WVIZ December Programming Highlights Local Issues
George Gund
Ideas, the new weekly news and information program, on Cleveland’s public television station WVIZ/Channel 25, will focus on two issues of concern to the George Gund Foundation in upcoming programs.
On December 9 at 9 p.m., Ideas will examine Cleveland’s recent designation as the “poorest city” in the country and explore solutions to the community’s poverty problems. The program will be rebroadcast on December 12 at 11 a.m.
The program on December 16 at 9 p.m. will focus on Cleveland’s proposed new Lakefront Plan. It will be repeated December 19 at 11 a.m.
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Speak Up and Be Heard:
George Gund
Regional Town Meeting Set for November 12
More than 1,000 citizens from 15 Northeast Ohio counties will gather at the largest town-hall-style meeting ever convened in this area as part of an effort to chart a new economic future for the region.
The Voices and Choices Regional Town Meeting will take place Saturday November 12, from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. at the University of Akron’s Rhodes Arena. Those interested in attending the meeting can still sign up at www.voiceschoices.org.
In simultaneous roundtable discussions of 10 to 12 participants, citizens will paint their vision for the regionís future, share their views about the region’s best assets and come to agreement about its most pressing challenges.
Computer technology, allowing real-time participant feedback, will help identify similar views while building consensus among all 1,000 participants. The goal of the event is to set a course for Northeast Ohio’s future that will produce more jobs and create better economic opportunities for families and businesses.
Voices and Choices is a project of The Fund for Our Economic Future, a collaboration of more than 60 philanthropic organizations working to make Northeast Ohio more competitive in the global marketplace.
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Foundation Seeking Fellowship Candidates
George Gund
The George Gund Foundation Fellowship provides an opportunity for promising professionals to work inside the Foundation, a philanthropic organization that plays a vital role in supporting the civic life of Greater Cleveland and in various national policy deliberations that impact our community. The Fellowship is a two-year, full-time commitment beginning in Summer 2006, requiring residence in Northeast Ohio during the term of the engagement.
To be considered for the Fellowship, each candidate must submit a cover letter, a detailed resume, two letters of recommendation and a short essay discussing why the Fellowship opportunity is appealing. These materials are due no later than January 3, 2006.
A Fellow will be selected in mid-April.
For complete information on the Fellowship, click here.
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Three Foundations Launch Program to Improve Literacy in Greater Cleveland:
George Gund
Hundreds of Local Organizations Come Together to Centralize Efforts and Launch Awareness Campaign
(CLEVELAND) — Sept. 28, 2005 — Three of Cleveland’s largest foundations announced plans today to launch a collaborative effort to raise the level of literacy in Greater Cleveland. The Cleveland Foundation, The George Gund Foundation and The Martha Holden Jennings Foundation together have committed $700,000 to establish the Greater Cleveland Literacy Collaborative. This new entity will work to ensure that all children and adults in Greater Cleveland reach their highest potential for employment, self-sufficiency and lifelong-learning.
The three foundations convened more than 300 individuals from 250 local organizations over the past 14 months to study issues related to literacy in the community and steps that could be taken to improve the current situation.
“Literacy is more than just reading,” Ann Mullin, senior program officer at The George Gund Foundation said. “It’s the set of skills needed to function effectively in society and to achieve one’s goals. Our research indicates that nearly half of Cuyahoga County residents lack necessary literacy skills. For these community members, navigating a bus route, understanding prescription drug instructions, calculating the cost of menu items or understanding work benefits are anything but routine.”
The group created a comprehensive literacy action plan and charged The Literacy Collaborative with implementation. The plan outlines five strategic areas of focus:
- Provide an information clearinghouse for the community.
- Establish evaluation and quality assurance standards.
- Ensure that training, curriculum development, and technical assistance are available to providers.
- Identify and secure public and private funding for literacy.
- Launch a public awareness campaign on literacy.
“Up until this point, literacy has not been a major community priority,” Bill Hiller, executive director of The Martha Holden Jennings Foundation, said. “Our goal is to help businesses, non-profit organizations, public officials and the community understand the importance of literacy and to work in a coordinated way to improve these skills.”
While The Literacy Collaborative will be responsible for all of the focus areas, it will function primarily as a convener and coordinator, contracting with community organizations and partners to perform the work.
“The Literacy Collaborative will seek to build upon strengths that already exist in the community and step in only where there is a recognized gap,” John Mitterholzer, program officer at The Cleveland Foundation, said. “The organization will be a true collaborative of groups working towards one goal — improving literacy.”
A central part of The Literacy Collaborative’s work involves launching a large public awareness campaign in spring of 2006 to raise the profile of literacy in the community and inform the public about the many services available to improve individual skills.
By centralizing functions and combining efforts, The Literacy Collaborative will allow service providers to concentrate on what they do best. It will also provide program support and financial resources to these organizations. This independent entity will act on behalf of the community and reach beyond traditional service providers and connect more meaningfully with public, private, and non-profit organizations to achieve literacy goals. The Literacy Collaborative will provide oversight and overall strategic coordination currently not being fulfilled by individual providers.
The Greater Cleveland Literacy Collaborative
The Greater Cleveland Literacy Collaborative is a joint initiative of The Cleveland, George Gund and Martha Holden Jennings Foundations to centralize efforts to improve literacy levels among children, youth and adults in Greater Cleveland. The organization provides information and referrals, funding assistance, evaluation and accountability, training and development, and public awareness efforts for literacy.
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Make Your Voice Heard:
George Gund
Participate in a Voices & Choices Citizen Interview
| The Fund for Our Economic Future has launched an initiative to involve tens of thousands of Northeast Ohio residents in creating a regional economic competitiveness agenda. The initiative — Voices & Choices — has begun with the first in a series of public engagement programs: one-on-one citizen interviews. |
This fall, citizens from diverse backgrounds throughout the region will participate in a cascading interview process that will eventually reach thousands throughout the 15 counties of Northeast Ohio. The interview process, in which citizens talk about the region with other citizens, is designed to identify the region’s strengths upon which an action agenda may be built and to foster a more positive public attitude about the future of Northeast Ohio.
The citizen interviews are the first in a series of Voices & Choices programs to be held over the next year throughout Northeast Ohio that together will constitute one of the largest public deliberations ever convened. It will create a sustained public dialogue to strengthen the region’s identity and create clear priorities for action. Each phase of the process will take on a different set of issues. Building upon the results of the one-on-one interviews, Voices & Choices will convene over one thousand people from throughout the region for a town hall meeting in Akron on November 12 to continue setting a regional agenda.
“The only way weíre going to improve the economic competitiveness of Northeast Ohio is for citizens to take action on the regional level,” said David Abbott, co-chair of Voices & Choices and executive director of the George Gund Foundation. “Voices & Choices will give the public a voice in setting a course for our future that will produce more jobs and create better economic opportunities for Northeast Ohio families and businesses.”
Voices & Choices is a project of the Fund for Our Economic Future, an unprecedented multi-year collaboration of 71 philanthropic organizations from across Northeast Ohio dedicated to transforming the economy of Northeast Ohio.
Those who would like to volunteer to conduct a citizen interview or participate in Voices & Choices, click here.
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Cleveland Hosts Two National Conferences
George Gund
Two national conferences will bring foundation representatives from across the country to downtown Cleveland this fall.
It’s So Easy Funding Green: The First National Conference for Funders on Green Building and Green Neighborhoods will take place October 24–26. The Communications Network, an organization for foundation professionals interested in communications strategy and practice, will hold its annual conference November 2–4.
The green building conference will feature tours of green redevelopment initiatives in Greater Cleveland as well as sessions on how grantmakers can support environmentally green building and green neighborhood design through their grantmaking and investment portfolios.
Keynote speakers are David W. Orr, head of the environmental studies program at Oberlin College and Jonathan Rose, president of Jonathan Rose and Companies.
The theme of the Communications Network conference is “In the Spotlight: New Strategies for Moving Attention to the Issues that Matter,” reflecting philanthropy’s growing role in bringing attention to critical problems and priorities in our society as well as the need for greater transparency in the charitable sector.
Scheduled speakers include Ruth Wooden, president of Public Agenda; John R. Healy, president and chief executive officer of The Atlantic Philanthropies; Ruby Takanishi, president of the Foundation for Child Development; and David T. Abbott, executive director of the George Gund Foundation.
The opening session will focus on the Fund for Our Economic Future, a collaborative effort of Northeast Ohio foundations to spur economic development by investing in a three-part strategy that integrates communications, measurement and grantmaking.
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Foundation Awards $4.3 Million in September
George Gund
The George Gund Foundation made commitments at its September meeting to help develop plans for a “campus town” in University Circle, create a system for a universal pre-kindergarten program in Cuyahoga County and introduce environmentally sensitive “green building” principles into new low-income housing projects.
Trustees approved 55 grants totaling $4,375,235 made to arts, education, human services, environment and economic and community development organizations at the Foundation’s third quarterly meeting of 2005.
The Foundation also made a $500,000 program-related investment to the Enterprise Housing Financial Services for a revolving loan fund that will be used to help integrate green building standards into the renovation and building of affordable housing.
A $81,250 grant to University Circle Incorporated will support a planning process to create a vision and a set of design principles for new development in the Circle that will include housing, retail and entertainment in a “town center” or “campus town” at the intersection of Euclid Avenue, Ford Road and Mayfield Road.
The Foundation increased its commitment to Cuyahoga County’s Invest in Children Initiative, a groundbreaking public/private partnership to promote well-being for children ages birth through six, with a $137,000 grant. Funds will be used for research and planning for a voluntary, high-quality universal pre-kindergarten program for three and four year-olds.
The Foundation also continued it commitment to research on inherited retinal degenerative diseases with a $2 million grant to the Foundation Fighting Blindness.
Other grants of interest included:
- $300,000 to the Cleveland Municipal School District for development of curriculum for the Cleveland Literacy System.
- $250,000 to the Cleveland Foundation for the new Greater Cleveland Literacy Collaborative.
- $60,000 to the Harbor Heritage Society for operating support for the Steamship William G. Mather Museum and the move from the E. Ninth Street Pier to a spot near the Great Lakes Science Center.
- $50,000 to the Ohio Fair Schools Campaign for efforts to insure adequate and equitable funding for public education in Ohio.
- $30,000 to the Nature Conservancy for biodiversity conservation projects in Northeast Ohio.
- $100,000 to the Northern Kentucky Children’s Law Center for its Ohio office and its efforts to improve the state’s juvenile justice system.
- $50,000 to Karamu House for its 90th anniversary theater season.
The George Gund Foundation was established in 1952 by George Gund, former chairman of the Cleveland Trust Company. The Foundation funds programs that enhance our understanding of the physical and social environment in which we live and increase our ability to cope with its changing requirements. Grants are made quarterly in the areas of education, human services, economic and community development, environment and arts. Foundation commitments to date have totaled more than $447 million.
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New Cleveland Festival Debuts Labor Day Weekend
George Gund
New Cleveland Festival Debuts Labor Day Weekend
| Cleveland’s arts and technology communities have joined forces to present Ingenuity: A Fusion of Arts and Technology, a unique festival with more than 200 performances and events celebrating creativity in Northeast Ohio.
The festival, which includes everything from cutting-edge computer-based creations to multimedia performances, will be held in downtown Cleveland over Labor Day weekend. Storefronts, alleys and arcades will be transformed into exhibition and performance venues featuring events ranging from interactive video presentations to a jazz brunch. |
Ingenuity will begin at 7:30 p.m. September 1 with a multi-streamed parade ending at Public Square and end Sunday evening September 4.
Click here for more information and event schedules.
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Foundation Awards $2.9 Million in June
George Gund
Projects to stop the “brain drain” in Northeast Ohio, stage events on Cleveland’s lakefront and coordinate efforts to improve early childhood education in Ohio received funding from the George Gund Foundation at its June meeting.
The Northeast Ohio Council on Higher Education received $100,000 for College 360°, a four-year, $5 million effort to increase the region’s supply of college-educated workers by defining and marketing the region as a “premier destination for learning, living, and working.“ The initiative is a partnership involving higher education, business and the travel and tourism and hospitality sectors.
A $35,000 grant was made to Parkworks, Inc. for summer arts and entertainment events at Northcoast Harbor, and a $15,000 grant was made to EcoCity Cleveland for environmental education activities that are part of the Burning River Fest 2005 to be held at Voinovich Park.
The Action for Children of Franklin County will use a $40,000 grant to coordinate and facilitate three statewide initiatives working to improve early childhood programming and education in Ohio, the Build Ohio Alliance, School Readiness Solutions Group and Ohio Early Care and Education Campaign.
These grants were among 73 totaling $2,972,452 approved by Foundation Trustees at the second quarterly meeting of 2005.
Other grants of interest included:
- $500,000 over two years to ideastream for television and radio public affairs programming.
- $320,000 over two years to the Community Renewal Society for continued publication of “CATALYST,” a newsmagazine focused on the Cleveland Municipal School District.
- $225,000 over two years to the Health Policy Institute of Ohio for operating support.
- $100,000 to Kent State University for the Cleveland Urban Design Collaborative.
- $50,000 to the Chagrin River Land Conservancy for the merger of eight land trusts in Northeast Ohio into the new Western Reserve Land Conservancy.
- Up to $50,000 to the Cleveland Botanical Garden (CBG) for a study of how CBG and its University Circle neighbors, the Western Reserve Historical Society and the Cleveland Museum of Natural History, can work together more collaboratively.
The George Gund Foundation was established in 1952 by George Gund, former chairman of the Cleveland Trust Company. The Foundation funds programs that enhance our understanding of the physical and social environment in which we live and increase our ability to cope with its changing requirements. Grants are made quarterly in the areas of education, human services, economic and community development, environment and arts. Foundation commitments to date have totaled more than $443 million.
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Cathy Lewis Named Gund Foundation Trustee
George Gund
Cathy M. Lewis, who has played a leadership role with many Cleveland organizations, has been named to the George Gund Foundation’s Board of Trustees.
Lewis was a member of the Citizens’ Committee on AIDS/HIV that devised Cleveland’s strategy for AIDS prevention, education and service delivery and is chair of its successor organization, the AIDS Funding Collaborative. She also currently serves on the advisory committee for the Center for International Child Health at Case Western Reserve University and the board of the Institute for Research on Unlimited Love.
She previously was chairperson of the Cleveland Foundation board of directors, president of Rainbow Babies and Children’s Hospital and vice chair of the Baldwin-Wallace College board of trustees. She also was for many years a minority owner of RESOURCE CAREERS, an international company specializing in spouse employment services for dual-career families.
Lewis, a Smith College graduate, has received the Creative Philanthropy Award from the Women’s Community Foundation, the YWCA’s Career Women of Achievement Award and the March of Dimes Franklin Delano Roosevelt Award for Community Service.
The George Gund Foundation, the largest private foundation in Ohio, was established in 1952 by George Gund, former chairman of the Cleveland Trust Company. The Foundation funds programs that enhance our understanding of the physical and social environment in which we live and increase our ability to cope with its changing requirements. Grants are made quarterly in the areas of education, human services, economic and community development, environment and arts. Foundation commitments to date have totaled more than $440 million.