Faces of Midland: Jan Lampman
Faces of Midland is a collaborative storytelling project celebrating the vibrant lives of those who live, work, and thrive in Midland.
A Circle of Support
Jan Lampman’s life of advocating
By Trisha Fenby
Photo by Renee’ Deckrow, Captured Studio
Jan Lampman’s life was shaped farms, institutions, and showing up for others. Jan Lampman grew up on a farm. Until fifth grade, she lived on her family land in Saginaw, Michigan, but farming alone didn’t afford her dad the luxury of providing for his family. So he took a job managing the Midland County Farm at Pinecrest, a place that was often referred to as “the poor farm”.
Pinecrest was a county-run institution. A working farm that housed people with developmental disabilities, mental illness, and older citizens with no family support. A place that supported people when they had nowhere else to go.
“Living there shaped me. I saw firsthand how people were cared for, and sometimes forgotten by people outside of Pinecrest.” Jan recalls. Her brother and her were just kids, but they felt like rock stars to the residents. The people that lived there often didn’t have families of their own. They had visitors. Kind strangers that came from church, or to cut their hair, but not “their” people. No families, no children or grandchildren to share moments with. A sense of loneliness filled the air at Pinecrest. Jan was one of the few constants in their lives, but she knew that one day she would leave.
“I never went back to Pinecrest as a visitor—but years later, I found myself working with some of the very people who had lived there.” Her time at Pinecrest influenced her path in life, following a legacy her father started.
She went to college at SVSU, studying psychology. Later, she participated in research on fetal alcohol exposure, running a rat lab at SVSU in partnership with Wayne State University. Through this experience, she realized she wanted to work with people, not just study them. And this is where she found her passion. She worked in a group home run by Lutheran Social Services. It was 1985, and institutions were starting to close. The people Jan worked with had been institutionalized for years, many had lost their family connections.
“My job was to help people rediscover community and build new connections.” Jan found that as she supported people in the community, she was not just helping the individual, but the community grew from this experience. And circles of support were created.
During the second wave of deinstitutionalization, Jan served as a house manager, helping bring people out of institutions into newly opened group homes. Her continued support helped many people live their best lives. In 1989, her friend, Tom, a gentleman that met and fell in love with Charlette while institutionalized, was able to marry and live together in their own home. They were together for 30 years.
Jan was invited to join the Arc of Midland as a need became evident. She was hired to help hire support staff for these individuals. She became the director in November of 2001 and retired in 2019, just before COVID. During her tenure as the director, she continued to advocate and support people in our community.
Jan has never been good at saying no. And post-retirement, to her, is just working in different ways. She runs a small consulting effort called Community Drive. She teaches self-determination and person centered planning, across the state of Michigan. She advocates in schools, supports people at risk of institutionalization, and helps them find community care. But one thing that Jan does with a fiery passion is public policy. She is part of a coalition fighting for better wages, training and support for direct care workers. This workforce has the capability of helping people with disabilities thrive, without them, we risk returning to institutional models.
Jan hurts when people feel like they don’t belong. “I try very hard to have a better understanding of the person's experience, so I listen deeply when someone is speaking to me,” Jan admits.
It means recognizing what you don’t know. It means listening deeply. It means taking the initiative to get to know someone and making a difference in their lives. Jan gives us a gentle reminder that belonging doesn’t occur through systems. It is built in the community, by people who care enough to show up.