It’s mutual support for and by neighbors like the Marketplace we all know and love from Neighbor Up Nights except now online and by phone.
By creating high-energy, positive spaces that level the playing field, everyone has a voice and power is shared. Only then can people tackle tough challenges and begin to create extraordinary neighborhoods where economic and racial justice thrive. We’re working to spread this way of community involvement.
Neighbor Up Gatherings
Virtual Community of Practice
Join this fun, free learning exchange about community network building & the Neighbor Up Network now online and by phone! If you have a question, challenge or breakthrough about community building, bring it to this supportive, energizing gathering.
Virtual Marketplace
Our small grants help people invest in their ideas and make a positive impact in their neighborhoods.
Mt. Pleasant-Buckeye-Woodhill Grants: Partnering with the Engagement Group and Burten, Bell, Carr Development, we are offering $500 personal grants to individuals in immediate need related to COVID-19 as well as $1000 grants to community groups assisting others in their neighborhood.
Neighbor Up COVID-19 Rapid Response Grants: Through funding from the COVID-19 Rapid Response Fund, we received $200,000 to distribute small grants up to $5000 to small non-profits, faith-based organizations, and grassroots groups to support their work in helping people in the community.
Neighbor Up Action Grants: Neighbor Up Action Grants are administered by a volunteer committee of Cleveland and East Cleveland residents.
Neighbor Up members are working to bridge divides and build equitable and just communities in a variety of ways.
Members working in Buckeye-Shaker, Mt. Pleasant, West Park, Broadway-Slavic Village, and Clark-Fulton in Cleveland and South Lorain in Lorain, Ohio, to build community networks for mutual support. Teams of network builders are making phone calls and hosting online gatherings.
Other members are working to activate and connect in public spaces. We are working with Sustainable Cleveland and others on this work.
We are also a piloting a CUTgroup (a civic user testing group) to invite residents to contribute to emerging technology being developed for the public good.
This summer we launch Cleveland Documenters in partnership with Chicago-based civic journalism lab City Bureau. We will recruit, train and pay Greater Clevelanders to document official committee meetings of the Cuyahoga County and City of Cleveland governments and contribute to a communal pool of public knowledge. Residents will sign up to be trained and paid $16/hour to document these meetings and publish content on Documenters.org, which is already open and free for the public to track public meeting schedules, agendas and meeting minutes.
Our past work has included: teaming up with ioby to create the Racial Justice Matching Fund to support grassroots initiatives promoting racial equity; and our Prism Learning Lab that has helped people begin to dismantle racism in their communities and organizations.
Neighbor Up members also worked with staff at University Hospitals and the non-profit Towards Employment to create and launch a neighborhood jobs pipeline (called Step Up to UH) that connected Cleveland residents with good-paying jobs at the hospital system, the second largest employer in the county. That is just one example of our work making a positive impact in the lives of everyday people.