For Good

Joyce Gardner has been hiking for years. And as a lifelong Cincinnati resident, she was pretty sure she had visited most of the area’s natural spaces. 

So Gardner was surprised when she found some hidden gems this summer as part of the Nature Conservancy’s Natural Treasures of Ohio Challenge.

“People don’t realize that we really have some great trails here,” says Gardner, of Covedale, who hiked in Ault Park  and Mt. Airy Forest locally and visited another 11 natural areas across the state with her husband.

Sure Gardner and her friend, Kathy Brown, visited the Ault Park Pavilion and Everybody’s Tree House in Mt. Airy; but they also spent hours discovering the trails that many may miss, she says.

That was exactly the point of the Nature Conservancy’s challenge: To introduce and showcase some of the state’s natural areas and encourage residents from all corners of the state to learn about the various natural wonders of the state.

“Our hope is that folks would find natural areas and say: ‘Wow, I had no idea that this is here,’ ” says Josh Knights, executive director of the Nature Conservancy in Ohio. “And at the end of the day, we believe that if Ohioans discover and come to know these areas, they will be inspired to help us protect them.”

That Nature Conservancy and Honda launched the challenge, a kind of treasure hunt, in June. Ohio residents could visit one to 30 designated places and upload a photo of themselves at the designated landmark on the Nature Conservancy’s Web site for a chance to win a 2012 Honda Insight Hybrid. The contest, which will also award five $500 REI gift certificates, ran from May 22 to Aug. 8. Winners are expected to be announced in September. 

More than 3,000 entries were filed, with many people visiting all 30 places this summer. Many families used the challenge as their summer vacation, Knight says. While pleased with the participation, he wonders if this summer’s record-breaking heat and high gasoline prices may have hindered some participation.

The photo galleries, as well as the detailed descriptions and maps of each of the 30 destinations that are organized by geography, will remain on the Nature Conservancy at least through December and maybe longer, Springs says.
While winning would be nice, Gardner says the challenge really created an opportunity for she and her husband, John, to visit areas they have always wanted to – including Kelly’s Island State Park on Lake Erie, where they celebrated their 33^rd wedding anniversary. They also stumbled across several parks they normally would never have set out to themselves.

Her new favorite? Magee Marsh Wildlife Area, in Northern Ohio between Toledo and Sandusky on Lake Erie. She likened the 2,200-acre state park to being in the Everglades. 

“I was really impressed with that one,” she says. “I really couldn’t believe I was standing in Ohio.”

That’s not the first time Knights has heard that about the state’s varied natural elements. “Ohio really does have a diverse landscape; from one of the largest lakes in the world to the Ohio River there in Cincinnati … Ohio has all of these fantastic places. We wanted to introduce more Buckeyes to what we have at home.” 

Do Good:

• Follow the Ohio Nature Conservancy on Facebook.

• Visit some of the designations this fall.

• See the photos of the Southwest Ohio designations and read the scrapbook.

• Watch the video.

• Donate.

Chris Graves, assistant vice president of digital and social media at the Powers Agency, loves the outdoors. You will find her camping with her daughters on Kelly’s Island this fall.














 

It only seems fitting, David White says, that Caracole Inc.’s offices are now at the former Charles Miller Funeral Home in Northside.

The funeral home was one of only two in the entire Greater Cincinnati area that would accept the bodies of AIDS victims in the 1980s.

“Back in the day, people thought you could catch it from a sneeze,” says White, Caracole’s Community Investment Coordinator. “But the folks at the Miller funeral home were not scared. You have to remember, this was back in the days when AIDS was a death sentence.”

Caracole, the non-profit that that provides safe, affordable housing and supportive services for individuals and families living with HIV/AIDS, moved into the former funeral home at the corner of Hamilton Avenue and Knowlton Street June 29. 

The move was necessitated after Caracole assumed the caseload from fellow local nonprofit Stop AIDS in April 2011. The shift increased Caracole’s clients from 200 in Hamilton County to nearly 1,000 clients served in eight counties, White says.

“The best thing, my favorite thing, has been the community of Northside. They have been so welcoming,’’ he says. “The neighborhood is so excited a social services agency is here, let alone an AIDS group. It’s been amazing, really.”

The move more than doubles their space to 9,400 square feet, centralizes their location and puts them directly on Metro routes. It is also close to hospitals and provides private offices for staff.

The new location houses the group’s administrative and case management offices. Two transitional homes, each with 11 beds, did not move. Those homes provide housing and services for homeless residents who are HIV positive or suffering from AIDS.

White is excited because the increased space means many like services are now under one roof. Caracole’s HIV/AIDS support groups can meet regularly, which was not the case at their former Roselawn location. 

A local GLBT group will also hold meetings at the offices, and two employees from Planned Parenthood of southwest Ohio will administer anonymous HIV tests there.

“We would not have been able to move without the donations—from paint, furnishing and the majority of the carpeting,’’ says White, who estimated that donations were worth tens of thousands of dollars. “This helps us save money on rent and is money we can put toward client services.”

Two foundations provided more than $30,000 to move the group’s offices as well as for data installation.

Matt Kotlarczyk, who bought the 15,000-square-foot building with a partner in late 2011 for $260,000, says redeveloping it with Caracole has gone extraordinarily well. Caracole signed a 10-year lease for first-floor offices.

“It gives them a new home and us a good, solid investment,” says Kotlarczyk, a local sculptor who owns Refined Sugar Studio.

Future Life Now LLC is leasing about 2,500 square feet on the second floor of the building. Another 3,500-square-foot space on the second floor and the 3,500-square-foot hearse garage, which is fully insulated, remain vacant, he says.

Kotlarczyk has been told the building, originally built in 1875 and added onto numerous times, was the longest continuously operated funeral home in Cincinnati.

And at least one woman thought it still was.

The woman walked into Caracole’s offices a couple weeks ago, White says, and asked who she might talk to about funeral services.

That wouldn’t be Caracole. They are too busy working on living.

Do Good:

• Attend Caracole’s open house celebration from 4 to 9 pm, Sept. 13, 4138 Hamilton Ave. There will be music, a photo booth and tours. It is not a fundraiser.

• Call 513-679-4455 to schedule an anonymous HIV test, administered at Caracole through Planned Parenthood, Monday-Thursday from 9 am to 5 pm, and Friday from 9 am to 1 pm.

• Email oracle@caracole.org to volunteer your time.


• Donate cleaning supplies or toiletries to Caracole’s pantry to help residents.

• Use your Kroger Plus card to give a percentage of your total spend to Caracole.

By Chris Graves
Chris Graves is assistant vice president of digital and social media at the Powers Agency.

 

Think Ohio day care providers have to have a degree to care for children?

Think that cozy, home-based, daycare center just down the street, has to be licensed by the state of Ohio in order to operate?

If you answered no to both of those questions, you are right. And that’s just wrong, according to 4C for Children.

The mission of the Cincinnati-based nonprofit, which celebrates its 40^th anniversary this year, is to improve the quality and accessibility of childcare in a 33-county area spanning Southwest Ohio, the Miami Valley and Northern Kentucky. 
And if you’ve searched for childcare in the area, you likely have touched their services.

The organization was initially created by five agencies as a means to ensure there was enough high-quality childcare in Greater Cincinnati. The group, first called Comprehensive Community Child Care – hence the shortened 4C – quickly blossomed into much more and impacts hundreds of thousands of people each year, says Communications Vice President Karen Hurley. 

The group provides free referrals to parents looking for childcare, works to educate current childcare providers and others working in the area of early childhood education, advocates for issues impacting childcare in Ohio and Kentucky and works to increase childcare options.

The agency maintains a database of more than 2,600 childcare options for parents that include licensed centers, preschools and family child-care homes registered with 4C. The group helps more than 8,000 families annually find childcare and provides a series of checklists and tips to help in their quests.

Last year alone, the group held 1,400 workshops and classes which 24,000 providers have attended. The number of children impacted is well over 169,000 kids, Hurley says. 

“Our mission is to professionalize these providers so they no longer think of themselves as merely a babysitter,’’ Hurley says, noting that 90 percent of a child’s brain is developed before they set a foot into kindergarten.

“One of our biggest victories is when a childcare provider gets it,’’ she says. “When they think of themselves as having a real impact on the early learning of a child.”

Hurley says the group spent more than a decade advocating for the licensing of home-based day care. Ohio was one of five states in the United States that did not regulate home-based child care businesses. In Ohio, one person can care for up to six children in his or her home with no license, no training and no safety measures. 

But by 2014, the state of Ohio will mandate that as part of the federal Race to the Top Early Learning Challenge. Ohio received a four-year, $400 million grant to enact a series of changes in Ohio schools and that President Barack Obama believed would improve education.  Ohio was one of 12 states to receive funding. 

But the work for the agency, with 80 staff member and an annual budget of $5 million, is far from done, Hurley says.

The group is working to provide more resources to parents who may feel isolated to get them needed support and continuing to build higher levels of quality into childcare programs. In Ohio, the group is working with providers to help them meet standards outlined by the Step Up to Quality rating program. They are also doing the same for providers in Kentucky that fall under the Stars for Kids Now award system.

Do Good: 

• Donate to the group.
• Subscribe to their Newsletters.
• Read their blogs.
• Follow them on Faceboook or Twitter.
• Watch what others say about their work and the importance of early education.

By Chris Graves
Chris Graves is the assistant vice president for digital and social media at the Powers Agency and is the mother of two teens.

 

When a Northside couple, Ramsey Ford and Kate Hanisian, started Design Impact, they wanted to create a social design company that creates lasting change in low-income communities around the world.

 

As they investigated existing social design companies, Hanisian and Ford learned that most similar non-profits do their work and then leave communities. They spend short periods of time on the ground and often create solutions that don’t take community needs and cultures into account.

 

“If you’re designing the next Pantene bottle, our culture is similar enough that a lot of the assumptions made will be correct,” Hanisian says. “When you’re crossing economic and geographic borders, assumptions can be wrong, and it can alienate the community from the process.”

 

Hanisian and Ford charted a new path for Design Impact. They wouldn’t arrive in a community with a pre-fabricated plan to “fix” it; instead, they would become a part of the community. By living and working with community members, they would find the best ways to help create deep and lasting change.

 

The mission began with the couple spending 16 months in India and then sending six fellows into communities around India. Each community will be served in three phases and after six months, Anisha Shankar, has developed her plan to improve health for malnourished children.

The solution is Ladoo, a low-cost snack packed with nutrition. Currently, Design Impact is running a fundraiser on indiegogo.com, a crowd-sourced fundraising website. The goal is to raise $10,000 to assist in phase two of the fellowship program.

The next fellow will spend 10 months in Pune, India, creating a business plan to help local women create a sustainable business making the Ladoos, while simultaneously helping solve the problem of malnourishment.

The long-term goal is to create a sustainable business model based around the ladoo and expand it exponentially with the goal of helping lower childhood malnourishment not just in Pune, India, but everywhere. 

 

 

• Donate to the indiegogo campaign and help Design Impact raise $10,000.

 

• Donate to Design Impact as a whole organization and help fund other programs.

 

• Visit Design Impact's website and learn about the programs and help spread awareness.