New Life Community and Interfaith Hospitality Network of Greater Cleveland (IHN) have come together to form Family Promise of Greater Cleveland, the largest organization in Greater Cleveland focused exclusively on helping homeless families transform their lives and achieve long-term stability while helping families remain together.

The two organizations officially merged on May 1. For the past two years, the organizations have worked to integrate staff, resources and programming to serve more families with even better outcomes at a lower cost per household served. Since 1990, New Life Community has helped more than 700 families. IHN has served more than 450 families since its shelter program was formed in 1998.

Family Promise will serve more than 100 families a year. "The goal is to definitely help families become self-sufficient and find new housing as rapidly as possible, and then maintain their housing long-term," says associate director Sarah Cruise. "By merging we've been able to combine our programming and serve more families long-term."

Two facilities -- an emergency shelter in Tremont for up to six days and interim housing in Mount Pleasant for up to six months -- a job preparedness program and case management services will give families all the resources to get back on their feet. "We're developing a relationship," says Cruise. "We can access services in the community and help with crises, the spiraling down that happens.

The home-based case management aspect of Family Promise is helping to serve more families quickly. "There is such demand for family housing," says Cruise. "By moving families faster, and individualizing the services, we're really serving families in a way that promotes long-term stability."

Source: Sarah Cruise
Writer: Karin Connelly

Good design can stop a man in his tracks. It's what makes that concert poster scream, that neon sign hum, and that brand logo unforgettable. These consumer experiences come courtesy of the creative men and women who dare to be bold, better, brilliant. Many of the brightest design minds will be headlining the second annual Weapons of Mass Creation Fest, to be held June 11 and 12.

A recent study by the Community Partnership for Arts and Culture (CPAC) examines where artists are living in Northeast Ohio. Perhaps it's no surprise that artists tend to populate urban neighborhoods where they can find spacious, affordable housing (including space for studios), walkable streets, diversity and public spaces that foster social interaction.

The report shows that Cleveland Heights is Northeast Ohio's top community for artists -- collectively, the Cedar-Fairmount, Coventry, Severance, Forest Hills, Cedar-Lee and Shaker Square neighborhoods contain 19.4 percent of the region's artists. Other artist-rich neighborhoods include Little Italy/University Circle, Lakewood and Detroit Shoreway.

Yet CPAC's report, entitled "Putting Artists on the Map," also suggests that successful artist-based community development is about more than just counting galleries or lofts where artists congregate. Artist-based development builds relationships between artists and community members, fostering lasting ties that fuel the artist's creativity while aiding the neighborhood's redevelopment.

"Artist-based community development is more than opening an art gallery or having an artist move into a neighborhood," CPAC's report states. "This type of development involves the creation of a more organic relationship between artists and their neighbors."

"This can mean a neighborhood takes steps to identify its hidden arts and culture assets by finding its gathering places and influential figures. Artists can be engaged by making beautiful and interesting public spaces and help unite residents in the process."

The report suggests that neighborhoods like Cleveland Heights, University Circle and Detroit Shoreway should gear their community development programs and policies towards promoting artist-based community development. This spring, CPAC launched its own Artist Community Development Initiative.

To complete the analysis, CPAC mined the databases of large arts organizations such as the Ohio Arts Council to determine where artists live.


Source: CPAC
Writer: Lee Chilcote

Paula McLain was a critically acclaimed yet obscure writer eking out a living as an adjunct professor at John Carroll until she came up with the idea for "The Paris Wife," a novel told from the point of view of Hadley Richardson, Ernest Hemingway's first wife. After the novel was purchased by Ballantine Books for north of $500,000, it debuted at number nine on the New York Times best-seller list and has since remained in the top 20.

It's a well known fact that institutions such as the Cleveland Clinic, Case Western Reserve University and University Hospitals are growth engines in Cleveland's economy these days. A lesser-known fact is that these institutions and others have emerged as leaders in greening Northeast Ohio's economy.

In recent months, Case, University Hospitals, Cleveland Clinic, Tri-C, Kent State, Oberlin College, Cleveland State University and the Fowler Center for Sustainable Value at Case's Weatherhead School of Management have all hired Sustainability Managers.

It's a sign that sustainability efforts -- once the domain of graduate students, volunteer committees or a staff person whose responsibilities were already stretched -- have infiltrated the culture of these organizations. These full-time staffers are responsible for implementing sustainable business practices.

Take University Hospitals (UH) as one example. Aparna Bole, a staff doctor, recently replaced an all- volunteer team that has led efforts for several years. She is now working to develop a sustainability plan, add two additional full-time staff people, and ensure that all new UH buildings meet EnergyStar standards (a 15-percent energy use reduction when compared to typical construction).

Cleveland State University (CSU) has also ramped up its sustainability efforts. Recently, CSU President Ronald Berkman signed the American College and University Presidents' Climate Commitment, requiring that CSU develop a carbon reduction goal and track carbon emissions from buildings. Nathan Engstrom, CSU's Campus Sustainability Coordinator, is responsible for leading these efforts.

The new hires indicate that Sustainable Cleveland 2019, an effort launched by the city of Cleveland and environmental groups to make Cleveland a model of sustainability, is taking root in some pretty big places.


Source: Green City Blue Lake
Writer: Lee Chilcote

MedWorks in Shaker Heights was quick to come to the rescue of those ravaged by the tornado in Joplin, Missouri, this week. MedWorks, a non-profit organization that provides free healthcare clinics for the under insured and uninsured in Ohio, sent a truck full of medical supplies to Joplin just 24 hours after the disaster.

The MedWorks team was at WKYC Channel 3 on Tuesday for an unrelated meeting. While there, a Facebook friend of reporter Eric Mansfield volunteered to put them in touch with her brother-in-law, a doctor in Joplin who was working at a triage center.

With that, MedWorks founder Zac Ponsky and his team set to work compiling everything from disposable gloves and bandages to crutches and canes and other medical supplies. The supplies were put on a truck donated by Berman Moving and Storage in Cleveland along with numerous palettes of drinking water donated by Giant Eagle.

"It was just a matter of being in the right place at the right time," says MedWorks office manager Alyson Andrassy. "It was communication, the right resources and the right place. Our goal is to find a need and fill it. We're trying to be that liaison between Joplin and Ohio."

The truck left at 6:30 p.m. Monday, while Ponsky and director of operations Julie Namy were on a plane to Joplin Tuesday to further evaluate what is needed. "They will see who needs what and where," says Andrassy. "When the truck arrives the supplies will be distributed where it's needed most and they will assess what volunteers are needed and if they need other supplies."

Source: Alyson Andrassy
Writer: Karin Connelly

Cleveland rowers know the Cuyahoga River offers one of the most interesting and challenging race courses anywhere. Beneath the backdrop of the Terminal Tower, gritty piles of gravel, and lift bridges stained with a patina of rust, rowers navigate five major twists and turns, including an S-shaped curve, before reaching the finish line.

Soon, a national rowing audience will be exposed to these challenges too. At last week's ribbon-cutting ceremony for the $3 million Rivergate Park on the Columbus Road peninsula in the Flats, the Greater Cleveland Sports Commission and Cleveland Rowing Foundation announced that they have partnered with USRowing to create a national championship rowing competition.

The first USRowing Masters Head Race National Championship is set for September 16th, 2012 on the Cuyahoga River. Rowers will race in 5,000-meter sweep (one-oar) and sculling (two-oar) competitions.

In a press release, USRowing stated that Cleveland was a natural choice for the inaugural event due to its central location, challenging course and the community's history of support of amateur and national sporting events.

At the ribbon-cutting ceremony, Greater Cleveland Sports Commission CEO David Gilbert touted the economic impact that the rowing event would bring to the community. The sports commission has said that it has brought $300 million in economic activity to Northeast Ohio since it was created.


Source: Greater Cleveland Sports Commission, Cleveland Rowing Foundation, USRowing
Writer: Lee Chilcote

For 26 years, Nanofilm has been creating formulas for cleaning products and optical coatings in Valley View. Similarly, SDG Inc. in the Cleveland Clinic's Innovation Center has spent the last 16 years developing nanotechnologies in the medical and healthcare fields.

Until recently, the two were unaware of the each other's existence. Then, at a nanotechnologies networking meeting run by Polymer Ohio, Nanofilm's president and CEO Scott Rickert and SDG co-founder and senior vice president Robert Geho crossed paths. The meeting was the beginning of partnership in which each company brings their talents to the table to develop new products.

In early May Nanofilm and SDG Inc. signed a comprehensive joint development and licensing agreement to develop and commercialize nano-formulas that combine the two companies' technologies. Among the planned projects is development of technology to control the release and toxicity of bio-active agents at the nano-scale. Potential applications include longer lasting anti-bacterial surface treatments.

"I'm very excited about this," says Rickert. "Up until this point we have not had any way to do anything unique in the medicine and healthcare markets. We both have experience in the technology, but didn't know the other one's areas. This will allow us to take polymer films and make bioactive products that make our lives better and safer."

Rickert sees huge growth potential in the partnership. "It's going to be huge," he says. "Every time we come out with a new product announcement I see us hiring 20 more people." Rickert says they hope to announce their first new product development sometime this year.

Source: Scott Rickert

Writer: Karin Connelly

The Center for Public History and Digital Humanities at Cleveland State University has made Cleveland history easily accessible with the launch of Cleveland Historical 2.0. The free mobile app is a combination of archival footage of Cleveland neighborhoods in the 1930s and 1940s as well as a comprehensive oral history.

"Imagine Cleveland as a living museum and we're trying to curate it," says Mark Tebeau, associate professor of history and co-director of the Center for Public History. "We're finding ways in which our own stories help us understand Cleveland better."

The app includes more than 700 interviews as part of the Cleveland Regional Oral History Collection and is a result of the combined effort by teachers, students, historians and community members. The organization has also posted many of the video oral histories on You Tube.

"As far as we know, no one else is using video for oral histories in this way," says Tebeau. "These are really great expert interviews. If you don't record it, you lose their voices."

The project has been recognized by the National Council on Public History as one of the best in the world, and received an honorable mention in the 2011 Outstanding Public History Project awards.

Tebeau has received requests worldwide to create similar apps in other cities. He is helping Spokane with a similar project through Eastern Washington University in Cheney, Washington. Locally, he is currently working with the Detroit Shoreway and Gordon Square Arts District to build their walking tours into the app for Gordon Square Arts Day on June 11, as well as Cleveland Heights Historical Society and the Downtown Cleveland Alliance.

Source: Mark Tebeau
Writer: Karin Connelly

On Tuesday's "Good Morning America" show, host Robin Roberts catches up with the Food Network's "Great Food Truck Race." Taped in Denver, the video segment follows along as host Tyler Florence presents the competing trucks with their challenge for the day. Cleveland's Chris Hodgson of Hodge Podge truck, along with the other trucks, are tasked with creating an original dish starring morel mushrooms foraged by their own hands. In the meantime, Hodgson "Rocks out a little breakfast!" for Roberts.

"Flour Girl" Bridget Cavanaugh Thiebault creates artfully decorated cakes, cookies and pastries that are as dreamy to gaze upon as they are to devour. In the past, however, her delectable confections were available only through custom orders or at special events. You practically had to get married to have a taste.

That will change later this month when Thiebault opens Luna Bakery and Café in the Cedar-Fairmount district of Cleveland Heights. Partnering with Stone Oven owners Tatyana Rehn and John Emerman, Thiebault has created an intimate, full-service café that will feature Flour Girl's made-from-scratch pastries, breakfast, lunch and dinner options, and for those who didn't get invited to the wedding, cake by the slice.

Thiebault lived and worked in New York City and Chicago as a pastry chef, food stylist and culinary consultant before returning to her hometown of Cleveland Heights to launch Flour Girl. Her business began as a creative side project while Thiebault was still living in the Big Apple, but quickly morphed into her main dish and has been going strong ever since.

Thiebault was looking for an opportunity to expand her business into a storefront when she broached the topic with Rehn and Emerman of the popular Stone Oven group of local cafes. The successful owners loved the idea and agreed to help. They promise that Luna will have its own distinctive identity, and won't try to duplicate Stone Oven's signature sandwiches, salads and soups.

Luna Bakery and Café will have indoor seating for about 15, with a sidewalk patio during the summer months. It will be open seven days a week and in the evenings.

Luna will be located at 2482 Fairmount Boulevard.


Source: Flour Girl
Writer: Lee Chilcote

Explorys has formed one of the largest healthcare databases in the world, helping medical professionals provide better patient care and diagnoses. Spun off from the Cleveland Clinic in 2009 by Charlie Lougheed and Stephen McHale, Explorys has become one of the world's largest data platforms with over three billion clinical events and partner agreements with major healthcare systems that span over 10 million patients nationwide.

In its short life, Explorys has gotten six major healthcare providers on board, with the likes of Cleveland Clinic, University Hospitals, Summa Health System, MetroHealth and MedStar. These providers use Explorys solutions to discover actionable correlations and trends in treatments and outcomes to improve safety, increase quality, and to create cost efficiencies in delivering care.

"Explorys takes the data and puts it on a larger scale," says Lougheed. "We're changing the game in terms of how we treat populations and sub-populations of patients."

The company has grown to 25 employees. "We plan to double by the end of the year and double again next year," says Lougheed. "It's all in Cleveland and they're all high-tech jobs. We're pretty excited about what we can do in the community. We think we can grow this company into the hundreds in Northeast Ohio."

That growth will be possible thanks to $11.5 million in Series C financing led by Austin Ventures and Foundation Medical Partners, with follow-on investments from Santé Ventures and Cleveland Clinic.

"The validation that came from a group like Austin Ventures in a Cleveland-based company was really fulfilling," says Lougheed. "Others outside of Ohio really do see a good thing happening in this part of the country."


Source: Charlie Lougheed
Writer: Karin Connelly

Old Brooklyn has long been considered a hidden gem by its residents. Minutes from downtown and within walking distance of the Cleveland Metroparks Zoo, the neighborhood boasts quiet, tree-lined streets and a bevy of independent shops and friendly taverns.

Yet neighborhood advocates are hoping it won't be a well-kept secret much longer. That's why they've organized Pop Up Pearl, a one day block party that will fill the empty storefronts on Pearl Avenue with shops, entertainment and food vendors, and invited their neighbors to join in the festivities.

The event, which is modeled after the Better Block project in Dallas, Texas, is intended to act as a living charrette that allows visitors, residents and property owners to imagine a more vibrant future for Old Brooklyn's downtown. They're also hoping to attract investment after the party is over.

Pop Up Pearl, which was spearheaded by the Old Brooklyn Community Development Corporation (OBCDC), takes place on Pearl Road between Wildlife Way and State Road this Saturday, May 21st from noon until dusk. It will include a "complete streets" demonstration, adding temporary bike lanes along Pearl Road. Entertainment from Progressive Arts Alliance and other groups also is planned.

Pop Up Pearl will also feature a youth arts studio with zoo-themed artwork from local nonprofit ArtHouse, artwork fashioned from recycled materials from Nicole McGee of Plenty Underfoot, and a shop filled with 100 percent locally made goods from Crafty Goodness in Lakewood.

The Better Block project began when a grassroots group transformed a city street in Oak Cliff, Texas into an inclusive, pedestrian- and bike-friendly street. Better Blocks projects "increase the perception of safety in an area, stimulate economic activity in vacant or blighted corridors and help to implement 'Complete Streets' projects," according to the group's website.


Source: Old Brooklyn Community Development Corporation
Writer: Lee Chilcote

When Cleveland's Group Plan was created a century ago, Teddy Roosevelt was President, Tom Johnson was Mayor, and the Rockefeller family still lived in town. Back then, architect Daniel Burnham envisioned a kind of outdoor civic living room that promenaded to the lakefront beneath gracious classical buildings.

Needless to say, much has happened since then. Today, Public Square and the Mall are often desolate spaces one must walk through to reach downtown's bustling centers of gravity -- the Warehouse District, East Fourth Street and the Gateway District.

Yet last year, Mayor Frank Jackson convened a group of civic, foundation, corporate and sports leaders to envision a new Group Plan for downtown. With $1.5 billion in physical development either planned or already underway downtown, civic leaders recognized that a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity would be lost if the Medical Mart, casino and other projects weren't better connected via improved public spaces.

The Group Plan Commission recently released its recommendations, which include radical changes that if implemented would alter Cleveland's downtown for another 100 years.

Recommendations include removing Ontario Street as an artery through Public Square and allowing East Fourth Street and casino patrons to stroll through a new, signature public space; rebuilding the Mall so that it is transformed into a beautiful park for both visitors and residents; building a pedestrian bridge from the Mall's northern end to Cleveland's lakefront; and closing East Third Street between Rockwell and Superior so that it can become a green space and winter skating rink.

The Group Plan Commission is currently updating the plan and preparing to begin raising funds. To have your say, visit the public input stations at City Hall, Cleveland State University and Cleveland Public Library as well as this website.


Source: The Group Plan Commission
Writer: Lee Chilcote