Columbus Foundation Fellowship Programs

I can’t believe the weeks are going by so quickly! On Monday, I started the morning finishing the clinics research project and drafting a photo release letter to share with organizations that we partner with. Several of the schools, summer lunch programs, and organizations that we work with have all of the participants in their programs sign photo release forms. By having staff from other organizations sign our letter acknowledging they have this form on file with their participants and that we can use photo and video that we take at our outreach events. I also had a productive phone conference with the executive director of the Ohio School Nurses Association about exploring partnership possibilities and creating a statewide program to engage nurses with up-to-date oral health education techniques for their students. This program would involve trainings and CE credit for nurses. However, noting limited time, we decided to keep this in the backburner for now.

We had a KidSMILES team meeting at noon and it was great to hear updates from everyone about the work they were doing. After, I had my weekly check-in meeting with Mrs. Zuber to go over my plan of work and determined my tasks for the week. I spent the rest of the day finally completely finishing the clinic research project, creating a survey to use to assess our educational outreach program, and sending out several emails and confirmations for our outreach events.

On Tuesday, I spent the whole day shadowing at Dr. Sakamoto’s office. Dr. Sakamoto is a periodontist, a dental specialist, out in Blacklick near Gahanna. He had a great practice, with very friendly staff. Observing was fantastic because I saw procedures that I’ve never observed before and I had a fun time hanging out with Dr. Sakamoto and learning about his path and experiences through dentistry. The procedures I saw included several implant patients, where each of them were in different stages of getting implants. The process for getting implants is a lengthy process, because many of the patients have had bone or gum loss, so Dr. Sakamoto would have to extract the tooth and do bone grafts. I also saw my first gum graft, which involved taking tissue from the top of the pallet and grafting it on the bottom gums, as well as several periodontal check-ups and deep cleanings. Many of his patients have suffered from gum loss and are required to come to cleanings four times a year for deep cleaning in order to prevent further gum loss, which would lead to all of their teeth falling out in a worst case scenario. Dr. Sakamoto had a great demeanor and sense of humor with his patients, especially because many of his patients could lose their teeth if they didn’t follow his care and recommendations.

On Wednesday, we had another Summer Fellows Learning Session at the Foundation. We heard two great speakers: Mr. Douglas F. Kridler, President and CEO of the Columbus Foundation and Jason Moore, founder of Fulcrum Creatives, a non-profit branding and marketing organization based in Columbus. It was inspiring to hear Mr. Kridler’s path through the non-profit sector and gaining his valuable insight on making connections, staying purposeful, and being good at what you are passionate about. Jason gave us a comprehensive overview of what branding is and why it’s important for non-profits to brand effectively to maximize impact. He went over ‘the basics’ of branding, including defining terminology and describing important components and techniques to brand organizations. That was exactly what I hoped for, because I know very little about branding and marketing, so this was an information and valuable taste of this topic.

After our Learning Session, I headed over to a networking lunch and tour at Economic & Community Development Institute (ECDI), the non-profit Summer Fellow, Bryn, is working at for the summer. ECDI leads several initiatives, such as providing investments and loans to low- and middle-income Ohioans, hosting business training classes, and runs a Women’s Business Center. ECDI also runs the Food Fort, which provides facilities and resources for business owners who want to create their own restaurant or food truck. They have two large kitchen facilities, with cooking areas and storage areas. They also provide power for food trucks to stay for extended periods at the Food Fort. We had lunch from En Place, a food truck (which makes a delicious Buffalo Chicken sandwich) that was powered by the resources at ECDI and the Food Fort. We took a tour of ECDI and finished our tour with popsicles from another venture, J-POPs, which was supported by ECDI. When I got back to the clinic, we had a clinic day scheduled in the afternoon, so I went home to prepare for the week’s outreach visits and prepared the new Outreach Program Survey for tomorrow’s visit.

On Thursday, I started the day with another visit at the WARM Kid’s Lunch Club at New Castle Town Homes in Columbus. We had a solid outreach visit where we played our games and activities with about 40 kids and gave out around 60 goodie bags. I headed back to the clinic and wrapped up the day.

Friday, I spent the morning prepping for our outreach visit at the Bhutanese Nepali Association. Laura and I visited the Association back in Week 4, which I detailed in my Week 4 blog post, so it was cool to see our visit come from initial discussion to finish. We got some really great pictures from the visit! When I got back to the clinic, I finished up a more final draft of the outreach brochure and helped out with some computer/laptop/scanner issues we had. I’m excited for my visit on Saturday at Common Ground Free Store in Delaware!

I have to be honest. As these weeks starting to fly by, it is getting more and more difficult to remember every detail that has happened each week as the whole summer seems like a rainy blur. This blog offers a much needed period of reflection on what I’ve accomplished in a week, but without recounting the events day by day it all turns into somewhat of a weekly jumble.

However, the standout of the week was definitely Wednesday. The fellows started off the morning with are regular learning session and were able to sit down with the Doug Kridler, CEO of The Columbus Foundation, and Jason Moore, founder of Fulcrum Creatives. We learned about their backgrounds and organizations and got advice about the nonprofit world, branding, and some good reads.

Following the learning session, the fellows were invited to visit the fellowship host site Economic Development Community Institute for some (really good!) lunch and a tour of their organization. I was not familiar with ECDI prior to going on the tour, but now I am majorly impressed. Besides helping yummy food trucks, they are one of the leaders in helping individuals start small business and gain education/resources to live a better life. We were joined by our supervisors from our own host sites for the lunch/tour. It was a great experiences learning about ECDI, but also seeing how all of our organizations can collaborate in the future. Thanks again for Bryn and ECDI for having us!

At my own host site, I’ve been busy trying in my attempts to conclude some of the projects I’ve been working on. I was able to present some of my analysis from my research at Prevent Blindness Ohio to my supervisor and my coworkers. I’m still working on going through some secondary research for my final software report. I have wrapped up my work on a website analysis and redesign. I’m continuing to work on a potential client database that will hopefully be a valuable resource. I’m expecting work to be pretty busy as we all race to that August 7th finish line.

This week has just flown by! I decided that I wanted to spend a little time in reflection this week about my Junior Docents and their journey over the last few weeks at the Pizzuti Collection. The Junior Docents were placed here through a partnership between the Central Ohio Workforce Investment Corporation (COWIC)’s S.O.A.R.hire program and the Boys and Girls Clubs of Columbus.Over 6000 local Columbus youths applied for 400 available work positions available in this program. These work positions are opportunities for the kids to gain some employable skills, work experience, and career exploration during their summer. 6 of these positions are here at the Pizzuti Collection and they are my Junior Docents! They are a fantastic group of young adults and I am so glad that I get to continue to work with and get to know over the course of this program.

A little bit about what we have been up to this summer….     

• The JDs have been participating in public speaking exercises to become more comfortable with speaking and presenting to groups of people.
• They have been researching and learning about the Collection, the artists, and the artworks that we have here currently as well as learning about the artists and pieces in our fall exhibition, Us Is Them.

• They have prepared and memorized “elevator speeches” to explain to guests who we are and what we do here at the Collection.
• They have been spending time in the galleries looking at the art and really learning how to connect themselves with the pieces and how to translate that to a tour group to encourage guests to connect with the works as well.
• The JDs have been learning about all the different roles that we play as a team here at the Collection, from operations, to registrar, to curating, and administrative positions to see the kinds of careers available in this field.
• Finally, we are continually working on building their Docent Binders, filling them with information about artists and pieces to help them prepare to assist on (and hopefully one day give full) tours of the galleries.

One of my favorite activities that we have done here is talk about the importance of art in the community. When asked what the importance of art is in the community, responses included:

“It’s visual: it doesn’t matter what language you speak”

“Gets everyone in the same space”

“Can draw attention to something to evoke change”

“Creates a common ground”

“Breaks down social barriers”

“Domino effect of positivity”

“Art can mirror society”

Now ,I certainly cannot take credit for these amazing answers. These are all responses from the kids.

We hear a lot in the nonprofit arts world “Well, what is the value of art?”, “Why do we need to fund art?” “Why does art matter?”. Here are your answers, straight from the mouths of those who directly benefit from art in their communities. This is why we need art in our communities, and the young adults in our community recognize that, but often, our elected officials and those in positions of power do not always realize this. It was exciting to hear yesterday that the Senate passed the ESEA initiative that kept arts and music as core subjects in our country’s definition of education…maybe they are starting to get it…

Anyway, I’ll leave my soap box for now. But I just wanted to take a moment and shout out the Junior Docents because they are absolutely flourishing! I could not be more proud of these kids this summer. They have worked so hard and it is definitely paying off for them.

Til next Time!

Jessie

What an awesome week and it’s not over yet!

Wednesday was probably one of my favorite days of the summer. We started off with a learning session at the Foundation. I always look forward to learning sessions because it’s a great time to reconnect with the other fellows and hear how their work is coming along. This week we had the distinct pleasure of hearing from Doug Kridler, the President and CEO of the Columbus Foundation. It was such a treat to hear about his life experience and his insight. I could tell from the short time we were able to spend with Doug that he is passionate about his work and passionate about people. He is committed to making Columbus a great place for all people to live and I think that makes him incredibly well-suited for the position he is in. After hearing from Doug, Jason Moore from Fulcrum Creatives came in and spoke about the significance of crafting your brand in a non-profit business. Branding is a challenge for all companies, but especially companies just starting out with their brand or trying to re-brand their organization. Jason offered a lot of valuable information about how companies can craft an effective brand (and it’s way more than just a hip logo). I was then able to share this information with my host site and I think it will improve the way we all think about Per Scholas.

After the learning session, fellow Bryn Webster and her host site invited us over for a delicious meal and a tour of ECDI. It was awesome. Shout out to En Place and J’s Pops because their food is delicious. I was just blown away by all that ECDI is doing, and doing well. The place is definitely one you should know about. One of the best parts of this summer has been the inside look at other non-profits in Columbus. From the chance to see Actor’s Theatre of Columbus perform in Schiller Park to an invitation to tour the Pizzuti Collection to the backstage pass of ECDI, I am getting to see a side of Columbus that I’ve never seen before.

Continually I am reminded of what a stellar opportunity I have been given through this fellowship and Wednesday was most definitely one of those days.

Much of the work I have done at Clean Fuels Ohio has been related to outreach — emailing and calling current and potential stakeholders trying to sell them on our signature program, Ohio Green Fleets. This process began in tedious fashion by cold-calling dozens of potential Green Fleet members, with not much response to show for my efforts. It’s understandable, really, considering that these people have heard from various employees at Clean Fuels Ohio in the past. I’m a fresh face and a new name and a cold-call to city officials and business owners from “Matt Shomo the new Program Assistant” doesn’t carry too much weight. However, as the 40 days and 40 nights of rain here in Columbus has cleared, so too has my bad luck.

Recently, the mass emails and cold-calls are resulting in tremendous feedback for our program. I am beginning to build my own network of stakeholders and it feels like all the work is finally paying off. Initially, I would simply send out invitations and information with little hope of garnering much response. But now, people interested in Ohio Green Fleets and Clean Fuels Ohio are using me as a contact and I am helping to facilitate new fleets into the Green Fleets program. I knew that patience would be essential for this project simply because the culminating event for Ohio Green Fleets doesn’t take place until late September. But now it seems that as the calendars turn towards the second half of summer, we are starting to appear on more people’s radars.

If there’s a life lesson to be learned through this experience, it’s the age-old adage that good things come to those who wait. In full disclosure, it was becoming extremely frustrating to spend hours trying to connect with people with nothing to show for it. But now that the Ohio Green Fleets program is picking up speed (pun, unintended) so is the quality of my interactions with the people involved. Here’s to many more emails and phone calls — hopefully this positive trend continues!

In my post last week, I focused on one of the greatest challenges that I have encountered during my fellowship: finding qualified teachers to fill open teaching positions. This week, I am going to concentrate on successes that are related to the work that I originally set out to do: developing a volunteer program. When I last provided a status update on the volunteer program during week two of the fellowship, I had just finished developing a volunteer manual and was planning to reach out to local universities, businesses, and volunteer posting sites to start attracting volunteers to the CELC. Although I had some time to begin getting the word out about volunteer opportunities, I have not had the chance to actually start bringing in volunteers, as filling job openings was a more pressing priority in recent weeks. However, now that the hiring process is calming down, I am finally getting back to the volunteer program, and in just a few days I have had a couple of major successes.

First, I have three volunteer interviews scheduled and one has already taken place. The person who I already interviewed is going to be the first volunteer in our new volunteer program, and she will be starting tomorrow. I conducted my first “volunteer screening interview” with her last week, and she will spend the rest of the summer and fall semester working about eight hours a week split evenly between helping with administrative tasks and assisting teachers in the classroom. Since she cannot work in the classroom until we get several documents back, we will be spending tomorrow completing the orientation that I developed a few weeks ago and working together to develop a recruitment plan to bring in children to one of our classrooms for the fall. That said, is anyone reading this looking for a four-star childcare center?  Anyway, if all goes well this week, we will have four volunteers working with our program in the near future.

In addition to individual volunteers, I have made some progress getting volunteer groups scheduled. First, Columbus Early Learning Centers is going to be a site for Community Commitment 2015. For those of you who don’t know, Community Commitment is a large, one-day community service outreach event hosted by Ohio State’s Pay-It-Forward that takes place at the beginning of the fall semester. The CELC should receive about 15-20 volunteers who will help reconfigure several of the workspaces within the building. In addition, I am in the process of forming a partnership with an Ohio State student leadership organization that will involve brining OSU students into each of our preschool classrooms once a week to work in small groups on basic literacy skills.

Over the past couple of days, I have finally seen many of my efforts to develop the volunteer program pay off. I am incredibly excited to see where the volunteer program goes during the final weeks of the fellowship and beyond this summer.

I have chosen a career in filmmaking. With this power, comes great responsibility.

The ups and downs of filmmaking are either very high or very low. A body of work can come together smoothly but rarely does it go “perfectly” from start to finish. The difference between a great film and a good film is how the director adjusts to the issues he/she is presented with. There will always be problems during production but there is always a solution to the problem. In some cases, I find that the problems I am presented with often directly lead to a better overall product. Mistakes and issues bring out the best (or worst) in a film director.

Let me apply this theory to my current project in shooting a video series for Habitat For Humanity MidOhio through The Columbus Foundation. When I first began my ten week experience in my new workplace, my first job was to figure out what videos I was going to create. I went around to every department head and spoke to them about certain ideas they wanted to pursue. I assured them that the tentative video ideas they were conjuring in their minds were completely realistic and that I was excited to get started. However, as always, I was presented with an issue.

When you shoot documentary style videos the main concern on a daily basis is scheduling interviews. It is important to contact people who will do a great job of telling the same story that you, as the director, have in mind. But once you have a list of all the people you like to interview and somehow collect their contact information, you must convince them to do a video interview. Believe it or not, even in the 21st century filled with new technological advancements everywhere you look, people absolutely HATE being on camera. So what begins as a list of 20 potential interviews is quickly narrowed down to 3 scheduled interviews. This is scary when you have only 10 short weeks to complete a series of films. In short I have received lots and lots of “no thanks” and “my schedule is too hectic”. My list of potential interviewees continues to get shorter and shorter as does my length of time to complete these videos. It is time for me to figure out a solution to this  problem. I have a short amount of time to adjust, regroup, and rewrite.

The good news is that I am still getting great interviews with people all around the city of Columbus including donors, families, and volunteers. The message that will come from the content I already have pulled together will be spectacular. But I still have lots of work to do. Where there is a will there is a way. Stay tuned for a great product.

Although I’ve been working for ECDI for almost five weeks now, up until yesterday I had yet to meet the often discussed founder of our organization, Inna Kinney. Although we had never met, her backstory and character are so integral to ECDI that I already felt like I knew her. There are many version of Inna that I’ve come to understand since being here. There’s Inna, the Russian Jewish refugee who immigrated to the U.S. with her family as a child. There’s Inna, the women who overcame language barriers and poverty in order to help other refugees with financial troubles through her first foundation, Jewish Family Services. Then there’s Inna, the enterprising visionary behind the ever-expanding ECDI organization, one of the largest SBA lenders in the country. The only version of Inna I had met prior to yesterday was Inna the CEO, a commanding presence over a conference call speaker who, despite surrounding herself with a capable team of leaders, still insisted on having the final say at almost every level of her organization. And finally, there’s Inna in person, a warm and passionate woman I have only recently started to get to know.

When Inna walked into the basement yesterday, I’m embarrassed to admit that I did not recognize her. She had been out of the office for much of the summer due to vacations and health issues, and when she was here most of her time was spent on the upper floors in meetings. There are many people from ECDI’s multiple departments and locations that I have yet to meet, so when a stranger walks into the basement I usually assume that they’re from the Cleveland office or maybe the lending department. When Inna stopped by my desk to introduce herself, I was completely unprepared for meeting the CEO and even more shocked by the fact that she already knew who I was. “Oh you’re Bryn! I’ve been hearing such good things about you from Tammy!” She exclaimed, quickly wrapping me a tight hug. After only knowing her through stories for so long, if felt sort of like I was being hugged a fictional character. As she rushed off to tend to more important matters, I was left to reconcile the character that I’d imagined over the past few weeks with the woman I had only just met for the first time. I think I like the real Inna Kinney even better than the legend.

Today I attended SEED Training, a financial literacy course which clients of ECDI must first taking before being able to qualify for one of our small business loans. As much as I do love research and writing for the Development Department, I really look forward to the occasional opportunities I get to interact with ECDI clients. Sitting in on trainings has not only been a great way to get to know the programs I’m researching and writing grants for, it’s also helped me stay passionate about what I’m doing. When you’re neck deep in data analysis or sitting in organizational meetings all week, it’s easy to forget why your work is important. For those of you who read my last post, I’ve been having a hard time with one of my projects, and sometimes it’s a little disheartening to find that what you want to be able to do just isn’t as doable as you think it should be. However, today I was reminded that it isn’t about me or what I want to do. It’s about doing whatever I can to help people like the ones in SEED training achieve their dreams and, in doing so, promote economic wellbeing in my community.
The participants in SEED had so much potential, it was truly inspiring. Not only have the ECDI clients I’ve met so far deeply passionate about their own businesses, they’re often more than willing to help others, even those in similar industries. Of those in attendance today, two women were interested in the soul-food business. One, Mrs. M, already had an established drive-thru and was looking to find more capital while the other, Ms. K, was hoping to open her own restaurant after years of working in food services. Although both women immediately realized that they would be competing for some of the same clients, I was shocked by the bond they formed with each other during class. “There’s plenty of market for both of us!” Mrs. M reassured her young competitor, “There’s a demand for what we do, don’t you worry about it!” Mrs. M then asked Ms. K if she was planning on offering seafood, which Mrs. M could not sell at her restaurant due to a food allergy. When Ms. K said she would be, Mrs. M immediately promised to send her own regulars over to Ms. K’s restaurant if they ever wanted for seafood. Ms. K said she would be happy to keep normal business hours and send late-night customers to Mrs. M, whose business is open 24/7. It was truly heartwarming to see these two women choose to help rather than hurt each other’s businesses, and as the session progressed many of the participants offered similar aid and advice to others in the class. It’s always important to be reminded that what I’ve been doing every day is in small part allowing connections to be formed between amazing people like these.