Resource Development
A New Way of Life Reentry Project ($9,000,000 from Blue Meridian Partners) – After 20 years of transformational work, A New Way of Life Reentry Project (ANWOL) launched the Sisterhood Alliance for Freedom and Equality (SAFE) Housing Network to replicate its success. The SAFE Housing Network was designed to repair the harm of incarceration and rebuild the community as a pathway to empowerment, opportunity, and freedom by replicating the critical success of the international ANWOL Model that addresses the dynamic risk factors affecting women leaving incarceration. This funding was to scale the successful, impactful model further.
Burten, Bell, Carr Development ($800,000 from the Department of Health and Human Services, Community Economic Development) – The Shaker Square revitalization and comprehensive wraparound supportive services to the employees hired by the Square’s commercial tenants. The project will create new jobs in the food service, grocery, and management industries. This project will create 29 new jobs, 22 of which will be filled by individuals with low income.
Women in Need (WIN) Recovery ($4,499,844 from the State of Illinois, Criminal Justice Information Authority) – The WIN Center facilitates improved life circumstances through access to resources for justice-involved women and members of the LGBTQ2+ community.
Burten, Bell, Carr Development ($1,000,000 from the U.S. Small Business Administration, Community Navigator Pilot Program) – A viable, navigated pathway to thriving for underserved small and micro-businesses in overlooked neighborhoods in the City of Cleveland. With historic and ongoing disinvestment in Black and Brown neighborhoods like those in Cleveland, we took an uncommon approach to enable success, because the right business ecosystems can mitigate or negate the effects of structural obstacles to business building. The ecosystem combines a collaborative, grassroots, bottom-up approach with a navigator framework where the “Hub”, in partnership with seven (7) unexpected but necessary expert community partners, acts as “Spokes”. One of 32 awards across the country. October (2021).
Rid-All Foundation ($888,413 from the U.S. Department of Agriculture, Natural Resources Conservation Service) — The project will improve the resiliency of agricultural producers in historically underserved communities in urban and remote rural areas by increasing energy independence and developing soil conditioning byproducts to support cropping systems and aquaculture operations. October (2020).
Union Miles Development Corporation ($800,000 from the Department of Health and Human Services, Community Economic Development) – an innovative, multi-faceted, and comprehensive strategy to create sustainable employment and business opportunities that facilitate self-sufficiency for low- income individuals and low-income veterans. October (2019).
Propel Cuyahoga: Enterprise Workforce Collaborative ($4,400,000 from the Cuyahoga County Department of Jobs and Family Services) – A cohesive workforce strategy designed to improve the employment outcomes of public assistance recipients with work requirements in the TANF and SNAP programs to move them towards self-sufficiency and employment that will also meet their work requirements. April (2019).
Northeast Ohio Hispanic Center for Economic Development ($760,416 from the Department of Health and Human Services, Community Economic Development) – This grant will develop El Mercado, a culturally-based public market with space for 21 microenterprises. El Mercado will also house additional offices and retail for other small businesses, community-serving organizations, a restaurant, and a commercial kitchen. El Mercado will be located in the area with the densest population of Hispanic/Latino residents in Ohio, with over 22,000 residents. This project will create/expand 60 sustainable employment/business opportunities that did not previously exist, attract additional investment, and improve quality of life. August (2018).
Midtown Cleveland ($800,000 from the Department of Health and Human Services, Community Economic Development - Healthy Food Financing Initiative) – This grant will address two key social determinants of health—access to healthy, affordable food, and employment. Through jobs and by helping individuals, parents, and children make healthier food choices, changing the course of lives. EAT Well creates 32 employment and business opportunities; brings healthy, affordable food choices to high-need communities; and leverages cross-sector institutional partnerships. October (2016).
Domestic Violence and Child Advocacy Center ($475,000 from the State of Ohio, Victims of Crime Act) – This grant will develop a child advocacy center for Cuyahoga County to provide a coordinated response to abuse allegations, transforming an exhausting, time-consuming, and overwhelming process for the entire family into one that reduces trauma and stress for the child and family. October (2016).
Youngstown Neighborhood Development Corporation ($420,000 from the Department of Health and Human Services, Community Economic Development) – This grant will develop the REVITALIZE Construction Company to actualize an innovative business model to cultivate, hire and retain low-income individuals across construction occupations from Youngstown, Ohio to meet the both the long-term regional needs of the in-demand construction industry and the short-term demands of the city of Youngstown. September (2015).
Famicos Foundation ($100,000 from the United States Department of Agriculture) – This grant funds the Glenville Food Vendor Readiness Program to provide training, marketing, and social media technical assistance, mentoring/coaching, and funding for Farmer’s Market Booth rent. In this way, based upon actual barriers, Famicos will work with food vendors to increase domestic consumption of and access to locally and regionally produced agricultural products. September (2015).
The Centers for Families and Children ($762,539 from Ohio Jobs and Family Services) – This grant will improve the economic well-being and quality of life for Ohio Works First cash recipients to provide Job Readiness, Job Placement, and Job Retention activities to transition at-risk and hard to employ Cuyahoga County residents from unemployment and a dependency upon public assistance to employment and economic self-sufficiency. May (2015).
Cuyahoga Metropolitan Housing Authority ($3,000,000 from the U.S. Department of Housing & Urban Development) – This Jobs Plus grant represents an evidence-based strategy for advancing employment outcomes and increasing earnings for public housing residents to address acute joblessness and poverty in public housing developments. For the Jobs Plus Pilot, a 0.25-mile radius targets two public housing developments to provide employment services at an on-site job center, changes in rent rules provide financial incentives to work, and community support for work through “community weavers” involved in neighbor-to-neighbor conversations. April (2015).
NewBridge Cleveland ($2,000,000 from the Cleveland Foundation) - This grant trains unemployed, underemployed, and difficult-to-employ (e.g., low-skilled, high-barriers-to-employment) adults for in-demand careers in the healthcare sector. This economically viable, market-driven, and scalable business model also exposes youth to the digital arts and ceramics through after-school programs, an evidence-based strategy that uses the arts to re-engage youth in education. This program creates renewed energy and urgency, making the promise of a brighter future a reality for economically disadvantaged persons in the City of Cleveland. March (2015).
Famicos Foundation ($916,000 from the City of Cleveland) – This grant will fund the rehabilitation of the East Side Market. In partnership with Famicos Foundations, Evergreen Cooperative will establish its fourth cooperative – Evergreen Creamery & Evergreen Bakery – to serve as the flagship tenant and fulfill a significant contract from University Hospitals to provide rolls and butter. Known nationally as “The Cleveland Model,” worker-owned businesses called the Evergreen Cooperatives are building community wealth. The Evergreen Cooperatives create living wage jobs in low-income neighborhoods. The collaboration will guide neighborhood transformation for residents and businesses in the City of Cleveland. February (2015).
St. Clair Superior Development Corporation ($800,000 from the Department of Health and Human Services, Community Economic Development - Healthy Food Financing Initiative) – This grant will address food insecurity in its community by establishing Hub 55, a food hub, farmers market, café, and brewery. Located in a food desert, Hub 55 will spark essential commercial vitality, improving Cleveland’s east side neighborhoods and helping the local economy flourish. This food hub will create a distribution opportunity for food suppliers and entrepreneurs, thereby simultaneously ensuring employment for low-income individuals and bringing healthy food choices to low-access, low-income areas. September (2014).
Burten, Bell, Carr Development ($741,000 from the Department of Health and Human Services, Community Economic Development) – This grant will develop the Iceberg Project, a venture to support low-income construction workers and entrepreneurs in the construction industry. The first component of the project, the worker pipeline, will manage the intake of job seekers, conduct skills and needs assessments, channel individuals to and through programs and services, and support job readiness. September (2014).
