Columbus Foundation Fellowship Programs

Wielding an impressive arsenal of dry-erase marker colors, I took to the whiteboard.  I was determined to turn my scattered thoughts into an organized, technicolor dream program guide regarding business sustainability.

Our team was meeting for discussion on how to bolster current programs with the end-goal of more effectively assisting our graduates reach sustainability.  I was given the opportunity to present my brainchild before a group who collectively have launched way more businesses than years I have spent on earth.

My confidence level was sky-high.  I mean, I was four weeks into this fellowship- of course I thought I was a business expert.

Sean explaining to the crowd why he chose the red marker for this section.

I glided flawlessly through the first set of magnificently illustrated bullet points.  Moments later, I started noticing holes in my proposal- points that were not realistic or not relative to our clientele.  I paused, realizing that my dream program had elements of a nightmare.  Turning to the team, I put forth a sheepish smile, knowing this beauty’s end was imminent.

We tore it apart, color by color, until we had a working model that made sense and could be used as a solid framework for future program development.  It no longer resembled my initial brush strokes, but it was better- and that’s all that matters.

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This experience was both humbling and satisfying.  I realized that the feeling of having your work criticized by others is similar to the feeling a business owner experiences when he or she puts out a product and receives mixed reactions from customers.  This experience is good- it allows us to improve our work/product so we all receive better results next time around.

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Always seek feedback to improve something.  If you can’t get feedback, just try adding bacon.  Bacon makes everything better.

My job for the morning was to open every cabinet and drawer in the former Westside location and throw out all of the food I found. Such a task served not only to get all the crackers, Capri Suns, and puddings out of classroom and office shelves (three big trash bags worth!), but also to unearth historical documents in unexpected locations. In the staff break room, inhabiting a crate with the chai tea and napkins, I discovered a large set of previously unaccounted for board regulations from the 1970s and 1980s. Upstairs tucked away in a file cabinet, beneath a bag of peppermints no less, I found more reports and histories, and even a Franklinton calendar featuring the Westside location as its June photo. I also uncovered a box of miscellaneous stationery from all three centers over the years – so cool! Sometimes, there’s no Finding Aid to serve as treasure map. And I might have exclaimed jackpot when I realized what I had found.

I was at Westside working with volunteer groups that are sorting all of the toys and furniture, preparing them for sale or donation. CELC has a lot of stuff – lots of toys, furniture, buildings, and paperwork. Importantly, we have to go through it all to unearth those key documents, photos, and ephemera worth saving. And that can be the most challenging aspect of my work. How does one prioritize areas in which one is most likely to find relevant materials? And how ought one to curate those findings? Do we really need 5 copies of the 1959 Annual Report? Probably not. But we do need one, preferably in good condition, so having five to choose from is quite the luxury. And who knows, perhaps I’ll find a few more tucked away in an unmarked drawer.

As I’ve settled into my role here at the Ohio Environmental Council, I’ve done my best to educate myself on sustainable energy. Obviously, with so many types of clean, low-impact energies out there, there is no way for me to become an expert, but I’ve put my college-honed research skills to the test and become familiar with the basics. Since I am a member of the Green Jobs & Innovation team at the OEC, I tried to understand these new industries from an employment perspective, and especially how they impact Ohio. For example, I learned in my research that Toledo is one of the main North American hubs of solar technology production. Additionally, the miles of Lake Erie coastline available up north have made Ohio an attractive state for offshore wind farm development. Learning about projects like these has helped me understand the importance of the Ohio Green Jobs Database, and given me a sense of how my work will help Ohio’s green economy.

    I’ve also spent the last week becoming better acquainted with the OEC, its offices, and its people. I was fortunate enough to sit in on an all-staff meeting last Monday, where we discussed everything from office renovations to the growth of donations to environmental charities. I was also asked to update everyone on what I had been working on, and what I hoped to do in the future – a nerve-wracking experience, but one that helped to boost my confidence about speaking up in meetings.

     As far as work goes, I have continued to work on the database and the surrounding technology. This past week, my focus was on online communication between interns such as myself and our boss. At the moment, we all share access to the same Green Jobs account, so my job was to see what it would take for us to switch to a more secure file-sharing system, and whether or not it would be worth it. Working at the OEC certainly has put green on my mind – when doing my research, I opted for the eco-friendly search engine Ecosia (sorry, Google!) that donates money to rainforest preservation.

*****Casino Night was a fundraiser for Junior Achievement of Central Ohio and no actual money was used or exchanged during the evening****

Junior Achievement of Central Ohio President, Mike Davis, graciously accepting a check of $45,000.

This week I learned how to play Blackjack. I learned how to play Blackjack at the Fourth Annual Casino Night benefiting Junior Achievement of Central Ohio. This event was put on by Pepper Construction Company, and donated $45,000 to Junior Achievement Columbus. Awesome.

Over the weekend, I realized that my experience with this fellowship and my experience learning Blackjack have many parallels.

When I sat down at a table with a few other JA staff members, we did not know what we were getting ourselves into. Our (very patient) card dealer explained the rules of the game to us, and gave us a few pointers to start with. However, for the most part she let us jump into the experience of the game. I soon realized that it would be a challenge, every new piece of information came bundled with multiple new questions, but I was determined to learn the game.

Just like those first few hands of Blackjack, my first couple weeks at Biztown have been exciting and filled with lessons each day. Every day I learn more about the organization, the work, and my own professional development, but every day I also leave realizing how much more I have to learn. As my JA supervisors do, our card dealer answered our questions with the absolute highest level of patience.

We progressed through the hands (losing and gaining some chips along the way), every once in a while our dealer would throw us a hint or two; but overall she held a straight face and allowed us learn from our mistakes and successes. Sometimes I had no idea what call to make. These are moments that I know to go back and ask for help from the dealer. In a real casino, a dealer may not be quite as willing to offer advice, but this game was a learning experience – as is my fellowship.

My tablemates, who came in with various levels of Blackjack experience, made the challenging (and sometimes embarrassing) experience of learning a game enjoyable. Some of the more experienced players would offer tips throughout the game; others would simply cheer on successes.

The staff and other interns at Junior Achievement have kept me enjoying my time as a fellow. They offer advice and support when necessary, which has been interesting because everyone comes from a variety of backgrounds. No matter whether we are playing Blackjack or working within BizTown, we are always laughing and enjoying the journey.

In a lot of ways, Junior Achievement of Central Ohio has been my own personal Blackjack dealer. In three weeks, I have already learned so much from the mentors here and I am so excited to see how much more I will learn.

The highlight of my week was spending a morning with the Capital Area Humane Society learning about the work that they do and brainstorming ways that their organization and LifeCare’s Pet Care Program can work together.

I’ve quickly learned that many non-profits do much more than what they’re most well known for. LifeCare Alliance, for example, is most often connected with Meals-on-Wheels, but also offers so many other important services to the community.

Two of the many cats and ferrets looking for a home at the Capital Area Humane Society

The Humane Society is typically associated with pet adoption when that is actually just a small percentage of the work that they do. During my time there, I learned about programs they have to rescue neglected and/or abused animals. The Capital Area Humane Society also assists the pets of victims of domestic violence by offering care to the animals if the owner is seeking temporary refuge at a shelter.

I enjoyed touring the facility, seeing all of the adorable animals, and gaining insights on how a different type of pet program is coordinated. The Humane Society emphasized the importance of well-trained, reliable volunteers and community outreach. By the end of the tour, I wanted to take all of the animals home with me!

Puppies wait to be adopted into a loving home

Back at the office, I have completed the new routes for the Animeals Program! Over the next few weeks, I will be planning open houses for past, current, and prospective volunteers to show them the new routes and hopefully grow our volunteer numbers. It has been a very busy and exciting four weeks here at LifeCare Alliance, and I can’t wait to see what the rest of my summer holds!

CCA West Students

This past Monday marks my transition into the full-time student recruitment fellow position. Previously, I worked with Brett, the student recruitment manager, on recruiting and enrolling students at Columbus Collegiate Academy. Starting Monday, however, Brett took on a new position as the office manager at our West campus. This leaves me with full responsibility of reaching CCA’s goal enrollment totals! Luckily this week also marks the start of a waitlist at our Main St. campus which means we have met our enrollment totals for one of our two middle schools. Enrolling students are our West school, which I mentioned in my last post is moving into a new building on Dana Ave in Franklinton (not far from our location last year in the Boys and Girls Club) is now my main focus.

Our primary means of reaching out to students is through direct mailings and these have been sent out sporadically throughout the past few months to all Columbus City School and SouthWest City School incoming 6^th grade students. Brett and I have also been working on designing a postcard which was just finalized and sent out this week so hopefully in the next few days the calls will start coming in from that! Aside from mailings, I have been working to reach to students in any way possible. That includes going door to door in neighborhood in Franklinton, hanging flyers in community organizations and following up with every lead. I already have many families scheduled to see the school next week and with our move taking place and more and more people learning about CCA I can only hope that more families enroll their students! This week, with the holiday and our time at Boys and Girls Club coming to an end, was a transition week, but next week will most likely bring about good results and up our enrollment status.

Until next week… Thanks for reading,

Nikki  

This past week, I was able to stretch the legs a bit and venture out of the cubicle to meet a ton of new people! First, the Alvis House block party was on Friday, and so I spent my lunch break eating a delicious array of pot luck-style food and watching various Alvis House staff members blow off some steam for a good cause. All of the proceeds from the block party, including raffle tickets and dunk tank attempts, went to benefit Operation Feed, and so dropping a few bucks to viciously throw a ball to unlatch the lever suspending your coworker over a big pool of water was really the only good, humanitarian thing to do.

Gerard from halfway house programming winds up

And, success!

As far as work goes, I have been in and out of meetings every day, trying to learn as much as I can about Alvis House as an organization, its clients, its sources of funding, its strengths, its weaknesses, its service model, its strategy, etc etc. Despite their insanely busy schedules, every head of department, director, and program manager that I’ve contacted to set up an interview with has graciously taken the time to speak with me, and I’m very grateful to each of them for that. I was even able to take a few field trips to the re-entry center, one of the men’s halfway houses, and the intermediate care facility for clients with development disabilities. One of the major differences between DD (developmental disabilities) and corrections is the emphasis on individualization for DD clients. Clients in the intermediate care facility are able to decorate their rooms however they like, and my favorite was a double room in which one roommate was seemingly an avid Michigan fan, the other a diehard Buckeye. A bit of friendly competition to keep things interesting! I also liked learning about the emphasis on community interaction and service that is instilled in all clients, both DD and correctional. Many at Alvis House believe that education is vital not only for clients, but for the public as well. Allowing ex-offenders to live and work in their neighborhoods while undergoing cognitive-based therapy and supervision by Alvis House is the best way to change their behaviors and re-integrate them into the greater community.

The gardens outside of Wittwer Hall, the intensive care facility for DD clients, were put in by the residents.

The clients do a great job of maintaining and caring for the gardens.

It also helps to demonstrate to the public that people are people: they make mistakes, they learn from them, and a lot of them move on. Ex-offenders are not doomed to lives of crime. Many of them become involved in the criminal justice system when they’re young and then spend the rest of their lives trying to bounce back from their first offense, convincing potential employers and new acquaintances that they’ve changed. It was great to see in person the facilities that I’d been hearing so much about and to actually meet a few of our clients. It’s given my fellowship experience a more concrete/”this is who you’re helping” feeling, and I couldn’t be happier to be working for people, for their betterment and their happiness. (More on this topic in my next blog, this one is getting a bit long!)

I can’t believe it’s week three of the fellowship. This week I attended the Ohio Partners for Cancer Control general member meeting at the American Cancer Society in Dublin, Ohio. The first part of the meeting was an overview of the 2013 Clinical and Community Linkage Conference: Psychosocial Distress Screening and Oncology Supportive Care Services. The meeting also covered the issue of having doctors report cancer diagnosis. Apparently, a great number of doctors aren’t aware they are actually supposed to report cancer diagnosis so statistics can be compelled from that information. They also reviewed the Ohio Academy of Family Physicians/American Cancer Society/Ohio Department of Health efforts to increase colorectal cancer screening. It’s interesting to attend all these meeting even though I’m not always sure what is going on during them.

After the meeting we went downtown to hand over the grant proposals to the Ohio Department of Health. Cancer Support Community Central Ohio wrote two separate grant proposals, but I only helped with the one my supervisor was writing. It was a relief for everyone that they were finished, but I almost didn’t want to part with it. I had nervous energy handing the proposal over to Ohio Department of Health employee, because you want to know right away if you were selected. We won’t find out until the beginning of August if either or both proposals will receive their funding.

This week I have contacted several community partners about expanding the west side programing. In a few weeks I’ll be meeting with several community members on putting together a workshop type program for teens since teens are often left out when it comes to cancer support programming.

We are moving to our new location on Old Henderson Road from the Powell location. If you think moving your apartment/house is a hassle it’s nothing compared to moving an entire nonprofit organization! This move has been back breaking work, but we have had a lot of volunteers help with the move. If we didn’t have so many volunteers and few interns then this move wouldn’t be possible. I took a few pictures of the moving process from the Powell location. The last picture is my office at the Powell location.

I think the most important lesson from this move is that working in a nonprofit you have to be a jack of all trades or as my supervisor says “Jane of all trades” which is very true. No matter what position or degree one may hold there will come times when you have to roll up your sleeves and do some hard work.

Last week was such a busy week! It was the second week of camp and we were ready to start planting some seeds and plants in the garden! Both East and West side community gardens are now filled with plants and seeds! I can’t wait for the plants to grow! The kids were so excited to plant in the garden. We planted tomatoes, cucumbers, peppers, basil, and cilantro just to name a few. The kids were able to dig and plant all of the seeds, and after planting we had a lesson on gardening. The kids had a chance to smell the different herb leaves (cilantro, basil, oregano) and it smelled so good! Hopefully by the end of camp we can use these herbs and vegetables in cooking lesson!

We also had a nutrition label lesson last week. The kids and I took a look at nutrition labels on various types of foods and determined which foods were the better options. It was a great way for the kids to learn the nutrition labels and made them more aware of which foods they should eat. After teaching this lesson, I’m confident that these kids know what cholesterol, sodium, and calories mean!

We were all very eager for Friday to arrive because it was COSI day! All campsites hopped on the bus and headed to COSI for the day. My group really enjoyed exploring COSI and learning about the body, space, and all about science! I could tell the kids were tired from a fun-filled day at COSI because on the way home, half of them were asleep on the bus.

This week the kids will learn about the different vitamins and make their very own Vitamins Book! 

Last Tuesday I attended my very first webinar.  The presentation was titled: What Does it Take to Build Sustainable Micro-Businesses?  Over 200 leaders in the micro-enterprise field logged in to hear three respected organizations describe their successful programming.

For the first five minutes, technical difficulties ran rampant.  The speakers’ voices produced an impressive echo effect while simultaneously alternating between a high pitched Alvin & The Chipmunks-like tone and a deep bass that would please any fan of the dub step genre.

Prince has the webinar entertainment market cornered.

The panic was evident as the presenters scrambled to fix whatever issue was causing the webinar’s audio to resemble a rendition of a Prince song.  After several thrilling minutes, their tinkering worked.  The audio returned to normal and the remainder of the presentation went on flawlessly.

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The major point I took away was the emphasis on the necessity of teamwork in an organization.  Now, I know what you’re thinking- “Really Sean? Teamwork? What a revolutionary idea.”  In my defense, to hear individuals in charge of organizations responsible for creating thousands of jobs in their communities say that their success boils down to this simple concept, truly gives you a fresh perspective on success.

Non-profit professionals often end up doing a multitude of tasks all at once, rather than sticking solely to their specialization.  Constant communication between fellow team members is essential in order for progress and positive impacts in clients’ lives to occur.  Teamwork leads to positive impact which leads to true change in our communities.

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I thoroughly enjoyed my first webinar- especially the pre-presentation entertainment.