Event
Help Cincinnati Fight Poverty
The past few weeks, I have been working with Sean Rugless to help raise awareness of an issue that affects all of us in Greater Cincinnati…and of an upcoming event where you can have input into trying to find solutions. What is it?
It is poverty. Childhood poverty.
When our region is ranked #4 nationally in child poverty (source: The National Center for Children in Poverty) with nearly half of children estimated to be living below the federal poverty level, it is a problem that affects EVERYONE. And the Child Poverty Collaborative wants everyone to be a part of looking into a solution.
On Saturday, June 25, from 8:30 am to 12:30 pm, over 650 people representing nonprofit organizations, friends, neighbors, civic and business leaders, will be coming together at Xavier University’s Cintas Center for a critically important Community Summit organized by the Child Poverty Collaborative (CPC). Charged with the very difficult process of creating an action plan for moving 10,000 Cincinnati children from poverty over the next five years, input and action from diverse people and perspectives is critical. At the Summit, attendees will share their voice and their ideas, connect with others who share an interest in strengthening lives children and their families within our region, and ultimately be part of the larger community effort that is taking action to find solutions.
“As a city and as a region, we must all realize and take ownership of the fact that this is about all of us,” said Cincinnati Mayor John Cranley. “It is encouraging to see so many people step forward and want to be a part of this process of figuring out what we need to do differently to help our friends, neighbors, co-workers, and loved ones to move past financial hardship. We have a long road ahead. This Community Summit will be an important step in this process.”
In one unique, open-to-the-public large Community Summit, people of different socio economic, cultural, racial, and neighborhood backgrounds will come together in an interactive day that will include speakers, small group break outs, and continuous reflections. Input from this Summit be used to co-develop strategies that will be introduced at an October 2016 Summit. To reduce barriers of participation, the event is free, provides accommodations for child care, and includes lunch. (Pre-registration is preferred at this website.)
“We have been charged with the very difficult process of creating an action plan for moving 10,000 Cincinnati children from poverty over the next five years. Solving an issue as complex and deep rooted as this is going to require many different perspectives and approaches, and it is imperative that we begin with and include people who are impacted at every level help us determine how best to move forward,” said Lynn Marmer, executive director of the Child Poverty Collaborative. The innovative format of this Community Summit promises that regardless of attendees’ titles or status outside, everyone will have an equal voice in frank, engaged discussions about where we are today and where we want to be as a region.
More information is at: www.childpovertycollaborative.org
Listen to the interview on WVXU.
The Poverty Facts
The Census Bureau’s American Community shows that nearly half (47.2 percent) of all children in the city of Cincinnati and one in five children in the Tri-state live below the federal poverty threshold. That’s over 30,000 children within the city and 105,000 children in the Tri-state region; this big and complex issue touches everyone and will require a coordinated effort to solve it.
More statistics:
66% of City children in households headed by women live in poverty
In the City, the poverty rate for African Americans is 41%. (That’s double the poverty rate of Whites). 70% of African American children under 5 in the City are in poverty.
From a workforce perspective, many people in poverty are actually working: 40% of adults in poverty work at least part time; $48,500 per year is necessary for a family of 4 to afford the basics. (That’s 200% of the Federal Poverty Level.); 72% of all jobs I the region pay less than $50,000 per year.
About the Child Poverty Collaborative
The Child Poverty Collaborative is broad based community effort by leaders from government, business, civil society, faith-based organizations, and concerned citizens who are committed to co-creating solutions that significantly reduce the number of children living in poverty in our community. It is being managed by the United Way of Greater Cincinnati. Among the Collaborative’s goals are lifting 10,000 children out of poverty in the next three to five years and helping 5,000 unemployed or underemployed adults get into jobs and out of poverty.
Mother’s Day Messages
Several of my friends shared their thoughts and photos of their mothers, in celebration of Mother’s Day.
Deb Haas
My mother never told me what to do, rather she taught by living her life as an example of how to be a good person, and how to treat others. She was kind, always. She treated everyone she met with respect, and a smile. She saw the good in people. How lucky I was to have her– I hope I’m good at those things, too. She was my greatest champion and friend. When I spoke at her funeral, I said, “I sure am glad I had her for my mom for 33 years, rather than someone I didn’t like very much for 70!” The time with her was too short, but I am reminded of how fortunate I have been when I meet someone new who knew her. Almost to a person, they take my hand and say, “You’re Linda’s daughter?!?”….it feels like they are happy just to be with someone who reminds them of her. And that is a gift to me.
Brian Gregg
I’m a lucky man to be born to this woman. Her sacrifices and hard work laid the foundation for not only me, but my children. She was a parent at 17 and raised three children, mostly by herself. We didn’t have much at all, but we had a ton of guidance and love. As I navigate parenting, I turn to the example she set and the things she taught. Sydney and Tyson just love her for being grandma, but they are going to hear stories about her for the rest of her life and some day they will understand her greatness and impact on the people they become.
Kate Lopez
That is my older sister Emily Pack and my mom is Cathy Young. “The first thing my mom gave me was her smile and then she taught my siblings and I how to use it well! She was a nurse who cured with medicine and her quick smile. She is my example of selflessness, strength and unconditional love. She is who I strive to be.”
A Night of CINspiration
Thank you to everyone who came to my second A Night of CINspiration event, and to speakers Leila Kubesch and Kelly Richey, my volunteer Maya Odom, and the staff of Tavern on the Hill in Mt. Adams for making it another special event. Please see the photos below and video. I hope to see you at the next event!
Note: the photo below is part of a photo album. Click on the arrows on the image to move forward or backward.
A Night of CINspiration is a happy hour get-together organized by Good Things Going Around with a twist – the events are meant to be opportunities for people to meet and be uplifted by other positive thinking people, from diverse backgrounds. Speakers at each event are people who have been featured in the blog.
Melvin Grier Shares His Journey
For so many years as a public relations professional has spent a lot of time working in and around the media, I have met and been impressed with so many gifted photo journalists. Their lens is their eye to the world, capturing scenes with vivid images no words could do justice.
Award winning photographer Melvin Grier has been top on my list. In the days when Cincinnati was home to two daily newspapers, Melvin enjoyed a 33 year career at The Cincinnati Post. His images compellingly took us to places we would never have been exposed otherwise. They shared raw human emotions. They celebrated life. They shared kindness, ugliness, grief and joy.
Revisit Melvin’s journey in a very special new exhibit called White People: A Retrospective at the Cincinnati Art Beyond Boundaries Exhibit Venue (1410 Main Street in Cincinnati’s Over-the-Rhine) running from this Friday through May 13, 2016. There will be a FREE opening reception on Friday (March 25) from 6 to 9 pm with wine and hors d’oeuvres.
White People: A Retrospective
The photography exhibit is an encore show that was first shown in 2011 at the Kennedy Heights Arts Center. It is a forerunning installation of FOTOFOCUS 2016.
One of Melvin Grier’s photographs that will be on exhibit at the Cincinnati Art Beyond Boundaries Gallery art exhibition venue in Over-the-Rhine.
Melvin told me the idea for the show evolved from a conversation he had with his daughter, photographer Samantha Grier. She was working for the Hamilton Journal at the time and made an observation. She noticed that at many of her assignments, she was the only black person there. It got Melvin thinking, and actually he had the same experiences.
The exhibition will highlight a collection of photos that were taken during his career at The Cincinnati Post. You may recognize some. You may recognize their story. You probably will be moved.
Let’s get to know Melvin.
Lisa: Where did your love for photography come from?
Melvin: I was in the air force stationed in England, about an hour train ride from London. I remember going to London to take pictures when I could, and develop them in a hobby shop with a dark room. I entered a military photography contest called Stars and Stripes, and won first place. I taught myself. My first love was fashion photography but I discovered journalism photography and later decided to make it a career.
Lisa: Tell us about one of your experiences as a photojournalist that moved you.
Melvin: One of my assignments at The Post was going to Africa with a local group during a civil war. I went with Reporter Lisa Rose Cardillo. I remember getting on the flight and seeing the entire crew was black, and getting to Nairobi and feeling like everyone looks like me when I got off the plane.
The whole experience was very meaningful. I saw people running around with automatic rifles. When we went to a clinic, I saw children who were skin and bones. You have to be a professional and not let your emotions get involved. I wished I could have done more. I went to an orphanage, and there were so many beautiful babies. I remember picking one up and thinking I wanted to take it back to Cincinnati.
I knew that my job there was to create the best photographs I could so that people here could see what I saw. I wanted the reader to see things that were accurate. It was my obligation.
Lisa: Your daughter, Samantha Grier, is also a very talented photographer. How do you feel about your daughter following your path?
Melvin: Samantha reminds me that I was very lucky. I came to work at a newspaper when they were sort of thriving. There was a downward trend during my career. Young people today face a whole different set of circumstances up to and including that there are no jobs. For anyone who aspires to be a journalist, I know you don’t get into it to get rich. It is something you do out of a sense of wanting to contribute.
Lisa: What is the best advice you have ever received?
Melvin: Ben Klein, one of the owners of a printing company I had worked for, had one standard. That was excellence. I remember how he would say that everything we did represented his company, whether it was a free job or not. I learned a lot from him. I know that everything that I shoot as a photographer is far from perfect but I try to make everything as good as I can make it.
Lisa: There is a poem that you read to people a lot. Tell us about it.
Melvin: It is a poem by James Baldwin from a book called Nothing Personal that has a lot of meaning to me. For me, it reminds me that my job as a photographer is to witness things so that people who could not be there for future generations would have a record of it. That was my responsibility, to document things and people.
For nothing is fixed
Forever and forever and forever
It is not fixed
The Earth is always shifting
The light is always changing
The sea does not cease
to grind down rock
Generations do not cease
to be born
and we are responsible to them because
We are the only witnesses they have
– James Baldwin
#GoodThingsCincy
MS Fundraiser Inspired By Couple’s Love
Simcha Kackley is a loving mother and wife, a marketing professional and president of the Cincinnati American Marketing Association. She is also the organizer of a big fundraiser this Saturday (January 23) to raise money for the National Multiple Sclerosis (MS) Society. Her story is so inspiring to me that I wanted to share it.
Behind every great effort is a deeply rooted passion. Simcha’s passion for collecting money toward MS research dates back to February, 2008. After a three year relationship, she and Matthew knew theirs was a lasting love. Engaged to be married, they were so focused on their future.
As can happen sometimes, their lives took an unexpected change. Matt awoke one morning with the right side of his body numb. A few days later they found themselves in a hospital where Matt spent the next two days undergoing a myriad of tests trying to figure out the mystery origin of his symptoms. Simcha was by his side every minute.
Finally, he was sent home and told to follow up with his primary care doctor…who told him he needed to see a neurologist.
At age 28, Matt was diagnosed with an Abnormal MRI from lesions on his brain and spine. While neurologists were 99% confident he had MS, they could not officially diagnose him until he experienced a second episode. It was a month later, one week before their wedding, when Matt’s numbness finally began to subside.
On March 29, 2008 Simcha and Matt married their soul mates.
And after their honeymoon, Matt was able to return to work. However, almost like clockwork, he has had an episode every February since then for about a month. Thankfully each new episode has been of lower severity than the first, allowing him to continue serving our community as a police officer.
“The entire situation opened our eyes to how important living life each and every day to the fullest is. We were brought so much closer together than we had ever been before,” Simcha wrote on a website. “Matt is my inspiration for continuing to trudge ahead and he makes me a better person. I am grateful and blessed to have him in my life.”
Simcha’s Rock n Aspire Event benefitting the National MS Society grows each year. This year’s concert will include appetizers, a cash bar, and these popular bands:
Freekbass (Funk / Rock)
Elementree Livity Project (Reggae / Jam / Rock)
The Magic Lightning Boys (Blues / Rock)
SOUSE (Jazz / Funk / Fusion
It is this Saturday, January 23 at 7 pm at the 20th Century Theater in Oakely (3021 Madison Road; 45209). Tickets are $30 each if bought in advance and can be purchased here; or $40 if purchased at the door. To volunteer, donate or become a sponsore, please email Simcha at info@rocknaspire.com.
