Devoting time and resources to various community endeavors and nonprofit organizations is important to Jim Havens and the associates of Havens Limited. Following are some of the community-wide projects that have benefited from their involvement. 

Protecting Green Space

Jim Havens is an advocate of protecting farmland and community green space. As part of his public service duties, he was involved in the development of Granville’s open space program after Granville Township became the first in Ohio to approve an Open Space Acquisition program. See more information about Granville Township’s Open Space program: http://www.granvilletownship.org/general/general.htm

Creating a Park

When Jim Havens chaired the Granville Township Trustees he helped obtain a $100,000 NatureWorks grant from the Ohio Department of Natural Resources. This resulted in the creation of the Raccoon Valley Park on 40 acres of land that had been acquired by the trustees a few years earlier. The park now includes four baseball and two soccer fields for community use. http://www.granvilletownship.org

Preserving Wetlands

Jim Havens and his partners worked with the Ohio Department of Natural Resources and various other funding organizations to create and protect 1,180 acres of wetlands near Marion, Ohio. This project is surrounded by the ODNR’s Big Island Wildlife Area. See more here: http://www.dnr.state.oh.us

Emphasizing Nonprofit Business

As a member of the board of directors for the ZIVILI ethnic dance troupe, Jim Havens helped steer the organization into a broader nonprofit that today sells gifts and other items from Croatia. The change helped ZIVILI founders Melissa Pintar Obenauf and Pamela Kelly continue their work preserving Croatian culture: http://stores.croatiagifts.com

Supporting Independence for Nonprofits

The Serenity Street Foundation was formed to provide housing, support services, employment and training for men who are in recovery. As a founding board member in 1996, Jim Havens assisted founders with creating a sustainable business plan. Today, proceeds from meals served by the Serenity Café go toward the cost of running the Serenity Street Foundation and its one-year residential recovery program. See more about it at: www.serenitystreet.org

Educating Youth

The Granville Education Foundation was formed to enrich programs and instruction by collecting charitable contributions that benefit the public schools in Granville. As a founding trustee for the group, Jim Havens helped lay the groundwork that has allowed the foundation to contribute thousands of dollars in grants to educators who teach within the school district. http://www.granvilleeducationfoundation.org