"Reading is fundamental" is a message that's been transmitted to the nation's children for years. Research shows that's no empty slogan: Kids who are not reading proficiently by third grade are four times more likely to leave school without a diploma, says Robert Paponetti, executive director of the Literacy Cooperative of Greater Cleveland.

Enter the Literacy Cooperative's STEP (Supporting Tutors Engaging Pupils) program, an in-school tutoring program designed to help build reading and language skills in underperforming K-3 students. Young participants are taught in one-on-one, structured tutoring sessions that coordinate with classroom curriculum.

The students chosen for the program usually are close to their grade's reading level, says Paponetti. Lessons are delivered twice a week and are designed to develop fluency, vocabulary development, comprehension and word knowledge.

"Reading to a child is one thing," Paponetti says."We are working with the child."

STEP started as a pilot program for first-grade students at Marion-Sterling School in Cleveland during the 2010-2011 school year. Shoreview Elementary was added to the mix for 2012-2013.  There's also an after-school program taking place at Warrensville Heights Library this year.

The program, funded by Cleveland Foundation and several other groups, has resulted in positive gains for its young readers, notes Paponetti. Participating students at Marion-Sterling, for example, showed improvement in all measures of reading skills compared to non-tutored students.

Further success will see future expansion of the program. "There's a beautiful simplicity to structured tutoring intervention," says Paponetti. "It could be a real tool for helping children."

 
SOURCE: Robert Paponetti
WRITER: Douglas J. Guth

Amplified Wind Solutions, a Cleveland State University company behind a wind amplification system that can produce up to six times more electricity than a typical wind turbine, won second place and $600 in the student business competition at JumpStart’s Entrepreneur Expo November 13.
 
The AWS founders are targeting the telecommunications industry. “This system can be placed on top of cell phone towers in remote and urban locations, and be used to power the equipment on site,” explains CEO Niki Zmij. “In today's world, wireless communication is growing explosively and as a result more and more towers are going up in the U.S. and abroad. Each new tower has to be powered.”
 
Amplified Wind Solutions was founded in February 2012, based on technology invented by Majid Rashidi, chair of CSU’s engineering technology department. Zmij is working on her MBA. Other company members include Terry Thiele, director of sustainable product strategies at the Lubrizol Corporation. The team recently added Jon Stehura, financial manager at Laird Technologies and former CFO of ParkOhio.
 
AWS has two prototypes -- one at CSU and one at Progressive Field -- and a third prototype in the works that will be the version marketed to the telecommunications industry.
 
Zmij was so busy at the Entrepreneur Expo that she didn’t sit down all day. “It really helped AWS gain exposure within our community as well as make important connections that will support our business development,” she says, adding that she might have found some investment leads as well. “I did speak with a few individuals in the venture capital space who thought our idea was a compelling one and are interested in learning more about our plans.”
 
In addition to the $600, AWS has the opportunity to receive mentoring from JumpStart. “The mentoring alone has an incredible value for our business development,” says Zmij. Student teams from CWRU and Kent State were also winners in the competition.

 
Source: Niki Zmij
Writer: Karin Connelly

Big River helps organizations get the most out of their online giving campaigns with a simple theory: Appeal to what the potential donors react to and they will donate. The theory apparently proves correct. The 18-month-old cloud-based online fundraising platform has won accolades from clients such as the Cleveland Museum of Art and Lorain County Metro Parks in Big River’s ability to increase online giving.
 
“It’s almost like the last 17 years of e-commerce hasn’t made itself accessible to nonprofits,” says Big River founder and CEO Ron Cass. “Nonprofits haven’t done more than PayPal. The Big River product puts the most effective appeal in front of the donor at the right time to maximize that donation.”
 
The key is telling donors what the impact of their donations will be. “They want to know what their money does,” explains Cass. “They want to know what impact their gift is going to have. We allow organizations to create donation products, and then target those asks based on the donor’s history with the organization.”
 
Big River has eight customers of varying sizes and is already generating revenue. The Cleveland Museum of Art is one fan of Big River, reporting that membership has doubled since they hired Big River.
 
One of the first companies to be a part of Bizdom’s Cleveland operation, Big River is expanding within the Bizdom offices. JumpStart announced on Tuesday, November 13th a $250,000 investment in Big River to further expand.
 
“Any time you get an investment it changes the slope of the company,” says Cass. “We are going to focus on sales, marketing and product development.”
 
In addition to adding some new tools and bringing some ideas to reality, Cass also hopes to expand his staff. “A big part of the investment is hiring -- rapidly,” he says. “Around the order of four people in marketing and development.”
 
In the meantime, Cass was impressed with the connections he made at JumpStart’s Entrepreneur Expo this week. “I spoke to a lot of people who said, ‘I know someone with this organization,’” he says. “I got about 20 leads. I was very impressed.”

 
Source: Ron Cass
Writer: Karin Connelly

"Wayfinding,” the use of signs, maps and other graphic sources of information to navigate one's surroundings, has become a vital issue in the redevelopment of our city thanks to splashy new developments and the increasing popularity of old ones.

NorTech received one of seven Regional Innovation Cluster contracts from the Small Business Administration to grow its flexible electronics cluster FlexMatters. The four-year, $385,000 contract will allow NorTech to train and assist small companies in the FlexMatters cluster in attracting larger market leaders as customers through its Anchor Customer Engagement (ACE) Academy.
 
“One of the really important things about this contract is it gives us recognition on a federal basis,” says NorTech vice president Byron Clayton. “Being nationally recognized as an emerging cluster helps us bring more federal funding to the region.”
 
This is the fourth time the FlexMatters cluster has been recognized on a national level. The ACE Academy will help give the region an upper hand in terms of both jobs and securing the first customers for new technologies.
 
“It’s designed to help small, emerging businesses capture the first significant customers,” says Clayton of the academy. “It helps them be prepared so if they do get that opportunity to present themselves, they put their best foot forward. The goal is to go away with something concrete.”
 
Success of these businesses translates into more jobs in the region. “It really helps small businesses grow and create high paying jobs in growth industries,” says Clayton. “We’re already seeing success, and we’re just getting started.”

The SBA award is for one year, with a four year renewal option.

 
Source: Byron Clayton
Writer: Karin Connelly

By design, the life of a celebrity looks effortless. But the engine that drives that lifestyle is a non-stop schedule that would sap the strength of far weaker men. I know, because I tried to keep up with celebrity chef Michael Symon during a recent visit home that included business meetings, book signings, restaurant visits and too-brief social get-togethers.

JumpStart, NorTech and the Greater Cleveland Partnership (GCP) each were recognized by the International Economic Development Council (IEDC) for their work in economic development efforts in the region with gold excellence in economic development awards.
 
JumpStart received the award for entrepreneurship, NorTech received the award for technology-based economic development, and GCP received the award for its business retention and expansion program.
 
Although each organization won in different categories, JumpStart director of communications Samantha Fryberger says it shows the unified effort put behind Cleveland’s economic success. “I think it shows a collaborative regional approach to economic development,” she says. “It recognizes that the approach we’re taking is innovative. The framework is set for a community that comes together collectively as a model.”
 
JumpStart’s efforts to support and grow technology entrepreneurs earned the organization honors. NorTech was recognized in particular for its innovation cluster models, which identify and foster growing industry groups. In the first half of 2012, the GCP’s business retention and expansion team completed 17  projects that resulted in 2,010 jobs created and 3,492 jobs retained. Thirty-three projects are now in the works.
 
Fryberger is pleased that each organization’s efforts are being recognized on a national level. “There’s a collaborative spirit of regionalism and it’s starting to get noticed,” she says. “And that’s really a great thing.”

 
Source: Samantha Fryberger
Writer: Karin Connelly

Daniel Cuffaro has been working in design for 20 years. He knows how an inspiring, eclectic workspace can act as fuel for creative minds, promoting interaction among those who essentially use their imagination for a living.

Such was the idea behind Cuffaro's founding of Abeo Design, a Lakewood-based company that builds aesthetically distinctive office/studio workstations with a sustainable bent. Unlike your typical office furniture, the spindly "Hive" workstations are designed with both functionality and adaptability in mind, Cuffaro says.

Each station is comprised of a work surface and storage shelf embedded with LED lighting. The entire unit is on wheels, making a studio or office easy to reconfigure as projects or teams change, notes Cuffaro. This is not something you could readily do with a set of hard-to-move cubicles.

"Our product is a dynamic and customizable alternative,” he says.

The workstations also fulfill a practical need. They are made of wood and other building materials reclaimed from abandoned Cleveland houses deconstructed during the foreclosure crisis. Cuffaro, head of the industrial design program at The Cleveland Institute of Art (CIA), first got the idea for Abeo in 2009 when he was developing the layout for the school's design studio. At the time, there was a growing market for raw materials harvested from foreclosed homes, so why not build CIA's studio furniture with those resources?

"I had a desire to turn a bad situation into something salvageable," Cuffaro says.

His first customer also happens to be his current employer. CIA recently purchased a handful of the $6,000-and-up workstations from Abeo, which works with Northeast Ohio companies A Piece of Cleveland and Benchmark Craftsmen to make the product a reality.

A portion of Abeo's profits will support CIA programs. Meanwhile, Cuffaro will continue to live by the company's name. In Latin, Abeo ( pronounced "a-bay-o") means "change" or "transformation." Turning trash into something of value is good for both the company and a sustainable Cleveland, he says.

 
SOURCE: Daniel Cuffaro
WRITER: Douglas J. Guth

NASA will showcase its best developments in its Space Technology Program November 28-30 at NASA Technology Days, held at Cleveland Public Auditorium. The event will allow the public to see what technological developments come out of NASA Glenn Research Center, many of which could be adopted and implemented in the private sector.
 
NASA Glenn is working with NASA’s Office of Chief Technologies, which conducts ground experiments to further space technology. “Ninety-nine NASA technologies will be showcased,” says Joe Shaw, deputy director of NASA’s Office of Technology Partnerships and Planning. “We want to demonstrate the existing technologies.”
 
Attendees will have the chance to see technologies ready for commercialization, learn about opportunities to partner with NASA on technology development and meet with major research companies.
 
The technologies featured can be transferred into a variety of industries, says Shaw, such as advanced energy, automotive, human health and innovative manufacturing. “These are technology experts showing off their technologies,” says Shaw. “Even though they were developed for space aeronautics, they can be broadly used across many sectors. These industries are extremely important, not just for Northeast Ohio, but for to the Midwest. There are a large number of people in these sectors.”
 
The hope is Technology Days will build partnerships and foster technology transfer between NASA and local businesses. “These technologies can be moved quickly to the commercial sector, which creates economic development, which creates jobs,” says Shaw. This will give companies a chance to learn about the opportunities.”
 
The event is free and open to the public.

 
Source: Joe Shaw
Writer: Karin Connelly

Last summer, leaders of the Flats Forward initiative assembled a diverse group of area stakeholders and sent them in a boat down the Cuyahoga River to talk about how they could solve their problems together.

If ever a vivid metaphor was needed, the experience provided one. "It was the first time that people from Cargill Salt were able to talk to people from the bike community in a real, honest, transparent way," says Dan Moulthrop of the Civic Commons, which helped to facilitate the event. "This was not a meeting up on the 24th floor somewhere."

The boat ride was part of an inclusive process designed to spur the revitalization of the Flats Corridor. For years, Cleveland's historic birthplace lacked an effective advocate. Now, after more than a year of work, a new group has formed.

Flats Forward Inc., Cleveland's newest community development corporation, will oversee the redevelopment of the Flats District. The group has a diverse board of stakeholders and a search is underway for an Executive Director. The group is currently housed within the offices of the Cleveland-Cuyahoga Port Authority.

At a recent meeting, Flats Forward representatives touted the East Bank project, the Port Authority's stewardship of the lake and river, the steadily advancing Towpath Trail and Rivergate Park as signs of positive progress in the area.

"When I got here, I was immediately drawn to the Flats and the industrial river valley, and I knew that the Port would get involved," said William Friedman, CEO of the Port Authority, of his organization's commitment to the Flats. "This is one of the most unique maritime environments in the world, and we can tap into that."


Source: Dan Moulthrop, William Friedman
Writer: Lee Chilcote

That's no crass come-on, but rather an effort to advocate for a Cleveland-based bike-sharing network that has become popular in a number of U.S. cities. For a small fee, bike sharing allows patrons to rent a bike at self-service sites scattered about a city, then return the bike to another site.
 
Cleveland's Office of Sustainability recently issued a request to conduct a feasibility and implementation study on the service. Minneapolis, Chicago and Chattanooga, Tenn., are among the cities that have recently launched a bike-sharing network.
 
The local push is being fronted by Bike Cleveland, a group that advocates for the rights of the local cycling community. Earlier this year, the organization teamed with University Circle Inc. and other groups to form a Bike Share Task Force.
 
By providing greater access to bikes, bike-share programs can help increase the number of people biking, decrease the amount of pollutants in the air and improve community health, says Jacob VanSickle, executive director of Bike Cleveland.

"The city has stepped up," he says of the effort. "We have to determine the model that would work in Cleveland."
 
VanSickle would like to see bike-sharing docks placed at locations with high-density populations and job rates, including rapid stations, Public Square, college campuses and the Cleveland Clinic. The bikes would typically be used for short trips -- an office worker taking a bus to Public Square, for example, could use the automated bike station instead of taking another bus to his ultimate destination.
 
Trips of less than 30 minutes would be free of charge. Those using the service more frequently could pay $50 to $70 become annually. They would be charged a fee for treks longer than a half hour.
 
Promoting bike sharing is part of creating a culture that makes a city more attractive, says VanSickle. Along with the bike-sharing program, Bike Cleveland has been advocating for bike lanes and other cycling-friendly amenities. The group plans to keep the wheels turning until more progress is made.
 
"Cities with the bike-sharing program are seen as more livable and friendly," says VanSickle. "That's something we can gain from in Cleveland."

 
SOURCE: Jacob VanSickle
WRITER: Douglas J. Guth