Interview with Mari

Life coach clients generally are frustrated and yearning for positive change; so is Saginaw.

So, The Saginaw News approached life coach Mari A. Broman of LaSalle to see what advice she would offer our region for 2009.

For starters, she said, we need to expect and believe that good things will happen.

"If you just keep seeing hopelessness, there is no hope," she said. "It's called learned helplessness.

"It's hard to feel good when there's litter all over the lot next to you, garbage flowing everywhere and the next house is a drug house."

Life coaches are a new twist in the advice profession. On issues ranging from faith to finances to family, they help clients by breaking their goals into attainable morsels and continuously reviewing progress.

Broman said her job is to evaluate the resources of a client, assist in setting goals and offer tactics to attain them.

"I look for people who are motivated for change, and I know Saginaw quite well," she said. "I know Saginaw is interested in change.

"In coaching, we really believe you do have the answers. The solutions are in your own backyard."

For the city of Saginaw, 2008 was no carefree, bare-footed romp through flowery meadows.

Crime continues, plants close and people leave for jobs elsewhere.

At City Hall, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development ordered repayment of $106,053 because the city overpaid a demolition company from 2003 to 2007. The number of foreclosed homes in Saginaw increased, and nearly 900 of them are on the "dangerous buildings list" and scheduled for demolition.

Broman believes a focus on youth is essential and recommends utilizing high school students, college students and educators as mentors to children prone to violence and crime.

City schools and government should coordinate with Delta College, Saginaw Valley State University and other nearby colleges and high schools to develop initiatives to guide youths who show propensity for violence and crime, she said.

Broman said the city needs to attack blight "block by block," spearheaded by established grass-roots neighborhood groups such as Parishioners on Patrol, the Houghton-Jones Neighborhood Association, Heritage Square Neighborhood Association and others.

"It's coming from grass roots," she said. "Bottom up. I think the top-down hasn't worked too well, has it? Saginaw is about a ghost town.

"Get the kids involved," she said, by having city-sponsored competitions between neighborhoods that would pit youths against one another to beautify their surroundings, with rewards for the winners.

Inmates who are not flight risks or violent offenders should receive demolition training and help tear down abandoned homes to decrease blight, she said.

Broman recommends highlighting the success of block groups and personal success stories of local residents to incubate hope within the community.

"People who have come from Saginaw and made it good should come back and say, 'Look there is some hope here,' " she said.

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