Cuyahoga County residents have picked which two large-scale projects will get funding through the Cuyahoga Arts & Culture (CAC) Creative Culture Grants competition.

* Dancing Wheels received $130,421 for a television documentary that will expand on the dance company's performance of the multi-media ballet, Dumbo. The film will explore issues of bullying and social injustice using the life stories of artists and community figures.

* LAND studio was awarded $150,000 to fund a multi-faceted light installation illuminating public spaces in downtown Cleveland.

Both projects were selected by 6,500 county residents in a public voting process held February 1-20. The winning arts programs, scheduled for completion in 2014, were chosen from a list of six finalists selected by an independent panel of arts and culture experts.

Officials from competition sponsor CAC were pleased by the voter turnout, and believe the winning projects will engage the region in creative ways.

"All six finalists had a different spin on how to connect arts and culture to the community," says CAC executive director Karen Gahl-Mills. "The two winners did a great job of reaching out to the general public."

CAC's pilot voting program revealed just how much creativity exists in the area, Gahl-Mills maintains. "It was delightful to see it come forward in new, exciting ways," she says.

The nonprofit is now assessing the program for possible future iterations. Gahl-Mills is not certain CAC will put on an annual public vote, but she can certainly envision county residents stuffing the ballot boxes for future arts projects.

"It's a great investment of public dollars," she says. "It isn't just the organizations that win; the community wins, too."

 
SOURCE: Karen Gahl-Mills
WRITER: Douglas J. Guth

A student-operated restaurant, a Cleveland-centric advocacy group, and a venture aiming to transform vacant lots into summer program spots for kids were the big winners of The Cleveland Colectivo's fast- pitch presentation event on February 28.

The high-energy affair hosted by Shaker LaunchHouse drew over 125 attendees. They voted on 46 presenters who came with innovative ideas and hopes of getting funding from the Colectivo, a grassroots, Cleveland-based giving circle that pools funds to make contributions in the community.

The three top vote-getters -- Edwins Leadership and Restaurant Institute, The 1990 Project and Literary Lots -- came with accessible, concisely presented ideas that inspired the crowd, says Colectivo founding member Judy Wright. As the crowd favorite, Edwins took home $770 in donations collected at the event.

Colectivo members will next consider the remaining projects to join the crowd's picks. As many as 12 additional ventures will have a chance at this year's grants, which generally range from $500 to $5,000. Grants will be determined and distributed in May.

"We're not a traditional grant-maker," says Wright. "We spend our entire budget every year, and there's no overhead costs. It's basically people putting cash in a pot and giving it away."

Wright, a Lakewood resident, created the Colectivo in 2004 with a group of like-minded friends from the nonprofit sector. She deems this year's fast-pitch event a success, even if every presenter will not be getting their idea funded. It's always good to see a disparate slice of Cleveland's demography getting together, she believes.

"There's some genuine connections being made," Wright says. "It's exciting and energizing. There is some real value in that."

 
SOURCE: Judy Wright
WRITER: Douglas J. Guth

As new VP of operations for the Lake Erie Energy Development Corp (LEEDCo), Dave Karpinski will guide the organization through the next phase in the process of building the nation’s first freshwater offshore wind project. With its first round of financing in tow, LEEDCo must now compete for a critical second infusion of funds against six other projects across the country.

Cleveland has gained a reputation nationally for its vibrant local food culture. The city's foodie status has gotten quite a bit bigger - literally - thanks to Green City Growers Cooperative, a 3.25-acre greenhouse that celebrated its official opening on Feb. 25.

Size matters at the hydroponic, high-tech greenhouse, which aims to produce three million heads of lettuce and 300,000 pounds of herbs annually to vendors within a 50-mile radius from its location in Cleveland’s Central neighborhood.
"It's the largest food production greenhouse in an urban area in the U.S.," says Mary Donnell, CEO of Green City Growers.

The greenhouse, which is the size of three football fields, grows its healthy wares in nutrient-rich water rather than soil. The year-round venture, overseen by the nonprofit Evergreen Cooperative Corporation, started harvesting crops in January and is already producing about 60,000 heads of lettuce per week. Green City Growers customers include grocery stores and restaurants.

Planting the leafy goods are local residents. The 25 Clevelanders Green City Growers hired to run the operation will become employee-owners of the cooperative business, receiving a living wage and health insurance.

Besides producing those tasty eats, the goal is create jobs and build financial assets for residents of Cleveland's underserved neighborhoods, says Donnell, whose background includes helping to create a hydroponic greenhouse program for The Ohio State University. The project's key partners include the City of Cleveland, the Cleveland Foundation, PNC Bank and the National Development Council. 

Cleveland's new greenhouse is an economic development project that could mean better things for an inner-city neighborhood. "It's wonderful that we have this in the heart of the city," Donnell says.
 
 
SOURCE: Mary Donnell
WRITER: Douglas J. Guth

Last summer, the Near West Recreation League's t-ball league was a hit for Cleveland kids. Organizers believe a recently debuted bowling league will play a similarly big "roll" in the health of a community that didn't have much in the way of organized sports.

The bowling program, open to 70-plus youngsters between the ages of 6 and 10, launched February 16 at Corner Alley in downtown Cleveland. The league is part of a two-year partnership between Ohio Savings Bank and Ohio City Inc. to support recreation activities on the Near West Side. Downtown Cleveland Alliance is also a partner in the new program.

The bowling league was created for children from Tremont, Detroit Shoreway and other West Side enclaves, although similar to the t-ball league, kids have been coming from other parts of the city to participate.

"Sports are a great way of bringing people together at a young age," says Eric Wobser, executive director of Ohio City Inc.

They're also a method of keeping people in the neighborhood, maintain the rec league's leaders. Retaining young families in the 25- to 34-age group has been problematic for Ohio City and downtown. Sports can be another amenity that grows a neighborhood population, while also integrating a community of diverse backgrounds.

"It's improving the quality of life," Wobser says.

If the bowling league proves successful, the rec league will add other sports throughout the year. Plans for the remainder of 2013 include youth-oriented baseball, soccer and basketball. The league may "age up" as well, from young kids all the way to junior high students.

"We've struck a chord with the community," says Wobser.
 
 
SOURCE: Eric Wobser
WRITER: Douglas J. Guth

If  Kauser Razvi has a say in it, underutilized spaces in Cleveland will be a place where a child's imagination can run wild, all thanks to power of the written word.

Razvi, founder of the Cleveland-based project management organization Strategic Urban Solutions, is the book-loving brains behind Literary Lots,  a program that aims to "brings books to life" in a vacant lot, playground or other outdoor space.

To pilot this idea, Strategic Urban Solutions plans to launch its first Literary Lot this summer in Ohio City's Novak Park. In conjunction with Cleveland Public Library, LAND Studio, and Ohio City Writers, Razvi's group will recreate places, concepts, and adventures from select children's books. The space will also host educational programming, with the goal of bringing Cleveland's kids together through the cooperation of the city's cultural institutions.

"Libraries are community anchors," says Razvi. "We thought it would be cool to marry the idea of bringing books to life in places near our libraries."

The summer program spot would have books (of course), poetry readings or a movie based on the book the space is built around. Artists would enliven the space, perhaps decorating a small sandpit in which kids can dig for buried gold,  just like the young adventurer from Treasure Island.

"I think of it as a 'comfortable artistic backyard,'" Razvi says.

Building a nice "backyard" isn't free. A Kickstarter fundraising campaign for the project begins at the end of February, with a minimum goal of $5,500. Razvi believes transforming an underused space into a reading zone for kids is well worth the price of admission.
 
SOURCE: Kauser Razvi
WRITER:  Douglas J. Guth

Innovative ideas abound in Northeast Ohio, believes Judy Wright, founding member of The Cleveland Colectivo. Too often, however, those dreams are not big enough to draw the attention of the major grant makers in town.

The Colectivo was designed to fill that gap. A grassroots, Cleveland-based giving circle that pools funds to make contributions in the community, the group is inspired by the traditional practice of immigrant neighbors who invested in each other’s businesses to build a neighborhood.

"Our goal is to support small, innovative projects that need a little boost," says Wright, a Lakewood resident. She and a group of like-minded friends from the nonprofit sector created the Colectivo in 2004.

The group's grants range from $500 to $5,000. Funding supports a wide variety of projects, from enhancements to the kitchen at the Cleveland Hostel to a summer series of free music events at Edgewater Park.

"There's no focus area besides these projects having an impact on Cleveland," Wright says.

The next round of funding kicks off February 28 with the Colectivo's fast pitch presentation event at Shaker LaunchHouse. Up to 40 entrepreneurs and innovators will have two minutes to present their bright ideas, which will be voted on by attendees. The top 10 vote-getters will then move on to interviews conducted by group members. Registration to present at the fast pitch event opens February 25 at noon on the group's website.

Getting a roomful of people to network and be excited about their fellow Clevelanders' brainstorms is a side benefit of the effort, notes Wright.

"A little bit of 'spark money' can be hard to get," she says. "We're just trying to make the process easier."

 
SOURCE: Judy Wright
WRITER: Douglas J. Guth

Nautical adventure awaits Cleveland youths this summer thanks to Project YESS (Youth Empowered to Succeed through Sailing), a program that allows local students to spend a week sailing and working on a 150-foot tall vessel.

The program, developed by the Rotary Club of Cleveland, is meant for high school students ages 13 to 17. Starting this year, teenagers will develop leadership and navigational proficiencies during a six-week land-based course. Graduates will then ply the Great Lakes aboard a tall ship, using the skills they learned to become a vital member of their on-board community. Lake-faring activities include reading charts, working in the galley and tying ropes.

"They are physically part of the crew,"  says Project YESS co-chair Anne Kelly. "All of them are sharing in responsibilities and duties from port to port."

The program started in 2010 in conjunction with the Tall Ships Festival. A group of volunteers help raise the $1,500-per-student fee, which includes curriculum materials, meals, and cost of berth. Students with strong leadership skills but who otherwise would not be able to afford the experience are targeted by Project YESS members.

"The kids hold each other accountable and teach one another to step up," Kelly says.

Project officials hope to bring the youth sailing camp experience to 35 students this year. Along with providing direction, confidence and a sense of community, the program can also open students’ eyes to the unique career opportunities that exist in the Great Lakes region, maintains Kelly.

To receive an application for the Project YESS 2013 class, email projectyess@yahoo.com. Applications must be mailed to the Rotary Club of Cleveland by March 15.

 
SOURCE: Anne Kelly
WRITER: Douglas J. Guth

"We are all assets," declares the national website of TimeBanks USA, a movement dedicated to building "caring community" economies through an inclusive exchange of time and talent.

Indeed, time can be as valuable an asset as money in terms of the positive impact it has on a neighborhood, says Adam Gifford, director of community involvement at the Stockyard, Clark-Fulton, and Brooklyn Centre Development Office, which, along with its parent Detroit Shoreway Community Development Organization, is sponsoring a time bank in Cleveland.

The time bank movement works through reciprocation. For example, a landscaper does an hour of volunteer tree-trimming work, then deposits those 60 "time dollars" into his account. When he needs a service done, like getting his dogs walked or receiving help with his taxes, he simply "withdraws" his deposit for the service. There is no monetary value ever attached to any service -- time is the one and only coin of the realm.

"People may not have the money available, but they may have time," says Gifford. "It's about giving people access to services they normally couldn't afford."

Time banks have sprung up across the country. Locally, Kent and Medina are among the communities to use the service. The Cleveland time bank is in its infancy, attracting nearly 100 members putting in about 150 hours of work so far. A program orientation will be held February 26 at The Salvation Army's Clarke-Fulton location, while a Cleveland time bank website is scheduled to go live in March.

The time bank is open to individuals and groups. Gifford views the exchange of skills and services without cash as a method to enrich lives.

"It's a creative way to build a community," he says.

 
SOURCE: Adam Gifford
WRITER:  Douglas J. Guth

Filing a federal income tax return is far from the most enjoyable activity one can do. It can even be intimidating for people who don't understand the process or know they are eligible for an Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC).

Enterprise Community Partners, a nonprofit providing free tax preparation and other services to low- and middle-income Cuyahoga County residents, aims to bridge the knowledge gap and help hard-working individuals and families keep more of what they earned. Nationwide last year, the average credit handed out was about $2,200, but the credit can provide as much as $5,900.

"About 20 percent of people eligible for [EITC] don't claim it," says Mark McDermott, Enterprise vice president and Ohio market leader. "We get the word out."

That word is spread in conjunction with the Cuyahoga County Earned Income Tax Credit Coalition and a host of other local partner organizations. This tax season, Enterprise has recruited over 350 IRS-certified volunteers to assist in the effort.

Eligible residents can access the free service by dialing the United Way of Greater Cleveland's 2-1-1 help line. Appointments are scheduled at one of 25 sites located throughout the country. There are also a handful of Saturday free tax-preparation events taking place right up until filing day.

During the past seven years, more than 55,000 participants have received over $77 million in refunds and saved millions of dollars in fees from paid tax preparers, notes program director Kathy Matthews.

"That's about $13 million going back into the local economy," says Matthews.

Tax help isn't Enterprise's only offering. Those who use the service also have access to benefit screenings, debt management and more.

"The tax work is our foundation," says McDermott. "This has proven to be a great program."
 
 
SOURCES: Mark McDermott, Kathy Matthews
WRITER: Douglas J. Guth

Heights Arts ' executive director Peggy Spaeth is retiring, but that doesn't mean the nonprofit community arts organization will be taking it easy along with her.

The group currently is searching for a replacement for Spaeth, who helped found Heights Arts in 2000 and has led the organization ever since. Since late January, the group has received 40 responses from those hoping to carry on the "creative renaissance" that Spaeth launched over a decade ago, says Heights Arts' board president Sharon Grossman.

"We're just starting the process," says Grossman. "We would like to hire someone by late spring."

Spaeth will stay on board during the hiring period and help train the new executive director after the appointment takes place. The outgoing director said the decision to leave was made out of a desire to pursue other interests.

"We don't want to lose her, but this is an all-encompassing job," Grossman says.

It was also a job that Spaeth did well, adds the board president. As director, she brought public art projects to city streets and chamber music concerts to local living rooms. In 2011, Spaeth oversaw expansion of the Heights Arts Gallery on Lee Road, growing its floorspace and successfully stretching the organization's reach into the community.

"Peggy has great drive and an ability to see the big picture," says Grossman.

Spaeth established important relationships with local artists, also reaching out to public figures -- among them Cleveland Heights Mayor Ed Kelley and Cleveland Cinemas owner Jonathan Forman -- capable of supporting these artists.

Heights' Arts next leader will have challenges ahead, but the transition doesn't have to be rough.

"That person will have a chance to put their own stamp on the organization," says Grossman.  "Change can be good."

 
SOURCE: Sharon Grossman
WRITER: Douglas J. Guth

In recent years, Mentor native Erin Huber has flown 7,000 miles just to get the population of a small Ugandan village a drop to drink. That effort is part of a larger endeavor to promote water sustainability both locally and globally.

Huber, founder of Drink Local Drink Tap, a nonprofit organization seeking to connect Clevelanders to local water through art installations and free environmental education, traveled to Africa the last two summers with the mission of getting an impoverished people access to clean water.

The first trip, in 2011, found the activist journeying throughout East Africa to learn about the water situation. Her visit to a rural Ugandan town was particularly eye-opening. Children in the village had to walk over a mile to find a nearby water source, and the water wasn't clean or safe.

Last summer, Huber and her small team returned to Uganda, where they drilled a 70-meter hole into a water table to bring drinkable water to the people of the tiny African community. They filmed their efforts for the documentary Making Waves from Cleveland to Uganda, which Huber hopes to screen at the Cleveland International Film Festival.

"We struck water 'gold,'" she says of the Africa venture, which now supplies fresh drinking water to about 1,500 villagers.

Huber, with a master's degree in environmental studies from Cleveland State University and fond memories of a childhood spent camping next to lakes, streams and rivers, has three more water-related projects set for a future jaunt to Uganda. Meanwhile, she will continue to educate Cleveland's youth and adults about the enormous local fresh water resource known as the Great Lakes.

"We have to realize how fortunate we are," Huber says. "Everything we see needs water to exist."
  
 
SOURCE: Erin Huber
WRITER: Douglas J. Guth

For a number of years at the tail end of the 20th century, Greater Cleveland's public and private leaders attempted to pull the city up through ambitious marketing campaigns. For awhile it seemed to work. The national media began referring to Cleveland as the "Comeback City" in conjunction with the grand openings of ambitious projects like Tower City Center, Jacobs Field and the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum.
 
But toward the end of the '90s a strange thing happened: The city, for all intents and purposes, stopped marketing itself.
 
Why?
 
"We began to believe our own press," says Rick Batyko, president of the Regional Marketing Alliance of Northeast Ohio, which conducts the Cleveland Plus campaign. And civic officials "moved on to other tasks and defunded marketing."
 
In essence, Northeast Ohio stopped telling its tale with the tale barely begun -- a rather large mistake in retrospect. "The underlying economy wasn't doing that well," Batyko says. "That's something you couldn't see in the skyline shots."
 
During the mid-2000s, the region's narrative thread was picked up by Cleveland Plus campaign. Established in 2005 -- with founding members that included Greater Cleveland Partnership, Positively Cleveland and Team NEO -- the organization champions Northeast Ohio as a culturally rich, yet affordable place to live.
 
Read the rest of the story here.

If Northeast Ohio has a digital divide, then Cleveland-based nonprofit broadband provider OneCommunity wants to lay down enough fiber-optic cable to successfully bridge the gap.

The divide is particularly wide in Cleveland's poorer neighborhoods, says OneCommunity CEO Brett Lindsey. In response, his organization created the Connect Your Community Project (CYC). Since 2010, CYC has provided broadband training, equipment and support for nearly 8,000 Cleveland and East Cleveland residents. The group's work is supported through a $18.7 million grant from the U.S. Department of Commerce’s Broadband Technology Opportunities Program (BTOP).

The organization's new adopters receive a refurbished computer at no cost after matriculating through the training program. They also have the opportunity to receive a free modem and affordable, high-speed home Internet service.

In modern society, everything from job postings to health care information is online, notes Lindsey. The idea is not to give Cleveland's underserved access to solitaire or funny YouTube videos, but an electronic education that will allow them to look up information on their child's school system or connect with far flung family members.

"The haves and have nots in terms of technology are significant," says Lindsey. "This is a way to get people engaged."

OneCommunity is also bringing "digital literacy" to Cleveland families with young people on track for college entry but not currently connected to broadband. Computer training and access can go far in spurring parental engagement in a student's post-high school academic career, Lindsey believes.

So far, so good, says the OneCommunity CEO. In its initial CYC data, 75 percent of parents surveyed used their home broadband connection to communicate with their child's teachers and administrators.

"We have to continue to ensure that people don't get left behind," says Lindsey.

 
SOURCE: Brett Lindsey
WRITER: Douglas J. Guth

Education is on the forefront of Cleveland's transformation plans. The city is aiming to reform its troubled school system as well as increase the number of youth attending and graduating from college.

Cleveland Public Library (CPL) had Cleveland's goals in mind when planning its African American History Month programming for this year. Throughout February, the library will offer a variety of education- and educator-focused programming, music and events at its main facility and branch locations. 

"We try to focus on topics that resonate with the community," says CPL programming director Aaron Mason. "Education is the topic of the day."

Featured programs and events include:

* A showcase of student-produced music and videos created by Cleveland’s youth through the efforts of Reading R.A.M.M. (Recording Arts Music Media) founder Edward “Phatty” Banks. The February 9 event at the main library is designed to connect area children with reading and education through use of pop-culture-style music and media.

* A performance by Ralph Miles Jones and Baba Issa Abramaleem, otherwise known as "The Seekers of Truth Revolutionary Ensemble." Jones is a multi-instrumentalist and recording artist from Oberlin College. Abramaleem is a composer, visual artist, playwright and percussionist-guitarist. The duo plays CPL's Rice Branch on February 15.

* A free screening of the documentary "PUSH: Madison vs. Madison" on February 22 at the Martin Luther King, Jr. branch. The film covers the trials of a talented but dysfunctional high school basketball team.

This year's round of African American History Month programming is meant to look ahead rather than back at history, notes Mason.

"The library should be a place of learning and engagement," he says. "It's about exposing people to new ideas."
 
 
SOURCE: Aaron Mason
WRITER: Douglas J. Guth

The philosophy of the Public Animal Welfare Society (PAWS) is that kindness to animals helps build a better world for all. If that's true, then Negative Space Gallery hopes to set the foundation for a happier planet with an upcoming PAWS charity event.

Negative Space and area band Second Hand Dogs will host the benefit for the nonprofit animal rescue group on February 16 at the gallery. PAWS' emphasis is placed on reform of current animal cruelty laws and adoption of dogs in need.

The event is particularly timely in light of two recent cases of animal cruelty that made headlines in Cleveland, notes Negative Space director Michael Kurtz. In November, a bull mastiff was shot and left for dead in a Cleveland Heights park. Late last month, a Labrador mix was killed with a bow and arrow in Old Brooklyn.

The Negative Space program offers a raffle to benefit PAWS, resource tables, adoption opportunities, and a guest appearance by "Forrest," the survivor of the Cleveland Heights attack.

"There are people whose animals mean more to them than anything in the world," says Kurtz, whose Collie-German Shepherd mix was rescued from a home with poor conditions. "Who can [shoot a dog] and sleep at night?"

Ohio is one of the states with the most lax animal cruelty laws, PAWS officials note. Seven bills dealing with animal cruelty were recently rejected in the 129th General Assembly. Raising funding and awareness for such an important issue is a pleasure for Kurtz.

"There should be public pressure to not allow this kind of behavior," he says.

 
SOURCE: Michael Kurtz
WRITER: Douglas J. Guth

Studio Fifty-One is a new wig boutique providing free wigs to any woman undergoing cancer treatment at the Cleveland Clinic that results in hair loss. Perhaps the greatest benefit the wigs provide is the sense of normalcy that goes AWOL while a patient is going through the healing process.

"The salon brings our patients comfort at a difficult time of their cancer journey," says Elizabeth Lindecke, director of The Scott Hamilton CARES Initiative at the Clinic.

The initiative partially funds the boutique, which opened on January 24 at the Cleveland Clinic Taussig Cancer Center. Funding is also coming from Margaret Rose Giltinan, a breast cancer survivor who underwent treatment at the hospital. The synthetic and real hair wigs are provided by the American Cancer Society and Jeffrey Paul Salon.

Early response has been "wonderful," reports Lindecke. The salon gave out 15 wigs during its first day of operation. One woman arrived with an old photograph that displayed her pre-cancer hairdo.

"She asked, 'Will I ever see this girl again?'" says Lindecke. "We found a wig that approximated her old hairstyle, and she left feeling like a million bucks."

Since its opening, Studio Fifty-One has received numerous emails and phone calls from people interested in the program. While there are no toupees for male patients, Cleveland's professional sports teams have donated a variety of free hats and caps for them to don during treatment.

For further information on Studio Fifty-One, email studio51@ccf.org or call 216-445-6885.

 
SOURCE: Elizabeth Lindecke
WRITER: Douglas J. Guth

Arts and culture can define a community, creating a critical mass that translates into jobs, business opportunities and, ideally, sustained economic prosperity. These were the words of Northeast Ohio Sustainable Communities Consortium Initiative (NEOSCC) director Hunter Morrison during a January 25 roundtable hosted by the Community Partnership for Arts and Culture (CPAC).

These also are words that CPAC president and CEO Tom Schorgl likes to hear. The focus of the roundtable event was sustainability, and how the arts and culture community can assist the region as it evolves through population and land use shifts. The local arts sector becoming engaged in these issues can help keep Northeast Ohio resilient, vibrant and sustainable, said Morrison, a notion that the CPAC president shares.

"We have cultural clusters throughout the region, and the ability to communicate on a larger basis with the population about those clusters," says Schorgl. "We need to continue to reach our audience."

The roundtable, which drew over 50 attendees to the Cleveland Museum of Natural History's main gallery, was CPAC's first such event of the year. The nonprofit will sponsor similar forums through November, with an overall aim of connecting the arts and culture realm with professionals from sectors including community development and health and human services. Past roundtable speakers have included Cuyahoga County Executive Ed FitzGerald, Cleveland Metropolitan School District CEO Eric Gordon, and City of Cleveland Mayor Frank Jackson.

"The idea is to provide a forum for new ideas around a common cause," Schorgl says.

 
SOURCE: Tom Schorgl
WRITER: Douglas J. Guth