Columbus Foundation Fellowship Programs

Today concludes my second week at the Columbus Early Learning Centers. Before I give you a brief status update, I wanted to focus this post on the work that this organization performs for the Columbus Community. As I mentioned in my first post, the CELC is an organization committed to providing affordable child care and education with a focus on responsive caregiving, intentional teaching, community collaboration, and promoting a healthy and active lifestyle. The CELC has over 125 years of history, placing it amongst the oldest childcare programs in the country. The center’s first location, which opened on North Fourth Street in 1887, provided childcare for children as young as three months old for five cents per day.

Today, the CELC operates two locations including one on Broad Street and another off of Champion Avenue, which is the location that I am working at this summer. In addition, the CELC continues to provide affordable childcare and early education by offering a tiered tuition program. As a result, nearly 72% of the children that we serve come from families that live below 150% of the federal poverty line, 85% come from single parent headed households, and 78% are of minority status. Research has shown that the cognitive scores of children from high socioeconomic backgrounds are about three-fifths of a standard deviation higher than those children from lower socioeconomic backgrounds. White students have also been shown to score significantly higher than their minority peers. In addition, children from single parent headed households are less likely to graduate high school and attend college than children who grow up with two parents at home. This presents a both challenge and a unique opportunity for our staff to make a meaningful impact on our children’s educational development. The staff understands that even though many of our children come from background that tends to lead to lower educational performance, these outcomes are not predetermined. In fact, research that I have read has shown that preschool presents the best opportunity to close the educational achievement gap.

Therefore, my hope is that the volunteer program that I am creating will have a role in closing the achievement gap that many of our students face. I am also hoping that members of the Columbus community can play an active role in this process. I want our volunteers not only to have the opportunity to make a positive impact on a child’s day, but also to help break the cycles of poverty that have prevented many low-income and minority children from being successful later in life. After two weeks, I have finally achieved my first major success in making these goals a reality… I have finished a rough draft of a volunteer manual that I plan to provide to new volunteers during the volunteer orientation session (my next project). In addition, I have continued working in the classrooms and helping out wherever I can. Next week, I am hoping to start reaching out to individuals, organizations and business to begin setting up volunteer opportunities for the summer. Stay tuned as I keep you updated on the status of the volunteer program, the Columbus Early Learning Centers, and my summer in Columbus!

(Note: The postings on this site are of my own and do not necessarily reflect the views of the Columbus Early Learning Centers)

After two weeks of working at the Pizzuti Collection, I’m starting to realize that there is no such thing as a routine day in an arts nonprofit. On any given day I can be working alongside our Assistant Curator and Program Coordinator to assist in the New Docent Orientation, writing (and researching)a grant for a new educational program, calling Columbus City Schools for a bus quote, and even making a Spotify playlist to accompany a new artwork that will be on exhibition in the Fall. It’s definitely never a dull moment, but the fantastic thing is the amount of team work and collaboration that occurs here is absolutely phenomenal. It is truly a pleasure to watch and learn from and work alongside these nonprofit rock stars everyday. It is such a dynamic and fast paced and excitingly challenging workplace. I can’t wait to see what the next week will have in store…

See you next week!

JC

Hello all! I’m in the midst of another busy and exciting week here at Per Scholas, but I just wanted to share a little bit more about this great organization and the work I’ll be doing here this summer. I’ve become much better acquainted with Per Scholas this week and let me tell you, the work being done here is GOOD! Per Scholas is, as I mentioned last week, a national organization, with offices in New York, Dallas, Cincinnati, Washington, D.C., and right here in our fair city of Columbus, Ohio. What Per Scholas does is meet needs. The folks at Per Scholas meet the needs of unemployed or underemployed individuals in the Columbus area and they meet the needs of countless employers in the area.

Since I arrived at Per Scholas I’ve been learning about something called the skills gap. Essentially this means that the needs of the employer and the skills of job candidates aren’t matching up. People looking for jobs are either under-qualified or over-qualified. Columbus has a huge market for what are called “middle-skill” job opportunities. Middle-skill careers require a high school diploma and some additional training or certification, but do not call for a college degree. Middle-skill careers pay well above the living wage and guess what?! There are ample opportunities. So the work that Per Scholas does each and every day is beginning to close that skills gap, giving job seekers the skills employers are looking for. It’s been so awesome to see alumni come in the office and share about their promising interviews and job offers. It’s almost a revolving door of exciting news around here. The education Per Scholas provides is really changing lives.

Per Scholas specializes in IT training and development. Students who come through the program graduate in eight weeks with a CompTIA A+ certification and hundreds of hours of experience. This program is intensive. Students are in class all day Monday through Friday and there is plenty of studying going on outside of class. The very best part about Per Scholas is that they provide all of this education at no cost to the student. Coming from a girl who just graduated with her fair share of student loans, this is huge!

So, what exactly am I doing here? I graduated with a degree in literary studies and know next-to-nothing about how to put a computer together, so what am I going to do all summer at an IT workforce development center? Well, my main goal is to assess the Columbus middle-skill job market, conducting surveys, interviewing employers and doing some independent research, and to offer recommendations to Per Scholas as to ways that they can better meet needs in this market. But in addition to that, I have just jumped in where needed, from contacting prospective students to grading exams to finding partner organizations…and just about anything else I’m asked to do, and I am loving every minute of it! Stay tuned for more!

-Ashley

Wow! Shepherd’s Corner is such a delightful place to be! I would like to give thanks to Shepherd’s Corner and the Columbus Fellowship Foundation for providing me with this incredible oportunity!

In 1997 Mark Dilley, founder of MAD Scientists, did a complete Ask the Land survey of Shepherd’s Corner’s 160 acres. Experts were invited out to explore and collect specie counts of all the diverse life forms that are inhabitants of the land. This summer I will be joining experts from the many fields of biology to do a re-surveying of the land. For example, Mark Dilley will be focusing on flora, Jim McCormac will be focusing on birds, Aaron Laver will be focusing on amphibians and aquatic life, etc. After the counts are compete, the data will be compiled, comared to the findings from the 1997 survey, and then further elaborated on in the 2015 Ask the Land survey booklet.

My main focus for the summer will be to evaluate the big-picture question: How has the increased number of surrounding housing developments and a commerical strip mall impacted the diverse inhabitants of Shepherd’s Corner?

To find the answer to this important question I shall ask the land!

Purpose. It is what every team, organization, and person has. What makes a team, organization, or person a stand out is if they live out their purpose. The Central Ohio YMCA’s have a very clear purpose and constantly keep that purpose in front of them. I mentioned purpose in my last blog briefly and I definitely want to give the topic the attention it deserves today.

My supervisor and I were chatting on my first day about how important it will be to get an authentic acclimation with all of the Central Ohio YMCA’s throughout my time serving the organizations. We decided that a great way to get an authentic look at the organizations would be to do a “Secret Shop”. I went to five different branches of YMCA’s in Central Ohio and found that there are definitely differences. I focused on the differences and similarities in Kid’s Time. For the sake of privacy, I will briefly explain two of the branches and call them Branch A and Branch B. Branch A allows children to be without a parent in the facility as long as they are at least nine years old. Because of this, the numbers for tradition Kid’s Time is low. They have very high numbers with their teens camp, which averages thirty teens a day. The demographic at Branch A is younger, more indigent population. Branch B requires children under the age of 12 to attend Kid’s Time unless they are supervised by a guardian. Thus, the numbers are very high for Kid’s time. Their day camp is completely book for the summer for their younger kids.

Obviously, Branch A and Branch B are different, very different. That is plain to see, but what is also plain to see is the similarity. The similarity being the purpose, which is: To serve the whole community through programs expressing Judeo-Chrisitan principles that build a healthy spirit, mind, and body. In my own words, I observed that their purpose is to be a hub for the community that fulfills needs and provides education that is seen fit for that specific community.

The YMCA’s of Central Ohio does an outstanding job of fulfilling their purpose. The amount of time, effort, and care that I see the staff put in on a day to day basis is absolutely incredible. Even more so, the leaders of the YMCA’s put so much thought into constantly keeping their purpose in front of their employees through a positive atmosphere and great communication. Regardless of the location and demographic, it is so encouraging to see a purpose uniting Central Ohio one community after another!

My journey into the Summer Fellowship has begun and I can already see that the path laid out in front of me will be full of twist and turns.  I am headed into a thick forrest with branches of responsibility and high expectations hanging just above my head.  I consider myself the protagonist on this exciting adventure, so allow me to tell you my story one chapter at a time.

Once upon a time, on the North Side of Columbus, there sat a large warehouse filled with wonderful people who were prepared to make a difference in the world.  In the front of this magical warehouse was a store, which they referred to as a “ReStore”.  In this ReStore, the employees of Habitat for Humanity worked diligently to provide low-income families with solid products to furnish their home at an affordable price.  From couches, to cabinets, to washers and driers, this ReStore took donations from people who had too much, and sold them to people who had too little.

In the back of this warehouse sat even more Habitat for Humanity employees that devoted their lives to helping low-income families afford proper housing.  Whether that meant helping them fix their current house or building them a new one from the ground up, these incredible individuals were ready and willing to do what they could for those in need.

In this very same warehouse sat an ambitious college student name Oliver who had one simple job: to tell the story of this selfless organization.  With a camera in his hand and a hard hat on his head, he set was prepared to document amazing people doing amazing things.

Before he could capture the essence of this non-profit organization on camera, he had to put in the ground work to set a foundation for his findings.  In order to do this he met with each one of the departments within Habitat for Humanity (MidOhio) to ask them what they thought was important to share with the world.  He took in their thoughts and opinions and tried his best to put them all on paper.  Just from listening to them talk he could hear their passion and optimism for a world where everyone could live in a house they deserved.

At the end of the week he studied what everyone had discussed with him and began planning interviews and video shoots.  This organization trusted Oliver to deliver a message to its audience that was both emotional and informative.  He was excited for what was to come in the next few weeks and quickly realized he was blessed with a fantastic opportunity at Habitat for Humanity.