Ludlow

It doesn’t get much more quaintly picturesque than the quiet riverside town of Ludlow. Located along Highway 8 in northwestern Kenton County, Ludlow offers ample opportunities for enterprise and fun on the river, which factors prominently in the town’s history and economy. It's easily accessed from Cincinnati via I-75/Covington and the nearby Anderson Ferry. Taverns and eateries that once provided respite for traveling boatmen are experiencing a renaissance as revelers from all over Greater Cincinnati flock to more offbeat spots like the popular Ludlow-Bromley Yacht Club. Affordable cost of living and plentiful green spaces make Ludlow an increasingly attractive option for families. On summer nights the air is thick with barbeque smoke and the crack of baseball bats from nearby parks, which range from untouched nature to fully outfitted playgrounds. Available real estate includes historic homes, multi-unit buildings, condos, townhouses and commercial properties with substantial acreage.

New online tool aims to keep Cincinnati residents engaged in their neighborhoods

By Newsroom

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Development News

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August 6, 2013

On July 24, the City of Cincinnati adopted Nextdoor, a free, private social network for you, your neighbors and your community. The goal is to improve community engagement between the City and its residents, and foster neighbor-to-neighbor communications. Each of Cincinnati’s 52 neighborhoods will have its own private Nextdoor neighborhood website, which is accessible only to residents of that neighborhood. City administrations and several city departments will also use Nextdoor to share important news, services, programs, free events and emergency notifications to residents, but they won’t be able to see who is registered to use the site or the conversations among residents. Founded in 2010 in San Francisco, Nextdoor’s mission is to bring back a sense of community to the neighborhood. The site was tested in 175 neighborhoods across the country, and results showed that neighborhoods had some of the same issues, plus a variety of different issues. “We all remember what our neighborhood experience was like as kids, when everyone knew each other, looked out for one another and stayed in the community longer," says Sarah Leary, co-founder of Nextdoor. “We want to invoke that nostalgia for neighborhoods.” To date, Nextdoor is being used by about 17,000 neighborhoods across the country. In June, Nextdoor partnered with New York City and Mayor Bloomberg to communicate with the city’s 8.3 million residents. The site plans to roll out in other major cities like Cincinnati over the course of the next several months. Nextdoor also recently released its iPhone app. “We’re really putting the lifeline of the neighborhood into the palm of the residents’ hands,” says Leary. “The common thread is an interest in using technology to make connections with neighbors. But it doesn’t stop there—once people have an easy way to communicate, they’re more likely to get together in the real world.” You can sign up for Nextdoor on its website, or download the app in the App Store. By Caitlin Koenig Follow Caitlin on Twitter

The Giving Fields’ volunteers help fight food insecurity

By Newsroom

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Environment + Sustainability

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July 30, 2013

At Colliers International’s Building Up Communities program, giving back to the neighborhoods in which volunteers live and work is a core value. For Joe Hartmann, managing director of corporate services for Colliers International Ohio, his most recent volunteer experience at The Giving Fields is one that he says will stick with him because it gave him the opportunity to serve others in a way that’s different from what he does on a daily basis. “So much of what we do every day—all of us—not just at Colliers—but any time you’re engaged in a career, it’s about trying to work and do what’s best for your client, but you’re certainly benefitting from your efforts,” Hartmann says. “But in this case—what’s so refreshing about this is that you are engaged in an activity that’s benefitting others, so at the end of the day, you feel all that sweat equity that you put in is going toward a great cause.” At The Giving Fields, Hartmann, like other volunteers who assist the nonprofit in providing fresh food to Freestore Foodbank agencies throughout Northern Kentucky, composted, dug irrigation ditches and staked tomato plants. Out of the thousands of working adults, seniors and children in our community, 17.3 percent live in Kentucky and are food insecure, the Freestore Foodbank reports. So to help narrow the gap between food security and insecurity, Doug and Sheila Bray, with the help of various agencies and volunteers, have maintained the community farm for three years now. With six acres of land that yields fresh produce, The Giving Fields has been able to supply Northern Kentucky communities with hundreds of thousands of pounds of vegetables that they would otherwise have limited access to. “It’s a great cause, and they’re doing a great job,” Hartmann says. “But they’re toiling down there on a daily basis.” Do Good: • Donate to The Giving Fields. • Contact volunteer services at 513-482-7550 if you're interested in volunteering at The Giving Fields. • Like The Giving Fields on Facebook. By Brittany York

NAMI NKY supports families dealing with mental illness

By Newsroom

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Diversity

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July 16, 2013

Like all volunteers at the National Alliance on Mental Illness, Inc. of Northern Kentucky, Executive Director Kathy Keller says she’s walked in the shoes of those she’s currently helping. “There’s quite a bit of mental illness in my family,” says Keller, who first became involved with NAMI when she took the organizations’ Family-to-Family Education Course in 2003. She’s been teaching the class since 2004, and NAMI NKY is currently offering it again, which Keller says is critical because it enables loved ones to learn how to communicate with one another in a more constructive way. “It certainly teaches one a lot of basics about what’s going on in the brain—a lot of basics about the illnesses and a lot of things about medication, but that’s sort of the steps you have to take to get to the first landing,” Keller says. “Beyond that, it is all about self-care and communication. Self-care is very important because when someone in the family has a mental illness, the whole family gets sick along with them because their behaviors are out of the norm, and it’s very difficult to sometimes communicate with them, sometimes to get them to take medication or even to understand they’re ill.” According to Keller, the behaviors are uncomfortable, so in order to help relatives and friends learn to not take things personally and to be more empathetic, NAMI NKY operates on nearly an entirely volunteer-run basis to offer everything from classes and support groups to social outings for those in need. “I see it everyday—a huge population of our mentally ill are in jails or prisons, and often, their families have either abandoned them or they have abandoned their families because of lack of understanding or lack of ability to communicate,” Keller says. “Families can just take so much and then they kind of wring their hands and say, ‘I can’t do this anymore.’” While Keller doesn’t claim that courses like Family-to-Family keep people out of prison, she does claim that it keeps family ties in tact. “This course really does change the lives of the people who take it,” Keller says. “It’s sort of like, ‘Oh, I can do this—I see there’s a way to do this. I’ve talked to other people who’ve been through it, and I see other alternatives of how I can deal with my ill relative.’” Do Good: • Contact NAMI NKY to inquire about attending the organization's free programming. • Contribute to NAMI NKY by donating or volunteering. • Consider organizing a campus group to further assist NAMI NKY. By Brittany York Brittany York is a professor of English composition at the University of Cincinnati. She also edits the For Good section of SoapboxMedia.

Behringer-Crawford showcases local history

By Newsroom

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Arts + Culture

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July 9, 2013

When people travel, museums often become tourist attractions for those who hope to learn more about their surroundings and immerse themselves in the town and culture they temporarily inhabit. But museums don’t have to function solely in that capacity, nor should they, says Tiffany Hoppenjans, curator of exhibits and collections at the Behringer-Crawford Museum. “We don’t appreciate what’s in our own backyard and the rich heritage that’s a part of our lives and our culture,” Hoppenjans says. “So this is the place to come—we’re the biggest museum in Northern Kentucky and are trying to tell Northern Kentucky’s story. Not just who’s important and what they did or what groups settled here, but how we as a community fit into the Greater Ohio Valley and the country and the nation.” The museum, which is housed in Devou Park, was donated along with the surrounding land to the city of Covington in 1910. It later became a museum when William Behringer donated his collection of oddities and objects in the 1950s. Behringer-Crawford houses a variety of items—everything from a restored 1892 streetcar to a two-headed calf. “Many museums have their own oddities," Hoppenjans says. "it’s a throwback to how museums started—as curiosity cabinets. People were collecting weird things from their travels—interesting things they came by.” What began as a 5,000-square-foot space now has plenty of room to share—far more than one man’s collection. With four floors and an area that has now quadrupled in size, the museum tells the history of Northern Kentucky, using transportation as a mode to travel through time. “We’re not a transportation museum,” Hoppenjans says. “But we have some wonderful pieces, and you time-travel. You go from the rails to the rivers to the roadways to the runways, and have fun along the way.” Do Good: • Visit the museum, and check out the current featured exhibit, which honors Northern Kentucky musicians over the years. • Support the museum by contributing monetarily or by donating artifacts. • Become a museum volunteer. By Brittany York Brittany York is a professor of English composition at the University of Cincinnati. She also edits the For Good section of SoapboxMedia.

Art Off Pike revitalizes urban arts fair

By Newsroom

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Architecture + Design

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July 9, 2013

For this year’s Art Off Pike, a group of about 30 creatives and business professionals will converge to bring artists, musicians and street performers together for the ninth annual urban arts fair. “It started as this grassroots arts festival, and what has happened is it’s situated on this precipice of needing a little bit of new life and energy breathed into it,” says Cate Yellig, arts director of the City of Covington. “We’re looking at really having a feast for the senses. We’d love to have street performers and dancers and [make it] a little more multidisciplinary so that we can distinguish it from a lot of your other art fairs.” Yellig says about 50 volunteers from the community run the event each year, so the tight-knit ties are particularly unique and inviting. “It’s definitely embracing emerging artists and people who live in your urban environment,” Yellig says. “Covington is a city that’s really trying to embrace the arts as economic development. And by showcasing the talent found here locally and providing them the opportunity to sell their work to a crowd where they get 100 percent back for themselves—this is a really great visibility opportunity.” Hub +Weber Architects’ Jim Guthrie, who served as last year’s chair and who is on the board this year, says he appreciates the diversity of the art, in addition to its accessibility. “Last year, there was an artist who did sketches and doodles of anything you wanted,” Guthrie says. “It made art very important. If you could have a piece of art reflecting anything you wanted, what would it be? I struggled for hours to come up with something worthy.” Organizers are currently accepting entries through the Call for Artists, and Yellig says the more varied, the better. “We want 2D and 3D, mixed media, crafts—we’d love performers and musicians, and if there’s a glassblower that has a mobile truck of some sort—we really want to kind of have this high-level of quality but also affordability with the arts or with the offerings for each artist,” Yellig says. “But we also want to have a really diverse group of artists as well because that makes it more attractive to people coming to the festival.” Do Good: • Volunteer at this year's festival. • Submit your work by applying through the Call for Artists. • Like the event on Facebook, and mark your calendar to attend September 29. By Brittany York Brittany York is a professor of English composition at the University of Cincinnati. She also edits the For Good section of SoapboxMedia.

Art’s impact at Camp Carnegie

By Newsroom

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Arts + Culture

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June 11, 2013

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.

CincyMusic Spotlight hits airwaves

By Sean M. Peters

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Talent

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June 11, 2013

The show’s format provides a much-needed outlet for local musicians.

Children, Inc. merges with VISIONS, extends reach to Ohio

By Newsroom

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Diversity

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April 23, 2013

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.

Life Learning Center instills confidence, facilitates job placement

By Newsroom

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Diversity

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April 2, 2013

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.

UCAN celebrates 50,000 low-cost spay, neuter surgeries in April

By Newsroom

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For Good

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April 2, 2013

Melanie Corwin has spent the past several years volunteering with local no-kill shelters, and while she recognizes the importance of finding homes for pets, she says the root problem that leads to their abandonment is what needs to be addressed. “You see the conditions of the animals when they came in, and it breaks your heart,” Corwin says. “I poured all my time and attention when I first started volunteering to try to get these animals adopted, but it gets very disheartening when they continue to leave but more fill the space right away. You’ve got to stop the unwanted ones from being born.” According to Corwin, 10,000 people are born on a daily basis, compared to 70,000 kittens and puppies. And more than half of those, she says, are unwanted litters. Corwin now serves as executive director at the United Coalition for Animals—an opportunity she says she jumped at when it was offered to her because she can now work toward eliminating that root problem: a lack of access to affordable spay and neuter services. UCAN’s clinic opened in April 2007, and as its sixth-year anniversary approaches, the organization expects to celebrate its 50,000th spay/neuter surgery. The clinic’s ultimate goal is to eliminate the killing of the more than four million healthy or treatable dogs and cats that are euthanized in the United States each year because of overcrowded and underfunded shelters. “It’s documented in so many research projects that the intake rates at shelters go down significantly when there’s a low-cost spay/neuter facility in the area, so that’s our goal,” Corwin says. The clinic not only provides affordable spay/neuter surgeries to the 24 counties it serves, but it also provides free transport to various areas in the Tri-State that have limited access to public transportation or veterinary care. “We just helped a person who had 49 cats, so we did a special Friday transport just for her and went out and got all her animals,” Corwin says. “Our transport driver has a really good heart, and if someone doesn’t have transport, we will find it for them.” Corwin says UCAN does everything in its power to prevent the problem of unwanted litters. Due to a generous grant from the Joanie Bernard Foundation, the clinic provides free surgery for anyone who brings in a trapped feral cat or who is taking care of a stray, Corwin says. Additionally, Corwin says the organization will never turn anyone away. If someone can’t afford the low-cost spay/neuter, UCAN will find a donor. “I just hope people make the connection,” Corwin says. “I know they see ads and things of fuzzy, cute animals to adopt at shelters, but I’d just love for them to make the connection that even though they pay to get that one out, another one’s just going to fill its spot unless we solve the problem.” Do Good: • Like and share UCAN's Facebook page, and let your friends know low-cost spay/neuter is available to them. • Donate so UCAN can continue to increase its efforts. UCAN also accepts items if you prefer to make a non-monetary donation. • Volunteer with UCAN. 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.