Talent : For Good

The Children’s Home of Cincinnati is taking the steps needed to become a national leader in health care integration. 

“There are more examples of policies that say we need to do health care integration than there are of actual examples of organizations that have done this and done this well, which tells you The Children’s Home is pretty cutting-edge,” says Barbara Terry, vice president of health care integration at The Children’s Home.

Terry, who says she is passionate about health from a holistic standpoint, has 35 years of experience and recently joined The Children’s Home to help the organization introduce physical health care to its already existing mental health care programs. But she says she is not the only one responsible for the idea of health care integration.

“They’ve certainly been reading the tea leaves and saying, ‘We should think about systems—plural—in this community,’” Terry says. “So you think about mental health, education and human services as systems. We really need to figure out how we integrate systems so that vulnerable children get the care they need—the right care at the right place at the right time—and that becomes huge.” 

For Terry, education and prevention are key. 

“We know that individuals who face challenges in the mental health arena—typically as they get older—they have tremendous chronic health problems,” says Terry, who attributes the issue to a difficulty in navigating an array of disconnected systems. 

To address that issue, Terry envisions a system that recognizes that the mind and body cannot be separated. And while the idea might begin with The Children’s Home, she says the effort needs to span across the community. 

“This isn’t just The Children’s Home—it’s about children and adolescents in our larger community,” Terry says. “They’ve been willing to invest in me and invest in this approach, but my vision would be that we need to work with the community. We need to help share successes with the community so that we can say, ‘How can this spread?’ I don’t want the work to be insular. We have to appreciate community here.” 

Do Good: 

• Get involved by contributing items on The Children's Home's wishlist. 

• Volunteer with The Children's Home.

• Assist The Children's Home by donating or supporting a classroom.

By Brittany York

Brittany York is a professor of English composition at the University of Cincinnati and a teacher at the Regional Institute of Torah and Secular Studies. She also edits the For Good section of SoapboxMedia. 

For children at the Clovernook Center for the Blind and Visually Impaired, Discovery Youth Summer Day Camps allow them to further their own skills and knowledge while also bettering the community. 

From technology and art activities to life skills and neighborhood involvement, campers can engage their senses while tapping into areas that they might not have otherwise had the opportunity to explore. 

Participants at art camp, which ended this past week, have no vision, limited vision or are losing their vision. They created pieces that sparked dialogue about what it means to be part of a larger community. One project involved the campers creating wind chimes made of cat and dog clay cutouts. The kids then donated them to the SPCA of Cincinnati to sell. 

“They enjoyed it, but it was very sad,” Art Instructor Scott Wallace says of the children’s visit to the SPCA. “It gave me an opportunity to go into this whole thing about art in terms of how some of the greatest art is not the world’s prettiest, and some art talks about issues and things that are going on and some things that are not great, so it gave us the chance to talk about what’s important.” 

Campers also worked together to create a colorful heart made from recycled bottle caps—which can be dangerous if left as trash—as a statement about healthy communities. 

“What’s happening is—wild birds are eating them—and they can’t digest them,” Wallace says. “So it’s killing them. It’s so much about recycling. You can take the most insignificant material and make great art.” 

Two of the children who worked to create the bottle piece project are totally blind, but by working together with other campers, they were able to create a beautiful display. It's what Wallace enjoys the most because he’s not so much an instructor as he is a facilitator. 

“For people who have never had vision—their approach is totally different—because they have a certain way of working and a certain level of expectation for their work, and they’re completely cool with it,” Wallace says. “The blind community and the people who’ve never had vision are fine. I think they get tired of us trying to instill our beliefs, but what I like to do is make the best of the vision they have left. And I just sit back and let them do their thing, but it really shows what community can do.” 

Do Good: 

• Like the Clovernook Center on Facebook, and keep an eye out for photos of campers' art work.

• Support the Clovernook Center by donating.

• Get invovled by volunteering.

By Brittany York

Brittany York is a professor of English composition at the University of Cincinnati and a teacher at the Regional Institute of Torah and Secular Studies. She also edits the For Good section of SoapboxMedia. 

When Will Hillenbrand was growing up in College Hill, he spent a lot of time reading picture books at the library, which would make him late for his baseball games at next-door Crawford Field.

“You may wonder, ‘How do we encounter art in our lives?’" Hillenbrand says. "And actually, it’s all around us. We might not realize it; however, the art that engaged me was through storytelling.” 

The library was critical in Hillenbrand’s journey as an illustrator and writer, but his journey actually started at his father's barber shop, where he spent time listening to “big fish stories."

“One way I’d kind of disappear in the background easily would be during the summer because my mom would make my dad a hot lunch, and I’d walk it up to the barber shop,” Hillenbrand says. “I’d walk the lunch up there and put it in the hall closet and then sit under the air conditioner and try to become part of the wallpaper.” 

Hillenbrand says he remembers one of the other barbers talking to a customer about his other job, which was cutting down trees, and how it was similar to cutting hair. 

“So if I were hearing something in that little synopsis, I might end up going home and drawing a person with a forest on their head and a barber cutting it, but it’s comical,” Hillenbrand says. 

As a child, Hillenbrand had the exposure and opportunity to not only fall in love with his craft, but also to practice it. And it’s this same opportunity that he’s now offering to other children. 

From now until the end of August, children have the chance to submit artwork that depicts their heroes for consideration in Hillenbrand’s e-book, which is entitled Everyday Heroes: Local Children and the People Who Inspire Them.

“What we’re interested in are characters that fall and get up and show us how they manage their challenges and struggles,” Hillenbrand says. “And we cheer for them and want them to do it, and for children, we want to be able to give them opportunities to share.” 

Hillenbrand has hosted two workshops at the Public Library of Cincinnati and Hamilton County thus far, and children have been able to not only brainstorm, but also to dabble in digital media.

“There was a bridge that the children and I kind of walked back and forth across—it wasn’t a podium—it’s not that kind of thing,” Hillenbrand says. “And the library’s a great context because around the walls, you’ve got idea people—ideas that might be a first story—and when they participate, their ideas are validated, and they can feel like, ‘I’m an idea person, too,’ and isn’t that a good feeling?” 

Clarence Elkins has now spent the past seven and a half years in his home and around those he loves, which is as much time as he spent behind bars for crimes he did not commit.

About 15 years ago, Elkins was arrested and taken to county jail, and was later convicted and sentenced to life in prison for murder and rape. On Dec. 15, 2005, almost eight years later, Elkins was exonerated by DNA testing, thanks in large part to the countless hours of work invested by the University of Cincinnati’s Ohio Innocence Project—a team of students that fights for the wrongfully imprisoned.

When Elkins first heard the guilty verdict read, he says it took some time to sink in because he kept trying to convince himself that he was trapped in a nightmare or a horrible dream. 

“I just thought that it would be over soon, but that wasn’t the case,” Elkins says. “After I was sent to prison, it dawned on me that it was for real, and it wasn’t a nightmare and how tragic the injustice was—not only on me but on my entire family.” 

In hopes of helping to alleviate that burden on other innocent individuals and their families, Elkins and his wife, Molly, donate $5,000 per year to the OIP. In the past 10 years, OIP has helped 16 individuals like Elkins remember what it’s like to be free.  

The gift, which helps top-performing OIP students further their educations, is more than just a scholarship. For Elkins, it’s a token of his appreciation. 

“The students were always—they’d give me hope, and they were so kind—they do great things for people, and not only the people that have the injustices upon them, but their families as well,” Elkins says. “They cared enough about me to look into the injustice that happened to me. I was raised in believing you get what you give—and I always believe that, and that’s what I want to do. I just want to give back to those that give to me—that help me.” 

Twenty-five years ago, a group of African American women in Cincinnati came together to begin Advocates for Youth Education. 

“There were three ringleaders who decided, ‘You know what, ladies? We can do this,’ so they just invented AYE and got their friends to join them,” says Kathy Merchant, who serves as president and CEO of the Greater Cincinnati Foundation and who is also an AYE member. 

Like the other 39 AYE members, Merchant’s role is completely voluntary, and it involves donating money out of her own pocket each year to help fund scholarships for minority students who excel in academics and community service.

Through her work with GCF, Merchant says she studies how to eliminate or reduce racial disparities in a community.

“It’s one of the things we’ve studied hardest,” Merchant says. “Making scholarship money available is absolutely one of the ways, so it’s a full circle type of experience for me.” 

This year, AYE's group of 40 women was able to donate $50,000 dollars to assist 17 students. 

“Even after you’ve pieced together absolutely everything that exists, from government loans and the myriad of checkerboard things available to students, there’s still a gap,” Merchant says. “Data shows that the gap on average is about $4,000 if you’re just talking about the cost of public universities. These grants don’t quite get that high, but they go a long distance toward that make-or-break last dollar between what it takes to go to school and actually being able to do it.” 

Merchant sees evidence of the program's value on the faces of parents at the annual awards dinner.

“It’s hard not to go there and cry,” Merchant says. “A lot of these kids are from single-parent houses, and their parents go to the dinner and are choked up because of how happy they are that someone would want to help their child.” 

Do Good: 

• Contribute to a larger scale scholarship fund, such as the Cincinnati Scholarship Foundation.

• Connect with an organization like the Cincinnati Youth Collaborative to find a student to mentor. 

• Serve as a volunteer tutor at a nearby school.

By Brittany York

Brittany York is a professor of English composition at the University of Cincinnati and a teacher at the Regional Institute of Torah and Secular Studies. She also edits the For Good section of SoapboxMedia.

At Camp Carnegie, children from around the region come together to brainstorm, write a script, perform a play and create their own scenery and costumes. Still, for Alissa Paasch, who serves as the camp's education director, the goal is not to make sure that every child becomes an artist.

Instead, she hopes that young people involved "become well-rounded human beings who know how to communicate, problem solve, who care about each other, and who are using the arts to spur their interest in the world.”  

Through this year’s theme, Opposite Land, participants use their imaginations to prompt one another’s creative instincts. Paasch says the children’s caring attitudes find ways to the forefront through the process. 

“It’s so much about cooperation and collaboration, and we’re always discussing and responding to things,” Paasch says. “We were doing an activity about imagination and how important it is for us to imagine things and use our theater tools to bring it to life, so then as we were talking, we’re saying why it’s important to keep using our imagination, keep it fresh—even as adults—and one little girl says, ‘In order to care about or work with others, you have to be able to imagine how they feel so you can actually make the right choices.’”

It’s these kinds of moments, Paasch says, that make her realize that even as a teacher who plans each lesson, she can learn from the young participants. 

The artistic process at Camp Carnegie enables children not only to learn and grow with one another, but to experience theater and all its elements in just two weeks, which culminates with their own original productions.

“We want to make sure they understand there’s a lot of hard work and perseverance that has to go into creating a piece of theater,” Paasch says. “We want them to feel proud of all the work they’ve done at the end.” 

Do Good:

• Purchase a ticket to Suits that Rock to support The Carnegie's educational programming. 

• Attend a performance to support the summer campers' work. Choose a session and attend on the final day of the workshop at 4:30 p.m.

• Support The Carnegie by donating. 

By Brittany York

Brittany York is a professor of English composition at the University of Cincinnati and a teacher at the Regional Institute of Torah and Secular Studies. She also edits the For Good section of SoapboxMedia.

Ellen Muse-Lindeman, who has served as executive director of the Kennedy Heights Arts Center since 2008, says the work she does to help build community through the arts is the essence of why she loves the neighborhood in which she works and where she’s chosen to raise her family.

Muse-Lindeman, who moved to Cincinnati in the ‘90s and now lives in Pleasant Ridge, lives within walking distance of the arts center and says she values her diverse and active neighbors.
 
“The folks are really involved,” Muse-Lindeman says.

And that’s evident through the center’s origin story. It was founded by residents who came together to save the historic Kennedy Mansion from demolition. They not only succeeded, but they turned it into an engaging enterprise for the community and others to enjoy.

“That kind of spirit is the foundation of the arts center and still is a big part of what it’s about in terms of bringing people together,” Muse-Lindeman says. “Arts and culture build a stronger community and make a neighborhood a better place to live.” 

Each year, the KHAC engages the public in a variety of ways from exhibitions, classes, camps and even an annual artist-in-residence program.

“We are really looking to not only present a wide range of media and different subject matter through our galleries, and to feature both regional artists and artists from outside of the region,” Muse-Lindeman says. “But in particular, we have a goal of presenting exhibits that create dialogue and that build connections between artists and communities.” 

The center’s current exhibition, Visible Voices, merges visual art with poetry. 

“We’ll be successful in this exhibit if we engage people in terms of not only experiencing the artwork, but also in connecting with one another,” Muse-Lindeman says. “That’s ultimately what we’re aiming to do, and to also really nurture that relationship between artists and their community and to provide opportunities to work and to encourage that ongoing collaboration.” 

Do Good: 

• View the current exhibition, Visible Voices, and attend an artist talk or poetry reading. 

• Donate to the Kennedy Heights Arts Center.

• Volunteer at the center. 

By Brittany York

Brittany York is a professor of English composition at the University of Cincinnati and a teacher at the Regional Institute of Torah and Secular Studies. She also edits the For Good section of SoapboxMedia.

For the past seven years, elementary students from local schools have been learning about personal finance and the ways a market functions. 

“A lot of adults don’t understand how a market works, and these kids can tell you exactly how a market works,” says Julia Heath, director of the Economics Center at the University of Cincinnati. “A lot of people think the government controls prices or the sellers control prices and nobody else controls it, but that’s not true—it’s a market that determines the prices—and these kids know that.”

The students know the principles of a market because each year, they get to participate in the Student Enterprise Program’s Market Madness, where they’re given the opportunity to create and sell products. 

This year’s theme was based on recyclable materials and re-use, so students created things like bookmarks, bracelets, stress balls, notebooks and magnets.

“Some have their products laid out and are walking around with sandwich boards marketing their products, while others are buyers," Heath says. "Then halfway through the round, an air horn sounds, and the sellers then have an opportunity to change their price. So they see a market at work, and they know that if they’re selling things like crazy off their table, then they need to raise their price. If nobody’s coming by, they need to lower their price or increase their marketing.” 

Students also have the opportunity to take a college tour at UC, which Heath says is important because it allows them to envision themselves on a college campus and see if it’s the right fit for their own futures.

Market Madness is an annual event, but throughout the year, StEP’s director, Erin Harris, is busy with the program’s student-run businesses within their own classrooms. 

“They can earn money through their business by good behavior, good attendance and good grades,” Heath says. “And then four times a year, we go to the school with a truck that’s got a bunch of stuff in it, and students then make a decision about whether they want to spend their money, save their money or donate their money.” 

For Heath, it’s wonderful that students are learning economics principles, but the most gratifying aspect of StEP, she says, is students’ willingness to donate rather than save their money for a big purchase like an mp3 player or digital camera at the end of the year.

“Our most economically challenged schools are often our highest donators,” Heath says. “The class suggests the organization that will get their donations, and often it’s something they’ve had direct contact with—like they’ll choose the Alzheimer’s Association because one or two of the kids has had a grandparent that’s been stricken, or they choose Children’s Hospital because they had a classmate who spent a lot of time there, or they’ll choose the March of Dimes because their sibling has been affected. It’s really quite remarkable.”

Starting her own theater company is something Catie O’Keefe says she’s always wanted to do. 

“There’s that internal drive where you want that control for what’s being put on, or you want to see new things being developed,” O’Keefe says. 

Though that drive is nothing new, O'Keefe's playwriting ventures didn’t begin until she found she was getting bored with the characters she played in her high school’s musicals. So, she wrote new characters, and, at the age of 16, started turning them into plays.

From 2006-2010, when O’Keefe was living in London and pursuing a master’s degree in playwriting, she started formulating ideas for her future company. And when she moved to Cincinnati, she decided it was time to move forward with her vision and make something happen.

That something is Shark Eat Muffin Theatre Company. 

“Cincinnati has a big theater scene, but it’s mainly well-established companies, and there’s some new companies doing some well-known works. I wanted to give a focus to new playwrights and make it a learning experience in a professional environment,” O’Keefe says. 

Shark Eat Muffin’s first production enabled a McAuley High School student—now graduated—and an older gentleman whom she says had been writing a while but who had missed opportunities to take her class at New Edgecliff Theatre, to present their work on stage for the first time. 

“It’s really difficult to fill the gap of you having a reading of your play, but then what happens?" she says. "How many readings do you have before it’s finally put on stage?”

Shark Eat Muffin’s second production this season, The Space Between my Head and my Body, made its United States debut Thursday at the 2013 Cincinnati Fringe Festival. O’Keefe wrote the play about six years ago, and it opened in London, transferred to the 2008 Edinburgh Fringe Festival and was then published by an American company in 2011. 

“We did a lot of workshops about identity and that feeling of finding yourself—what you look at might not be what someone else sees when they look at the same thing,” O’Keefe says. 

Bringing her play from Europe to the U.S. is the first step in creating a company that fulfills O’Keefe’s goal of international fluidity for Shark Eat Muffin. 

“We’re kind of starting the beginning of a project where we bring a couple of actors from London to perform in Ohio and move in that direction of connecting different cultures and different people from different places,” O’Keefe says. “Bringing them together to perform great theater is our ultimate goal.” 

Do Good: 

• Like Shark Eat Muffin Theatre Company on Facebook, and tell a friend.

• Attend a showing of The Space Between my Head and my Body at the 2013 Cincinnati Fringe Festival.

• Support Shark Eat Muffin by making a donation.

By Brittany York

Brittany York is a professor of English composition at the University of Cincinnati and a teacher at the Regional Institute of Torah and Secular Studies. She also edits the For Good section of SoapboxMedia. 

When Jonathan Sears was 16 or 17, he says he was introduced to his saving grace: the idea that he could make a living by doing what he loved.

“I wasn’t the most well-behaved student growing up, but I was always in to art,” Sears says. “I was always drawing and getting into trouble that way.” 

When his mother introduced him to graphic design, he says his interest was piqued. And that’s what he now wants to do for others with Professional Artistic Research Projects, which he co-founded in 2010. 

“There’s only elementary schools in Northside—there’s no middle school or high school programming—so things are kind of wide open,” Sears says. “A lot of the budding adults really don’t have good resources to tap into that can help further their education, help further their creativity. So the idea is to teach practical arts training—we’ll delve into things like website building, blog maintaining—things of that nature that can maybe spark some interest in creative fields, but aren’t necessarily only painting classes or only drawing classes.” 

PAR Projects consistently finds new and creative ways to engage the public in fine arts (for example, there is an “urban-sculpture-maze-of-corn-discovery-experience” in the works), with the ultimate goal being to secure funds for an Art and Education Center for Northside. 

Sears says the organization hopes to break ground, or at least have all funds secured by the end of the year. But construction will begin in September on a mobile facility, which will be part of the education center. It will function as a portable classroom and a gallery space. 

“For me, I see myself as one of those people who directly benefited from what I’m trying to give back,” Sears says. “There’s so many ways you can engage people with the arts—coordinating galleries and events or working in a museum—just different creative outlets we’re hoping to inspire.” 

Through education and exchange programs, in addition to efforts to engage the public in cultural events, The Greater Cincinnati World Affairs Council works to make region to be a successful global leader.

“We always say it starts with a handshake and an exchange of ideas to open up a really good relationship for people,” says Katie Krafka, GCWAC manager of operations and education programs. “So the more other people know and the more that Cincinnati is global, the more we can function as an international city someday.” 

The organization has broadened its reach over the past few years, Krafka says, as it only reached about 500 students in 2011. But in 2012, it reached out to more than 2,000 students. 

In 2012, the organization launched Global Classrooms, in which international students living in the city went to elementary school classrooms to share their cultures with others. 

“It’s more than geography, government, religion—we go in with coloring pages, music, food—and we talk about other cultures,” Krafka says. “It’s really impactful because students can relate to another student.”

Though Global Classrooms is aimed at a younger audience, the GCWAC reaches out to all age levels, including adults. But its most unique program, Krafka says, is Model APEC, which is similar to Model UN, but focuses instead on Asian Pacific countries. 

“No other Council does this in the country,” Krafka says. “It’s when student teams claim a country, and they research a topic like water rights, land use, trading or security, and they get together with other claimed economies in other schools and they debate and pass resolutions.” 

Krafka says the nonprofit’s vision is for everyone in the region to have at least one international experience in their lifetime, whether it’s through an educational program or discussion, eating international food or gaining an international relationship by hosting a visitor.

“We want every person to have a global mindset of some sort and be able to think more critically about the world around them,” Krafka says. “Once people meet someone from a different country and they can relate to them, speak to them, get to know them just a little bit, it breaks down these stereotypes and different walls we might not even know we have built up, so when you hear about things happening in other countries, you feel a lot more connected and sympathetic.” 

Nestled between Great American Ballpark and Paul Brown Stadium, Smale Riverfront Park provides the public with everything from green space and gardens to bike paths, fountains, a labyrinth and porch swings that face the Ohio River and allow family and friends to sit back and relax. 

For Deb Allison, Cincinnati Parks’ business service manager, the space serves as “the front doorstep, not only to Cincinnati, but also to the state of Ohio.” 

To encourage more visitors to embrace the landscape, events will take place from now through mid-September to promote family-friendly fun this summer. 

“The Greater Cincinnati Foundation was kind enough to support this new series, in partnership with the Cincinnati Parks Foundation, so we’ve been able to put together this amazing lineup,” Allison says. 

The lineup includes events that are divided in three different areas—music, theater and movies—the latter of which Allison says she’s particularly excited about. 

“They’re not all just kid movies, but they’re all kid-friendly, so the entire family will enjoy,” Allison says. 

Brave is the next scheduled film, set to air the evening of May 31. 

Allison says families are sometimes hesitant when it comes to navigating the area and finding parking, but she says she doesn’t want that to discourage them. Most events are scheduled for non-Reds game days, so parking is more available and less expensive.

“Smale Riverfront Park can not only act as the backyard for the residents and citizens of Cincinnati, but it can also act as a destination place for people who have never been or that are coming for the first time,” Allison says. “It’s an amazing, unique oasis and should be explored and experienced by everyone.” 

Do Good:

• Attend Family Summer Fun events at Smale Riverfront Park.

• Contribute to the evolution of Smale Riverfront Park by voicing your opinion about what you'd like to see on the park's new carousel, coming in 2015.

• Get involved and contribute.

By Brittany York

Brittany York is a professor of English composition at the University of Cincinnati and a teacher at the Regional Institute of Torah and Secular Studies. She also edits the For Good section of SoapboxMedia. 

About seven years ago, Crossroads began a transformation that positioned it as more than just a church. Its vision was to focus on ways in which it could serve others—in not just the community, but across the world.
 
Crossroads’ work with GO South Africa was making an impact in the lives of those battling poverty and HIV/AIDS, but at the same time, volunteers began to think about their roles in their own community.
 
Modeled after GO South Africa, a team of volunteers initiated GO Cincinnati. It's an outreach activity that started out with about 1,200 volunteers who completed 65 projects throughout Greater Cincinnati in a single day for nonprofits.
 
“People really connected with the idea of serving their city, and on the front line serving those in need,” says Kelley Kruyer, director of Cincinnati ReachOut projects and leader of GO Cincinnati. “They’re doing the hard work every single day, so we thought it would be cool to thank them for the work they do in our community.”
 
This year, 7,000 volunteers will combine forces on May 18 to complete 400 projects that range from painting and landscaping to putting up drywall and serving meals.
 
According to Kruyer, the best parts of GO Cincinnati are the long-term relationships Crossroads has formed over the years with the organizations it serves.
 
“We know their buildings, their properties, their needs, and we know how to best help them, so sometimes we put together a multi-year plan, and it gives them the peace of mind and helps them to budget so they don’t have to spend money on things that we’re happy to help with,” Kruyer says. “It’s just a really special day.”
 
Kruyer, who grew up in Northern Kentucky, left her hometown in the ‘80s. During that 10-year period of her life, she says she wondered what she was doing because everyone and everything she loved was here. She says that's the kind of passion for the city that drives Crossroads to engage and reach out.
 
“We love our city—and by Cincinnati, we mean all of it—from Burlington to Middletown to Amelia to Cleves—the whole Greater Cincinnati and Northern Kentucky area,” Kruyer says. "We’re just totally committed to making it one of the best places in the country to live.” 

Do Good:

• Find a nonprofit that interests you and lend a helping hand.

• Assist Crossroads in its volunteer efforts throughout the year.

• Like Crossroads on Facebook.

By Brittany York

Brittany York is a professor of English composition at the University of Cincinnati and a teacher at the Regional Institute of Torah and Secular Studies. She also edits the For Good section of SoapboxMedia. 

Designers, do-it-yourselfers, the environmentally friendly and people who generally enjoy a good time will gather May 17 for Northside’s fourth annual ReUse-apalooza.
 
Building Value and its parent-organization, Easter Seals TriState, host the annual event to raise awareness about reuse and to support on-the-job training and other programs that assist people with disabilities.

This year’s event will include the Designer Challenge, which highlights some of the work BV does. The organization reuses building materials to create everything from useful pieces for the home to works of art.
 
Items will also be up for auction, and according to Lisa Doxsee, communications manager for EST and BV, it’s a way to “assist individuals with disabilities and disadvantages to more fully live, learn, work and play in their communities.”
 
Each year, the event raises close to $30,000 of unrestricted funds, which allows the closely connected nonprofits to further their missions by enabling individuals who might otherwise have difficult times securing employment to learn necessary skills and gain experience.
 
“They just can’t seem to get both feet on the ground at the same time, and they just need some assistance in getting the education or the training they need and the opportunity to learn,” Doxsee says. “When they do, they’re able to move out and get their own jobs and fully support themselves and often start to train others—it’s really a cool thing to watch.”
 
Not only does BV help put people to work, but the organization also helps keep materials out of area landfills.
 
“What we do is go into a home, and maybe you wanted a new kitchen cabinet set, so we take out your kitchen cabinets in a way that it can be reused and resold,” Doxsee says. “We’ve taken down full homes and salvaged 60 to 70 percent of the home with the lumber and products that come out of that.”
 
The ultimate goal, however, is to provide the ability to succeed to those who have encountered barriers in the past—whether those barriers be physical, mental, economic or educational.
 
“We believe that every person deserves to feel the thrill of success—no matter what that success is,” Doxsee says. “So everything we do is to try to help empower those individuals to find success in whatever it is that they need.”

Do Good:

• Support Building Value and Easter Seals TriState by purchasing a ticket to ReUse-apalooza.

• Donate to Building Value and Easter Seals TriState.

• Volunteer with Building Value and Easter Seals TriState.

By Brittany York

Brittany York is a professor of English composition at the University of Cincinnati and a teacher at the Regional Institute of Torah and Secular Studies. She also edits the For Good section of SoapboxMedia. 
 

When it comes time for teens to find summer jobs, becoming a muralist doesn’t typically top the list of possibilities. Unless you live in Cincinnati.

With ArtWorks’ Adopt-an-Apprentice campaign, however, 110 teens from around the city will be hired to collaborate with each other and community partners to create 10 new murals this summer. 

For Kyra Watkins, who has been an Apprentice since her freshman year of high school and who hopes to finish out her senior year with yet another apprenticeship, the opportunity is full of benefits.

“Besides the fact that you become a muralist in your own right—because that’s not a profession even most adults have—[ArtWorks] always cared about the youth,” Watkins says. “It’s not just, ‘Give a child a paintbrush, and if they do well, you pay them.’ They set up financial sessions and youth nights where you get paid to learn how to manage your money, to budget your money and to be smart.” 

Watkins says the experience is particularly beneficial because each set of teenagers works under a project manager who helps them learn to identify their skills, learn new ones and ultimately work together to create a final product.

A new addition to this year’s campaign will be the involvement of ArtWorks’ SpringBoard business graduate, Chef Frances Kroner, who will lead a select group of Apprentices in developing, producing and selling a new snack mix. Apprentices involved in that project will experience the summer program's first-ever entrepreneurial opportunity. 

For students who are passionate about art and who want to make it part of their lives, being an Apprentice allows students to gain real-world experience while leaving a lasting impression on the city. 

Watkins, a senior at Withrow University High School, will soon graduate and begin a new chapter in life as she pursues a degree in political science with aspirations to go to law school. But no matter where she goes, she says, a part of her will always be in Cincinnati. 

“No matter where I travel, my art will always be here—it’s very homey, like you left something at home and you always have something to come back to,” Watkins says.

Do Good:

• Help employ an Apprentice by donating to the Adopt-an-Apprentice campaign.

• Like ArtWorks on Facebook.

• Get involved with ArtWorks by volunteering.

By Brittany York

Brittany York is a professor of English composition at the University of Cincinnati and a teacher at the Regional Institute of Torah and Secular Studies. She also edits the For Good section of SoapboxMedia. 

Jenny White, owner of BOOST, says she’s always loved giving back, and now that she’s a business owner, she has a platform to better serve others. 

BOOST, an offsite meeting space, was intended to boost productivity and creativity. After contemplating what nonprofit would best fit the BOOST business model, White decided to partner with Dress for Success Cincinnati to inspire confidence in women who are searching for jobs, but may not have the needed professional attire they need for job interviews.

“It’s rewarding to give back in any way, but when I think of specifically working with Dress For Success Cincinnati, it means even more because it’s woman-to-woman,” White says. “It’s very empowering to me as a woman to know that I’m helping empower other women to move in a positive direction.” 

Both the downtown and Mason locations of BOOST now have collection areas, and meeting attendees are encouraged to bring in any unneeded professional attire that could benefit DFS Cincinnati’s clients. 

“I just found it to be a simple and convenient way for our meeting attendees, as well as BOOST, to make a significant difference in women’s lives,” White says. “Even our male attendees can get involved, talk to their wives, see what they don’t want anymore and bring it in.” 

White says the new collection sites should be particularly helpful because DFS Cincinnati’s only drop-off locations are downtown and in College Hill. With a location in the northern suburbs, more clothes will start to come in. 

In addition to providing women with business attire, DFS hosts self-esteem workshops to further encourage women to succeed. As a result of the new partnership, White says she’s getting ideas about how to successfully run selfesteem workshops of her own. 

Enabling women to feel better about themselves is a mission White can get behind and one she understands personally.

White says she was picked on as a child, and it kept her from doing things that she otherwise would have done. By the end of the year, White says she’s determined to host a workshop for young girls to "boost" their confidence as well.

With the new DFS and BOOST collaboration, the ultimate goal for White is that women no longer have obstacles that hold them back from moving with their lives. 

“I firmly believe that if you’re looking good, then you’re feeling good, and you’re dedicating more of your whole self to that interview,” White says. “I hope the clothes they put on will give them the boost of confidence that they need to acquire a job.” 

Do Good:

• Donate women's business attire and accessories to Dress for Success Cincinnati at one of their drop-off locations, or at the downtown or Mason BOOST meeting space.

• Support Dress for Success Cincinnati by making a financial contribution, volunteering or hosting your own clothing drive.

• Like Dress for Success Cincinnati and BOOST on Facebook.

By Brittany York

Brittany York is a professor of English composition at the University of Cincinnati and a teacher at the Regional Institute of Torah and Secular Studies. She also edits the For Good section of SoapboxMedia. 

The Public Library of Cincinnati and Hamilton County is one of 10 recipients out of 140,000 libraries and museums across the country to receive this year’s National Medal for Museum and Library Service. 

The award recognizes outstanding service to communities. So, in appreciation of library users and as a way to celebrate, the PLCHC will offer a Fine Amnesty Day May 15. 

“We really wanted something to express our appreciation to the community, and we started thinking about what is it that people hate most about the libraries—we all know that—the fines,” says Kim Fender, Eva Jane Romaine Coombe director. “I’ve been here 25 years, and we haven’t done this in my time here at all, but our hope is that people who have not used the library because of their fines come in and have those fines removed and come back to the library and get their cards started up again.” 

Fender says the library most likely wouldn’t have received the award without the support of the community, because the library’s heavy usage was one reason the Institute of Museum and Library Services was so impressed. 

With more than 17.6 million items borrowed in 2011, the PLCHC is considered the eighth-busiest library in the nation, and its commitment to providing academic assistance and encouragement to both children and adults is evident through the variety of programs it offers and successfully implements through its partnerships with other community-based organizations. 

Last summer, for example, the library partnered with Cincinnati Public Schools and the Freestore Foodbank to serve about 7,000 meals to children. 

“That’s something people don’t normally think of libraries doing,” Fender says. “But when they were in there eating, they could sign up for summer reading or programs.” 

Fender says the library staff also goes out of its way to make sure children are learning by actually attending school. 

“If we see kids in the building during school hours and we think they might be truant, we check up and say, ‘What school do you go to?’ and look at the school calendar, and we call someone from the school to let them know because they have to be in school to learn,” Fender says. 

Fender will travel to Washington, D.C. with Amina Tuki, a local resident who came to Cincinnati from a small village in Ethiopia who was not fluent in her native language, but who learned English by picking up a small book called Coming to America at the PLCHC.  

“She says it took her all day, but she made her way through it, and she took it home and read it to her husband and children, and her older son started crying,” Fender says. 

Fender and Tuki will accept the award May 8. Library users can celebrate Amnesty Day May 15 by taking their library card to any local branch. 

When the Office of Admissions expressed concerns about declining enrollment within the University of Cincinnati College of Law, faculty members decided to take a proactive approach. 

“The thought was that because we’re small, it wouldn’t really take that much to make a difference in the composition of our class,” says professor Marjorie Aaron.

Professor Christopher Bryant invited faculty members to talk about their concerns, and after a few meetings, the group proposed creating new scholarships that would be funded by faculty contributions. In order to raise funds, faculty would also host a teach-in, where local law professionals could receive continuing legal education, and in the process, ease the burden of financial debt for current and prospective students. 

More than $50,000 has been raised since the creation of the College of Law Faculty Scholarship Fund—with $10,000 raised in a single day at the March teach-in. 

“We went in with the focus to use what we do and what we like to do to help them, but there were a lot of unanticipated benefits, and maybe the most significant is that it really built a foundation for an ongoing relationship between the law school and what the needs are from the firms downtown,” Bryant says. 

“That was already happening, but I think we kind of institutionalized that in a way that gives real promise for the future. The mission of the university is to be a resource for the community—and there’s appetite for that.”

And the verage student loan debt for UC Law’s 2012 graduates was about $84,140 per person, according to UC Law’s financial aid website. Student representatives were able to speak about the burden of loans at the teach-in. 

Aaron says their words echoed issues common in legal education today. “If you had a dream to work in public interest, it becomes much harder to do that when you have an enormous debt burden,” she says. “So they did talk about that fact, but also the idea that no one wants to make a foolish financial move when they’re starting out.” 

Since faculty members want their students to be able to pursue their passions, they’ve contributed $40,000 on their own to assist with funding. 

“We’re a really tiny faculty—we don’t have 30 people,” Aaron says. “But we really know our students and we care about our students, and that was true before the debt issue and it’s even more true now. And the fact that we were able to raise as much money as we did and generate the willingness to volunteer is a testament to how strongly we feel about supporting our students.”

Do Good: 

• Support UC Law.

• Volunteer your time and knowledge.

• Like the University of Cincinnati College of Law on Facebook.

By Brittany York

Brittany York is a professor of English composition at the University of Cincinnati and a teacher at the Regional Institute of Torah and Secular Studies. She also edits the For Good section of SoapboxMedia. 

The best communities have a lot of people who get involved, according to Rick Hulefeld, founder and executive director of Children, Inc. 

Children, Inc., a Northern Kentucky based nonprofit, aims to ensure that young people are successful both in school and in life. And a primary way in which the organization succeeds in doing that is by developing partnerships with schools and other community-based nonprofits in order to maximize resources to help as many as possible. 

Its most recent partnership is with Cincinnati’s VISIONS Community Services, which sought out Children, Inc., as a partner for a merge. With the merger comes a new division of Children, Inc., which will now operate in both Kentucky and Ohio.

As a result of the merger, Children Inc. will continue its programs, which include everything from before- and after-school care to service learning initiatives in schools, while building its programming by incorporating VISIONS’ multi-generational approach. 

“They had something unique,” Hulefeld says. “They had a certified family counselor on staff who would meet on a regular basis to help—that’s a model that needs to be carefully expanded and taken to the next level. But we want to do something VISIONS has already been doing, and then bring a lot more resources to it.” 

One way of doing that, Hulefeld says, is to partner with other organizations that have similar goals.

“There are organizations who really want to help families to become self-sufficient,” Hulefeld says. “Sometimes, little things get in the way of big dreams.” 

If organizations could partner to provide families with funds for bus fare to get to job training, and if they could also enroll their children in the center, Hulefeld says the children would ultimately do better in school “because they won’t always be at the mercy of the next financial crisis.” 

“We can’t live in communities where just a few people do everything,” he says. And it’s this motto that makes its way into the service learning initiatives that Children Inc. sets up in local schools so that students can learn by doing, while also giving back and making a difference during the process. 

Recently, the organization set up a project for a group of first grade students who were learning about the effects of the sun. 

“If you get too much of it, it’s bad,” Hulefeld says, so Children’s Inc. provided the school with funds to purchase bracelets that would change color based on how much sunlight the wearer was getting. The students then sold the bracelets and made $843, which they gave to Shriners Hospital for Children to help provide funds for burn victims. 

“What you really want to teach kids is that you can make a difference—and not some day—you can make it now,” Hulefeld says. “We all know that we cannot by ourselves do what the community needs us to do. None of us can do this by ourselves, but we can get together with other people and figure out, ‘How do we do what we’re doing better?’” 

Do Good: 

• Like Children, Inc. on Facebook.

• If you are a teacher interested in a service learning program, contact Children, Inc. for free assistance.

• Contribute by making a donation to Children, Inc. 

By Brittany York

Brittany York is a professor of English composition at the University of Cincinnati and a teacher at the Regional Institute of Torah and Secular Studies. She also edits the For Good section of SoapboxMedia. 

ReSource redistributed products to assist 330 local charities last year, and it has the potential to be able to reach even more organizations this year through its two new programs, which the nonprofit will unveil at its May 15 Launch Party in Sharonville. 

For more than 20 years, ReSource has collected surplus donations from corporations, and then made items like office furniture and personal care products available to nonprofits for pennies on the dollar. 

“We’re the connector to the nonprofit organizations,” says Development Director Martha Steier. She says ReSource’s ability to bring businesses together has broadened her ability to make an impact in the community. 

Steier says the organization’s mission is to help build stronger nonprofits, so ReSource provides warehouse space for member organizations to come shop for what they need.

“So much we have here with a little creativity and a little open-mindedness can be put together for reuse,” Steier says. 

In addition to offering needed items for low-cost purchase, ReSource will now offer items for rental with its Event Décor Rentals program.

“We’ve had—for about five or six years—a fall fundraiser, as many nonprofits do, and we have a decorations committee who is responsible for decorating tables and making invitations,” Steier says. “And we’ve had several board members that do these same events for other nonprofits, and everyone borrows from everybody else, or they go and buy things and end up storing them in their basements.” 

Rather than buying things and getting limited use from them, ReSource had the idea to get donations for décor, store the items in the warehouse space and then make them available for rental. This allows nonprofits to save money, which they can instead put toward serving the community, Steier says. 

In addition to the Event Décor Rentals program, ReSource will launch its room makeover program, which already has two clients: the YWCA Clermont County women’s shelter and the Lower Price Hill Community School.

ReSource has several architects on its board with the skill and talent to show rather than tell community members the benefits of the nonprofit. 
 
With an all-volunteer design team, ReSource will create specifications to transform rooms within area nonprofits so that they are more useable and conducive to serving the organization’s mission. 

For example, ReSource will replace ripped carpet and make the YWCA’s living room more inviting for women and children. The organization will also renovate a 50-year-old annex within the LPHCS so that it can serve as a classroom for individuals enrolled in the Cincinnati State Technical and Community College’s Bridge program.

“It’s sometimes hard to explain our story,” Steier says. “We really want to be able to show everyone what nonprofits can do with the corporate donations.” 

Supporters of the Cincinnati Ballet can keep young people throughout the region hopping, and leaping, by doing some dancing of their own at Club B, a dance-filled fundraiser at the Cincinnati Masonic Center.

The Ballet offers more than its traditional classic and contemporary seasons. The studio downtown and its satellite in Blue Ash host dance classes and demonstrations. Club B benefits the ballet’s “extracurricular activities,” including scholarships and classroom residencies, most of which are offered free of charge to talented students who need extra support. More than 135,000 people of all ages take advantage of the complete repetoire of educational programs annually.

Leyla Shokooe, box office and marketing assistant for the Cincinnati Ballet, says Club B is “more relaxed than our winter Nutcracker Gala, which is pretty formal.”

Dancing, cocktails and VIP treatment are guaranteed, she says. “[Club B] provides a way to interact with the Ballet that illustrates the humanity behind it.”

For more information on ticket pricing and what Club B offers, visit the Cincinnati Ballet’s website.

By Sean Peters

Fifty years ago, a group of parents who were passionate about Maria Montessori’s philosophy of education developed the first Montessori preschool in the area. 

And following the preschool’s inauguration, the group formed the Cincinnati Montessori Society, a nonprofit whose focus is to promote Montessori education while serving as a resource to countless schools, teachers, parents and students in the community.

“One of my favorite quotes is, ‘Follow the child,’” says Heather Gerker, vice president of CMS. “We meet the child where they are developmentally.” 

Montessori classrooms, which are both child-centered and composed of mixed age groups, are set up so that children can learn through a multisensory approach that allows them to figure things out at their own speed—and the philosophy works, Gerker says. 

At CMS’s Annual Spring Conference and celebration of 50 years of success, neuroscientist Dee Coulter delivered the keynote address. 

“This work that Maria Montessori did over 100 years ago is now being proven through neurological work happening now,” Gerker says. “[Coulter’s address] was really affirming and validating to the teachers there.” 

Not only were teachers excited to go back to work on Monday after hearing Coulter’s presentation, Gerker says, but they also had the opportunity to participate in breakout sessions that were aimed at providing strategies and insight that lead to better education.

Topics ranged from promoting mindfulness through music to strategizing ways of better assisting children with ADD and autism. 

Gerker says she’s particularly passionate about the resources that CMS provides because they’re based on a philosophy that’s now scientifically proven, and she’s seen it work in the lives of her own children. 

“It gives them a solid sense of self, that they’re so independent and happy, which I think is the ultimate goal,” Gerker says. “I just want to make sure it’s available to all children.” 

Do Good: 

• Become a member of CMS.

• Check out the resources offered by CMS.

• Connect with CMS on Facebook.

By Brittany York

Brittany York is a professor of English composition at the University of Cincinnati and a teacher at the Regional Institute of Torah and Secular Studies. She also edits the For Good section of SoapboxMedia. 

Jori Cotton, who grew up in North Avondale, says she wrote poetry to express her feelings and struggles throughout high school. When she went to college at The Ohio State University, however, she took a step back from her poetry. She attended open mic nights, she says, but performing wasn’t for her. 

“I enjoyed it, but it wasn’t for me to get up there,” Cotton says. “I was just taking the art in.” 

After graduating college, Cotton returned to Cincinnati, and one of the first places she says she went was to another poetry open mic session. And in October of 2006, she finally performed. 

“I’ve just been addicted ever since,” says Cotton, who now leads Voices of Freedom—a spoken word program at Elementz. 

The non-profit Elementz, which is located downtown in OTR, provides a safe place and a creative outlet for young people who want to turn the negative influences or surroundings in their lives into positives. 

“I like to give a voice to what you may call the underdog,” Cotton says. “I like to expose the truth—things that have happened historically—I like to let people know about how to reach their higher self and to believe in themselves and take time to work through emotions. We’ve all been through things, but we have to work through them.” 

Cotton’s group of 10, which is composed of participants who are primarily between the ages of 16 and 24, meets for two hours once per week. 

“One of the things about spoken word is getting the juices flowing about our story, so we take time to talk,” Cotton says. “We talk about the disparities in education; we’ve talked about gun violence, rape victims, some of the good things and not so good things that have taken place in Cincinnati. We talk about domestic violence, just real issues—relationships, self esteem—we talk about pretty much everything.” 

Once everyone’s had time to talk, they put their words onto paper and then share their work in a judgment-free environment, which Cotton says is important to her because it allows everyone to feel empowered. It’s usually the shyest ones who end up sharing some of the most powerful ideas, she says.

“It just gives them hope that the environment they’re in right now isn’t the best, but it can get better,” Cotton says. “Spoken word helps you feel confident when you get up there and you’re sharing your pieces, and that confidence will spill over into other areas of life.”

Do Good: 

• Support Elementz by making a donation.

• Learn about the various programs offered at Elementz, and show up during a session to see if the program is the right fit for you. The first visit is free, and if you enjoy yourself, become a member. 

• If you're a teen, celebrate National Poetry Month by submitting one of your pieces to the Public Library of Cincinnati and Hamilton County's Random Acts of Poetry contest. Attend one of Jori Cotton's spoken word workshops at the library.

• Support Elementz by attending their monthly showcase, which takes place on the third Thursday of each month.

By Brittany York

Brittany York is a professor of English composition at the University of Cincinnati and a teacher at the Regional Institute of Torah and Secular Studies. She also edits the For Good section of SoapboxMedia. 

Poet and teacher Pauletta Hansel leads a group of 13 women toward spiritual and personal growth in her weekly Practice of Poetry class at Grailville, a retreat center that takes up more than 300 acres of farmland in Loveland. 

The women meet in a 19th-century Victorian home where they learn, write, listen and share their work with one another.
 
In one of her most recent classes, Hansel says the group of writers looked at the “events, people and places that live on in our memory in a way that we always come back to them as personal touchstones.” 

The women work together to see what they can “make come alive” in each other’s work, Hansel says. Just this past week, they had the opportunity to share their work on a larger scale through their partnership with The Public Library of Cincinnati and Hamilton County for the 15th annual Poetry in the Garden Series. 

Seven of the 13 women from Practice of Poetry read their work in front of the audience of 58. Though most have read their poems in front of others before, Hansel says the event provided many of them with their first real opportunity to share in a more public way.   

“One woman read a poem that she had brought recently to craft class, and that was about a moment when both her parents were still alive, and she walked in and saw them in a very quiet, intimate moment at the kitchen table,” Hansel says. “It was about how moving that was for her to see her parents sitting quietly holding hands and taking that moment to—you know, [with] illness and their children’s worry swirling around them—to just be quiet and just be in love.” 

It’s these powerful and important life moments that Hansel’s poets and other community members have the opportunity to share during the Poetry in the Garden Series, which features contest winners in addition to local and regional poets who appreciate the art of poetry. 

“They’ve worked incredibly hard to promote and create a group of readers that is really diverse,” Hansel says. “There are some academically connected poets, but most in the group are community poets. They are people who are working in other walks of life who are using poetry as a way to communicate.”

The series also provides audience members with the chance to read their work at an open mic session that follows each set of readings. 

Hansel says participation in the Poetry in the Garden Series was incredibly meaningful to her group of poets because many of them are inspired by listening to what they hear. 

“Just coming and having the opportunity to use writing as a way to pay attention to their own inner lives and listen to themselves and be listened to by other women is the most important thing.”

Do Good: 

• Learn more about Grailville's programs, and register to participate. A new Practice of Poetry series will begin this summer with registration opportunities coming soon.

• Attend readings or share your own work at the Poetry in the Garden Series, which takes place at 7 p.m. each Tuesday in April.

• Like Grailville and The Public Library of Cincinnati and Hamilton County on Facebook to keep up with each organization's latest news and events.

By Brittany York

Brittany York is a professor of English composition at the University of Cincinnati and a teacher at the Regional Institute of Torah and Secular Studies. She also edits the For Good section of SoapboxMedia. 

The Cincinnati Shakespeare Company has worked for nearly 20 years to bring accessible theater to its audience members. 

And though William Shakespeare’s works are almost 450 years old, CSC finds a way to make his themes relevant in the lives of about 22,000 students every year. 

“If we just sit here and say you have to come here and buy a ticket to our show, we wouldn’t be achieving our mission,” says Jeanna Vella, CSC’s director of education and communications. “We feel it’s really important to go out into the community and bring theater to them, and that really starts in the schools and creating lifelong audience members.”

The company travels up to two hours away to present Shakespeare’s works in schools throughout the Tri-State, in addition to performing discounted matinees for groups who do choose to visit the theater. 

CSC’s educational outreach extends beyond performances though, as the company hosts acting classes and summer camps as well. 

“I love telling parents when they call me when their kid’s in sixth grade, and I say, ‘Well if you’re going to do camp, I’m just warning you—you’re in it for six years now,’” Vella says. “We have a lot of kids who just fall in love and do it all through junior high and high school.” 

During classes and camp, resident company members coach participants on everything from movement to voice as students prepare to act out plays and particular scenes from the Bard’s works.   

According to Vella, the benefits stretch further than improved acting skills, as students note that their public speaking abilities improve, in addition to teambuilding skills and the ability to make friends. 

“It’s not just, 'Can you do a sonnet better?' It’s, 'Can you operate better as a speaker, as a friend and just build your confidence level?'” Vella says. 

Part of that confidence comes from finding one’s niche and connecting with people who have the same interests. Vella, who grew up in the Cincinnati area, says she can relate. 

“I went to Lakota, and I know the theater program’s so big there, so it’s sometimes hard to break in if you’re not a great talent,” she says. “It’s just nice for some of these kids to find a place where they can really participate and feel like they’re part of something.” 

Ben Eilerman says he realized his love of architecture during his adolescent years at Covington Catholic High School. 

As a professional in the field at Hub+Weber, he has the opportunity to engage in educational outreach with other students who have that same appreciation for art at the same age he did.

Hub+Weber’s latest venture, which not only engaged students in artmaking but also gave them real-world experience, involved Holmes High School’s graffiti club and visual communications class. 

Located in Covington since the firm’s founding nearly 40 years ago, Hub+Weber relocated for the first time last year. Though it maintained its roots in the area, the firm moved from its old home on Greenup Street to the city’s former train station on Pike Street. 

“Behind it are the old passenger stairs up to an elevated rail line, and that area is largely abandoned,” Eilerman says. “[It had] that kind of urban decaying aesthetic to it that we were drawn to, and we wanted to use that space and address it from our standpoint, and then also to start to make the city aware of it.” 

So Hub+Weber reached out to the Center for Great Neighborhoods, who put the firm in touch with Donny Roundtree, the visual communications teacher at Holmes. 

“We talked to him and saw that this was a great opportunity to bring his students down and do a real-life project and build it into something bigger, as far as his curriculum goes,” Eilerman says. 

So the two joined forces to provide students with the opportunity to create an eight-foot by 16-foot graffiti art mural. 

“The students explored different techniques so each of the panels read as an individual panel, and as it draws into the center, it starts to be defined more as a singular mural,” Eilerman says. “It has the background of the Covington skyline across the back, and then it has two trains coming out of the center from a tunnel with the word ‘Pike’ in the middle.” 

Eilerman says the area surrounding Pike has undergone a renaissance over the past few years, so the firm wanted to find a way to contribute by livening up the area while also reaching out to a local school district. 

The mural is currently on display inside the building, and a week ago, the students showed off their work at a gallery opening hosted by Hub+Weber. They received feedback from local designers who gave advice about what it means to “take the arts into a profession,” Eilerman says. 

This month, the mural will inhabit its permanent home—below the underpass where it will be visible from the sidewalk and street for all to see. 

“They spent about six months or so on this,” Eilerman says. “We really acted as a client—they brought the sketches and they talked about what their vision was, and we talked about what ours was, and they had to mesh that. They had to provide a proposal for their work—and I think it was a big benefit to the students.” 

Do Good: 

• Support the arts in your local school district. 

• Support Holmes High School's Nordheim Gallery.

• Like Hub+Weber on Facebook. 

By Brittany York

Brittany York is a professor of English composition at the University of Cincinnati and a teacher at the Regional Institute of Torah and Secular Studies. She also edits the For Good section of SoapboxMedia. 

Since 2006, the Life Learning Center in Covington has been working to help at-risk individuals find hope, own past mistakes and learn how to successfully move forward so they can achieve their goals. 

Participants who are committed to bettering their lives work through a 16-week educational program where they attend classes centered on topics from stress management to financial management. They also work one-on-one with a life coach who helps them set and define goals, and work through some of the issues that may be holding them back. 

Once participants have completed the Foundations for a Better Life and Pillars of Growth components of the program, they move on to Working for a Better Life, where they learn how to craft effective résumés, apply for employment and engage in mock interviews so they feel more prepared for future job placement.

Erich Switzer, director of awareness and fundraising at the Center, says there are many individuals who are either afraid of or discouraged by the process of job searching and that the NKYLLC helps them move past those fears. 

“I saw the need of the folks we serve—people just really struggling, and seeing HR as the enemy—almost that they’re not people or that they’re out to get them or that they come up with reasons to not hire people,” Switzer says. “So we have people from other companies—HR representatives—come in and do mock interviews with them, do an HR panel, and this is where we start breaking down some of the barriers. They’re real people, they do want to hire you, but you’ve got to be able to answer the questions, and you’ve got to have the skill sets to be employed.” 

Forty percent of the individuals the NKYLLC has served have criminal backgrounds, and one of the barriers they face is figuring out how to talk about their employment gaps. The nonprofit addresses the issue by teaching classes on effective oral communication. 

“Why people are stuck for so long is they really can’t change the way they’re communicating about what’s taken place, so when they sit down and talk to an employer—I’ve seen it when we’ve done mock interviews—it’s just a purposeless sort of rambling,” Switzer says. 

“So we help them tighten that up and move forward. You’re already in front of the employer, so they have some level of interest in potentially hiring you, so you don’t want to spend too much time on a potential negative. You want to get to the positive where you can sell yourself and talk about your skills.” 

The NKYLLC helps individuals come to understand the positive assets they have to offer through StrengthsFinders and a variety of inspirational activities. And since the nonprofit’s inception, more than 800 participants have found jobs. 

“If there’s one word that sums up the Center, it’s about providing hope for people who likely don’t have any," says Switzer. "We try to start building them back up with positive affirmations rather than the stuff they’ve been listening to.” 

Do Good: 

• Donate to the Life Learning Center. 

• Volunteer if you are an individual who would like to help lead classes or if you are a business who would be interested in participating in mock interviews or panels. 

• Like the Life Learning Center's Facebook page and share the page with your friends, especially if you know of someone who could benefit from the center's services. 

By Brittany York

Brittany York is a professor of English composition at the University of Cincinnati and a teacher at the Regional Institute of Torah and Secular Studies. She also edits the For Good section of SoapboxMedia. 

Entertaining audiences and making children laugh is not the only goal of Madcap Puppets. It aims to educate, share cultural experiences from around the world and engage children in artmaking while fostering growth and an appreciation of the various genres of art that merge together through puppeteering.  

The primary ways troupes interact with children are through their performances of “fractured fairytales,” which reach audiences in about 500 elementary schools per year, says John Lewandowski, Madcap’s artistic executive director. 

“It connects well to literature, the study of geography and regions and countries because they do come from all over the world,” Lewandowski says. “This is something that we have as a human culture. We have this fairy tale interest in our literature, and that’s in every culture—just like puppets. It's in every culture, in every country.” 

One piece the troupe performs extends beyond the reach of elementary schools. It takes the stage across the country as puppeteers pair up with symphony orchestras to present “The Firebird,” which tells the story of a magical bird that brings both good and evil to its captor. The story is based on a Russian fairy tale.

“We perform it during youth concerts that have been organized to try and develop younger audiences,” Lewandowski says. “This is a major problem with large orchestras—that their audiences are 75 and 80 [years old] and getting smaller and smaller—and they use us to try to pull in family audiences.”

According to Lewandowski, it’s vital that children are exposed to and have the opportunity to engage with musical, visual and performing arts because the benefits to other areas of their development as a result of doing so are too great to be ignored. 

“It builds those key elements in their growth and formation, self-confidence, teamwork, the ability to express themselves and to think in a divergent, problem solving way,” Lewandowski says. “These are all essential elements in growing up, and these are what the arts bring.” 

Do Good: 

• Book a show.

• Contact Madcap Puppets to volunteer and help the organization set up its new facility in Westwood.

• Donate to Madcap and help the organization in its efforts to build an education center and 200-seat theater in its new facility.

By Brittany York 

Brittany York is a professor of English composition at the University of Cincinnati and a teacher at the Regional Institute of Torah and Secular Studies. She also edits the For Good section of SoapboxMedia. 

When it comes to preparing students to become future leaders and contributors to society, schools have a huge responsibility. And while their work is often recognized from within, it’s not often enough that it's honored on a community-wide basis.
 
The Northern Kentucky Education Council and the Northern Kentucky Chamber of Commerce seek to remedy that, however, with their 2013 Excellence in Education Celebration—though it’s not just the work of students and educators that they plan to recognize.
 
“We started thinking about the awards dinner and others in the community who are also driving action in the excellence in education besides our educators, and realizing it goes beyond the scope of the school day,” says Polly Page, NKYEC’s executive director. “It’s the responsibility of our entire community to make this happen for our children.”
 
According to Page, students, teachers, administrators, school board members, mentors and businesses within the community all play a role in the education of younger generations, and it’s important to come together to let those individuals and organizations know that their work does not go unnoticed.
 
Students will be recognized in various categories for academic performance and leadership skills. And this year, there’s a new award that recognizes one’s ability to overcome obstacles and succeed in school, despite barriers that may have occurred along the way.
 
“Those stories were really very heartwarming, and folks don’t really think about Northern Kentucky having students with a lot of trials and tribulations,” Page says. “But these were really pretty poignant about what the students have experienced in their lifetimes.”
 
With educators, businesses and community members, it’s all about what they’re doing “to go beyond the requirements” at their positions, Page says.
 
“There are many companies in Northern Kentucky that have a solid partnership and are really thinking about ways they can make a difference in the classroom,” says Page. “Employees are working in the classroom and teaching side by side with instructors and working with students.” 
 
Kentucky was ranked 10th in the nation in Quality Counts this year, which Page says is huge because the state was more than 30 positions behind that ranking in past years. But it’s all about moving forward and making sure “students and young adults are prepared for college.”
 
“We want to take it up and meet national standards,” Page says. “It’s a time for everybody to just hit the pause button and take some time to celebrate what’s going on in our community—who is driving action?” 

Do Good: 

• Register to attend the 2013 Excellence in Education Celebration, which takes place March 28.

• Volunteer as a mentor or literacy coach in the One to One program.

• Encourage your business to partner with its local school district in the B.E.S.T (Business Education Success Teams) program.

By Brittany York

Brittany York is a professor of English composition at the University of Cincinnati and a teacher at the Regional Institute of Torah and Secular Studies. She also edits the For Good section of SoapboxMedia. 

At the age of 3, Annie Ruth began her work as a visual artist, and during her freshman year of college, she read her first poem aloud in response to her nephew's death. Ever since then, she’s worked as a community-based visual and performing artist with the goal of bringing together diverse groups of people. 

Though Ruth’s first art exhibit was at the age of 3 (on the flaps of blank pages of her family’s encyclopedia set, she says), she never expected it to be a career path. 

“For the longest time, I was headed down the path of becoming a doctor because my mom was sick a lot when I was growing up,” Ruth says. 

Ruth, now 49, grew up in College Hill. She says her career transition from doctor to artist didn’t happen until her high school years when she and a friend were involved in a serious car accident while on the way to a football game. 

“I finally realized I had been blessed with this tremendous gift of art, and it was my art that helped build bridges and connect to people’s hearts,” Ruth says. “So I would be a doctor, but my art would be that healing mechanism.” 
 
Since the mid-'90s Ruth says she’s dedicated a lot of her work toward celebrating and empowering women, and in 2005, she created Dada Rafiki—a photo exhibit that honors women. It garnered recognition and a yearning for more stories. 

“When people came to view the exhibit, they said they needed to see more of it, so in 2006, I moved the exhibit to the Community Action Agency, which had just opened a new building in the Jordan Crossing area," she says. "So I pulled in other artists and poets as well, and we were able to actually donate a 22-piece permanent collection to honor 22 women, and it’s kind of grown since then.” 

Now Dada Rafiki: Sisters of Legacy, which celebrates the lives of 40 women who are 65 years and older, makes its debut at a nationally renowned establishment—the National Underground Railroad Freedom Center. 

Ruth says the intention of this installment is to “begin to create intergenerational dialogue so we can really have a chance to sit at the feet of our elders and hear some of their stories and know why they did some of the things they did that impacted Cincinnati and the rest of the world.” 

In addition to the exhibit’s three-month display at the Freedom Center, replicas will travel to 59 different venues in the Cincinnati area where community members can view the art and participate in different programs, which range from concerts and lectures to intergenerational talks with young mothers. 

“When I think about my ultimate outcome, there is a mission,” Ruth says. “Because Cincinnati is known for being such a separated community, I want to highlight that the whole community is not that way and that many of us dream of a world where people can come together and appreciate each other for the uniqueness that everyone brings to our city."

Ruth says her focus is on what she believes can bring people together—music, poetry and song—“a universal language.” 

“I hope that people, from viewing and experiencing things going on in Dada Rafiki, will celebrate the contribution of women, but also appreciate the uniqueness that true diversity has to offer,” she says. “True diversity is about building bridges and connecting. It doesn’t mean we’ll always agree, but creating mutual respect for all types of art forms.”

Do Good: 

• View Dada Rafiki: Sisters of Legacy at the National Underground Railroad Freedom Center.

• Support Annie Ruth in her educational efforts to connect underserved communities with the arts through the Eye of the Artists Foundation.

• Like Eye of the Artists and Dada Rafiki on Facebook to keep up with the latest news and events.

By Brittany York

Brittany York is a professor of English composition at the University of Cincinnati and a teacher at the Regional Institute of Torah and Secular Studies. She also edits the For Good section of SoapboxMedia.

Part of Cincinnati Center City Development Corporation’s mission is to create spaces that are open and welcoming; and one way 3CDC achieves its mission is by offering an array of programs within its two public spaces: Fountain Square and Washington Park.

Beginning April 5 at Washington Park, EcoSculpt installations will be on display in an effort to not only raise awareness about green living, but also to recognize and celebrate local artists. 

“Washington Park is in the center of the arts community—we’re across from Music Hall and SCPA is right next door—so we’re always astounded by the level of creativity surrounding the park,” says Brittney Carden, communications officer at 3CDC. “So we want to in turn promote some of that creativity and open people’s minds.” 

In years past, EcoSculpt, which is a collection of sculptures made entirely of recycled materials, has taken place at Fountain Square, but Carden says 3CDC wanted to move the event to Washington Park so that it would reach a greater variety of people and encourage them to maintain the spaces that are intentioned for their use.

“People might look at Coke cans or bottle caps and see at it as garbage—nothing can be made from that—and that’s not true,” Carden says. “People have made fantastic art from a lot of these recyclable materials that we no longer value.” 

Tom Tsuchiya’s “Atlas Recycled,” which is a seven-foot tall sculpture made of recycled cans and bottles, was a 2010 EcoSculpt submission that gained national recognition. It traveled to New York City’s Grand Central Terminal and Washington D.C.’s National Mall. Carden says it's these types of memorable pieces that showcase local talent through the lens of reusing and recycling items often viewed as trash. 

“We’re showing that these items do in fact have a use, and something beautiful and wonderful can be made from them,” Carden says. “Hopefully EcoSculpt will attract more [people] to the park and promote eco-friendly living.”

Do Good: 

• View the EcoSculpt exhibit April 5-26 at Washington Park.

• Attend events at Washington Park. 

• Like Washington Park's Facebook page.

By Brittany York

Brittany York is a professor of English composition at the University of Cincinnati and a teacher at the Regional Institute of Torah and Secular Studies. She also edits the For Good section of SoapboxMedia.

Mike Hall, 34, says he fell in love with theater at the age of 16 when he began attending Loveland High School and knew he had to make friends. 

He says he grew up as an “Army brat” who moved around a lot, though most of his family was based in or around the Cincinnati area; and when he moved to Loveland to finish high school, he first turned to “theater people,” who “are for the most part, pretty embracing.” 

Hall started acting in school productions and never turned back. He attended Northern Kentucky University as a theatre major, then went on to spend his time performing with various theatre companies in the area. 

Acting, Hall says, was his primary endeavor. That is, until he had a conversation backstage with Josh Steele in 2009, as the two were waiting to begin the night’s production of “Angry Housewives” at New Edgecliff Theatre. 

“We both wanted to see ‘Ghostbusters’ the musical happen,” Hall says. “We figured big budget movies and musicals like that are successful, and it’s usually the cult classics that make it, so we decided to try to write it.” 

After talking to a copyright lawyer, however, the idea for “Ghostbusters” had to be scrapped, but all was not lost. 

“He told us that was the worst idea ever, unless we wanted to be poor the rest of our lives,” says Hall. “But we still wanted to write something based around it, so we decided to turn it on its ear and write about what we know, which is the world of theater—so we decided to write about a group of actors who want to do ‘Ghostbusters’ the musical. They get told that they can’t and still decide to do it by changing the process around completely.” 

So Hall and Steele did just that and became first-time playwrights with “Don’t Cross the Streams: The Cease and Desist Musical,” which became a hit after its debut at both the Cincinnati and Indianapolis Fringe festivals last year. 

The two writers didn’t want to stop there, however. According to Hall, they’re “kind of hooked,” so the two recently formed their production company, Hugo West Theatricals; and the first major goal is to produce “Don’t Cross the Streams” as a two-act show, get it published and performed in cities across the country. 

Hugo West Theatricals, in conjunction with Falcon Theater, will start with a week-long run beginning Friday at Monmouth Theatre. 

Hall says he and Steele have added a few songs and expanded on the script to create a comedic piece they both feel good about. 

“I think the audience will be entertained, and that’s probably the most important thing theater can teach—is that we’re really supposed to entertain people—we can’t get too much on our high horse and make it a message all the time,” Hall says. “We have to keep the audience in mind—and when the audience comes to see it, I think they’ll know that we’ve kept them at the forefront.”  

Do Good: 

• Support "Don't Cross the Streams" by purchasing tickets to a performance at Monmouth Theatre, March 15-23.

• Join and share the Facebook event page with your friends to spread word about the upcoming run of "Don't Cross the Streams." 

• Like "Don't Cross the Streams" on Facebook.

By Brittany York

Brittany York is a professor of English composition at the University of Cincinnati and a teacher at the Regional Institute of Torah and Secular Studies. She also edits the For Good section of SoapboxMedia.

For the past month, Cincinnati Parks’ naturalists have been busy tapping sugar maples, collecting sap and boiling it down to produce real maple syrup. They’ve even taught the public how to make use of their own backyards to do the same. 

With March quickly approaching, maple season will come to a close, but not without celebrating what Explore Nature! program assistant manager Erin Morris refers to as “Maple Madness.” 

Maple in Mt. Airy and Pancakes in the Woods are “for those who maybe aren’t interested in doing it in their backyard, but for those who love the sweet success of the season, who want to taste that and who want to learn a little bit about the history,” says Morris. 

For decades, Cincinnati Parks’ representatives have worked to relay the importance of nature education to the public.

“When we started in the 1930s, technology was pretty minimal—we only had vehicles in the last 20 years, so people were outside,” says Morris. “There was no air conditioning, and they’d often sleep outside during the summer season, so people were much more connected to the outdoors and natural experiences.” 

With a changing culture and a technologically oriented society, Morris says people have lost the connection with the outdoors. The Explore Nature! program aims to remedy that, however, and celebratory maple sugaring events are some of the ways in which it teaches people about the outdoors. 

At both maple events, participants begin with a pancake breakfast, where they enjoy the syrup that’s been produced by the trees surrounding them. They then go on to learn the story and process behind maple sugaring. 

Following breakfast at Maple in Mt. Airy, participants are immersed in the time period. They ride through the woods in a hay wagon to an area where naturalists dressed as Native Americans and pioneers teach about the first uses of maple syrup in the United States through taste-testing and hands-on experiences that explain photosynthesis and the ways trees provide nutrients for both humans and nature. 

“When people think of maple sugaring, they think of Canada because they have the sugar maple leaves on their flag, but Ohio’s been producing maple syrup since the Native Americans in the 1700s,” Morris says. “It’s getting back to our history in Ohio—and even history in Cincinnati—but also having that connection with local products.” 

Maple Madness events take place throughout the first two weekends of March. 

Do Good:

• Register your family, friends or student group for Maple in Mt. Airy.

• Enjoy pancakes cooked by celebrity chefs and learn about maple sugaring at Pancakes in the Woods at the California Woods Nature Preserve.

• Like Cincinnati Parks on Facebook, and join and share their events with your friends.

By Brittany York

Brittany York is a professor of English composition at the University of Cincinnati and a teacher at the Regional Institute of Torah and Secular Studies. She also edits the For Good section of SoapboxMedia. 

From organizing events involving beer and historic churches to providing affordable housing and jobs to those who have struggled to attain them in the past, the Over-the-Rhine Foundation does a little bit of everything. And it's all for the purpose of reinventing and celebrating a diverse, historically-rooted community.

At the beginning of February, Kevin Pape, who’s lived in Cincinnati his whole life and who grew up with a fondness for the OTR community, stepped up to the role of president of the foundation. 

OTR has been a part of Pape’s family history for multiple generations, so he’s someone who understands what the community has to offer. 

His grandparents lived in OTR and operated a business there until 1935, though it was actually started back in 1850. Pape lived in the community himself for about four years in the 1970s, and his office at Gray & Pape—a cultural resource management and historic preservation consulting firm—just celebrated 23 years at its Main Street location.

Pape says because of his background, he deals with the renovation of historic buildings all the time, but his vision for OTR contains much more than the preservation of buildings.

“I think my interest really is in community-building,” Pape says. “The message is that it’s really all about putting people back into historic buildings and finding ways to do that in a meaningful way.” 

One way Pape and the OTRF plan to build on that vision is through their strategic plan, which entails owner-occupied redevelopment, historic preservation and the goal of making OTR the greenest historic neighborhood in the country. 

“We also want to encourage people who are investing in the neighborhood to seek ways to provide meaningful employment and jobs for people that live in the neighborhood who may not have had access to opportunities before,” Pape says. 

While working to show that “green buildings, sustainable buildings, LEED certification and historic preservation are actually compatible,” the OTRF also helps organize events like Bockfest, which Pape says showcases what’s good and great about the community.

This year, the nonprofit, in conjunction with American Legacy Tours, is offering historic church tours, which will highlight the architecture and stories of four different 19th century landmarks within the community.

 “When you think about the size of OTR and the number of churches, it gives you a good sense about the density of people and the diversity even at that time that would have such a population to support a variety of churches,” says Pape.   

It’s that diversity that has withstood the test of time, and which Pape says the community embraces at all levels.  

“Socioeconomic, racial, ethnic, you name it,” Pape says. “It provides residential density that allows people to share ideas and celebrate those differences in being able to all live in a compact place at one time. It’s about not only economic vitality, but residential vitality.” 

Tom Bishop, president of Media Bridges, has worked to give the public a voice by providing access to media and channel space for years. But because of recent budget cuts and word from current members of Cincinnati City Council that the organization will not receive funds again, Media Bridges’ future is at stake. 

Rooted in the Cincinnati area, Bishop grew up in Hamilton, attended college and spent time working for public radio, in addition to spending 17 years with Norwood Community Television prior to his time at Media Bridges, where he has been employed for the past nine years. 

Bishop says he realized early on what good can be done with media.  

“I think I’ve always had it in the back of my head that you should leave the world a better place than you found it, and the idea of doing that with media is a really cool combo,” he says. 

Throughout his years at Media Bridges, Bishop led the nonprofit in providing free classes to the public on everything from studio and video production to editing and web design. The organization has also championed free summer camps for children so that they, too, can learn to be active participants in media by learning things like video skills, comic book design, animation and radio programming. 

Throughout the next few months, however, the organization will be forced to implement class and membership fees, so the facilities and access to create public programming will no longer be completely free. But Bishop says the organization will ensure that those below the poverty line are not left behind. 

“I’m sure we’re going to lose some people—and that’s really a shame,” Bishop says. “Cincinnati City Council has made the decision that their government access television station is much more important than the people actually having a voice in the community, and by making that decision, they’re telling the people to just go away, ‘I don’t want to hear from you.’” 

Because of the cuts, Bishop says the organization is in dire need of volunteers to help teach classes and run the studio so the public can continue to have a voice. Though he’s optimistic that Media Bridges will still be around in 2014, he says he’s not sure what it will look like. 

“Frankly, making up the amount of money we used to get via the cable franchise—put it this way—if we pulled it off, we’d be the only people to pull it off,” says Bishop. “When all funds have been cut, nobody has survived.” 

For Bishop, the cuts are disappointing. He says it threatens the future of the “many small victories” the organization has achieved over the years. 

“We have a program called Film Outside the Lines, where we work with people with developmental disabilities and turn them into film producers where they create their own films,” says Bishop. “The success of that is right there on their faces when they’re showing their films at screenings and entering them at film festivals and things like that.” 

Without public access, Bishop says people are left behind to hear only the voices of “the pundits, politicians and sports heroes” who make up a small portion our population. Instead of receiving media, Bishop says it’s more important than ever that people also participate.

“It doesn’t have to be about the almighty dollar—it can be used to make communities stronger," says Bishop. "Media can be used to build dialogue—to let people communicate. It’s not that there shouldn’t be media for profit, but that shouldn’t be the only kind of media there is. And slowly but surely, we’re entering a world where that will be the only kind of media.” 

ReelAbilities, which is the largest film festival in the country to showcase the artistic talents and life stories of people with disabilities, began in New York in 2007. But in 2011, Cincinnati became the first place to broaden the festival’s influence by making it a multi-city event, and for its second year running, ReelAbilities plans to increase its reach with a fervor that emphasizes the shared human experience. 

Co-chaired by Living Arrangements for the Developmentally Disabled and Visionaries + Voices, the festival brings community members together to view award-winning films by and about people with disabilities, all while creating a dialogue and providing a platform for storytelling and educational panels that promote understanding and inclusion. 

For local spokespersons April Kerley and Kathleen Sheil, the festival is important in that it aims to show people that the only real disabilities that all people have are those of misguided perceptions. 

Kerley, a local Paralympian who swam in the 2008 Summer Games in Beijing and who is also featured in the film “Warrior Champions,” which will air during the festival, says the event is about inclusion. All people experience a technical disability at some point in time, “even if it is only a temporary one, such as a sprained ankle or recovery from surgery,” she says. 

“It is not an ‘us versus them’ equation,” Kerley says. “We’re all in this together.” 

Sheil, who receives services from LADD and who is working as an event planner for ReelAbilities Cincy has Down syndrome, but she says she doesn’t allow her disability to define her. “I take that disability, and I put it into ability,” she says. 

Her attitude is a positive one, but Sheil says she knows all too well the horror stories of bullying that arise from a lack of understanding when it comes to people with disabilities.

Sheil’s boyfriend, who has autism and wears glasses, was singled out during his high school years because of his disability, she says. 

“They’d call him four-eyes and step on his glasses and break them,” Sheil says. “And that’s not what we do. That’s not the right thing to do. To me, it really doesn’t matter if you have a disability or not, and the reason why I say that is because everybody has a disability and everybody is different, and that’s okay.” 

It’s these stories that ReelAbilities Cincy hopes to share, as inclusion and acceptance are topics that are vital and necessary, according to Shiel. 

“I want people to hear how important it is to the people that have not just disabilities, but abilities, so that they can share their stories,” she says. “And so that way, they can be the people who shine, people who are stars and people who really know what’s going on in their world.” 

ReelAbilities will take place at various locations throughout Cincinnati from March 9-16.

Brittany York is a professor of English composition at the University of Cincinnati and a teacher at the Regional Institute of Torah and Secular Studies. She also edits the For Good section of SoapboxMedia.

Aubree Forrer runs a one-woman show at the Campbell County Environmental Education Center. From maintaining taxidermy displays, fish tanks, birding areas and trails, to coordinating and leading free activities to engage the public and educate them about the environment, she does it all. 

Forrer started working at the Center about two years ago, and ever since, she’s kept busy by immersing herself in nature and sharing her love of the outdoors and all of the living things that inhabit it with others. 

In the past few weeks, she’s led night hikes and activities where people have had the opportunity to build birdhouses and bird feeders. 

“Little kids and adults both enjoy it,” Forrer says. 

While leading night hikes, Forrer says she uses experiments and hands-on activities to engage children and get them excited about nature. 

“I do one activity where I blow up balloons, and you have to guess the color of it, and most times, you get the color wrong,” she says. “I shine a light in it, and that teaches you about rod cells and cone cells in your eyes and how it’s different from humans to nocturnal animals, and you see that the color of your prey—like an owl trying to capture a mouse—isn’t as important as seeing the shape or shadows of that mouse.”

Then participants sit in a group and actually watch the owls in action. Forrer says owls are just one of the many animals in the area. Those involved in the hiking program get to see bats, badgers and possums, among other wild animals. 

One of Forrer’s favorite activities, and perhaps one of the most popular at the Center, is coming up in March, when people come together to make a nesting wreath for birds. At this event, Forrer provides the public with twigs, wheat, feathers, fur and other materials that they can piece together, which birds can later pick apart, as they gather supplies for a nest.

“So if you put it by your house or on the side of it, you can watch the birds gather that material from your wreath,” Forrer says. “It’s a lot of fun because you can use your own creativity in terms of making it as colorful as you want and decorating it.” 

While Forrer prepares for events, she also puts together educational supplies so she can provide people with a PowerPoint, for example, so they can take it home and see pictures of birds in the area and know how to identify them as they gather material from the nesting wreaths. Forrer says activities like this are nice—especially for the kids who live in the city who don’t have as much involvement with nature. 

“A lot of kids in the city areas that don’t really get to go outside and be in the woods, they can come out here and see things they normally don’t get to see, and they can ask questions—normally they’re always full of them,” says Forrer. “Sometimes it sparks their interest and they want to come out here all the time, every other weekend or so, and their parents are making the trip out here to just take a walk outside or come in our building and look at our different animals and our fish tanks.” 

Forrer says she’s fallen in love with teaching kids about nature and that she's living her dream job. Though she has quite the responsibility, as she’s the only employee at the Center, she loves every minute of it and couldn’t be happier to be achieving her mission.

“My ultimate goal is to educate the public, especially kids, about what the environment has to offer and how they can help preserve it, help it and use some of the things that natures provides us with to learn from.” 

Each Sunday, a group of volunteers, most college-aged, meet at the Clifton Mosque to make sandwiches, bag lunches and wrap pastries to pass out to individuals in downtown Cincinnati. 

The volunteers make up an organization called Project Downtown, a nonprofit whose local chapter has been in existence since 2008, and whose ultimate goal is to eliminate poverty downtown. 

Yousef Hussein, director of PD, says the goal is a lofty one, but he’s confident that it can be accomplished. 

“It’s going to be difficult, but at the end of the day, I feel that if we set our mind to it, and people receive us properly, we can get the support and make a big impact in our community," he says. 

The Cincinnati chapter of PD began with leadership from students in the University of Cincinnati’s Muslim Students’ Association who wanted to form an organization that got them more involved in the community and that reflected their mindset of wanting to take care of their neighbors. 

Hussein says about 40 percent of PD Cincy’s near 140 members are either immigrants or first-generation Americans, and that it’s important to get them “more involved in the American fabric.” 

“As a result of that, the children aren’t as exposed to what goes on in downtown Cincinnati or aren’t exposed to the poverty that’s so close to them,” says Hussein. “A lot of them live in the suburbs, and it’s just a great opportunity for them to see what goes on in downtown Cincinnati. I think that when you have that sort of compassion and care for the general community and the community understands that, you’re able to break down the religious barriers you see between Muslims.” 

PD Cincy is not just a Muslim organization, however. It’s an interfaith group that aims to help others, and that’s what Hussein says he likes best. “You’ll see Catholics, Protestants and atheists, and it’s just beautiful to see them come together for one common purpose.” 

PD Cincy currently distributes 70 bagged lunches, in addition to breads and pastries donated by Panera Bread’s Operation Dough-Nation program to individuals along Vine Street. One-third of those lunches, in addition to any leftover bread, are then left in a box outside of the downtown mosque in Over-the-Rhine for anyone hungry to grab. 

“There’s a couple families that live nearby, and as we’re coming down, you can see them looking out the window so they can grab a couple for their kids,” Hussein says. 

But according to Hussein, it’s more than food that residents of OTR need.

“A lot of individuals have mental health problems; a lot of them are just lonely,” he says. “If you’re in a situation where you’re homeless, chances are you don’t have a support network; and as a result of that, people have things they need to get off their chest. We really like to sit down and figure out what the needs are in their community.” 

So Hussein says PD Cincy plans to broaden its giving so that the organization provides more than just food. One way it plans to give back is through a hygiene drive, where volunteers will pass out kits filled with things like toothbrushes and lotion to help prevent people’s hands from cracking in the cold weather. The nonprofit is also planning a sock drive. 

“It’s easy to find clothes, but socks are hard to find, and washrags—you wouldn’t think it, but if I had a washrag to offer someone, they’d take it,” says Hussein. “Little things like that make a big difference. We run on a shoestring budget, but if we’re able to do those things with a lot of thought behind it, it makes a huge difference.” 

Do Good: 

• Learn more about Project Downtown by visiting the organization's website. 

• Volunteer by making sandwiches, packing lunches and distributing food on Sundays from 1:30 to 3:30 p.m. All are welcome, and those interested in helping should meet at 3668 Clifton Ave. Enter through the back basement door. 

• Assist the organization by donating or contacting those involved if you're interested in forming a partnership. 

By Brittany York

Brittany York is a professor of English composition at the University of Cincinnati and a teacher at the Regional Institute of Torah and Secular Studies. She also edits the For Good section of SoapboxMedia. 

Uptown Consortium, an organization dedicated to building up and revitalizing the neighborhoods of uptown Cincinnati, currently has about $700 million worth of development that has been completed, is underway or will be completed in the next 12 months, says Beth Robinson, president and CEO of the nonprofit. 

“We were looking for a way we could reach out to the residents and make sure they’re participating in the economic and development boom here in Uptown,” Robinson says. 

So the organization partnered with the Urban League of Greater Cincinnati to sponsor and modify sections of its SOAR Program and Construction Connections apprenticeship. 

Robinson says the Urban League’s programs are a perfect fit because they have high job-placement rates for their graduates and are also located in Uptown. 

“A few years ago, we did some work in this area and did a session with HR representatives from the big institutions up here—an informational session—and from that, we learned job readiness is something that our residents here who are out of work could really benefit from," she says.

To help address that issue, SOAR, which is a three-week program that provides training in areas like resume writing, interviewing and employer expectations, will help to prepare Uptown residents and then help them gain employment.

Once participants complete SOAR, they are encouraged to take part in the Construction Connections program if they show an interest in the trade. Through the eight-week program, participants learn the basic skills needed to secure employment. “Urban League is great because they have working relationships for job placement with all the big construction companies in town,” Robinson says. 

Uptown Consortium is looking at its sponsorship of the two programs as a pilot project, but Robinson says she’s confident that it will be successful. If all goes as planned, about 25 Uptown residents will go from unemployed to employed in the coming months, with 15 of those residents working on the construction and developments in their community that will improve livability and promote place-making. 

“We’re really excited,” Robinson says. “We feel like it really adds value for Uptown residents.”

Do Good: 

• Learn more about SOAR and similar programs by visiting the Urban League