Events

The 32nd Cleveland International Film Festival, which includes more than 130 full-length films and 160 short subjects from 60 countries, opens March 6 at Tower City Cinemas in downtown Cleveland.

The festival also includes the Greg Gund Memorial Standing Up Film Competition which awards a $5,000 cash prize to a “film with a conscience” that celebrates social justice and activism. The award, which is based on an audience vote, is in memory of Greg Gund, grandson of the founder of the Foundation, who died in a small plane crash off the coast of Costa Rica in 2005.

OhioVotes will hold a free voter engagement training session in Cleveland for nonprofit executives, board members and program staff on February 11.

State foundation leaders, elections officials and nonprofit voting experts will offer advice on educating and motivating people to vote and building stronger communities and neighborhoods through nonpartisan voter engagement.

The program, sponsored by The George Gund Foundation and the Cleveland Foundation, is from 9 to 11 a.m. at the Cleveland Foundation Conference Room, 1422 Euclid Avenue. Registration and a continental breakfast begin at 8:30 a.m.

RSVP to JocelynTravis@COHHIO.org or 1–888–8VOTEOH.

Nonprofits have an important role to play in increasing voter registration and turnout. Learn how you can make this a part of your organization’s activities at this training session on Monday, April 30.

Jocelyn L. Travis, director of Ohio Votes, and George Pillsbury, program director at National Nonprofit Voter Engagement Network, will lead the group.

Topics covered include:

• The difference voter participation makes;
• Barriers to doing voter participation work and the unique assets nonprofits bring to the work;
• Staying nonpartisan;
• Registering to vote and voting in Ohio; and
• Ways to incorporate voter participation work into your nonprofitís regular activities

Please join us for this timely topic and don’t forget your lunch! This program is free but registration is required.

The event will be held at:
The Foundation Center — Cleveland
1422 Euclid Ave., Suite 1600
Cleveland, OH 44115

Please register in advance to reserve a seat. You may register online (http://foundationcenter.org/cleveland/bbcl04_30.html), in person at the reference desk, or call (216) 861–1934 x25.

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.

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.

New Cleveland Festival Debuts Labor Day Weekend

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.

The Center for Families and Children, in partnership with The George Gund Foundation, the Nord Family Foundation, the Saint Ann Foundation and the Cleveland Foundation, will sponsor the conference “Doing Well While Doing Good: The Role of Health and Human Services in Northeast Ohio’s Regional Transformation” on Thursday, April 21, 2005 at the Lorain County Community College Spitzer Conference Center.

The conference will connect the health and human services sector to the regionalism discussions occurring in the business and philanthropic communities. It will explore the impact of a move toward regionalism on service delivery and the impact of the sector on regional development.

In addition to a full day of speakers and workshops, the conference will feature the presentation of a framing document intended
to educate, stimulate thinking, and inform productive dialogue on this topic.

Register today!
Download the conference brochure or call 216–432–7200 x322.

What Might Ohio Medicaid Reform Mean to You? Attend one of the upcoming sessions held in seven Ohio communities throughout March to learn more.

The Health Policy Institute of Ohio presents a series of health policy forums on Ohio Medicaid Reform. Each forum will offer an overview of Ohio’s Medicaid program and an overview of state and federal Medicaid reform/budget proposals. Institute President William Hayes will discuss Governor Taft’s budget proposal, President Bush’s budget proposal and the recommendations of the Ohio Commisssion to Refrorm Medicaid. A significant portion of the agenda will be devoted to audience questions and dialogue on these issues.

All particpants will recieve a copy of Ohio Medicaid Basics, a recent Institute publication. Visit their website for updated information on forum dates, locations and times.

Cleveland Medicaid Forum
March 4, 2005
10am to 1pm, Visiting Nurses Association
2500 East 22nd Street

Toledo Medicaid Forum
March 11, 2005
10am to 1pm, The McMaster Family Center for Lifelong Learning
Main Library, 325 Michigan Street

The Cleveland International Film Festival, which begins March 10, will include two films by Foundation Trustee Catherine Gund as part of its “Someone to Watch” program that focuses on early or mid-career filmmakers.

Gund’s films that will be featured are “Making Grace,” a documentary she directed and produced that tells the story of two lesbians from the time of their initial decision to become mothers through the first year of their daughterís life, and “A Touch of Greatness,” a film she produced about Allan Cullum, a remarkable elementary school teacher.

The films will be screened March 12 and repeated on March 13. A complete festival schedule is available at http://clevelandfilm.org/

Gund, the founder of Aubin Pictures, is an award-winning film/videomaker and writer whose worked has been screened around the world in festivals, on public and cable television and at community-based organizations, universities and museums.

Making Grace 
Saturday, March 12, 7:15 p.m.
Sunday, March 13, 2:15 p.m.

A Touch of Greatness
Saturday, March 12, 4:30 p.m.
Sunday, March 13, 12:15 p.m.