YMCA of Greater Cleveland and Cleveland Public Theatre are collaborating for the 26th year on the Y-Haven Theatre Project, which allows Y-Haven residents to share their stories of addiction, recovery, and hope in the upcoming original play, "Roots Through Ruin."

Fresh Fest Cleveland 2024 will bring the energy of a block party, the flavors of a cookout, and the connections of a family reunion to the Urban Agriculture Innovation Zone at Rid-All Farm & Otter Park this Saturday, with live music, fresh food, local artists, health and wellness vendors, and a variety of family-friendly activities.

Neighborhood Connections announced this week that it has approved $382,114 in grants to support 121 projects in Cleveland and East Cleveland. Cuyahoga Arts & Culture will co-fund 27 of the resident-led arts and culture projects. Read about what community groups are doing with the funding to improve our neighborhoods.

While decluttering her basement, teacher, artist, and retired bass player Juliana Sadock Savino came across some items that inspired her to create some impromptu public art installations on the grounds of the decaying former Westinghouse Electric factory on Ashland Road.

Cleveland Sews will host a Sew-A-Thon this weekend at St. Vincent Charity Community Health Center to repurpose 654 pounds of old drapery material into tote bags to combat single-use plastics and promote sustainability.

Last week, CHN Housing Partners and a host of partners opened the Louise C. Stokes Scholar House—a project eight years in the making—to provide parents attending school full time an affordable, safe place to live with wrap-around services. The new residents are just steps away from Cuyahoga Community College Metropolitan Campus and Cleveland State University, or a short drive from Lorain County Community College School of Nursing.

In early April, the City of Cleveland, Enterprise Community Partners, Cuyahoga Land Bank, CHN Housing Partners, Legal Aid Society of Cleveland, and the Northeast Ohio Coalition for the Homeless united with Rocket Community Fund to unveil the Make It Home Cleveland program. Aiming to address tax foreclosure and improve Black homeownership rates in East Side neighborhoods, the initiative offers renters the chance to become homeowners through financial support and housing stability services.

This fall, Cuyahoga County Executive Chis Ronayne initiated the Neighborhood Based Services program, partnering with Greater Cleveland Food Bank, Cuyahoga County Public Library, and Friendly Inn Settlement to bring services closer to residents and increase accessibility.

FreshWater managing photographer Bob Perkoski provides a peek into the everyday lives of Clevelanders going about their business in the neighborhoods and on the streets of Cleveland.

Earlier this year, students from four CMSD high schools in the Great Lakes Science Center's Robotics Initiative created prosthetic arms and hands and then traveled to Quito, Ecuador, where they helped nonprofit IMAHelps fit children in need with the prosthetics.

Antioch Baptist Church, Cleveland's second-oldest Black church, will kick off its 130th anniversary celebration Saturday by duplicating its historic walk from its old church to its current church. The celebration continues next weekend with a block party.

Since 1912 and through four generations, Gallucci's Italian Foods & Market has served customers from all backgrounds and ethnicities with founder Gust Gallucci's original mantra: Sell the best product at the best possible price and provide good service with a smile and a 'thank you.'

The ongoing Woodhill Homes development project in the Buckeye-Woodhill neighborhood—a six-phase, six-year $250 million development project by Cuyahoga Metropolitan Housing Authority (CMHA), the City of Cleveland, and Boston-based The Community Builders (TCB)—just received a boost through a $10 million HUD Choice Neighborhoods Supplemental Funding Grant.

Too many Clevelanders, especially those living in the city's predominantly Black and underserved neighborhoods, struggle to make ends meet as a result of unemployment and underemployment. Many area organizations are working hard to meet the needs of people. Three Cleveland organizations are taking grassroots, creative approaches to supplying basic resources.

For more than a dozen years, Jan Ridgeway has dedicated her time, and her own money, to Garden Valley Neighborhood House to feed and provide services to the residents living in one of Cleveland's poorest neighborhoods. 

The Cleveland Restoration Society just received $50,000 for a planning study to create a brick-and-mortar fund to preserve Cleveland's Black churches.