor.

The GRWC pilot was led by the collaboration between James Peacock III with Downtown Grand Rapids Inc. and Juan Rosario at West Michigan Works. Noticing the barriers that siloed industry creates, Peacock III and Rosario united to identify community economic needs and structured a replicable model that benefits local job seekers and employers constructing along the Grand River Greenway. In its first cohort, the subsequent workforce collaborative model engaged twenty total local organizations and businesses and trained 139 people.

“This innovative approach,” Rosario reflected, “where community organizations come together to leverage each other’s expertise, resources, and networks truly exemplifies what a united community can accomplish.”

More than Downtown Grand Rapids is noticing.

In October of 2025, the Grand River Workforce Collaborative was featured in the High Line Network’s (HLN) annual publication, Inspiration from the Field: Strategies and Tactics for Workforce Development, for their holistic success at the Lyon Square site and participation in HLN’s Five-City Workforce Pilot. The book aligns the Downtown Grand Rapids corridor with the partner projects in Buffalo, NY; Dallas, TX; San Francisco, CA; and Washington DC.

In November, Peacock also sat on a virtual panel with representatives from each pilot project to discuss and compare scalable, community-first models for living-wage career development in public space development.

The High Line Network is a collective of city infrastructure-reuse projects across North America, connecting the people and resources bringing new life to their communities. Their feature of the Grand River Workforce Collaborative highlights the importance of community responsive programs and places Grand River redevelopment on the binational stage as a leading model for workforce development.

The holistic effort to revitalize the Grand extends from ecological sustainability to economic sustainability.

The Grand River Network liaises the Grand River Workforce Collaborative, which also hosts the Grand River Youth Workforce Collaborative, and the Riverfront Contractors’ Collective, the river projects’ information database for scaling local certification contracting companies. Each coalition is uniquely designed to meaningfully connect Micro Local, Minority and Women Business Enterprises; youth and other underrepresented individuals to gainful employment through Grand River revitalization projects.

Hear from Jina Rockwell, president of Rockwell Earthworks LLC and member of the Riverfront Contractors Collective, who employed several members from the Grand River Workforce Collaborative!