Cincinnati nonprofit organization
CINspirational People: Mike Moroski
We have many reasons to be proud of living in Greater Cincinnati. Among us we have so many neighbors who care, destinations to visit, workplaces achieving great significance, educational institutions helping to raise future leaders, and organizations whose efforts are making a positive impact on lives and neighborhoods.
Yet, did you know, on average, there are an estimated 7,000 children in our region each year who know what it is like to be called ‘homeless’?
That is a really tough statistic to grasp.
Not only are these young, impressionable minds working through whatever intense circumstance they are facing with or without their family, necessities such as food, adequate clothing, supplies, transportation, mental preparedness to focus, and even positive adult role models are more often than not lacking too.
Good for them, and for our community, that a unique (and wonderful) nonprofit organization charged with helping these young people to grow. UpSpring (formerly Faces Without Places) is our region’s only nonprofit that exclusively serves homeless youth and children, providing them with 
consistency to achieve educational success in and out of the classroom. Each year UpSpring empowers about 3,000 children who are experiencing homelessness in Greater Cincinnati.
And, at its helm is a leader so driven by a passion to change the world – or at least the region – that his drive to stand up for what he believes in got him fired and landed him in national news. (Mike Moroski was terminated from his role as dean of student life at Purcell Marian high School for writing a post on his personal blog in support of same-sex marriage.) His deep rooted capacity to be an activist for those needing a voice found him embedded in the community of Over-the-Rhine as a rehabber, volunteer, friend and investor; and took him on a journey of running for Cincinnati City Council. Ultimately his path led him to UpSpring.
To meet Mike is to meet an immediate connection. On his website, he wrote, “Without relationships, nothing worthwhile or long-lasting can be accomplished.”
Mike also shared, “I’ve learned that picking yourself up off the ground when you’re down is the only way to succeed in this life. I have the relationships to be able to do this. Too many in our City do not. I have received numerous accolades for taking a stand in February and losing my job. My ability to take that stand is a blessing and one for which I am truly grateful. My ability to fight for those without a voice is a gift; a gift that I take very seriously. You see, those in poverty could not take the same stand that I took in February. They could not afford to lose their job & their health insurance. Thanks to my family (my safety net), I was able to take that stand – a stand I would have wanted to take even if I had not been in a position to do so, but one that, ultimately, I would not have been able to take. I’ve re-learned why I am running for Council this year – I am running so that those who have long felt their power stripped away from them can begin making moves to regain some of that power. When one is blessed with the ability to fight for what’s right, one should. I feel an overwhelming calling to do just that – and I have for many, many years.”
I have so much admiration and respect for Mike. He is a role model to me in so many ways. Please spend a few minutes to learn a little bit more about him.
Lisa: From where do you get your passion?
Mike: I think my passion definitely comes from a place of empathy. I grew up with every kind of opportunity I could ever want but by the time I was in high school, I realized how fortunate I was. My parents did not grow up with those same resources. Their families were poor, but they often didn’t realize it.
As I grew, what was instilled in me was a serious distaste for bullies. I’ll never forget fighting the kids who made fun of a friend who was different.
The way I see it, the systems in place today that promote the statistics are structural bullying or structural child abuse. These kids are not unequal but never given the opportunity to be equal. There is a difference.
Lisa: Tell us about someone who has influenced you and your life.
Mike: Mike Rogers, definitely. Mike had experienced homelessness and is a graduate of the Men’s Recovery Program of the Drop Inn Center. He has been like a brother to me. I was in my 20s when we met and I was not very confident. Mike is the first person to have told me not to apologize for my thoughts, and that they were good and valid. I always had a distaste for poverty and Mike introduced me to his community in Over-the-Rhine that has been pushed down. He worked with me on a rehab project and one day we began talking about the fact there was no place for people in his neighborhood to just hang out. Before I knew it, we were talking about opening this coffee shop. We called it Choices Café.
(Note: Choices Café was more than a coffee shop. It was a gathering place for people of different backgrounds with a shared outlook. Partnering with 3CDC, the Drop Inn Center, Greater Cincinnati Coalition for the Homeless, and others, it embodied the motto, ‘We are one.’)
Lisa: What is the best advice you have received?
Mike: My father was always a salesman and he used to tell me that in everything I do, I am selling. I think about that in my work as an advocate and activist, and how education is a sales process. Many people have not had my life experiences. Without having had the opportunity to get to know a Mike Rogers or have homeless friends, they will not be able to relate the way I do and they may have already formed inaccurate associations. Every day I am selling the cause of homelessness, the reality of life for those who are impacted by it, and the need for support.
Another piece of advice that has stuck with me came from one of my professors. He told us, ‘your students will likely never remember anything you taught them but they will always remember who you were.’ That applies to most everything and everyone.
Lisa: You also talk about learning the difference between optimism and hope. Can you explain?
Mike: I learned that from someone who I never met, Vaclav Havel, who led the velvet revolution in the Czech Republic from his prison cell. In one of his letters, he wrote about how you need to clearly understand that difference if you are to fight injustice. OPTIMISM, he taught me, means you believe something will work. However, if you do your work filled with HOPE because you know deep down that it is the right thing to do no matter the outcome, only then is your work is sustainable. Reading that really changed how I do what I do.
Lisa: What is your hope when it comes to leading Upspring into the future?
Mike: I want to see the numbers of homelessness of young people go down. Organizationally speaking, I want Upspring to be able to provide more summer programs and serve more kids. This coming summer we will serve 210 students. I would also like to see what our role can be in early education. To expand, we will need more resources and more staff. It is going to take massive efforts and we cannot do this alone.
Lisa: What are some things on your own gratitude list?
Mike: Definitely my wife, Katie, all my friends and family, my pets and my music. All of them are what keep me level. This work is very intense, and it is not always easy turning it off. Hanging out with Katie and playing my guitar keeps me sane. I tell others they need to identify what that is for them because if you have the juice, your whole life can quickly be consumed. It is hard for me to NOT see the world as a mission. I am here to DO something.
Lisa: What other advice do you give people?
Mike: You’ve got to pursue your dreams, and also know that if you don’t change the world, that you have not failed. You have got to be patient. That is something I have to work on every day.
It is something I think a lot of us have to work on every day too. Yet, one more lesson I have come to learn from Mike.
#GoodThingsCincy #CINspiration
Cincinnati Children Received The Gift Of Bikes
The smiles on these faces speaks volumes for what is means to the children who are recipients of the 2015 Cinci Holiday Bike Drive, a project of Cincinnati nonprofit, Queen City 
Bike. This year, with generosity from the community, the organization was able to give bikes to 64 local kids. All children also received a new helmet and some bike safety education.
Queen City Bikes takes donations throughout the year and volunteer mechanics refurbish them. Smaller pedal brake bicycles are given to children referred by social service agencies and assistance centers while larger bicycles are refurbished and sold at reasonable prices, with proceeds going toward helmets, bike parts and bike education.
How can you help?
There are several ways. The Cinci Holiday Bike Drive is looking for a home to store its bicycles and teach bicycle repair to adults and teens, preferably on the west side of Cincinnati. It also is continuing to seek bike donations. Additionally, a $35 donation purchases one child’s helmet and the parts needed to refurbish one bike. To learn more and/or to donate, please reach out to them at holidaybikedrive@gmail.com
YWCA Accepting Scholarship Applications
The YWCA of Greater Cincinnati is offering a scholarship opportunity for African American female high school seniors who have overcome significant obstacles. Ten local, female, African American female students will be selected to receive the YWCA Mamie Earl Sells Scholarship. The scholarship recognizes young African-American women who have been successful despite having to overcome significant hardships. The YWCA not only offers
YWCA of Greater Cincinnati 2015 scholarship recipient, Lily-Michelle Arthur from Norwood High School, is with YWCA Career Women of Achievement Keynote Speaker Geena Davis
financial support to the students, but also an opportunity to meet and learn from some of Greater Cincinnati’s most successful, empowered career women, as the young women are invited to attend the 37th Annual YWCA Career Women of Achievement Luncheon on Wednesday, May 11, 2016.
The YWCA Mamie Earl Sells Scholarship Fund was established in 1993 to provide financial assistance and support to an outstanding African-American female high school senior entering a post-secondary institution. There is 1 winner who receives $3,000, 2 Runners-Up receive $1000 each, 7 Honorable Mentions receive $250 each.
The application deadline is Thursday, January 21, 2016. Applications are available at www.ywcacincinnati.org/mes
Meet the 2015 Scholarship Winner
Lily-Michelle Arthur’s family’s hopes for a better life in Cincinnati crumbled soon after they arrived from their native Ghana. Her parents divorced, and the then Norwood High School teenager began handling household duties and caring for her siblings while her mother worked at a minimum-wage job. That experience was Lily-Michelle’s lesson in adaptation. She vowed to strive for high academic grades and success in whatever she did. Last year when she won the YWCA of Greater Cincinnati’s Mamie Earls Sells Scholarship presented by Kroger, she was ranked first in her class with a GPA of 3.9, wass Norwood High School’s senior class president, founder of the school’s Key Club and a member of the National Honor Society and Academic Team. She also volunteered at Good Samaritan and Christ Hospitals.
Lily-Michelle attends Emory University and is studying pre-med. She wants to be a pediatric neurologist and dreams of serving in humanitarian medical missions around the world.
“I want to leave behind a legacy that success is attainable despite personal or social challenges,” she said.
CINspirational People: Leila Kubesch
There are people in this world who live their life with purpose, who push beyond their comfort zone because the power of what they are fighting for is much stronger than any insecurity inside themselves. They are courageous and they are leaders, and they are making this world better in their own way.
Leila Kubesch is one of those people. She is the founder of a Cincinnati nonprofit organization called Parents 2 Partners that educates and empowers vulnerable families including those with limited English, aged out and homeless youth from foster care.
Her website describes what she does this way, ”We use the language they understand and go at pace they can handle. First, we move them from a victim to victor mind-set and let them soar. We train parents, youth, and educators because maximum impact does not occur in isolation. Our aspiration is to promote cohesive informed families that support each other for the success of all.”
She and I walked through Sharon Woods one day when she shared some of her story. It began in Africa where she grew up never having owned or played with a toy. She didn’t know she was poor. “Even without a book to call mine,” she told me, “I loved possibilities. My grandmother sat me down and taught me to dream big. I believed in her words, kept the faith and am achieving my dreams.”
A year ago Leila volunteered as a court appointed youth advocate, a role that changed her path. She discovered the difficult fork in the road for foster care youth, who, at 18, find themselves alone.
“Somehow we think they can make it on their own. One child died in my own community for not getting his medication,” Leila said. “When I asked some of these children what they wanted more than anything, they said simply…a mentor.”
Think about that for a minute. These young adults trying to find their way in this complicated world just trying to get their most basic needs like food, clothing and housing met, are telling Leila what they want more than anything is an adult role model who cares.
It is their stories, their hearts and their potential that has given this soft spoken woman a strong voice. Leila has driven to Washington to meet with a Senator. She developed a web app so that foster care children can be found according to school district. She has applied for program grants and gotten them. She has educated and empowered parents, families and young people through camps, workshops, a Parent Academy.
On March 5, she told her story to a small crowd and was selected to speak at a sell out TEDxCincinnati event this year.
“A year ago, I could not speak in front of people but when I stood there looking into the crowd, I was fearless like I have never known myself to be,” she told me. “It was because I was not speaking with my mind. I was speaking with my heart and I knew I had a purpose. I knew at that moment I did not want to fail.”
Please watch Leila’s TEDxCincinnati talk below.
What is Leila’s advice to other’s? “My advice to anyone who wants to start something is not feel trapped or bound by what you are good at. Follow where your heart is and amazing things will happen.”
Learn more about Parents 2 Partners here.
Pro Seniors Honored Cincinnati Seniors
What better way for Pro Seniors, a Cincinnati nonprofit organization that assists older Ohioans with legal and long-term care problems, to celebrate its 40th anniversary than to honor older Cincinnati legends.
Honorees Honorable Nathaniel Jones, Sister Rose Ann Fleming, Mary Meinhardt and Marty Brennaman with Pro Seniors Executive Director Rhonda Moore. Photo credit: Pro Seniors
Marty Brennaman, Sister Rose Ann Fleming, the Honorable Nathaniel Jones and Mary Meinhardt were recognized as “Seniors Who Rock” at a November event.
In case you are unfamiliar, Marty has been the stand out voice of the Cincinnati Reds since 1974; Sister Rose Ann is an attorney and special assistant to Xavier University President, The Rev. Michael Graham; and also is an NCAA faculty athletic representative for Xavier, working with the men’s basketball players. The distinguished career Nathaniel Jones includes serving as general counsel of NAACP and on the US Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit. And Mary is an advocate for seniors, serving as a volunteer guardian for Cincinnati Area Senior Services and board member of EPIC House and Pro Seniors.
The honorees each shared one of their favorite inspirational quotes that has kept them rocking. Among those quotes were:
“For when the one great scorer comes to write against your name, he marks not that you won or lost, but how you played the game,”
and “Don’t pass up the opportunity to apologize for a mistake,” from Grantland Rice.
-Shared by Marty Brennaman
The Bible verse “Encourage one another day after day.
– Shared by Sister Rose Ann Fleming
During Pro Seniors 40 years, more than 110,000 seniors have been helped with legal problems and more than $36 M has been recovered in retirement benefits. Additionally, 166,000 seniors, their families and their caregivers have benefitted from Pro Seniors community education presentations. Among Pro Seniors’ other programs are: a free legal hotline; long-term care ombudsmen as advocates for seniors; and prevention, detection and reporting of identity theft and health care fraud.
#GoodThingsCincy
