Nonprofit Organization
Community Donated Over 240 Backpacks To Beech Acres Parenting Center
Each year, Beech Acres Parenting Center, a non-profit dedicated to strengthening families for children, works with more than 17,000 children and parents throughout Hamilton, Clermont, Butler and Warren Counties to become better equipped to raise capable, caring, contributing children. For those who are working to overcome financial challenges, this work is that much more difficult.
Beech Acres’ Beech Reach Projects consists of three projects to help in this effort. Fill-a-Backpack provides their kids with the tools they’ll need to succeed in the classroom. This year, caring neighbors and friends generously donated more than 240 backpacks filled with school supplies! Donations are accepted year-round for the new School Supply Store, to have supplies readily available as families need them. Adopt-a-Family will kick off by November 1st to provide gifts for the holidays. For more information on how to get involved, please visit www.BeechAcres.org/BeechReach or call (513) 231-6630.
Building Nonprofit Capacity Is What SVP Cincinnati Does
In 2007 it may have seemed unimaginable that the run down, abandoned space on Reading Road where a gas station once stood would be transformed into one of the region’s most unique hands-on learning laboratories teaching youth and adults about sustaina
ble practices.
It was to be a dream-come-true for Cincinnati’s Civic Garden Center of Greater Cincinnati. The staff of the Center brought the idea…along with a request for funding and professional leadership support to a group of local philanthropists wanting to build the capacity of area nonprofits.
And soon, the very first grant of Social Venture Partners Cincinnati (SVP) was awarded. By 2009 the innovative Green Learning Station was open, teaching people about environmentally responsible methods for growing gardens – anywhere and everywhere. That includes yards, walls, patios, driveways, parking lots…and even roof tops.
SVP not only granted the Civic Garden Center $74,000 over four years, its partners also gave of their professional expertise and time. They provided guidance and assistance with strategic planning, leadership development, marketing, and fundraising.
That is just the beginning of the SVP story. Since June, 2008 until December, 2011, the organization and its 38 partners have invested over $598,000 collectively including financial contributions and professional service volunteer time to four different Cincinnati area causes. (SVP is in the process of deciding upon its fifth investee.) Those nonprofits include – the Gorman Heritage Farm, Whole Again International, Imago for Earth, and the Civic Garden Center.
Money is good. Capacity is better.
“We had the audacious idea that, instead of just throwing money at a nonprofit to address its needs, we would throw ourselves into the organization, giving of our diverse talents to become a true partner,” SVP Chair Wijdan Jreisat wrote in its report to the community. Wijdan is also an attorney at Katz, Teller, Brant & Hild.
When I spoke first with director Lisa Davis Roberts, director, and then Wijdan, their passion came through loud and clear. If we had had all day together, I know each of them could have spent the entire time talking about their common cause.
How does it work? At the heart of SVP are its partners who each donate a minimum of $6000 annually and volunteer their time. (There are 38 partners in Cincinnati.) They go through a rigorous process in deciding upon the organizations they will support, and then, for the next three years they basically give of their hearts and their minds to further missions that are important to them.
“SVP is hands-down my favorite volunteer experience,” said founding partner Susan Ingmire, president of Ingmire Philanthropy Advisors.
United Way Of Greater Cincinnati Kicked Off Campaign
Today, the United Way of Greater Cincinnati and its individual and company supporters, kicked off an important workplace fund raising campaign – with a lofty goal of raising $61 million by its end, October 26. Cincinnati’s Ft. Square was packed with volunteers who will be working to make that goal a reality.
“It’s a stretch,” campaign Chairman David Joyce, CEO of GE Aviation, told the Cincinnati Business Courier’s Lucy May. “We’re going to need everyone to really commit.”
Reaching the goal will allow the United Way to fund so many nonprofits doing vital work to strengthen lives and communities. The United Way has ‘Bold Goals’ in education, income and health that by 2020, at least 45 percent of adults will have an associate’s degree or higher; at least 85 percent of youth will graduate from high school prepared for life, college and career; and that at least 90 percent of the labor force will be gainfully employed. For more information on the goals, please click here.
The fundraising campaign is a partnership of United Way and the Cincinnati Area Chapter of the American Red Cross. The United Way of Greater Cincinnati region includes Hamilton, Clermont, Brown and Butler counties and the Middletown area in Ohio; Boone, Campbell, Grant and Kenton counties in Northern Kentucky; and Dearborn and Ohio counties in Indiana.
Michael Douglas And Harlem Legends Are Greatness
This afternoon, I had the theme ‘GREATNESS’ going through my mind. And next thing I knew, I was talking to Michael Douglas. In case you don’t know, Michael was a Harlem Globetrotters legend in his day. And today, he’s a Harlem Legend. That’s the name of the alumni group he got together (including NBA standouts) to travel the country, spreading messages of inspiration, instilling character values in kids, and raising money for good causes. It’s all part 
of Michael’s foundation, the Michael Douglas Youth Foundation.
“Kids are our future. They look up to professional athletes and so we want to be the best possible role models we can be. We’re all about encouraging them to follow their dreams to ensure a bright future for themselves,” Michael told me when I last talked to him, “but we’re not just helping kids by doing this, we’re helping…period.”
They’ll be coming to Cincinnati again Labor Day weekend to visit with families at Washington Park on Friday, August 31; and then to play a benefit game at Woodward High School on Saturday, September 1 at 5 p.m. (Please see details below.)
I couldn’t help but ask Michael some questions about greatness, since I was in the mood.
Lisa: In your mind, what does it mean to be great?
Michael: Greatness in my mind isn’t something measured by ‘things.’ People’s greatness has more to do with their deeds to humanity and their impact on others. If you have touched someone’s life in a positive way, you have achieved greatness in some sense.
Lisa: Who was your inspiration for greatness?
Michael: I’ve had numerous role models in my life beginning with my parents. They were my first source of courage, teaching me to do right and strive to overcome obstacles. My dad is deceased but my mom still tells me ‘I can.’
Lisa: What are the key ingredients to success?
Michael: There are three keys – you have to have an idea of what you want to do, then you have to believe in your heart that it can happen, and thirdly, you have to be willing to work as hard as you’ve ever worked in your life to go after that idea.
Lisa: What was one of your great obstacles and how did you overcome it?
Michael: I was 7 years old when I knew I was going to be a professional basketball player when I grew up. When I showed up for tryouts to be a Harlem Globetrotter, there were 1499 other men who had my same dream and only five of us would make it. But I had worked hard on my skills my whole life and had a positive attitude and I guess I had what they were looking for. It gave me the opportunity to travel to over 100 countries.
Lisa: How do you want to be remembered?
Michael: I want people to feel they have achieved a different level in life through positive affirmations by being in contact with me. My Foundation work now is my passion and my way of giving back. I love bringing this type of entertainment to communities where people otherwise wouldn’t have a chance to be with the Globetrotters. And I love motivating kids to achieve.
Blad Kids and The Harlem Legends Celebrity Basketball Show
September 1, 2012 – 5:00pm
Woodward High School
Cincinnati, OH$10 General Admission
Children under 5- FREE
VIP tickets are also available for $25.00 -$40.00A local team of police officers, firefighters, coaches, teachers, and community leaders will take on Michael and his Harlem Legends team all to raise money for nonprofit Blad Kids, which fosters personal growth and skill development in young people, using entertainment as its medium.
For Tickets and Sponsorship info contact:
Renee Jordon 513-827-7922
www.bladtalent.com
Through ArtWorks Cincinnati Summer Project, Talents Bloom
If you’ve driven around Greater Cincinnati this summer, you may be seeing new color in unexpected places. Teenage apprentice artists have been working side-by-side professional artists as part of ArtWorks Cincinnati summer program. Actually 
there are 115 teens who have created 15 beautiful, eye-catching murals to be exact.
Yes, these paintings are great masterpieces with vivid imagery that will enrich communities for years to come. But what is really special to me about this program is the opportunity it provides young, aspiring minds to blossom. It is so much more than just getting together to create art. Apprentices strengthen their communication skills and their confidence. They learn about teamwork and responsibility.
“A lot of them gain skills they never knew they had,” ArtWorks Communication Specialist Marian Kelly told me.
The goal, Marian said, is to ultimately have an ArtWorks mural in every Cincinnati neighborhood…and they are up to 32. 
There is a lot of competition for becoming an ArtWorks apprentice. Each year the organization interviews more than 300 diverse youth between the ages of 14 and 21. Key criteria are a positive attitude, ability to work as part of a group, talent and time availability.
