Cincinnati nonprofit
Sample the Great Outdoors in Greater Cincinnati – For Free!
What a great idea! A nonprofit organization called the Green Umbrella is organizing two days – September 22 and 23 – packed with 
over 120 FREE samplings of the best outdoor recreation and nature education activities in our region.
Take a kayak lesson. Hike a new trail. Learn how to cook while backpacking. Explore the tree canopy 60 feet in the air. Shoot a bow and arrow. Tag a Monarch butterfly. Tie a fly. Play a CSI “nature detective”. Look for fossils in a creek. Catch a fish. Paddle the Mill Creek. Learn to row. Band a bird. Eat like an animal at the Cincinnati Zoo.
To plan your great outdoor weekend or view more information on specific events held by participating organizations, go to: www.GreatOutdoorWeekend.org. Printed brochures are also available at Subaru dealerships, area libraries, and at 
all participating organizations.
Great Outdoor Weekend is presented by Green Umbrella and sponsored by Subaru, the Cincinnati Wildflower Preservation Society, Hamilton County Parks, REI, The Licking River Greenway & Trails, Roads Rivers and Trails, Greenacres Foundation and BioGreenChoice. Channel 5 WLWT is media sponsor.
Additional sponsors include Kenton County Parks, Queen City Bikes, Oxbow, Inc., Rumpke, the City of Cincinnati, Little Miami Inc., AIGA Cincinnati, Bayer Becker, Wild Ones and Human Nature.
About Green Umbrella
Green Umbrella is a non-profit organization working to improve the economic vitality and quality of life in the region around Cincinnati by maximizing the collective impact of individuals and organizations dedicated to environmental sustainability.
Green Umbrella is the ‘backbone organization’ helping member organizations work better together to promote a more environmentally sustainable region. In partnership with our area’s leading planning initiatives — Vision 2015 in Northern Kentucky and Agenda 360 in Southwestern Ohio — Green Umbrella facilitates collaboration among over 100 area non-profits, businesses, educational institutions and governmental entities focused on the environmental aspects of sustainability.
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.
You Can Help 4C For Children Win A Toyota
Today’s the day! Cincinnati nonprofit 4C for Children needs our vote to win a brand new Toyota Prius.
Serving 33 counties, 4C’s mission is to improve the quality, effectiveness and accessibility of early childhood education and care in the region so every child has a positive experience and a foundation for success in school and life. Some 170,000 children benefit each year from its services to their families and child care providers. That is a lot of kids who are growing to be capable, caring and contributing adults.
As you can imagine, with such a large service region and such vitally important work, dedicated staff log thousands of miles every year visiting child care centers and family child care homes. 4C staff also provide on-site training as an alternative to the more than 1,400 face-to-face workshops and classes offered. Additionally, staff participate in outreach events.
We all want to see children thrive. With so many pressures and challenges on families these days, the work of organizations like 4C is that much more important.
Your one vote can make a huge impact. It is simple to do.
To vote
Simply click on this link for the Toyota 100 Cars for Good on Facebook and place your vote. BUT YOU MUST DO IT TODAY!
Elementz Uses Hip Hop To Spark Teens’ Talents
Living in Cincinnati, we’ve all experienced over the past few weeks how music can uplift and transform us. It can bring out talents and inspire dreams.
Those magical abilities of young people, many of whom never even knew they had it within themselves to create, are the mortar for an Over-the-Rhine nonprofit whose sole purpose is to nurture strengths through hip hop arts.
Elementz sparks the flame
The origins for Elementz trace back to 2005 when community leaders began an outreach effort to give Cincinnati’s urban teens a safe place to hang out after school. It didn’t take long for them to realize the huge untapped potential in young minds with imagination and passion.
Today, in its new building at 1100 Race Street, over 320 aspiring artists ages 14 to 24, are building their confidence, becoming leaders and collaborators, learning about pushing their comfort zone as they perform new hip hop dance moves before live audiences, honing communication skills through writing and performing rap; and using their creativity to paint graffiti, and shoot videos and photos.
One of the great things about nurturing a young person’s strengths is that that energy tends to ebb into so many other aspects of that person’s life. Since coming to the nonprofit Elementz studio, a number of youth have attained their GED’s and are either enrolled in or are preparing for college.
Executive Director Tom Kent told me, “The bottom line is – every youth has gifts. Sometimes they don’t realize that those gifts are and so we are on a mission to help them figure that out.”
Elementz Spring 2012 Video Newsletter
Cincinnati Camp For Homeless Kids Needs Your Help
It is so difficult to imagine young children already knowing what it is like to be homeless, but sadly there are so many in our area. Faces without Places is a wonderful nonprofit organization that keeps such young victims of poverty connected to education. It offers them hope and laughter.
And this week, it will be offering them the experience of summer camp. Two buses will be transporting kid (ages 5 to 12) from shelters, motels and neighborhoods to an inviting place where they will work on their reading and math skills, learn about team work and character values, and leave a more enriched child with optimism for the new school year.
What a beautiful gift to give to an impressionable young mind!
Faces Without Places needs your help. In the past it has partnered with other organizations to offer this opportunity. This is the first summer for its very own Yellow Bus camp and it needs supplies. Below is a list. If you can help, please contact Beth Griffith-Niemann, MA, at 513-389-0805 or 513-389-3583.
• Deep Freeze
• Refrigerators
• Microwaves
• New swim suits for boys and girls (one pieces or modest tankinis) aged 5-12
• New flip flops for boys and girls aged 5-12
• New beach towels
• individually wrapped snacks
• juice boxes
• Cheerios cereal
• copy paper
• construction paper
• crayons
• markers
• pencils
• electric pencil sharpeners
• staplers & staples
• Epson 125 ink (black, cyan, magenta, & yellow)
• packing tape
• extension cords
• surge protectors
• New or gently used outdoor recreation equipment (basket balls, soccer balls, jump ropes, hula hoops, etc.)
• New or gently used board games
• Sunscreen
• Box fans
• Tissues
• Toilet paper
• Paper towels
• Paper plates
• Disposable cups
• Plastic silverware
• Large bottles of hand sanitizer
• New or gently used books for students aged 5-12
• Gift cards to Target and Wal-Mart to purchase clothing and swim suits
• Gift certificates to Kroger or Sam’s Club to purchase perishable goods
