Our friends Cleveland Heights Green Team (CHGT) and Heights Libraries are teaming up to present Earth Month in the Heights.  If you have an event you’re planning in your neighborhood or at your organization that supports sustainable living or earth-friendly practices, add it to the calendar to make it easy for everyone in the Heights to take part all Earth Month long!

Click here for details about Earth Month in the Heights.

FutureHeights is getting involved in Earth Month – Join Us for Crowdsourced Conversations #1: Sustainability

We are excited to welcome all of our Heights friends and neighbors to our first Crowdsourced Conversations forum on Wednesday, April 27th from 7pm-8:30pm at Coventry PEACE (2843 Washington Blvd, Cleveland Heights). The evening’s topic will be sustainability — and we will be relying on the crowdsourced responses from the Cleveland Heights Green Team’s environmental issues survey to craft small group discussion questions.

The CHGT’s survey was widely circulated from March 1-March 21 and received about two hundred responses from community members — we so look forward to make the conversation about what folks in the Heights are most interested in talking about!

Opening remarks for this event will be made by Councilwoman Josie Moore and members of the Cleveland Heights Green Team.

All are welcome!

**This event is free to attend — register here**

EARTH MONTH CALENDAR

View the Earth Month in the Heights Events Calendar

Click here to add your Earth Month Event to the calendar. (Deadline for submissions: 3/1/22)

Please join us in thanking Abby Lawless, FutureHeights Director of Real Estate Development, for her contributions to FutureHeights, and in wishing her well on her future endeavors. Abby earned a Master of Urban Design from Kent State University in December and has accepted a new position with a planning and urban design firm. Since 2019, Abby has been an important part of the FutureHeights team, staffing the Planning & Development and FutureHomes committees, helping us launch the FutureHomes program, and overseeing the rehabilitation and sale of 15 homes, with 5 more due to be completed this spring. Thank you, Abby, you will be greatly missed.

Brand new in 2022: Crowdsourced Conversations – A Forum Series Curated by the People for the People.

This year, FutureHeights and Friends are bringing you a conversation-based forum series that brings Heights residents together to talk about topics that matter to us all.

HOW THIS SERIES FLOWS

Each forum will have a pre-survey for you to fill out.  We will use your answers to help formulate discussion topics for forum night.  During each forum, participants will enjoy the company of small breakout groups where, with the assistance of facilitators, they will dive into the questions generated by survey respondents.  After small group discussion, we will reconvene as a group-at-large to share what we talked about. And even after we say our goodbyes, we will keep in touch and keep the conversation flowing, build community connections, and continue to brainstorm actionable ideas.

2022 SERIES TOPICS & DATES:

#1: Sustainability – Wednesday, April 27th from 7pm-8:30pm at Coventry PEACE

• Visit our sustainability event resource page.

#2: Housing & Neighborhood Preservation – Tuesday, June 28 from 7pm-8:30pm at Forest Hill Church

• Visit our housing and neighborhood preservation resource page.

#3: Community Safety – Wednesday, August 31 from 7pm-8:30pm at Denison Park’s picnic pavilion

• Visit our community safety resource page.

#4: Civic Engagement – Wednesday, October 26 from 7pm-8:30pm at Disciples Christian Church

• RSVP here.

This forum series will be an opportunity to connect with other Heights residents about topics that impact us in a variety of overlapping ways. We hope you can join us for all four conversations! Stay tuned for more details soon. Any questions, connect with Sarah – swolf@futureheights.org.

THANK YOU!

This forum series is being planned in partnership with FutureHeights Community & Civic Engagement Committee, Cleveland Heights Green Team, Home Repair Resource Center, City of Cleveland Heights Racial Justice Task Force, Racial Inequity Repair Committee of Forest Hill Church, representatives of Cleveland Heights City Council, and more.  Thank you for the joy, wisdom, and enthusiasm you bring to the table!

Join Heights Conversations: Intersectionality of Pedestrian Safety on Thursday, March 10th from 7pm-8:30pm.  Featuring panelists Director of the Diversity Institute Dr. Ronnie Dunn, Cleveland journalist Angie Schmitt, CH-UH School District Coordinator of Safety & Security Ricky Watters, and Chair of the Cleveland Heights Transportation & Environmental Sustainability Committee Sam Bell, along with moderator John Piche of Heights Library, this event will explore the social trends that are putting people at risk. And why fundamentally, pedestrian safety is a problem of systematic, structural inequality.

“Intersectionality is a lens through which you can see where power comes and collides, where it interlocks and intersects. It’s not simply that there’s a race problem here, a gender problem here, and a class or LBGTQ problem there. Many times that framework erases what happens to people who are subject to all of these things.”

-Kimberlé Crenshaw [resource: Columbia Law School]

Crenshaw, who coined the term “intersectionality” in 1987, did so after noticing legal gaps in how people from marginalized or minority groups were treated by the law.  This legal use of the term intersectionality has broadened to social contexts as well — and in this forum, we will explore its application to pedestrian safety.

In her nonfiction book Right of Way, journalist Angie Schmitt shines a spotlight on social inequities revealed by pedestrian accidents and pedestrian deaths.  According to the book’s publisher, Island Press, “They don’t happen because of jaywalking or distracted walking. They are predictable, occurring in stark geographic patterns that tell a story about systemic inequality. These deaths are the forgotten faces of an increasingly urgent public-health crisis that we have the tools, but not the will, to solve.” More than 6,000 pedestrians are getting killed every year on American streets, representing an enormous 50 percent increase from the first part of the decade.

In cities like Cleveland Heights and University Heights, so often praised for being “walkable,” how do we see pedestrian safety being addressed, discussed, and prioritized? Join us for a panel discussion to dialogue about this often overlooked anti-racism, diversity equity and inclusion issue.

EVENT DETAILS:

When: Thursday, March 10, 7-8:30 p.m.

Location: Zoom!  Register here.

In preparation for this event, join Heights Libraries for the book discussion of Right of Way on Wednesday, March 2 @ 7pm on Zoom. Register here.

Heights Conversations is a partnership between FutureHeights, Heights Community Congress, Family Connections, Heights Libraries, Cleveland University Heights City School District, Reaching Heights, Road Printz, Compass Consulting Services, and the city of Cleveland Heights that is focused on creating spaces for dialogue surrounding anti-racism and equity issues within the community.

Follow us on Facebook and Instagram!

This February, FutureHeights is teaming up with Heights Community Congress, Reaching Heights, Heights Libraries, CH-UH City School District, Road Printz, Neighborhood Connections, and the City of Cleveland Heights to present “Beloved Heights: Anti-racism Education and Conversation.” Check out our social media every day this month, and join the dialogue about how to be anti-racist.

Follow us on Facebook here.

Follow us on Instagram here.

FutureHeights extends a huge thank you to our AmeriCorp VISTA, Melaney Cook.  Over the past year, Melaney has supported the FutureHomes program and worked closely with data related to our model block areas.  We wish you the best of luck, Melaney, in what lies ahead for you – you will be missed!

Welcome to FutureHeights, Lydia!

We are thrilled to welcome Lydia Ward as our Spring 2022 intern. Originally from Saginaw, Michigan, Lydia moved to Cleveland this past August to pursue her Master’s in Social Work (MSW) as an Advanced Standing student at CWRU’s Mandel School. With a specialization is Community Practice for Social Change, Lydia is passionate about creating change on a community and government levels. She hopes for a future career in advocacy on behalf of children and their families at the local and state levels to provoke policy change/reform in the future.

We are delighted to welcome our 2022 incoming board members:

Kimberlee Jones –Born and raised in Southern California, Kimberlee and her wife, Lisa, moved to Cleveland Heights from Los Angeles in January 2021. She is an experienced fundraiser who couldn’t wait to be involved in her new community, which strives to be an equitable and thriving area for people of diverse backgrounds.

Tonya Horn – A resident of the Noble Neighborhood of Cleveland Heights, Tonya has served as a member of the FutureHeights Neighborhood Mini-Grants Committee. She looks forward to bringing the DEI experience gained from her role at Avery Dennison to help FutureHeights “become more diverse as an organization and ensure equity across all communities.”

Karen Malone Wright –The owner and chief strategist of Odyssey Creative Group, a marketing and communications company, Karen is a longtime resident of University Heights. Through her online community The NotMom, she is also an advocate for women without children by choice or by chance. Karen loves the Heights and wants to give back.

Ron Wynne – A lifelong resident of Cleveland Heights, Ron is a 2021 graduate of the FutureHeights Neighborhood Leadership Workshop Series and has volunteered on the FutureHeights Community and Civic Engagement Committee. “As a young, black renter in Cleveland Heights, I want to use my perspective and experience in Cleveland Heights to advocate for underrepresented groups in the city.”

Many thanks to our outgoing board members:

Craig Cobb, Josefita (Achy) Fehn, Micah Kirman, and Anthony Mattox – They have been outstanding contributors, who have given of their time and expertise to help us connect with the community, think strategically and approach our work with compassion for others. Special thanks to Achy for her incredible work in helping us secure the venue for our spectacular 2021 Annual Benefit!  We look forward to each of our outgoing board member’s continued involvement in the organization and are excited to work with Craig and Anthony in their new roles as Cleveland Heights Council Members.

And, last but certainly not least, welcome to our newest team member:

We are excited to welcome Belle Espinal to the FutureHeights team in the role of Business Outreach Manager. Originally from NYC, Belle received her B.A. from Oberlin College in comparative American studies and lives in Cleveland Heights. Her diverse experiences include teaching English-language learners, working with entrepreneurs of color on community events, and starting her own wellness business.

Learn about the impact FutureHeights is having in our community by watching our new video.

Click to view video

Come one! Come all! Come learn all about the magic and possibility that go along with your participation in one of the FutureHeights Community Capacity-Building programs!

Get the tea on the FutureHeights community capacity-building programs: Neighborhood Mini-Grants & Neighborhood Leadership Workshop Series. Join Sarah for an info session to get program overviews — and get your questions answered, too.