Check out the hottest music & environmental
festival celebrating the latest sustainable local efforts to revitalize
Northeast Ohio. Rock out as national, regional and local bands take the
stage. Enjoy stilt walkers, jewelry artists, scupltors, landscaped
gardens and gourmet goodies from Lola Bistro, Baricelli Inn, Grovewood
Tavern and more. Proceeds will benefit local environmental nonprofit
groups.

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Forum features collaboration The Levin
College Forum and Cool Cleveland presents Partnerships &
Collaborations: Arts, Technology and Ingenuity. The upcoming Ingenuity festival,

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Lead Awareness Week in Northeast Ohio kicked-off at 11 AM on July 18, 2005, with a press conference at the Zelma George Recreation Center, 3165 Martin Luther King Blvd., in the Mt. Pleasant/Kinsman area of Cleveland. City Department of Health Director Matt Carroll coordinated this informative and valuable insight-sharing session, with great support from area health professionals, community activists, Cleveland and Cuyahoga county staff, foundation workers and volunteers, all working together as the Greater Cleveland Lead Advisory Council (GCLAC). The purpose of the conference and week is to raise public awareness for the risks of lead poisoning, and support preventative action.

The Greater Cleveland Lead Advisory Council is pleased to announce an important statewide lead awareness week in July, which offers an opportunity to blend awareness of the harm of lead to children with the importance of investing in education. Read on:

Event:     Northeast Ohio Business Plan Challenge 2005 Networking Event
Date:     7/12/2005 - 7/12/2005
Time:     5:00:00 PM - 8:00:00 PM

Location:     Bingham Building, 1278 W. 9th Street

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The 06.07.05 NEO Excellence Roundtable had a very focused flow, starting with an update from Ed Hauser on Whiskey Island developments, following to next steps for East Cleveland, and concluding with a very enlightening discussion on making NEO the world's most empowering learning community.

At the last East Cleveland Excellence meeting at the Helen S. Brown Center we spoke about needs for affordable housing for seniors in East Cleveland, especially as they need to downsize, and affordable housing is a huge issue in general. When then looking at photos of some of East Cleveland's landbanked properties it became clear there is a great opportunity to serve these needs.

 

Throughout the history of Northeast Ohio, "Heavy Industry" has been a two-edged sword. Largely due to our water access and availability of natural resources within easy shipping range, steel became big business here and led to great wealth and many jobs. In the process, heavy industry destroyed our natural habitats and created harmful air and water pollution - today, Northeast Ohio is the 8th most polluted region in America. Over the past few decades, old rust-best industry has declined in all of America and historically industrial regions like NEO have needed to envision "New Economy" futures.

Thus, it is especially fascinating that when former Cleveland steel giant LTV cast off its employees and went bankrupt, their computer programmer Ed Hauser chose to evolve his social role from a cog in the steel machinery into an activist pursuing a natural habitat for this region. He has followed his heart and volunteered his time and energy to save for this region a lingering natural Cleveland lakefront asset few knew existed, yet which is one of our region's most unique natural resources... undeveloped land in the "Flats" called Whiskey Island.

The Community Technology Centers'
Network (CTCNet) was founded on the recognition that in an increasingly
technologically dominated society, people who are economically
disadvantaged will be left further behind if they are not provided
access to and training on information tools. CTCNet envisions a society
in which all people are equitably empowered with these tools and is
committed to achieving this end.

A lot of conversation has come from a few of us that attended the REI Regional Meeting: University Collaborative on sustainability. What were your opinions and what do you feel next steps should be?

The 05.26.05 REI
& University Collaborative forum on “Moving Forward: Creating a Sustainable
Northeast Ohio� brought together at the Cleveland Ritz-Carlton Hotel a diverse
group of probably 100 representatives of businesses, non-profits, academe and government
to discuss the economic opportunity of sustainable development – to restore NEO
as a “green city by a blue lake�.

The topic of the 05.03.05 Tuesday at REI was "Exploring New Models of Funding the Civic Space" - a panel discussion at the Cleveland Museum of Natural History about what are the existing models, how can we improve effectiveness, and what are some of the challenges we need to address for the future? Attendees represented the community of practitioners, research and philanthropy.

Panelists were:
Ensign Cowell, Greenleaf Capital & Giving Back Gang, member
Henry Doll, Founder, The Giving Back Gang - a Giving Circle
Stuart Mendel, Assistant Dean and Co-Director, Center for Nonprofit Policy and Practice, Maxine Goodman Levin College of Urban Affairs, Cleveland State University
Georgia Reash, CEO, Institute for Creating Community
Chris & Judy Schenk, Tinamou Consulting
Linda Springer, Executive Director, Cleveland Social Venture Partners

Agneda:

4:00 PM Welcome

              Mark S. Rosentraub, Deand and Professor

4:15 PM Panel Discussion

              Moderator - Stuart Nemdel, Assistant Dean and Co-Director, Center for Nonprofit Policy and Practice

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Wednesday's East Cleveland Extending Community Home Online (ECHO) meeting will be held from 9:30 to 11:00 AM at the McGregor Home - see http://www.mcgregoramasa.org/guest.asp and below for directions. We shall be the guests of McGregor CEO and President Rob Hilton, who will join us to discuss transforming the quality of life for seniors in this community.

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The REALNEO team is very pleased to anounce new COILs for the City of East Cleveland - http://eastcleveland-org.bryght.net - and their senior citizens department and Helen S. Brown Senior Citizens' Center - http://hsbc.realinks.us. In each case, these social networks provide valuable virtual services where there were none, to organizations and people excluded from the new economy by the digital divide. In launching these initiatives, the REALNEO team has collaborated with many inspiring East Cleveland community leaders who know and love their community well - in the process, the REALNEO team has been amazed by how remarkable a place is East Cleveland. How well do you know your region? Visit http://eastcleveland-org.bryght.net and http://hsbc.realinks.us  to observe much more!

You are Invited to a

Resident Artist Showcase

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Following several months of meetings and discussions, the East Cleveland ECHO - Extending Community Home Online - initiative is making great progress. A strong and diverse team of volunteers has come together to develop for East Cleveland a virtual comunity where there was not one, and we'll begin distributing donated computers to area organizations and residents the week of April 18th, starting with the Helen S. Brown Senior Center and next flowing to students at Shaw High School. Computers will run free open source software, making everything we distribute free for recipients. All related developments, ECHO public meetings (usually Wednesday at 9:30 AM), and other East Cleveland events will be highlighted at the new East Cleveland portal, currently being developed at http://eastcleveland-org.bryght.net - check in often!

An Invitation to Discuss Regionalism on April 21
Please share this
email with your email lists. Thanks!

Regionalism. What does it mean? And
what does it mean for the nonprofit

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Good news was published in the 04.13.05 Cleveland Plain Dealer about a program called "Computer Learning In My Back Yard" (see below) to provide more computer training to disadvantaged area residents. The article points out that while around 85% of Americans have Internet access at home, less than 50% of Clevelanders are connected. This is an essential program for Northeast Ohio to rebound from the grip of our old economy depression, but a premise of the article - "to transform Cleveland's Luddites into digital literates" - is telling of why we are in this sorry state. "Luddite" is a modern term for " one who opposes technological change", and that is not an accurate description of the common residents of NEO - nothing indicates that they oppose technology. Rather, the area Luddites are those in command and control positions who for too long have failed to grasp the fact that all area residents must have ready access to mainstream information technology to participate in the new economy. Thus, as we begin testing tightly controlled programs in limited areas of Cleveland, "Philadelphia on Monday started free classes for everyone from well-off architects to high school dropouts. That state-supported program wants to help establish basic digital mastery for the entire work force, which will attract businesses into the city, said Carole Smith, executive director of the Mayor's Commission on Technology in Philadelphia." Read on, and realize more must be done, and immediately.

Entrepreneurs for Sustainability (E4S) has
been collecting information about its members and who is in their
networks. At the April 19 E4S meeting, social networking expert Valdis
Krebs will unveil what this network looks like. And EcoCity Cleveland's
David Beach will discuss the potential for a GreenCityBlueLake Network
- a new network identity to provide context for sustainability in
Northeast Ohio.
5:30 - 8 p.m. Great Lakes Brewing Co. Tasting Room on Carroll Ave.
Click here for updated information or to register (free).

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The third of my students this semester who has taken on a topically-focused blogging assignment is Jennifer Mack. She is a double major in music and management, and she still finds time to track down really interesting references to music in business contexts, and to the business of the music industry.

The 03.16.05 Community of Minds get-together featured Jurgen Faust, Chair of TIME (The Integrated Multimedia Environment) at the world-class Cleveland Institute of Art. Community of Minds is the longest-standing and most innovative entrepreneurial networking initiatives in NEO, providing attendees highly valuable, free, bi-monthly insight sharing meet-ups at the Case University Dively Center, held with support from the Center for Regional Economic Issues (REI) and Thompson Hine law firm. At this March meeting, Jurgen Faust offered important insight on developing NEO as a "Future Center" of design excellence.

The 03.10.05 Northeast Ohio Business Plan Challenge networking event at the Tower Press Building was a lively party where 100s of entrepreneurship champions enjoyed a brisk snowy evening to explore business opportunities, fine art and a great historic property in the heart of downtown. The event was designed to heighten awareness of this competition for innovative business plans, which awards a total of $120,000 across many categories. This was not the usual entrepreneurial suspects seen at so many
business soirees - this was a young, hip, diverse group that appeared
they could accomplish anything, and attendees seemed happy to be there to share good cheer.

The Convention
and Visitors Bureau (CVB) of Greater Cleveland will be hosting a forum to
present a concept for development of an online marketplace for the sale of
discount surplus tickets to events in Cleveland.  Loren Chylla, Director of Marketing,
Cleveland.com and King Hill, Principal, Director of Marketing Services,
Digiknow will be in attendance to give an overview of the proposed online
model.  Community Partnership for Arts
and Culture conducted significant background research on discount ticketing
models for the arts and cultural tourism committee of the CVB.  This research has helped to shape and inform
the model that is being proposed.  The
FINAL FORUM will be held on the following date:

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