Columbus Foundation Fellowship Programs

Our crawl was a great success for our first year!  The weather cooperated, we had wonderful volunteers, and such enthusiastic crawlers!

It began a little rough–we only had 5 people sign up in the first hour at Park Street Patio.  However, two crawlers convinced more people to crawl and soon we were having a great time down Park Street.  The best part about an event or fundraiser for a cause is the stories people tell you.  It was wonderful to hear why each volunteer and crawler was participating.  Whether it was a positive HIV status, a friend or family member living with HIV/AIDS, or a strong connection to the nonprofit or healthcare community, every story was unique and significant.  

In the end, our crawlers had so much fun we had to keep herding them from bar to bar.  I can’t wait to do the raffle on Monday or Tuesday and tell which lucky crawler won a $200 gift card :).  We raised over $300 and registered dozens.  All in all, it was a successful event that I planned.  I also have a lot in my  mind that I would do differently, which is invaluable for the next time I get to plan something like this.  Below are some great pictures.

If a picture is worth 1,000 words, then how much is a slideshow? And if a blog is only a few hundred words, then boy, are you in for a treat!

Wrapping up these last few weeks, the Down Syndrome Association of Central Ohio and I have said goodbye to some new friends. And in the process, we have reflected on some pretty solid memories.  And goodbyes aren’t really goodbyes. They’re like congratulations, appreciations, good luck wish-ations, and see you later-ations. I can honestly say that it’ll be hard not to see those crazy lovable kids every day in our Summer Learning Academy. And I’m still itching to play golf and catch that spirit of learning and care-free excitement of chasing little white balls around vast green expanses of lush green grass and the occasional pond or sand trap that may be more occasional than I’d like. (but really, I love golf).

So here’s cheers to the DSACO Golf  Academy Class of 2012!

Golf Academy 2012 Celebration

And while I’m at it, check out this slide show of Summer Learning Academy!

Summer Learning Academy 2012 Graduation Celebration

These last few days have been so much fun! Seeing the excitement in the kids eyes, seeing how proud they and their parents were during graduation, and witnessing the culmination of all those days of chasing down kids, repeatedly learning counting, telling time, how to spell words with funny spellings (like those ‘gh’ and ‘ei’ combos), writing on mirrors, dancing to variations of bear hunt, and playing tag at recess where Alfred is all-time “it.”

This has been one of the greatest opportunities of my life, and I’ll remember those kids for a very long time.  Thanks to the parents, nannies, nurses, and Bethel International United Methodist Church!  Enjoy the rest of your summers!

With one week left to go, I don’t think I’m ready to say goodbye to DSACO. That’s why I’ll be presenting at their Annual Conference on August 25th, and why you should join me at the Buddy Walk on September 23rd at Crew Stadium! (if you go, not only will you see me, but the amazing kids from Summer Learning Academy!)

Things are starting to resemble a finished product! I’ve been spending a majority of my energy this week focused on formatting my reports and editing content, which is a great opportunity for me to be a little creative. I look forward to making final edits and being able to look at my reports without seeing five things I need to fix. I’ve definitely appreciated having a project this summer that has a meaningful finished product I can show to future employers. With only one week left the pressure is on to finish everything in time, but I am confident that everything will turn out.

This week I have learned that in many instances, less is more, and prioritizing information is key. I wrote the content for my case stories last week, and kept them within a two page limit. However, once you add in graphics and formatting, that two pages no longer actually fits on two pages. That being said I had to go back and cut out some superfluous information or quotes and make my message as clear and concise as possible, while also interesting.

“Kudos” to journalists for making a career of writing in that style, because it pains me to left go of some information and quotes, but I know that it isn’t necessary to present everything in order to make a strong point.

Learning this skill will most certainly help me through the future, especially as I pursue future endeavors in the field of research.

One week left! I look forward to reflecting on the overall experience in my next post.

Have a great weekend everyone,

Melissa

Hello all,

As many of you know, I have been planning the Inaugural AIDS Walk Bar Crawl and let me tell you, the game is always changing.

You make a timeline, create a budget, compose a spreadsheet full of contacts, and begin your planning.  However, I have quickly found that it’s difficult to stick to a deadline and often I have had to find a creative solution or do some quick rearranging.  For example, recruiting bars took well over the week I had allotted for and often times I had to do the legwork myself.  I think a large part of this may be because I work for a nonprofit and so there is not as much capital to leverage.  But we sure do have a great cause–and many bars were surprised they had not heard of AIDS Walk and were very willing to participate.

T-shirts, logos, signs, paper materials, brochures, bar passports, and many, many rubber stamps and stamp pads later, I am somehow 95% ready for Saturday!  My volunteers are great, my bars are on board, and everything else is last minute adjustments.

So in sum I have learned to be quick on my feet and to try to keep panic at bay even when deadlines change and your timeline becomes almost useless.  Come see me at my bar crawl this Saturday at 12:00 PM at either Union Cafe or Park Street Patio.  We have a raffle–go to all bars and be entered to win a $200 AMEX gift card!  Also, if you sign up for AIDS Walk you receive a free t-shirt that day.  Hope to see you there!

This week there have been multiple meetings with service providers (i.e. Maryhaven and Faith Mission), the Community Shelter Board (CSB), and the City Council to address the shelter waitlist.  The average waitlist for men and women seeking shelter for July 2012 (77) has drastically increased from July 2011 (18).  We hope that the council will allot more funds to provide additional beds and staff to address the emergency shelter crisis.  The Columbus Coalition for the Homeless (CCH) provided concrete solutions to the problems with number of beds needed and associated costs.  No solution has been reached yet among the parties.

 Considering the general public does not know about CCH, we need to educate them.  I wrote an outreach advocacy speech this week to show people that we are a referral organization and employ people through Street Speech and Greenworks.  Individuals believe that “you guys are the ones that sell the newspaper” or “do you have a place I could sleep tonight.”  These examples are not entirely true so we need to educate the community about what we actually do.

 To get a better perspective of being a street vendor, I decided to go out and be a vendor!  I dressed down and went downtown to sell our newspaper.  I was more nervous than I thought I would be to sell the newspaper.  I stood at one corner and was very timid to ask executives walking with their suits and drinking their coffees if they wanted a paper.  However, I found the courage and greeted and asked people for 20 minutes.  Unfortunately, I was unsuccessful at selling even one paper.

 During our weekly writer’s meeting the vendors discussed and wrote down their experiences with individuals being disrespectful towards them.  For example, vendors discussed how individuals would swear at them and tell them “go get a real job and stop begging.”  Knowing the vendors personally and having sold the papers myself these comments disturb me.  This makes me what to further advocate for our program and organization as a whole.

David

I’m happy to report that my transportation study is essentially complete. I reviewed all of the information – and my related recommendations – with the Homeless Families Foundation’s executive director on Monday. And I’ll be working to create an abbreviated presentation for the management team here as well as for the Columbus Foundation’s closing luncheon, which is next Friday. (Where has the summer gone??)

Over the past few days, I’ve been working on new projects for HFF. A few of them are related to enhanced reporting tools that can provide increased visibility for board members and for staff. I’m providing recommendations on the “trend report” which provides quarterly measurement of key goals and important outcomes. I’m hoping to create a few different user-friendly templates, which will automatically populate summary reporting, graphs, etc (provided that a minimal amount of monthly data is entered). I have prior work experience in reporting and data analysis, so this type of work is right up my alley!

And of course this is another week full of professional development opportunities… I’m attending this afternoon’s Grant Professionals Association meeting as well as tomorrow’s presentation at the Columbus Foundation.

For any readers who are considering applying for a Summer Fellowship with the Columbus Foundation… This is a great opportunity! Don’t pass it up!

The main objective of the project I was given at Local Matters was to create a document telling the story of how the Near East Side Cooperative Market came to be. At first, I thought of this document as a blueprint. In other words, if a similar community to the Near East Side somewhere else in the country wanted to open a cooperative grocer, what advice would I want to give them? I’ve been writing from this practical standpoint for 8 weeks, and just this afternoon I had a meeting that totally revamped my ideas.

Michael Jones, the executive director of Local Matters, sat down with me to discuss my final presentation this afternoon. He’s just as excited as I am about the Pecha Kucha format, and his main advice was to forget statistics, forget hard facts, and focus on telling a compelling story. I had created a preliminary presentation outline that discussed Local Matters as an organization, gave information on a cooperative business model, provided statistics on the Near East Side economy, etc. etc. etc. Michael asked me to put the data aside and take a walk down the street with my camera. He suggested capturing life in the neighborhood by photographing the vacant lots, the corner stores, and moms on their porches with their children. These people, these places, and these businesses make up the Near East Side and convey the need for a cooperative grocer so much more than a handful of statistics ever could.

The suggestion to move away from data and move towards aspects that can help bring the story to life has given me new direction for editing my final document. Although it may seem late in the game, right now is the perfect time to receive this directive. At this point, I have a lengthy document that contains all the facts, and it will be manageable to infuse life into the document by tweaking the language, adding photos, and making the story more relatable.

I’m excited for these last two weeks.

Last week I took a trip to my grandparents house to drop off my sister for the weekend, and I found some really amazing information. Apparently my great-great grandpa settled into Columbus a block away from the King Arts Complex when he migrated from Italy!  I found it amazing that I pass by the home of old relatives every day on my commute and I wasn’t even aware of it!
It wasn’t until recently that my family took an interest in researching our genealogy. It seemed to be a 3rd and 4th generation scramble to recover a heritage that almost slipped out of our fingers as the older generations passed away. For Columbus Italians, this seems to be the trend. Recently,  Andy and Erin Dominianni published a book called Columbus Italians to preserve the city’s vibrant Italian history. The book has a picture of Giuseppe and Maria Fracasso, the owners of Fracasso’s grocery that used to reside at 807 St. Clair in front of the house where my great grandparents grew up. Very little trace exists of the Italian community on St. Clair, other than a flag that proudly flies from an apartment porch on 2nd Avenue near Cleveland.

This Thursday at the Heritage Concert, I was able to connect with a woman named Rose who volunteered at the Kids Gallery. We connected over the fact that she probably knew my grandparents at some time or another, living in Columbus. They attended different Catholic schools but grew up in the same area. My grandma recently recounted her family’s walk from her Grandma’s house to St. John the Bapist on Sundays when she was growing up.

It is amazing to see these communities change and transform, from what I have heard and seen it is much different than it was even 40 years ago. To know that the streets that I walk today are the same ones that my family walked at the beginning of the last century amazes me. My ancestors don’t seem quite so distant anymore, nor does the community that I work with currently. Despite the cultural barriers I encounter working with urban youth, I recognize that we are all “Columb-ians”, the ground on which we stand, the ground on which we work and live our lives is all the same. It is encouraging for me to have this kind of connection with the King-Lincoln and Milo Grogan neighborhoods.

Researching my Italian heritage is also making me very excited for what is to come in the next few weeks. After the fellowship, I am going to take a breather and go to Italy for a few weeks to visit some friends. I plan to spend some time in Milan, Piedmont, Lake Como, Florence, Siena and Carrara. I am considering visiting Castions di Zoppola, Udine or Trieste where my family used to live. I can’t wait! I will get back in time for the Columbus Italian Festival as well. If you attend, make sure you come look for me at the Miss Columbus Italian Competition! I will be turning in my application next week and hopefully I can make it to the final round!

-Jamie

Columbus Italians