Columbus Foundation Fellowship Programs

I spent most of my time this week making more calls to residents to gain an understanding of their current financial situation and their experiences with Homeport. I have started to observe a few emerging trends in the responses, which helps me to see the bigger picture of how Gifts of Kindness and Homeport’s services work together to help people facing eviction. These calls are incredibly insightful, but also sometimes difficult. Many residents are in extremely tough situations, and some don’t wish to share those experiences with a stranger over the phone. While my primary goal may be to complete the surveys, the true goal is to listen and try to understand the situations that residents are in.

On Thursday, we attended the announcement of an eviction study for Columbus. The city of Columbus, Franklin County, and the Ohio State University’s John Glenn College of Public Affairs (shout out to JGCPA!) are teaming up to try to understand Columbus’ startling eviction rate. As Councilmember Jaiza Page said at the announcement, “this study not an indictment of anyone, it is a chance to come together”. As I listen to the stories of Homeport’s residents, it is becoming even more clear that this is a huge issue in Columbus that impacts thousands of our city’s residents, and it is exciting to hear that the city is seeking to understand it.

Columbus City Council member Jaiza Page speaks on the alarming rate of evictions in Columbus and the upcoming study at the John Glenn College of Public Affairs on Thursday.

Next week I’ll be entering the data from all the different sources and data bases to start analyzing. I’m interested to see what the numbers reveal, especially after hearing and collecting so many stories. Existing studies and data show that nearly 20,000 evictions are filed each year in Columbus, but behind that number are 20,000 individuals and families. 20,000 people forced to leave their homes. 20,000 different stories. It could be a retired school worker, a woman who fell victim to domestic violence, a single mother with an autistic son. I know because these are the stories that I’ve heard.

I had my first internship, through a high school program, when I was 16 years old. The location was at a media company located in Columbus, OH. This specific company had a college intern program, but they had never worked with a high school student before. While I received some good professional experience, I was mostly tasked with very basic administrative work. The classic intern duties. You guessed it – coffee mule, assistant janitor, and errand runner.

One day, I was sent on a specific errand requested by the CEO. The instruction was simple enough: retrieve a copy of the red covered “Apartment Finder” catalog. Any college student would find this request easy. For a high school student who just learned how to drive and has never been on the hunt for an apartment… not so easy. I searched through every Kroger, CVS, and Walgreen’s catalog stands. I finally found a catalog titled “Apartment Finder” with a red-ish – more like burnt-orange – cover. I came back to my internship site and left my find on the CEO’s desk. Fast forward an hour and I am startled by a hand slamming the catalog I retrieved on the desk in front of me, “Does this look red to you?!” I replied, with the biggest knot forming in my throat, “No..” With a heightened aggravation he demanded, “Go back out and try again. Do not come back until you have found what I asked for.”

Yeah. So that happened. In case you were wondering, yes I did find the right copy (after 3 more hours of searching) and yes I am scarred for life now. Five internships later, I still feel the knot in my throat. It can be difficult, as a millennial, not to feel the need to prove myself. I want to demonstrate my ability. I want to be respected. I want to be viewed equally. Unfortunately, I have not always received those wants. It has caused me to gain this weird, backwards sense of entitlement. I falsely believe my way is always the right way. I am learning confidence and humility, in their true nature, are actually mutually exclusive. Whenever I act out of pride, I am lacking self-confidence.

I am thankful for this space, at DSC, where I feel comfortable as a millennial professional. I am thankful for my past that has taught me how to be humble and confident, no matter the circumstance. And to the millennials – know that you are valuable and never, ever deserve to be undermined. You rule.

– Karlee H.

I recently came upon an article in the Harvard Business Review called “Why You Should Tell Your Team to Take a Break and Go Outside”. The article discusses the concept of “nature-deficit disorder” coined by Richard Louv, author of Nature Principal. He argues that nature-deficit disorder harms us mentally, spiritually and physically as we walk around our high-tech, low-nature, concrete and corporate worlds. Companies such as Google are using biophilia (physical connection of nature and life) as a primary component of their building design. Studies have shown that exposure to green spaces can not only reduce stress, anxiety and depression, but also improve overall physical health. Natural environments reduce the release of cortisol, a chemical in our brains that is directly related to increased heart rate and blood pressure. The Nature Fix by Florence Williams explains that an increasingly common practice in East Asian countries is called “forest bathing”, supported by the belief that natural immersion has extensive psychological and physical health benefits. These benefits translate into real dollar and cents when you take into consideration that happiness and health are found to be directly correlated to a company’s success in several studies. As a business minor looking at successful office environments for every sector of work, this is a fascinating find.

The administrative building of Ohio Wildlife Center is located on a sprawling campus of natural forest and wetlands. There are short hiking trails and lush nature in all of its glory. It’s about a 4 minute walk from the satellite parking lot to the office building and I think this brief moment of trees and birds before and after my work day change my mental state completely. In my six weeks here I have noticed a significant difference in my own stress levels. I look outside the office windows and see bright green leaves fluttering against the glass. I look out of the rear of the building onto multiple bird feeders, humming with life and energy. I walk outside and am enveloped in green. I share this because I think it’s important for everyone whether you work at a wildlife center or not– most likely not. We live in a society with increasing noise, distractions, chaos and rates of anxiety disorders. The work that we do here at Ohio Wildlife Center is a break from all of that and possibly an answer to many of the problems my generation is facing. While I will always love the buzz and possibilities of city living, preserving and protecting our green spaces and the wildlife within them can no longer be ignored. It’s our own happiness at stake.

Learn more about biophilia here from one of my favorite people E.O. Wilson: http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/nature/conversation-eo-wilson.html

Olivia Adkins

With another week at the pantry flying by, I started to realize how easy it is to get stuck in ruts when work becomes repetitive and familiar. The initial excitement of a new environment, new coworkers, and meeting new neighbors has worn off for the most part, which is not a bad thing! It means that I’m becoming part of the team and the family! However, a lot of this week I’ve had times where I’ve needed to reevaluate the tasks at hand and remind myself that the not-so-exciting work is also valuable and exciting in its own way! Being mindful of how I’m spending my time has proved so valuable to me in accomplishing tasks and I highly suggest everyone to incorporate this into their work day. ALSO the absurd amount rain we had this week made for a very mellow-feeling week 6!

Along with not being new anymore comes being heavily involved with big-time responsibilities which was apart of this week that I absolutely LOVED. As you can see in the photo for this week, my desk has been consumed by my process of writing a letter of intent for a grant the Worthington Resource Pantry is applying for. Usually regarded as a boring process, writing this LOI has been so fun for me because I get to put into words the impact this pantry has on the community and the growth we are expecting within the next year- which is A LOT. To continue, a definite high of my work week has been the Entertainment Committee meeting for our annual fundraising which was Wednesday night at House Wine in Worthington. This meeting involved, yes you guessed it, WINE!!! Our entertainment committee is becoming more and more organized for our fundraiser in September, with this meeting involving catching every member up on the statuses of our raffle packages, venue setup, parking logistics, etc. The event planning aspect of my fellowship has been such a fun part of the experience and is quickly becoming something that I could see myself incorporating into my future work! (YAY for possible future plans!)

Before I leave you for the week, I’d like to make a quick shoutout to my coworkers at WRP who are simply the BEST. Every Thursday morning we have an all-staff “Coffee Talk” meeting and every week it is so much fun to catch up with everyone and share updates. They make anything that has potential to be so boring SO fun- I’m going to be extremely sad to have to leave them in just a few weeks!

Until next week,

Natalie

Hello! This week wins the award for quickest week of the summer. It is amazing how fast time goes by when you are running around with kids, caterpillars, and coworkers. The relentless rain  this week made our camps quite interesting, as we also had a massive conference being held in the building. We originally planned on having the campers help with invasive species removal (see the Teasel plant pictured at the end), but with the obnoxious humidity this week, bringing kiddos outside to do manual labor was just not going to cut it. Thankfully, my friend, Anne (pictured below), began volunteering at the center this week and has been a huge help to the education team! A sadness struck the center as we lost 6 of the caterpillars to a mysterious black death. However, we have 7 successful chrysalises that will be monarchs in about a week!  Anne is also a recent OSU grad and just got back from England where she competed for the OSU Rowing team. Take note: Anne rocks!

This week I also had the pleasure of accompanying Dawn (Executive Director of Grange Insurance Audubon Center) to an OSU College of Food, Agriculture, and Environmental Sciences (CFAES) dinner at the OSU Stadium. It was an event for the major donors to the college and I was so honored that she invited me, as I have mostly been on the receiving end in terms of scholarships/grants. The dinner allowed me to truly reflect on how thankful I am for my time at Ohio State. The speeches thanking donors really tugged at my heart strings because I know that I would not be here, in Columbus, with a degree from the greatest University in the world, if it weren’t for the financial aid that was offered through CFAES and the Athletic Department. I am forever proud and incredibly thankful to be a Buckeye and cannot wait to pay it forward.

I have also become quite interested in private/nonprofit partnerships and how both can support the mission of furthering a community’s well being. One of my focuses this week has been figuring out how to get local companies to partner with us. It involves a lot of application writing, but keeping the greater purpose in mind is helpful! It was great timing that the Columbus Foundation had Adrienne Selsor speak to us on Tuesday about fundraising and how it can actually be FUN! She really focused on the importance of building and maintaining relationships and the fact that the most essential aspect of fundraising is the people.

Pictured above is me measuring a very tall Teasel, an invasive species in Ohio that is very prickly! Like us on Facebook to see this week’s Flower Friday and learn more about Teasel!

Until next time,

Tori

184 hours, give or take. That is roughly how many hours I contributed to Sunday’s fundraiser event for Central Community House. Of course, some of those hours included me taking lunch breaks, having conversations with my co-workers, and completing other tasks. However, since June 6, for 184 hours, this fundraiser loomed over me, always in the back of mind, despite other tasks I completed.

Yet, only 5 hours. Roughly 5 hours is how long the actual fundraiser lasted and it went by fast. At times during the event, it felt as though I had not actually put in those ~184 hours, because there were moments when my supervisor and I had to complete improvisation. Granted, this is the first time Central Community House has ever put on this event. Nevertheless, I think the main reason is that event planning is just a weird process that sometimes feels like the event is planning you.

Still, the event was great and I enjoyed it even though I was working it. The food vendors that I secured, 39 Below Frozen Yogurt and Feed Me Sandwich Kings showed up on time and with beautiful presentation of their food. Feed Me Sandwich Kings garnished is sandwich and taco samples with flowers. 39 Below’s mini sundaes were accompanied with cool, rustic signs and the owner and her partner volunteered to man their own station which was great. Both of their samples were delicious!!! I cannot decide which Fro Yo flavor was my favorite between the Greek Honey Yogurt with fudge and the Pistachio with coconut. In addition to the food. building relationships with these vendors over these past few weeks is one of my favorite outcomes, especially for the owner of Feed Me Sandwich Kings, who is Black. Black owned businesses in Olde Towne East, and in general, can be hard to come by. So, it was great to support his business. When I visited him at his restaurant to discuss details of the event, he was so excited to see his logo on the flyer. It was heartwarming and reminded me that my role as a non profit leader is not to give anyone power or “save” them. They already have the power. I just need to give them a seat at the table or a boost. The event, which is called “Grapes for Good” (named by me) by the way, also featured wine and a raffle with amazing prizes, both at a cost.

For the most part, everything was perfectly set up. But, we needed people to show up. As a result, I was sent in a hurry to St. Gebriel Ethiopian Church to distribute flyers to the people who were in line for Olde Towne East Home and Garden Tour tickets (Our event is at our satellite location on Bryden Rd. which is near one of the stops on the tour. It is why we chose to have our event on the same day.) The mission was a bust. I barely could find parking, was hot, waited forever to speak to an OTENA members because they were so busy, and when I finally laid the flyers on the check-in tables, I feel as though tour goers barely noticed.

I arrived back at the location for our fundraiser and made an ignored attempt to pass out flyers to tour goers who came off the tour shuttle in front of the fundraiser. I nearly gave up when one of the youth from Central Community House came to the rescue with some chalk. The youth, Avonte, is an artist in Central’s Transit Arts program. He came to me with the genius idea of advertising the event on the sidewalk! While he began drawing on one corner, I tried to write “WINE” in the middle of an intersection; I only got to write “WI”.

However, as expected, Avonte’s plan was a success. He continued to draw while I spoke directly to the tour goers who passed us by. With each new corner that he chalked up, we watched as the event became filled with people. I even assisted him by drawing some grapes.

Last week, my supervisor and I thought we had the event planned down to a tee. I would have never imagined that I would be helping with last minute advertising by chalking the sidewalk. But, I did and I enjoyed it. It felt great to let go of strictness and let the event plan me. Doing so, is what I truly believe made the event a success.

Varying perspective can be such an asset to any workplace. It can also be a challenge. I kept this in mind coming into my fellowship at DSC, but I did not realize just how much I would have to consider perspective. Cultural variance between the hearing community and the Deaf community is a real thing. Not only do individuals in these communities experience life differently, but there can also be misconceptions between the two.

DSC’s employees range from D/deaf, H/hard of hearing, D/deaf-blind, and hearing individuals. You may notice the slash separating some capital letters in my descriptions. That is because there is a difference between cultural and medical terminology. A word is always capitalized when referring to a language, nationality or culture. This is the same for Deaf culture. There are some individuals who are born medically diagnosed deaf or hard of hearing who do not identify with the culture. When referring to these individuals, the words are not capitalized. Those who do identify with the culture go by capital letters. The community takes this on as a proud identity. They call themselves “Big D” Deaf. There are also some individuals who are born medically diagnosed hard of hearing, who grow up in the deaf community and identify “Big D” Deaf. Similar to pronoun preference, this is an identity only to be determined by that individual.

This week I was copy-editing our Case for Support document. This is a document our Development Director uses when meeting with potential donors. While editing the document, varying perspective became undeniably clear. DSC had hired a contractor who drafted the document, and it was interesting to note her perspective as a hearing person outside of the organization. Her work was a really good start for the document, but it led to lots of discussion on verbiage. We began discussing what the proper terminology is and how to structure an argument that is compelling while not making D/deaf and H/hard of hearing appear to always be a negative experience. We identified that there is a need to address cultural competency in the document so that all those who read it can understand.

By working with such a diverse group of individuals, I am able to gain insight beyond what I could gain elsewhere. Learning about cultural perspective has helped me to understand the importance of this organization. DSC not only provides tangible services, but acts as a cultural competency advocate.

– Karlee H.

Hello, hi, welcome to my Week Five recap! It’s crazy to think that I am already in the second half of my fellowship with LeaderSpark this summer. It seems like I jumped into the commotion of this second-home of mine just yesterday, but somehow instead, five weeks flew by!

Last week, I wasn’t in the office as much with the holiday (Happy Fourth to you and yours!), but that did not slow down the work load that I found myself with. Towards the beginning of my fellowship, I sometimes found myself without much to do, but that time has surely passed. Last week, I found myself with a steady stream of graphics to make, posts to plan, and videos to prep for. Even as I’m writing this blog post, I’m making mental notes of all of the tasks that I need to complete today.

A majority of the time last week (and what will be this week as well), I dedicated my time to our IGNITE: Back to School Retreat and its promotions on social media platforms. That’s where the memes come in! We are reaching out to a young market- teens ages 14-17, so we figured that we’d relate to them the best way that we know how- MEMES. And that means that I got to spend a ridiculous amount of time creating memes (and, albeit, other graphics) to help get our youth to sign up for this awesome event. And just because I know that you are DYING to see one, here is one of my favorites…

Mostly because Mr. Bean is underrated comedy GOLD… but I digress.

If you know any youth who might be interested in participating in our overnight retreat on August 4 & 5, send them my way! We have room for 20 students to stay overnight, and we’d love to fill that up by the time our Early Bird Window closes on July 14. This retreat is going to be a really great opportunity to develop self-efficacy and leadership skills as they go into their formative high school years– so register now!!! Here is the information for those of you who don’t feel like going to the LeaderSpark website to find it…

Thanks for tuning in, and I’ll see you next week!

Until next time, my friends,

Sam

Whoa, we’re halfway through the summer already- it’s SO hard to believe I’ve only been at the Resource Center for 5 weeks. Time sure does fly when you’re having so much non-profit fun! This week was cut short with the 4th of July on Tuesday, but we still managed to get a lot of work done over here at the Worthington Resource Pantry.

Kelly and I got to meet with the chair of our fundraising event to catch up and evaluate the status of our to-do list in preparation for our event! Getting to be apart of the task-oriented side of the event has been really rewarding because I get to be the staff person executing some in’s and out’s of the preparation. An annual fundraising event requires all hands on-deck and because it is an event with so much going into it, I get to be a major contributor to the work! Although it’s only July and our event isn’t until September, we need to be thinking ahead about sponsors, decorations, venue layout, lighting, etc. which means there are no small tasks.

Along with event planning tasks, I did a lot of administrative tasks as well, which like I’ve previously mentioned, is all part of the job. Every staff person is apart of every task so it’s all in a day’s work. That being said, I was also the staff person who was on duty on Saturday morning to receive our delivery from Fresh Thyme- yes, we get yummy food from Fresh Thyme! I did not mind at all working on Saturday morning, it was actually inspiring to work with volunteers who volunteer their Saturday mornings to come help us at the pantry.

Anytime I start to get tired or burnt out because of my work at the pantry, I remind myself that the work we are doing is not only important, but it works. We get to see the end results of our work, and we get so much gratitude from our neighbors!

Let’s get this second half of the summer started!

Until next week,

Natalie

Wow! I cannot believe that we are already half-way through the Summer Fellowship Program.  5 weeks since my start I am even more confident that the experiences this opportunity has afforded me are ones I will always cherish.

Something that was immediately impressed upon me when I began working with Neighborhood Services, Inc. was the way in which their organization is entirely people and mission oriented. NSI’s unwavering organizational value of serving with kindness and respect truly begins with the leadership of the food pantry’s Executive Director, Martin Butler. Each morning I listen to Martin as he speaks with the day’s group of volunteers. He speaks with such earnestness; telling the team “we have to love our neighbors the moment they walk through that door”.

Over the course of the last 4 weeks I have surveyed 234 neighbors. 100% of the survey respondents agree that they are treated with respect by NSI’s staff/volunteers. Some people may argue that this statistic doesn’t hold that great of significance. However, in my conversations with neighbors I have learned that when seeking help through social services our neighbors are not always treated with respect or lack of judgement.  Therefore, when nearly all of the neighbors we surveyed cited some aspect of the organization’s welcoming atmosphere or caring/empathetic workers as being the thing they like most about the pantry or the reason they choose to come to this pantry I believe that qualitative data speaks volumes.

Martin and Matt (NSI’s Pantry Coordinators) undoubtedly facilitate one of the most impressively run non-profit organizations that I have ever had the opportunity to work for. This is something that our neighbors have even reported in their survey responses! One neighbor wrote, ” They are truly steadfast in the fight to address hunger and other issues perpetuated by poverty and inequality in our Columbus community.  This fellowship has been a tremendous learning experience for countless reasons, but I think one of the greatest being the development of my own personal philosophy of organizational leadership.  Martin continually communicates to me the importance of forming partnerships. Last week he had me come along with him to the Mid-Ohio Food Bank (one of NSI’s largest partners/supporters).  Here I met someone who coordinates Lutheran Social Services’ Food Pantries as well as workers from Nationwide who were volunteering at Mid-Ohio for the day to shoot a video ultimately to promote civic engagement.

Over my past 3 years attending The Ohio State University I have really come to call Columbus my new home.  My engagement on campus and in the greater Columbus area has allowed me to experience something that I think is so unique–the feelings of unity/pride that exists among our incredibly diverse city.  I experience this at the pantry on a daily basis whether it is connecting with a neighbor because of the Ohio State apparel they are sporting or talking to a child about the Columbus City School they attend and sharing with them my experience working at CCS too.  Each day, however, when I go to input the day’s data from the surveys into my Excel spreadsheets and reflect on my conversations with neighbors, I am affronted with the reality that there are divides among our united city.  In order to create truly transformational change in Columbus, our city must understand the importance of bringing growth and development to all of our communities.

-Sylvie Durlacher