New Economy Initiative puts imagination to work
Ideas are crackling to life inside the Centrepolis Accelerator in Southfield.
On a recent day at the business incubator, a 3D printer zipped busily back and forth in the lab, while a team utilizing private office space collaborated intently around a computer screen. On a different day, a visitor might observe entrepreneurs pitching their ideas to a panel of judges, “Shark Tank” style, to win funding.
Centrepolis, which is a grantee partner of the New Economy Initiative (NEI) managed by the Community Foundation for Southeast Michigan, supports small manufacturers and hardware entrepreneurs. Its facility on Lawrence Technological University’s campus offers access to a state-of-the-art design and prototyping lab, conference rooms and office space, as well as expert guidance to help entrepreneurs get their ideas off the ground.
NEI recently invested $200,000 in the Micro Makers Evolution Lab at Centrepolis. The lab supports small manufacturers in Wayne County and Southfield — like the medical equipment company Wareologie — that are managed by women, people of color, veterans or people with disabilities.
“As an entrepreneur marketing a first-to-market product, it’s incredibly challenging,” says Gina Adams, Wareologie’s founder and CEO. “Centrepolis is a place where we can collaborate, commiserate and celebrate.”
Transforming ideas into reality
In response to calls from skilled nursing clinicians during the COVID-19 pandemic, Adams and her team invented the world’s first portable parallel bars on wheels. The innovative piece of medical equipment enabled patients, who often were isolated and immobile, to receive rehabilitation services at home or in their hospital room.
With support from NEI and Centrepolis, Adams was able to quickly bring the bars to market.
Since then, the Michigan-made product has caught on in oncology departments and other medical settings, where their portability gives clinicians the option to safely treat patients in the privacy of their room.
Wareologie has filled orders for the bars from Ascension health system, Kaiser Permanente and the Veterans Health Administration, among others.
Supporting small businesses
During 2023, the New Economy Initiative assisted 4,739 companies and made $5.5 million in grants to 39 grantee partners, including Centrepolis. The investment underscores NEI’s mission to grow an inclusive community of entrepreneurship in southeast Michigan that benefits all residents and strengthens the regional economy.
Adams’ success story is a case in point.
“We’re now supporting ICU and acute care patients, to help them stand for early mobility, which is shortening their length of stay and improving their quality of life,” she says. “The New Economy Initiative’s funding of Centrepolis helped us give back to the community.”
This story originally appeared in the 2023-2024 Annual Report