USA Today: Nature gap: Outdoor recreation isn’t just for white people. Invite Black youth outside.

Check out this story from USA Today about the Hood family and their work to connect people of color with the outdoors.

Excerpt from the article:

In 2009, the mother-daughter trio founded Syatt — an acronym for “See You At The Top” — with a grant from the Cleveland Foundation’s Neighborhood Connections program, and set out on a mission to not only increase access to natural spaces for Black youth, but to produce and encourage Black joy in places that haven’t always been safe or welcoming of people of color.

ideastream: In Cleveland, Unlike Richer Suburbs, Playgrounds Are Still Not for Playing

We are proud to support artist and activist Walter Patton’s work to provide a place for young people to play while playgrounds are closed with a Neighbor Up COVID-19 Rapid Response Grant. Listen to the ideastream story about Patton’s Create Art Not Violence, a weekly gathering in the Central neighborhood where kids can draw, make music or write.

Cleveland Magazine: A New Community-Centered Publication Covers Buckeye, Larchmere And More

Good news from the East Side — a resident-driven news site “A Greater Buckeye” is telling good news coming out of the Buckeye, Larchmere, Shaker Square and Woodland Hills neighborhoods. Read more in this Cleveland Magazine story.

Morning Journal: Neighbor Up examines assets of people, community in Lorain

The Morning Journal in Lorain wrote about work we’re doing there to connect residents and weave a stronger social fabric. Read the article here.

FreshWater: The Documenters come to CLE to keep public informed of what’s happening in our government meetings

Cleveland Documenters was spotlighted in this FreshWater story.

Excerpt: There are upwards of 150 City of Cleveland and Cuyahoga County governmental departments and agencies holding public meetings and conducting public business every day in Northeast Ohio, but many agencies receive no media coverage or even produce records of what was discussed.

News 5 Cleveland: Neighbor Up Cleveland makes sure sense of community and support isn’t forgotten during social distancing

Neighbor Up Cleveland has been building community networks for years, and now they are a vital resource of support and community during COVID-19…

Fresh Water Cleveland: Anti-bullying project shows #CLE kids that words hurt too

The Live 2 Love Project was funded by a Neighbor Up Action Grant:

“Craven Smith was bullied as a child. To cope, he became a bully himself. Now he’s on a mission to prevent bullying…”

CW 43 Focus: Fueling People Power

Check out this story about Neighbor Up Action Grants with journalist Harry Boomer on his Sunday morning show CW 43 Focus.

Announcing $180,979 in funding for 65 projects in Cleveland and East Cleveland

The Neighbor Up Action Grant Committee approved $180,979 in grants to support 65 projects in Cleveland and East Cleveland neighborhoods. Cuyahoga Arts & Culture, the local public funder for arts and culture, will co-fund eight of the resident-led arts and culture projects through a partnership with Neighborhood Connections. Cleveland Climate Action Fund will fund five of the projects through a partnership with Neighborhood Connections.

Highlights of the grants include:

  • Click Collective’s* East Cleveland: A Photographic Journey of Resilience and Rebirth is organizing a photography project throughout the neighborhood that shows the positive images of East Cleveland.
  • Teen Start’s Minorites in Construction Program will connect unemployed or underemployed young African-American men, ages 18 to 34 years old, who are interested in construction, with workshops and hands-on training in basic construction and maintenance.
  • The Muslim Writers Collective* will create a poetry collective for Muslim-identifying and Muslim heritage artists, which is womyn and queer-led and based in Sufi practices of worship and divine communion and creative practice.
  • Gordon Square CPR is a group of neighborhood paramedics who will train 100 persons in CPR, AED, Naloxone treatment, and Stop the Bleed. They will also place four more public access AED stations throughout the community and provide free training to individuals in the neighborhood.

*Co-funded by Cuyahoga Arts & Culture

“Together, people have the power to make real change and they’re doing it,” said Tom O’Brien, program director of Neighborhood Connections. “Residents from Cleveland and East Cleveland have innovative ideas and a small amount of funding can make those ideas a reality.”

Since 2003, Neighbor Up Action Grants have invested more than $8.1 million in more than 2,500 resident-led projects. 

Cuyahoga Arts & Culture invested $75,000 in Neighborhood Connections in 2019 to support additional community-based arts and culture activities organized by and for Cuyahoga County residents.  Through this partnership with Neighborhood Connections, CAC has co-funded 340 resident-led arts and culture projects in Cleveland and East Cleveland since 2013.

“Arts and culture have the potential to transform a neighborhood,” said Jill M. Paulsen, CAC’s interim CEO and executive director. “Through our partnership with Neighborhood Connections, we’ve shifted power to hundreds of groups of residents who are using their creativity to energize and change our community for the better.”

See a complete list of grants awarded here.

The grants, called Neighbor Up Action Grants, are offered to groups of residents in Cleveland and East Cleveland to do projects that improve the quality of life in their neighborhoods. Groups are encouraged to work with partners and to propose creative solutions to challenges in their community. The next deadline to apply for a grant is Friday, February 14, 2020. Find out more information here.

Spectrum News: Cleveland Teen Creates Car Seat Library

A Neighbor Up Action Grant helped support the Car Seat Library project. Check out this story from Spectrum News 1 hailing the project’s key leader 14-year-old Claire Mancuso as an Everyday Hero.

https://spectrumnews1.com/oh/columbus/news/2019/07/22/cleveland-teen-creates-car-seat-library#

Announcing $299,162 in grants to support 113 projects in Cleveland and East Cleveland

We’re thrilled to announce $299,162 in grants to support 113 projects in Cleveland and East Cleveland. Cuyahoga Arts & Culture, the local public funder for arts and culture, will co-fund 16 of the resident-led arts and culture projects through a partnership with us. Cleveland Climate Action Fund will co-fund an additional 12 projects through a similar partnership.

A few examples of the grants include:

  • Car Seat Library in Ohio City received $537 to purchase car seats so mothers who do not have cars can leave the hospital after their baby is born. The group willlend mothers in their neighborhood a car seat so they can both leave the hospital after their baby is born while also providing rides to new mothers and babies.
  • West Park Public Art* in Kamm’s Corners is using a $1,996 grant to create a mural on the Puritas Bridge and I-71. The goal of this project is to bring neighbors together to put a “stamp” of community, create public art, and to promote a safe, healthy neighborhood that welcomes all people.
  • Food Strong+ in East Cleveland will use a $2,720 grant to promote urban agriculture and foster an appreciation for growing foods among a new generation of environmental stewards through creating a food garden, cooking classes and demonstrations, field trips and nutritional education.
  • Neighbors 2 Neighbors in Lee Harvard received a $3,900 grant to work with girls and women mentors from the community to increase awareness of healthy relationships, increase understanding of public policy related to women’s health and domestic violence, and to advocate for change in these areas.

*Co-funded by Cuyahoga Arts & Culture

+Co-funded by the Cleveland Climate Action Fund

For a complete list of grants awarded during this round, click here.

Since 2003, Neighborhood Connections has invested more than $8.19 million in 2,548 resident-led projects in Cleveland and East Cleveland through the Neighbor Up Action Grants.  

“These small grants are fueling big change across the city,” said Tom O’Brien, program director of Neighborhood Connections. “The funded projects show that people are working together, sharing power and creating extraordinary neighborhoods right where they live.”

Cuyahoga Arts & Culture invested $75,000 in Neighborhood Connections in 2019 to support additional community-based arts and culture activities organized by and for Cuyahoga County residents.  Through this partnership with Neighborhood Connections, CAC has invested more than $530,000 to co-fund 332 resident-led arts and culture projects in Cleveland and East Cleveland since 2013.

“Through our longtime partnership with Neighborhood Connections, more Cleveland and East Cleveland residents can lead change in their communities using arts and culture,” said Jill Paulsen, interim CEO and executive director of Cuyahoga Arts & Culture. “Our investment is helping to shift power to residents and support the artists who live and the creativity that exists in every neighborhood.

Cleveland Climate Action Fund is funding additional projects that support residents taking climate action and raising awareness of the issue of climate change at a grassroots level. In this round of funding, 12 projects were funded through the CCAF for a total of $33,722. Neighborhood Connections, a nationally recognized community-building program established in 2003, offers Neighbor Up Action Grants from $500 to $5,000 to groups of residents in Cleveland and East Cleveland who organize projects to improve the quality of life in their neighborhoods. Neighbor Up Action Grants are guided by a volunteer grantmaking committee made up of Cleveland and East Cleveland residents serving three-year terms. The committee reviews and approves all grants. The next deadline to apply for a grant is Friday, August 9, 2019.Click here for more information about the grants.

Cuyahoga Arts & Culture (CAC) is one of the largest public funders for arts and culture in the nation, helping hundreds of organizations in Cuyahoga County connect millions of people to cultural experiences each year. Since 2006, CAC has invested more than $182 million in more than 400 organizations both large and small, making our community a more vibrant place to live, work and play. For more information, visit cacgrants.org.

The Cleveland Climate Action Fund (CCAF) was founded as the first community-based, open-access carbon reduction fund in the United States. Since then, the Fund has invested more than $100,000 in projects throughout Cleveland that both improve resident’s lives while mitigating carbon emissions. The Cleveland Climate Action Fund promotes and funds local carbon mitigation projects that foster economic development, social well-being, and environmental stewardship in our local communities. For more information, visit www.clevelandclimateaction.org.

WKYC We The People: Episode dedicated to #NeighborUpCLE

We were thrilled to have an entire episode of WKYC-TV’s “We The People” focused on Neighbor Up, including the Neighbor Up Action Grants, resident action and what has emerged and been strengthened in our community because of the work of Neighbor Up members.

Rebecca Mason & Hank Smith – Neighbor Up Action Grant Committee Members talk about community philanthropy

Rhonda Crowder & Donte Gibbs – Neighbor Up Action grantees talk about their projects

Erika Brown & Gwen Garth – Neighbor Up members talk about building community in Cleveland

Cynthia Connolly & Marlys Rambeau of Lake Erie Native American Council talk about their work in the community

Tory Necklace from the Lake Erie Native American Council talks about handmade regalia and more

ideastream: Women Struggling With Homelessness Find Peace Through Art

A Neighbor Up Action Grant helped support the good work of Across the Lines. Read and watch the ideastream story below.

Across the Lines launched earlier this year to provide women struggling with homelessness a place of their own to create …more

WEWS-TV: Grassroots effort leads to return of supermarket in Cleveland’s Buckeye neighborhood

Neighbor Up members Lorrie, Diane and Deborah organized to bring quality food, jobs, and productive relationships to the Buckeye neighborhood. For 18 months, these amazing women worked together with nearly 50 Neighbor Up members in their neighborhood to create a mutually beneficial relationship with Simon’s grocery store. They helped host several community conversations and job fairs, and assisted their neighbors with interview preparation. Way to Neighbor Up! See the story here.