Columbus Foundation Fellowship Programs

This week was a big milestone for my summer project: I began the process of training Local Matters employees on what the MAP (Master Accounts of Programming) Airtable tool is, how to effectively utilize it for the specific needs of specific roles throughout the organization, and collecting input on what needs to be changed for it to truly be useful for each team member. To do this, I had one on one training sessions with each department, which was at most three people, and most often a one on one meeting. This allowed me to gain a clearer view of different roles in the organization that I previously had little interaction with. Though gaining this insight was this enriching and useful to tweak the MAP, it was extremely frustrating to realize how small I’ve been thinking throughout the lifetime of this project. Up until now, I had only been focusing on improving the communication and organization of data for the program team and the internal evaluation processes. After these trainings, I’ve realized how much more potential this project could bring to the entire organization, for processes like volunteer management, or organization of Cooking Matters which is run by the Local Matters AmeriCorps members.

While this creates a challenging environment to wrap up loose strings in, I’m humbled in constantly realizing how much I didn’t know that I didn’t know. For example, I had no idea how many platforms were being utilized by the organization (Airtable, WhenIWork, Google Calendar, DropBox, Sales Force, Better Impact, MailChimp, TicketTailor….Etc.), which made it seem much simpler in my mind the task at hand of aggregating data. I had a limited understanding of how much each individual staff member contributed to the organization through their role, and how much each role was pivotal in sustaining the organization. Thinking of how many unknowns are left, I’m eager to continue learning more about the vast world of nonprofit work, and hope to soak up every last drop of knowledge possible during the last week of the fellowship.

…and value it!

Podcast link: https://soundcloud.com/user-110817248/tcf-blog-week-9/s-XCxYM

Podcast transcript:

“This week has been crazy in regards to my personal life, but work has been very steady. Coming back from camp I felt like I had a lot to catch up on, but I know all the work I’ve put in has paid off.

I’m almost finished with all my videos for the summer. The main project I have left is the Summer of 2018 Recap video, which I think is a fitting way to start reflecting on the summer I’ve experienced here at TECH CORPS.

I had a brief, but really good conversation with Carla, one of my colleagues and the person who was my first point of contact at the organization. She has been traveling to sites around the country a lot this summer, so I wanted to catch up with her since we were both back in the office this week. We talked about my experience this summer, what I’ve learned, how they could have improved my experience or what they should change for future fellows, and the work I’ve done this summer. Reflecting with Carla made me feel a little emotional. The passage of time and thinking about growth always makes me feel weird and introspective.

As far as things that could have been improved, I didn’t really have any concrete advice. There was really only one idea I presented to Carla, and it came from my own feelings and conversations I had with other fellows. We’ve all agreed that school sets us up to require structure, permission, and supervision every step of the way. It’s a really hard transition going from that environment to a workplace that gives you lots of freedom. I think immersion into this culture is really the only way to combat and relearn what school instills into you, and I’m not really sure what could be done to aid in this process, but I know that once I had a more clear timeline and project list I felt much more confident doing things on my own.

Speaking of doing things on my own, here’s a quick promo I made!

“Anotha’ one”

Carla told me they were really happy with my work for the summer and assured me that they were happy with their decision to have me as a fellow, which made me feel really good. I tend to undervalue myself and feel like a phony when it comes to my work, and having this confirmation that I made a difference was a relief. She told me they were really sad to see me go, because of how integrated into the team I became in my short summer here. We agreed that I definitely want to stay involved despite the fact that I’m not sure I’ll even have enough time to sleep during fall semester. That’s a lie, sleep is the only thing I’ll really make time for. But I think I can also make some time for this awesome organization. Lisa also mentioned some contract work after I go back to school. Hooray for the start of my freelancing side hustle! 

My time here was celebrated in the best way possible: a taco bar. Early in the summer we had a taco bar catered for a professional development session held in the office, and I had a freak out because taco bars are the best thing to happen to this country. So when I heard Lisa say “Hope, will you clear space for the taco bar?” you can imagine the emotions coursing through my mind. I appreciate this kind, thoughtful lunch so much. But my gratitude for this fellowship goes even deeper than the taco bar celebration.”

The Infamous Taco Bar

An unrelated celebration: My best friend’s 21st! I had to take a quick trip back to camp to bring her balloons.

Some higher nonprofit power must have read my blog post last week and responded in-kind: this week has been FAST PACED to say the least!

On Monday, our brand-new AmeriCorps members started at City Year Columbus- so our office gained 62 new employees in our space this week. These AmeriCorps members will serve in seven Columbus City Schools: Champion Middle School, Linden-McKinley STEM Academy, Livingston Elementary, Mifflin High School, South High School, Trevitt Elementary, and Windsor STEM Academy. Over the next two weeks, the AmeriCorps members will go through a rigorous training program to equip them for a year of service. This programming includes diversity training, program planning and implementation, and team-building exercises. I have had the opportunity to sit in on some of the talks- my favorite, however, have been the “life stories” presented by Impact Managers and Senior Corps members. Every morning, a different City Year member gives a presentation on their background and how they came to City Year. It has been incredible to have staff members be so vulnerable and open about their learning experiences and their decision to serve. The new Corps members have brought a wonderful energy to the office this week.

In the midst of all of the new AmeriCorps programming, this week also brought new grant opportunities! On Wednesday, City Year was invited to apply for a significant community grant. The one catch- it was DUE the same day we were invited to apply. Of all my experiences working in nonprofit development, this might be the one which best encapsulates the work we do. My Development Manager and I spent the day writing, editing, and putting together the pieces of the grant application as quickly as possible- this was the best experience in grant writing I have had, and it challenged me to think and work on the fly. We submitted the grant before the 5 pm deadline- fingers crossed that we hear back from the organization soon!

This week truly emphasized the fluid nature of the nonprofit sector- with so little to do last week and so much to do this week, work in the development department always keeps me on my toes.

… And I have just about put in a 12 hour work day. Oh, and it’s my birthday!

This past week has been crazy busy; I totaled my car, had my school laptop sent in for repairs and come back still not fixed, and started a lease on an apartment in Pennsylvania where I don’t even live yet — all while being in the final weeks of ETSS’s Summer Enrichment Camp and the final stages of planning and preparation for their Youth Summit. Mercury is quite literally in retrograde right now, and I feel it deeply.

Despite my personal life being a mess, I am starting to feel more than ever part of the ETSS family. I feel comfortable talking to people, sharing my opinion, asking questions, and taking the initiative to do certain tasks. This has led me to pick up many different side jobs throughout my fellowship such as helping manage the Youth Department interns, running the Summer Enrichment Camp’s overarching nutrition program, managing all purchases for the Youth Department, and undertaking some large scale organization projects.

I also feel like people at ETSS are warming up to me, too — Bire, one of the older women at the office, was deeply upset when she found out that I was only here until August 10, and she invited me back to work again next summer. Meberat, the secretary, has started to include me on her afternoon rounds when she serves coffee. I have even started to accumulate my own stashes and storage areas in the office where only I know where things are. (Various office employees having “stashes” of random supplies and materials is a thing at ETSS. Next week, once the Youth Summit is over, I plan to inventory and organize everything so it can be useful for others.)

I started this summer worrying about how I would fit in at an office run and led by people who on the outside are not like me. I asked myself, “Where is my place as a white United States citizen within this organization?” I constantly reflected on my intentions, my assumptions, my positionality, and I felt doubtful and fretful about my relative worth at ETSS. After working with and learning from others at ETSS, I have come to understand that ETSS works to build bridges and work collaboratively with all races, nationalities, and backgrounds like no other organization I have encountered before. At ETSS, if you are a kind person who works hard and is willing to learn, you will quickly become part of their family.

It’s hard to believe that I’m about to enter my last week at Cartoon Crossroads Columbus. The past few days have been an absolute whirlwind as I tie up loose ends and prepare to transition my projects over to the executive committee of Cartoon Crossroads. I have taken on more responsibility as the summer progressed, and it feels rewarding to see my work being turned over to other workers who will make further legitimate progress with it. My main focus has been getting data into our new CRM technology, Salesforce for Nonprofits. There was much to learn, as the service uses unique terminology and a coding language that I was not familiar with prior to this fellowship, but that makes the end result all the more valuable.

My plan from here on out is fairly simple: upload as much cleaned data as possible and spend significant time teaching my supervisor and others on the executive committee how to continue to upload and edit the data. This week I put together an intensive list of the different Salesforce learning platforms for anyone who may need them in the future. I catered the programs I selected to fit the needs of Cartoon Crossroads as much as possible. I want to ensure that when I leave, I’m not leaving them without a clear path that allows them to continue my work and grow with the festival.

I feel as though I’ve learned so much about the importance of nonprofit financials since stepping into my new role here. In order to purchase Salesforce to begin with there had to be a meeting weighing the costs and benefits of the program. I’ve come to understand how every penny counts here and needs to be allocated correctly, which is why I am so focused on cleaning the data before importing. I want to leave CXC with a strong CRM tool that’s worth the money.

This week I held my fundraising event with Equality Ohio in Worthington. Our goal was to connect with community members and let them know the work that we are doing around the fight for equality. We held the event at House Wine where we were able to taste different wines, bid on auction items that I collected from local businesses, and ultimately raise awareness for the Ohio Fairness Act (HB 160).

Organizations such as Planned Parenthood Advocates of Ohio and Feminist Flag Corps were more than willing to donate items, which we are so appreciative of. Seeing non-profit organizations show up for each other is really important, and I think we forget that sometimes. I’m currently planning another fundraising event next week in Reynoldsburg, an area that we are hoping to connect with more. One of my goals for the summer was to hold two fundraising events (which take longer to put together than you would think) but we’re almost there.

A huge takeaway from doing this fellowship is that I do not think I’ll ever be able to separate myself from the reproductive healthcare fight. I know that I can be committed to several different issues at once, but at the end of the day I connect everything I do back to the repro rights movement. I think it is also important to recognize that safe, accessible abortion is heavily under attack in this current political climate. While I recognize we need anti-discrimination laws and better protections in Ohio for LGBTQ+ individuals, reproductive healthcare is also an LGBTQ+ issue. 

Long term, I could absolutely see myself starting my own non-profit dedicated to LGBTQ+ access to reproductive healthcare (abortion services, prenatal care, adoption services, STD testing, birth control, etc). Reproductive healthcare is often written off as a women’s issue and LGBTQ+ reproductive healthcare is written off as strictly an issue of equality – there is never a crossover. If we were able to overlap the lines of organizing then we would be able to create a stronger movement so that everyone could have safe, affordable and dignified access to reproductive healthcare.

I spent my eighth week at Equality Ohio doing a lot of self-reflection as the program begins to close. In the office, I’ve been working on a lot of data management and fundraising planning. It’s been really fun being able to plan an event exactly as I want it to be with hopes of raising support for House Bill 160 (Ohio Fairness Act).

With all of these things coming together, I continue to wonder if my future career will be in the non-profit world. Lately, I have been reading The Revolution will Not Be Funded which gives an interesting perspective into the non-profit industrial complex (NPIC). If you don’t know, this is the idea that enables those of us doing work to feel good about what we do – which is important. It also means that we need to make sure as activists that we are not straying too far from our mission by getting caught up in the demands of work and disconnected from the political struggles that our work originally grew out of.

We often forget that many social justice movements were organized from the outside. There weren’t donors, supporter cards, power-points, or surveys. These victories were achieved by the people, and they can still be achieved by the people. This is important to remember because all the work I have ever done is non-profit and there have been many times where I felt like what I was doing wasn’t making a difference. In this current political climate, it is easy to feel that way and get lost in the work.

One of the biggest disadvantages to getting lost in the struggle is that we forget that while we can always be teachers, we will never finish being learners. There will never be a training or a memo that will be fully informative of every oppression, experience or ultimate solution. There will never be a seminar that will fully scope the lives of trans women of color, a database that captures how homeless LGBTQ+ youth feel, or a conference that tells me what it feels like when you find out you’re being fired from your job because of your sexual orientation. If we want to make social change, we need to keep learning and listening from the outside. 

That is what I want to do after this fellowship is over.

Week 6 of the fellowship has provided a lot of insight into social enterprise. LifeCare Alliance utilizes many strategies for social enterprise, including Carrie’s Cafe, a senior dining center which is open to the public, L.A. Catering, a catering company, travel vaccines and immunizations at the wellness clinics, and wellness screenings to corporate partners. Social enterprise has allowed LifeCare to continue providing an increased demand of services while suffering a decrease in traditional government funding sources.

This week, I had the opportunity to assist with a corporate wellness screening. Employees were biometrically assessed (blood sugar and cholesterol levels) and counseled by the nurses on the importance of implementing certain lifestyle changes. The nurses also provided skin and prostate cancer screenings. This experience illustrated the immense value and necessity for community health workers. 

I also got the chance to explore Hilltop/Franklinton area where I work. LifeCare Alliance is hosting a blues concert to benefit the Columbus Cancer Clinic and I was tasked with finding spots around the neighboring areas where we could hang up flyers to promote the event. I visited local coffee shops, libraries, and rec centers to post our flyers on their community bulletin boards. I loved being able to explore different parts of Columbus, especially Third Way Cafe in the Hilltop and Bottoms Up Coffee Co-Op in Franklinton! 

Third Way Cafe has the cutest reading nook!

Bottoms Up is a social enterprise with a mission to lower the high infant mortality rate in Columbus.

My latest #WellnessWednesday blog post was also posted this week, be sure to check it out!

Earlier this week, we heard from Doug Kridler the President and CEO of the Columbus Foundation. We touched on a concept that has always fascinated me, especially in the last year coming from the Columbus Partnership to the Columbus Foundation. As Doug mentioned, “The Columbus Way” is probably said around 10 times a day across offices in the 614. This phrase refers to the amount of collaboration in Columbus. It is a culture amongst sectors and competitors to work together for a better quality of life in Columbus. As with anything, people have questioned how true and effective “The Columbus Way” really is, but this week I was able to work in it.

For over thirty years, Safe Place has been operating at all our fire stations in the city. But, the partnership between the Division of Fire and us has been less communicative over recent years. I reached out to the Division of Fire to reconnect on Safe Place, and how Huck House can best support them in keeping our youth safe. When I heard back from them, I was really surprised and excited to hear that I was going to meet with the Chief of our city’s Division of Fire. I really did not think someone as busy the fire chief would stop and chat with me about Safe Place. However, I could tell within just a few minutes, Chief O’Connor was very serious about keeping our city safe. Our firewomen and men do much, much more than put out fires. They truly put themselves in the community to keep everyone safe and healthy as possible.  Chief O’Connor and I were able to chat about how to improve our Safe Place program, as well as working on ensuring all 1,500 firefighters know our Safe Place procedures. They are helping us create a training video just for our firefighters, to make sure that every youth seeking a Safe Place is helped. I am so incredibly happy this week to work so closely and collaborate with our fire department on Safe Place. This week was filled with the “The Columbus Way” to keep our youth safe!

I knew at the beginning of this fellowship that this experience would be filled with learning and growth. However, classrooms manifest in many different forms – the COTA bus system was one for me this summer.

The suburb that I grew up in, like most in our country, was built for single occupancy, internal combustion engine cars. You could walk to a few places, depending on where you live, but the sprawl of the community dictated the necessity of cars to live our daily lives. In contrast, this summer I have relied almost entirely on the COTA bus to navigate my daily life – going to work, getting groceries, socializing, volunteering, etc. I say almost entirely, as I can’t overlook kind friends with cars hauling me around town every once in a while. I can’t complain though: I live close to a number of bus lines that go throughout the city, I have a smartphone with an app that helps me navigate the bus lines and schedules, and when needed I have a bank account that allows me to call an Uber from my phone (all things that are not a given and require abundant gratitude).

I didn’t realize how much more challenging life gets without a car until I didn’t have one to use. I say this not to complain, but to draw attention to how little we can understand about one another until we walk a mile in someone else’s shoes (literally, in some cases with transportation). Without experiencing this personally, I never would have fully grasped the extent of how much of a hurdle transportation can pose. Time is one of our most valuable assets, and in Columbus it’s easy to spend more time on necessary tasks– commuting to employment, healthcare, nutrition, education – than necessary if using the bus. If we all need to access these assets to live healthy, happy, and prosperous lives, then why is it harder for some people to get to them than others?

This week, we heard Aslyne Rodriguez share her experiences as the co-founder and CEO of EmpowerBus, a social enterprise that promotes social mobility via access to reliable transportation. Essentially, she asked herself the same question as I did, but had the entrepreneurial savvy and know-how to go about making positive change on this problem. One of my favorite features of this fellowship program is how every learning session leaves me feeling enthusiastically inspired by leaders who are doing incredible work right here in our community. I had no idea about Empowerbus before this week, nor that such a solution to mobility barriers could exist. Hearing about this solution showed me how much potential there is to change systems as we know it – whether it’s the transportation system, as Aslyne is doing, or food systems, like Local Matters focuses on. This understanding left me energized and focused, and I hope to carry this with me throughout the remainder of the fellowship.