For Good

During his college years, David Singleton returned to New York City to visit his birthplace. Singleton grew up in South Carolina but was born in the South Bronx, and when he returned, he says he had a “transformative experience.”

He witnessed a devastated community where young black males—like himself—were dealing drugs and living the lifestyle of poverty and crime that Singleton says he was fortunate to have never been a part of. 

“It made me realize and appreciate like I never had before, just how much it matters who your parents are and how hard they fight for you and where it is you grow up,” Singleton says. “I don’t think it’s right that an act of birth can make all the difference in terms of what kind of life you have.” 

It was at that moment that Singleton knew he wanted to go to law school to serve and try to make a difference for those whom he says “didn’t have the same breaks” as he had.  

Singleton worked as a public defender for years in both NYC and Washington, DC. During the summer of 2001, he moved to Cincinnati and worked a 10-month stint at a large law firm before he began his work with the Ohio Justice & Policy Center as the nonprofit’s executive director. 

The OJPC strives to transform the criminal justice system at both the micro and macro levels. By providing free legal help to prisoners treated inhumanely, in addition to offering assistance to reformed individuals who have been released from prison and are struggling to get back on their feet, the OJPC works to make sure the justice system operates as fairly as possible. 

To best use its limited resources, Singleton says the OJPC builds on its work through individual client victories to engage in policy efforts that will impact many.

For example, this past summer, the OJPC worked with Gov. John Kasich and state legislators to pass a bill that would enable released prisoners to apply for certificates of qualified employment, which will make it easier for people to get jobs in the industry in which they want to apply, Singleton says.

“Under state law, you can’t own your own construction company if you’ve got a felony," says Singleton. "That’s silly. It makes no sense. That’s one thing you might learn while in prison—how to do construction. So now, if you get one of those certificates, you’ll no longer automatically be barred from working in that industry.” 

There are some laws that are well-intentioned, Singleton says, but when they prevent people from getting jobs, they need to be reformed. So Singleton and the attorneys at OJPC invest their time and dedication to break down barriers that imprison individuals for years after they’ve been released. 

“What I do is a calling for me,” Singleton says. “It’s never been about the money. It’s what I feel I’m here on this earth to do, and I love it, I love every minute of it.” 

Do Good: 

• Make a donation to help the OJPC continue its efforts to reform the criminal justice system. 

• Contact the OJPC to join its mailing list and help put pressure on elected officials to initiate policy changes.

• Reach out to the organization by liking and sharing its Facebook page.

By Brittany York

Brittany York is a professor of English composition at the University of Cincinnati and a teacher at the Regional Institute of Torah and Secular Studies. She also edits the For Good section of SoapboxMedia. 

While Over-the-Rhine makes weekly headlines with its redevelopment renaissance, the neighborhood remains the home base for thousands of residents, many of whom can’t afford to be patrons of new restaurants and businesses. Over-the-Rhine Community Housing seeks to sustain an inclusive and diverse neighborhood, where longtime residents feel comfortable and confident that they will always have a home in OTR, even if their community continues to draw more and more people to the area.
 
Since 1960, the population of OTR has steadily decreased, falling from 30,000 to just shy of 5,000 residents. However, between the years of 2007 and 2010, the population increased by about 40 percent. That shift does more than fill apartments and condos. With a rising population comes higher property values and higher real estate taxes, all of which makes it more difficult to provide affordable housing to those who can’t afford market prices, says Mary Burke, executive director of OTRCH.
 
“Do we charge higher rent, or how do we close that even larger gap?” Burke asks. “So we want others—decision makers, power brokers—to work with us to figure that out. How do we maintain affordability in this neighborhood so that it can remain diverse going forward? It really will take some creative thinking and creative strategies.”
 
OTRCH currently provides safe, affordable housing to residents—half of whom earn less than $10,000 per year.
 
“Shelter is a basic human thing that people need, and being able to help an organization create more affordable places to live and be a part of is why it’s important,” says Brittany Skelton, OTRCH volunteer coordinator. “In Cincinnati, we have 300,000 people in our city limits, and about 100,000 live in poverty, and there isn’t enough affordable housing to go around.”
 
If there isn’t enough affordable housing to go around, the question remains: where will residents go if they can’t afford a place to live?
 
“People have low wages," Burke says. "Where are they going to rent that’s safe and decent and where they can build a community? If we close the door of OTR to affordable housing, where are people going to go? There’s an opportunity here to demonstrate that low-income, middle-income, high-income [individuals] can live together—not that they all have to be best friends and that there won’t be some disagreement now and then—but that it can work. Property values increase, people get along. There’s an opportunity.”
 
Moving forward, OTRCH will need community support, but Burke is confident that OTR can be a welcoming and inclusive community for all individuals. She’s already seen that happen as a result of the Washington Park renovations.
 
“The programming has made it feel like everyone’s welcome, and it’s not for some kind of separate culture or community,” she says.
 
Burke’s hope is that the urban redevelopments of OTR do not have to lead to the displacement of the community’s long-time residents. They shouldn’t feel pushed out, she says.
 
“It would be like any of us who have roots somewhere," says Burke. "You just love it and want to stay there. I’d like the new folks moving in to appreciate that. There’s just a value in living with difference and extending your world to include diversity.” 

Do Good: 

• Get involved with OTRCH by volunteering to renovate houses or research grant information.

• Donate money or items to help OTRCH continue to promote and fulfill its mission.

• Like the organization on Facebook, and share its page with your friends. 

By Brittany York

Brittany York is a professor of English composition at the University of Cincinnati and a teacher at the Regional Institute of Torah and Secular Studies. She also edits the For Good section of SoapboxMedia. 

It only took Tom Callinan a few months to realize how much he missed the community and connections he had built in Cincinnati. 

Callinan—who served as editor of the Cincinnati Enquirer for eight years and then as the McMicken Professor of Journalism at the University of Cincinnati’s journalism program—tried to retire, but the lifestyle just didn’t work out. He traveled to his home in Arizona with the intention of finally taking a break from his long-time career as a communicator. He took up golfing to occupy his time, but he says it simply wasn’t rewarding. 

“I just woke up one morning and thought, ‘I love Cincinnati,’” says Callinan. “One of the gifts of being the editor of the paper is you get to know a lot of people. So connections are currency, and I know people, so what can I do to put that to good use?” 

So Callinan returned to Cincinnati and founded Charitable Words, an organization that functions as an intern-placement program, which helps students gain real-world job experience as they put their skills to use at small nonprofits in the community. Then they, too, can better fulfill their missions and strengthen their messages. 

“What I see in the nonprofit world is there’s such a need, but the audience is so fragmented—you can’t just get a story in the paper, and Twitter and Facebook have become noise, so communication’s really essential,” Callinan says. 

One of Charitable Words’ most recent matchups, and the one that Callinan is most proud of, is the pairing of Charitable Words Scholar Tia Garcia, a UC student who works as the multimedia editor at The News Record, with Melodic Connections, a local nonprofit that provides music therapy to students with special needs. 

“They have this wonderful program—not a lot of people know about it—and what a wonderful story to tell," Callinan says. “It’s just an amazing matchup to me because it’s small enough that she will make a huge difference, and I just love it. I’m not sure there is another internship program that thinks that way.” 

Callinan’s aim is to turn Charitable Words Scholars into a community—a family—that will function as a microcosm of what he, and others from outside the Cincinnati area, view as the makeup of this city. 

“I moved here from Phoenix, and the term I use is, ‘That was a crowd, not a community,’” says Callinan. “A lot of people doesn’t make a community, and here, it’s amazing. Every place I go, I tend to know someone. It’s like a small town, but it’s not. It’s a metropolitan area.” 

At workshops and presentations across the country, Callinan says Cincinnati is recognized as a “really special place,” with a model that other cities look to replicate, for the purpose of achieving social change through collective action. 

“It really strikes me as I travel around," Callinan says. "There’s the old cliché that people in Cincinnati don’t appreciate how good they have it; they’ve got inferiority complexes and whatnot, but people who move here are astonished at how wonderful the city is and that anyone would think it’s not a world-class city."

There are currently six Charitable Words Scholars, but the vision is that there will be hundreds. In the coming months, Callinan will form an advisory board with professionals from a variety of industries who can serve as mentors to interns so they can better achieve nonprofits’ missions; and Charitable Words will become much more than an internship-placement program that serves community organizations. 

“What I’d like to do is become a family,” Callinan says. “We’d have an annual service day; maybe we’d have a party. These Charitable Words Scholars would stay together over the course of time, network as friends and continue to make a difference. That’s my wish for it.” 

Do Good: 

• Connect with Charitable Words by liking and sharing its Facebook page.

• Contact Charitable Words if you're seeking an internship and have a passion for humanitarian efforts.

• Reach out to the organization if you would like to support an intern in his or her placement.

By Brittany York

Brittany York is a professor of English composition at the University of Cincinnati and a teacher at the Regional Institute of Torah and Secular Studies. She also edits the For Good section of SoapboxMedia. 

It's not often that you find students so engrossed in their studies that they decide to do more than what's asked of them and expand a project beyond the realm of the classroom. For Untethered Theater, however, a single-scene performance in a theme study course taught by Miami-Hamilton professor Bekka Reardon led to a full-fledged self-produced play in 2011. And now, two years later, the group's continued passion for intimate theater continues as the ensemble takes on Adam Rapp's "Red Light Winter"—the second of four plays in the company's 2012-13 season. 

"Red Light Winter" portrays the hard truth of "how impossible it is for people to let things go," says Mary Kate Moran, one of Untethered's three founding members. It takes place throughout the course of a year: one night in Amsterdam and then a year later in New York City, and it's performed in a 50-seat basement-level space at the Clifton Performance Theatre, where Moran says the audience is oftentimes in the middle of the action. 

"We want to provide accessible, sort of in-your-face storefront theater," says Moran. "It's intimate. It's participatory. We want to be so different that you're going to go to a night of theater and feel like maybe you walked into something and were a fly on the wall." 

Moran says the ensemble, which has nine official members—most of whom have full-time day jobs as well—decided to put on the play because of some of the members' intense passion for its themes, in addition to the group's mission to perform pieces that people don't see very often. 

"This is a labor of love," says Moran. "We go and do this full-time after we get away from our desk or retail jobs or whatever because there's no other place we want to be. We just want to create art that is a lot of fun for people who know and love theater." 

Untethered contributes to the community by bringing its skills and dedication to the stage, but the company also hopes to reach out to the neighborhood by providing support to increase involvement in the arts. "We want to have nights where we have shows where almost all of the profits go toward people in the community," says Moran. "We want to surprise people with that kind of stuff. We love Clifton, we love being in Clifton, and we want to make Clifton a better place." 

Untethered Theater's "Red Light Winter" will continue through Feb. 2. 

Do Good: 

• Purchase tickets to a performance of "Red Light Winter." 

• Support Untethered Theater and its sister-company Clifton Players by attending an upcoming show or purchasing a season subscription.

• Like Untethered Theater on Facebook.

By Brittany York

Brittany York is a professor of English composition at the University of Cincinnati and a teacher at the Regional Institute of Torah and Secular Studies. She also edits the For Good section of SoapboxMedia. 

Pauline Williams remembers her 10th birthday coming and going. There was no celebration, no cake, no birthday party—it was just a normal day. Williams lived with her mother in a local women’s shelter at the time and says there was no one to help them aside from those within the facility, who were already working to do the best they could to help others. 

Williams received a card from her mother and an acknowledgement on her special day, which she says was enough for her because she understood that her mother wasn’t able to give a lot at the time, other than herself. 

Though appreciative, Williams felt that she and the other children in the shelter deserved to celebrate their lives. “It just kind of felt bad,” says Williams. “And I felt like, if I ever grew up and was able to give back or do something about this, that’s what I’d do.” 

So Williams went to culinary school, received her degree and created the Tiers of Joy Foundation to ensure that other children’s birthdays do not go unnoticed. “Children need to feel empowered in order to grow up and become successful adults,” she says. “That’s really why I started this.” 

In April 2012, Tiers of Joy became an official nonprofit, and Williams began working with other organizations to see how she could benefit the children they serviced. 

From SpongeBob SquarePants to jewelry box-themed cakes, Williams now does it all. Her cake designs are solely dependent on children’s interests, and she works to make sure that young people feel honored and appreciated when embarking on new years of their lives. 

Williams currently serves children within the Cincinnati and Northern Kentucky communities, but she says the sky is the limit. “I’d like for it to be a nationwide organization, where we can reach out to children all over to empower them through the celebration of their lives, so I hope for this to become something much larger than what it is.” 

Do Good: 

• Sign up to be a volunteer baker. 

• Donate money or baking supplies; or consider holding a Supplies Drive at your next office party or community event.

• Spread the word about Tiers of Joy by following them on Twitter or liking them on Facebook.

By Brittany York

Brittany York is a professor of English composition at the University of Cincinnati and a teacher at the Regional Institute of Torah and Secular Studies. She also edits the For Good section of SoapboxMedia. 

In an effort to show pride for the services it provides to those in need, the Gay & Lesbian Community Center of Greater Cincinnati rounded out 2012 by finishing renovations to its facility. Now, the Center is prepped for September when it will celebrate 20 years as an informational resource to the GLBTQ community and its allies. 

The Center was found in 1983, and according to board member and long-time volunteer Michael Chanak, “the world was pretty different then.” Prior to the “advent of 1,001 gay-friendly groups,” Chanak says, there was more of a need for a meeting space, which the organization still provides; but its current and primary function is to serve as a site that points people in the right direction, depending on one’s needs. 

Though the organization receives a lot of calls about various forms of counseling and legal advice, the Center’s volunteers are not licensed to provide this type of support. Rather, they refer people to those who can. 

“We don’t necessarily do a lot of hands-on, direct work,” Chanak says. “It’s a place where it’s kind of a stepping-in and a stepping-off point for a lot of folks. I would say the vast majority of stuff is, ‘I’m new to the community;’ ‘I’m new to the area;’ or ‘I’m coming out, and I don’t know how to. Who can I work with or what can I do?’ or that sort of thing.” 

For newcomers to the Cincinnati area or for those who have lived here for years but who may be new to the GLBTQ community, the Center is a vital resource. 

In addition to serving as a liaison for community members and resources, the Center makes it part of its mission to bring in certified individuals for educational seminars on issues that are critical to the GLBTQ community. In conjunction with the Central Community Health Board, the organization provides access to a quarterly HIV seminar. It also puts on a semi-annual workshop which addresses gender, identities and sexually, and is presented in cooperation with the Midwest Trans* & Queer Wellness Initiative.  

Though the Center is proud of the work it has done during the past 19 years and is looking forward to continuing to provide awareness and education to the GLBTQ community as it embarks on its 20th anniversary, Chanak says he’s not sure he wants the Center to be around 50 years from now. 

“Is there going to be a need for a center 50 years from now?" says Chanak. "I hope not, in a way. What’s made these sort of organizations come about was there wasn’t the basis for support and information. But we’ve got a way to go there too, and we need a place for gay people to go and get information.” 

Do Good: 

In 1995, a small group of retired business executives came together with the intent of giving back to their community by investing their time and talents in work that would assist nonprofits. Now, nearly 18 years later, Executive Service Corps of Cincinnati is the recipient of an $85,000 award that will help more than 130 volunteers provide low-cost, high-quality strategic thinking, planning, training and coaching to other nonprofits in need. 

The recent funding will help the ESCC implement its Community Benefit Business Model, which, according to Andy McCreanor, executive director and CEO of the organization, is a model that has essentially always existed within the nonprofit, but has now been refined and strengthened. The model helps nonprofits maximize results so that they may receive additional funding to better fulfill their missions, which ultimately works to improve the communities they serve.

“It enables investors to get more out of the nonprofits that they’re investing in, and secondly, it helps the nonprofits because we’re affordable," says McCreanor. "We’re merely a vehicle so that the community gets the benefit that they’re trying to get."

The ESCC has worked on long-term projects with more than 500 nonprofits in Cincinnati, Northern Kentucky and Southeast Indiana since 1995, including most recently the Jewish Federation of Cincinnati. ESCC also offers a 10-month program at its Nonprofit Leadership Institute each year; and at its culmination in June, more than 100 nonprofit leaders from Cincinnati will have graduated. 

McCreanor says that because of the recent economic downturn, nonprofits have suffered and organizations are reevaluating and assessing their goals and missions.

“We’re here to help,” he says. “If you’re struggling out there, it really doesn’t cost anything to talk about what you’re dealing with, and if in fact there is a way for us to help, it’s going to be done at a very low cost, so it’s kind of the best of all worlds.” 

Do Good:
• Sign up to attend classes at the Nonprofit Leadership Institute.

• Volunteer your business skills and experience to serve other nonprofits.

• Reach out to the ESCC if you are a nonprofit that could benefit from its services.

By Brittany York 

Brittany York is a professor of English composition at the University of Cincinnati and a teacher at the Regional Institute of Torah and Secular Studies. She also edits the For Good section of SoapboxMedia.

While Katie Haumesser was on her way home from taking her daughter to Children’s Hospital in February 2006, a drunk driver who was traveling at about 100 miles per hour hit her vehicle head-on. Haumesser, a single mom who had devoted her life’s work to serving children with special needs as a speech-language pathologist, died instantly at the scene. Her compassion, however, lived on and is the inspiration for Katie’s House, which is set to open later this year. 

The Katie Haumesser Foundation was founded in 2007 to honor Haumesser’s life by giving back to the children she lived to help. Led by her family, the nonprofit started raising funds for the special needs department at Haumesser’s former place of employment, Willowville Elementary.

Part of the foundation’s mission is to fund scholarships for University of Cincinnati students who follow Haumesser’s path by majoring in speech-language pathology. Initially, the organization decided to raise money for one charity per year to help students like the ones Haumesser helped; but in 2010, a broader vision emerged. 

With the help of the Hearing Speech & Deaf Center of Greater Cincinnati, the leaders of the Katie Haumesser Foundation came up with the idea for Katie’s House, a comfortable, home-like facility where children with special needs could receive speech, language, audiology and occupational therapy. The facility will be housed on the renovated third floor of the Hearing Speech & Deaf Center and will provide services to those in need, regardless of whether or not they have the ability to pay.  

“The home-like setting is going to be more inviting for the kids instead of walking into a sterile doctor’s office,” says Amy Zeisler, Haumesser’s sister and co-founder of the nonprofit. “When you get off the elevator, it’s going to look like the front of a house, and the carpet is going to be AstroTurf to look like grass.”

Within the facility, there will be a living room, which will serve as a group area, a kitchen, a gym—designed as a backyard—for occupational therapy, and bedrooms, which will serve as individual therapy areas. In addition to serving children, the Center will provide education for parents who may be struggling with how to understand and cope with their children’s disabilities. 

Katie’s House will also provide support for children with other conditions, such as autism. “Katie worked with a boy who had autism and wasn’t speaking for a while, and then he became verbal,” says Zeisler. “It was very moving for her to see how what she was doing impacts kids' futures and how important communication is to succeed.” 

According to Zeisler, her sister knew that early intervention is key to helping children with disabilities maintain a “steady life.” With Katie’s House, those ideals will take shape in a way that Zeisler is confident her sister would be proud of; and she says she can’t wait for the grand opening later this year.

“We’re taking tragedy and turning it into something positive,” Zeisler says. “And I’m hoping that people can see what we’re doing. It’s going to be amazing.”

Do Good: 
• Make a financial contribution or contact the nonprofit to donate items for silent auction.

• Volunteer at the annual fundraiser April 12. 

• Nominate a community member who serves children for an Outstanding Service Award.


By Brittany York 

Brittany York is a professor of English composition at the University of Cincinnati and a teacher at the Regional Institute of Torah and Secular Studies. She also edits the For Good section of SoapboxMedia.

Wanda Owens, who lost her vision to multiple sclerosis when she turned 20, says working as an artist is something she’s wanted to do since she was a little girl; and at the age of 64, she’s fulfilling her childhood dream. Beginning Feb. 9, her work will be featured in an exhibit titled “Illuminated Soul” at Clovernook Center for the Blind and Visually Impaired’s Willoughby Art Gallery. 

Owens will have 20 ceramic pieces on display and available for purchase. She’s completed all of her work in the studio, and since she is a Clovernook artist who participates in classes on site, she will receive 100 percent of the proceeds—something Alison DeFisher, manager of communications at Clovernook, says empowers the artists.

“A lot of people have described it as an outlet for them, to be able to participate in art and be able to express themselves and increase independence because it’s not traditionally something a person who is blind is thought to be able to do,” says DeFisher.  

Art classes are by appointment and take place weekly at Clovernook’s studio, and they are open to anyone who is blind or visually impaired. Scott Wallace, recreation specialist at Clovernook, leads individual painting and ceramics classes, in addition to group classes, depending on participants’ goals and interests.

“I’m blessed to have a wonderful teacher who is very encouraging,” says Owens. “Everything he says, I can do, and he helps me to see color.” She says Wallace will help her pick out paint colors by reminding her of shades. He will, for example, tell her that the shade she is currently looking at is slightly darker than baby blue; and this will remind her of what baby blue looks like, which enables her to choose the appropriate shade so she can proceed in portraying her vision. 

“It’s really a spiritual experience,” says Owens. “I asked God to bless the labor of my hands, and He has.” 

Owens is a former singer, and this is something she says inspires her artwork, though there is nothing specifically in her pieces that reflect her pastime. Two things that Owens says she tries to feature in all of her works, however, are “clowns and the Lord.” Owens says she loves to laugh, so she always tries to incorporate that element of joy into her pieces. 

“Illuminated Soul” will begin with an opening reception from noon to 5 p.m. Feb. 9, and it will remain open Monday through Friday from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m., and by appointment through March 8. The opening reception for “Illuminated Soul” will be featured on the first day of this year’s Macy’s Arts Sampler. 

Do Good: 

• Support Wanda Owens by viewing or purchasing her pottery at "Illuminated Soul."

• Make a donation to support the Clovernook Center for the Blind and Visually Impaired.

• Volunteer your services to help fulfill the Clovernook Center's mission.

By Brittany York

Brittany York is a professor of English composition at the University of Cincinnati and a teacher at the Regional Institute of Torah and Secular Studies. She also edits the For Good section of SoapboxMedia.

According to Mohsen Rezayat, CEO and president of OMID-USA, a Cincinnati-based nonprofit, many of the world's problems are because of the imbalance between the rich and the poor. OMID's goal is to increase earning power by three for individuals around the world who make, on average, less than $2 per day. OMID, a Farsi word that means "hope," is what the organization wants to provide for the more than one million people it aims to reach. 

"There's a lot of data gathered to show that if a person makes $1 per day and then that is brought up to $4 per day, it makes a huge difference in their lives," says Rezayat. "They can build a house; their kids can get higher education; they can afford medicine for their kids and their wife when they get sick." 

OMID began in 2009 with the intention of finding a way help the bottom 1.2 billion people in the world who make less than $1 per day. According to Rezayat, 85 percent of those individuals are farmers who live in rural areas, where obtaining water for their crops is extremely difficult. 

"We thought to solve the problem, we should start at the very beginning, and that's control over water," says Rezayat. So the nonprofit, in conjunction with electrical engineering students from the University of Cincinnati, designed the Portable Renewable Energy Platform, otherwise known as PREP, to assist farmers in using drip irrigation to move water from its source, while conserving it by allowing it to flow straight to the roots of their crops. 

"It's basically a single solar panel that can be set up very quickly, raised so that it's at the right angle to face the sun, with some electrical components that regulate and boost the voltage; and we also have a pump," says Rezayat. "So the panel, the pump and the drip irrigation all cost about $400. With one you can drip irrigate about one acre of land, so we can move the water from any location to another location, put it inside the plastic tank that we have and let gravity kind of feed the water in." 

Since the technology is too expensive for the subsistence farmers to afford in one lump-sum, OMID offers microloans to make it more affordable. "By increasing their production, they can pay back the money that was lent out to them," says Rezayat. "The whole idea is that if people invest their own time and their own money, then they have a sense of ownership and responsibility." 

The nonprofit's purpose is not to continue manufacturing technology and transporting it to the regions in need, but instead to go into an area, set up the technology and find out if it's a good fit, and then show the people how to use it so they can adapt the technology and begin to create jobs by producing it locally. 

That's exactly what OMID did in Iran, which was the location for PREP's first pilot project in 2010. The project took place in three villages with 20 farmers. Though the volunteers working on the pilot had hoped to reach more people, they were forced to leave the area because of sanctions. Their work, however, was not in vain. There are now three manufacturing plants in the closest town to the three villages that participated in the pilot that are making the drip irrigation system. "And from what I've been told, there's a big rage—even the mayor of that town has used the drip irrigation for the city building to show people how cool it is," says Rezayat. 

OMID is set to perform another pilot project with PREP, which is set to take place in March. This time, the organization will travel to Haiti in an effort to get closer to its goal of one million farmers. 

"Farmers in Iran told me very recently, if they didn't have the drip irrigation PREP system, they would have lost everything in the last two years because it was extremely dry," says Rezayat. "It's all about survival, and it's very satisfying to hear these farmers tell me that they basically wouldn't have had anything if it wasn't for us giving them the ability to. " 

Do Good: 

• Attend OMID-USA-sponsored events, such as the upcoming domino 02: Aqua—an international exhibition where 12 artists' collaborative work will be displayed and available for purchase. Rezayat will unveil the PREP prototype during the event's opening reception at the Artisan Enterprise Center Jan. 18. 

• Support OMID-USA by making a donation.

• Promote awareness by liking OMID-USA on Facebook, sharing the page and spreading the word.

By Brittany York

Brittany York is a professor of English composition at the University of Cincinnati and a teacher at the Regional Institute of Torah and Secular Studies. She also edits the For Good section of SoapboxMedia.

The Shield started in September 2000 during a crisis. A Cincinnati police officer was killed in the line of duty, and his family, which was from out of town, couldn't afford to fly in on short notice. Tom Streicher, who was Cincinnati’s police chief at the time, knew something had to be done; he offered up his credit card to ensure the officer’s family was where they were needed—by the fallen officer’s side. 

“It was a leadership issue,” says Satch Coletta, a retired officer and trustee for the nonprofit that was soon to launch. “What are the odds, should something happen? Something should be there.” 

In that moment of need, police chiefs came together to make contributions and began to fund a new nonprofit. The organization has continued to operate ever since, thanks to community donations, and in large part, to the willingness of officers who take payroll deductions to contribute. 

The organization’s board, which is composed of 10 officers—current and retired—works entirely on a volunteer basis. They meet monthly during lunch breaks to fulfill The Shield’s mission: to assist the families of officers killed or critically injured in the line of duty. 

Policing is a dangerous job, and according to Coletta, “It’s not a matter of if we’re going to pay money out, it’s a matter of when and how much.” 

The funds are available to families immediately—prior to workers’ compensation or life insurance, says Coletta. “If it happens at one in the afternoon, at 1:01 p.m., there’s a benefit committee that’s ready to spring into action to aid an officer or his family.”  

Coletta knows the circumstances surrounding the loss of an officer all too well. In 1978, Officer John Bechtol, next-door neighbor and friend whom Coletta trained with, died after a vehicle struck his police cruiser. There was no immediate support available for the family . “Back then, policemen, not that they make a great fortune now, made even less; and to be able to set funeral arrangements and getting people in and situated—things along that line…” were very difficult, he says.

The funds are not just meant for funeral arrangements and families’ transportation, however. “Say he would have survived the crash,” Coletta says, “he would have been in very serious condition, say in ICU for a long time. You would expect the spouse to be there in ICU. If their job doesn’t pay, The Shield would entertain paying the spouse’s wages because they’re already down one. We don’t want them to suffer additionally.” 

In times of need, Coletta says people always want to help, but the organization’s goal is to create an emergency fund that can create interest, so that there is enough money available to families, prior to the moment when the unthinkable occurs.

“The family knows what’s needed, and we work on the things to try to aid them,” Coletta says. “But it’s one of those things where at the time, that’s one less thing they have to worry about.” 

Do Good:

• Provide corporate or community support by donating to The Shield.

• Contact The Shield about volunteer opportunities and upcoming events.

• Connect with The Shield and share the organization's page on Facebook. 

By Brittany York 

Brittany York is a professor of English Composition at the University of Cincinnati and a teacher at the Regional Institute of Torah and Secular Studies. She also edits the For Good section of SoapboxMedia.

Songwriting, expressive guitar playing and alternate tuning are just some of the topics that unlikely students discover during their master class series at Melodic Connections. They don’t just study these topics, however. They learn about them by engaging in a dialogue with local musicians who volunteer their time in an effort to start bridging the gap between community members and adults with disabilities. 

Every Thursday and Friday, adults with special learning needs gather for six hours of music therapy per day. They take lessons, practice their instruments and engage in group sessions to prepare for monthly concerts where they sing and jam out on keyboards, drums and guitars to tunes like “Any Way You Want It” and “Billie Jean.” 

While the nonprofit Melodic Connections launched its conservatory program in October 2010, founder and Executive Director Betsey Zenk Nuseibeh teamed up with Wussy bassist Mark Messerly to kick off a master class series that takes place on the second Thursday and fourth Friday of the month. 

“We’re looking to have DJs, rappers and all different kinds of members of the music community come in and talk to us about what they do, how they got started, how to go about doing it, and maybe playing a little bit, jamming with our musicians and really starting to develop some relationships,” says Nuseibeh. 

Beginning in March, the conservatory program will become daily, running six hours per day, five days per week, and Nuseibeh says she hopes the master class series will continue to grow. It's all about “the connection with the community of musicians that it has started to create.” 

Some of the most fascinating things about the series, according to Nuseibeh, are those personal connections.

“It was very interesting to watch one of our guys with autism sit down with a complete stranger, and sit face to face, look at him eye to eye and start playing and having this musical conversation,” Nuseibeh says. “It was somebody he’d heard speak an hour and known personally maybe two to three minutes, just enough to ask him to play guitar together.” 

Nuseibeh says the classes have been a huge success. Volunteers from the local music scene have all left with “a really good impression” of her students. Conversations continue using the universal language of music, which has the power to break down stereotypes and bring people together. 

Do Good: 

• Email Nuseibeh if you're a music lover, interested in participating in a master class

• Donate to Melodic Connections 

• Like Melodic Connections on Facebook to find out about upcoming events.

By Brittany York 

Brittany York is a professor of English composition at the University of Cincinnati and a teacher at the Regional Institute of Torah and Secular Studies.

As GLAD House celebrates its 15th year of dedication and success in February, they will also be moving to a facility in O'Bryonville that is larger, on a bus line and situated next to Owl's Nest Park. 

The idea for GLAD House, which stands for "Giving Life A Dream," began in 1993. After five years of careful planning, Beatrice Lampkin, founder of the nonprofit, with the help of church members, other nonprofits and an expert committee of psychiatrists, social workers and educators, opened its doors to children and families who were struggling with addiction and related issues in their homes. 

Lampkin, who spent years on the campus of Cincinniat Children's Hospital and Medical Center as director of hematology and oncology, had seen pervasive drug use in the area around the hospital. That prompted her to do something meaningful in an effort to "make an impact in breaking the cycle of addiction." 

"As far as substance abuse, a lot of the programs are for treatment, but the children were totally ill bystanders," Lampkin says. "And you have the children living in the conditions of a home impacted by addictions, and they'd have to fend for themselves." 

So Lampkin developed a program—the Champs—to provide support to children, particularly between the ages of 5 and 12. As an after-school program, children receive transportation to GLAD House; they're given a snack, in addition to dinner; and they receive treatment from licensed therapists to help them cope with their situation and prevent drug use in the future.

"We don't just toss them out after a period of time," says Lampkin, in reference to children who have met individual therapy goals or who are older than 12. "We promote them to the GLAD Hands Club, where they come back to us less frequently; and these children come back until they're 18 years of age, so that's a long period of time that we're following them."

It is both necessary and beneficial, according to Lampkin, "because if you just treat them for a matter of say, six months for them to meet their individual goals, they lose what they have learned because they go back and live in the same area; but with continued support and reinforcement until they graduate from high school, they have a much better chance of becoming very successful in their lives." 

And participants have become successful. GLAD House works with approximately 115 children every year, some starting as young as 5 years of age. To date, 29 of those youth have graduated from high school—23 of them entered college and the other six secured employment. "So it works," Lampkin says. "And we are very proud." 

GLAD House also provides support to other family members. From classes on understanding attention deficit hyperactivity disorder to curriculums celebrating families, the nonprofit supports family unity and wellbeing. 

With the organization's continued growth and success, Lampkin says the new facility is ideal. "It's going to be wonderful, and we're very happy because certainly our program has been very successful for the children and their parents, and we want to continue, and we want to expand."

Do Good: 

• Make a charitable donation to GLAD House.

• Volunteer to help children with homework, to cook, to garden, to shop for supplies or to help in the office.

•  Donate school supplies or recreational materials for GLAD House activities. 

By Brittany York 

Brittany is a professor of English composition at the University of Cincinnati and a teacher at the Regional Institute of Torah and Secular Studies.