Working Together To Build A Better, Stronger, Sustainable Community
funded by:

 


2008 - 2009 FUNDED PROJECTS

 

Physical Environment & Safety

Mt. Pleasant NOW Development Corporation Surveillance Camera Initiative - Phase IV

Mt. Pleasant NOW Development Corporation’s Surveillance Camera Initiative Phase IV ran from June 1, 2008 through May 31, 2009. MPNDC installed surveillance systems and signage at eight (8) businesses during this phase. In these areas, reported crimes were reduced by more than 70%. Since its inception thirty-six office/commercial buildings have had security equipment installed. These businesses are located at hot crime spots throughout the Mt. Pleasant Community as determined by the 4th District Police Department. Each building has up to four cameras, one DVR system, one 17” monitor, and surveillance signage. The eight businesses are:

 

This was year four (4) for the project. To date, there have been 113 security cameras installed since 2005. Mt. Pleasant NOW has been working very closely with the 4th District Police Department and Councilman Reed in regards to locating the hot spots in Mt. Pleasant. Hot spots are chosen by the 4th District Police Department when business owners have experienced challenges with crime in regards to their business, i.e. armed robbery, robbery, auto theft, shooting incidents, illegal drug activity, or loitering. Monthly crime reports are submitted by the 4th District Police Department who monitors the businesses via the internet, as they do not have the capacity to monitor businesses hourly or weekly. The Surveillance Camera Initiative continues to increase the overall sense of safety for the residents, business owners, workers, and visitors to the Mt. Pleasant Community – surveys collected. Crime continues to be reduced in the areas where the surveillance cameras are located.

 

Phase V began in June 2009. 20 cameras are expected to be installed once the crime hot spots are determined by the 4th District Police Department by December 2009. A professional speaker will be invited to speak at the safety orientation meeting; surveys will be collected from merchants who have security cameras for longer than three months; safety protocols will be developed and distributed, as well as safety information packets. Each merchant will complete the license agreement and maintenance fees will be collected from each merchant with cameras and crime reports will be submitted.

 

Mt. Pleasant NOW Development Corporation’s East 116th Street Revitalization Plan – Phase II

 

Mt. Pleasant NOW Development Corporation, Union Miles Development Corporation, and the Buckeye Area Development Corporation formed a collaborative partnership during Phase I of the project and developed a plan to redevelop East 116th Street from Shaker Blvd. to Miles Avenue. The City of Cleveland Planning Department also served as part of the East 116th RDG Committee and provided excellent assistance and input during the planning process. East 116th Street is a major artery that flows through four (4) key neighborhoods on the City of Cleveland’s southeast side. Revitalizing this street is an important initiative in creating neighborhoods of choice. The project was initially funded to begin June 2007 through May 2008. MPNDC staff workloads and schedules were a challenge in making progress on the project. The project was extended to December 31, 2008.

 

Market Economics, Inc. was selected to complete the Housing Market and Retail Studies for the East 116th Street Corridor. The studies were completed December 2008, but work on the studies was not started as both Buckeye and Union Miles had scheduling problems. Studies are on file at MPCZ. Focus Groups for business owners and residents were scheduled in June 2009. All activities for this project are supported by: Councilman Zach Reed, Ward 3; Councilman Kenneth Johnson, Ward 4; Councilman Nathaniel Wilkes, Ward 2; and Councilwoman Mamie Mitchell, Ward 6. A sample rendering that will be provided in the retail and housing market analysis.

 

Market Economics, Inc. wants to encompass the whole façade improvement of the buildings as well as reflective of the neighborhood resident composition. They will be including in their recommendations an intensive retail development (Night Time Pediatrics/Doc In A Box at the former KFC), a food kiosk at the Marathon Gasoline Station and Townhouse and single-family housing development on adjoining vacant lot at the corner of the intersection of Miles and East 116th Street as the southern anchor for development along East 116th Street. The project is still a work in progress.

 

Economic Development

 

Mt. Pleasant NOW’ Development Corporation’s Pilot Summer Youth Job Program was very successful. Twenty (20) students were recruited from John F. Kennedy and John Adams High Schools. Due to limited funding only twelve (12) of the twenty recruited received placements. The principals from both schools and counselors were actively involved in the selection process. The students worked four (4) hours per day, five (5) days per week. This was a pilot project that ran from June 16 – August 22, 2008. The youth were provided a chance to earn an income and learn valuable work ethics and personal development skills. Mt. Pleasant faith–based institutions also contributed funding to this effort. This was a collaborative partnership between the area businesses, faith-based institutions, Councilman Zach Reed, Ward 3 and Mt. Pleasant NOW. Participating businesses:

Mt. Pleasant NOW hosted an Inaugural Launch Reception for the students, their family members and businesses that participated.

 

Mt. Pleasant NOW’ Development Corporation’s Summer Youth Job Program June 2009 began year 2 for the project. Due to limited funding only eight (8) were recruited from John F. Kennedy and John Adams High Schools. Faith-based donations were down and fewer area businesses expressed interest in participating due to the effects of downturns in the economy. Many faith-based organizations and businesses support the program concept but were unable to support the program financially. The principals from both schools and counselors were actively involved in the selection process. The students worked four (4) hours per day, five (5) days per week. Project ran from June 22nd – August 21, 2009. The youth were provided a chance to earn an income and learn valuable work ethics and personal development skills. Students were paid minimum wage for a ten (10) week period. This was a collaborative partnership between the Mt. Pleasant Business Association, Mt. Pleasant Ministerial Alliance, Councilman Zach Reed, Ward 3 and Mt. Pleasant NOW. Participating businesses:

Mt. Pleasant NOW hosted a dinner for the students, their family members and businesses that participated at the end of the program.

 

NID Housing Counseling Agency – Foreclosure Prevention Services & Homeowner Counseling project was provided to residents on the eastern end of Mt. Pleasant. The project began July, 2008, and ended February 2009. NID provided a comprehensive and multi disciplinary set of services. The goal of this project was to establish and improve program activities designed to successfully educate and counsel Mt. Pleasant homeowners, and decrease the likelihood that they would lose their home. NID activities:

NID worked in partnership with the Mt. Pleasant Library who hosted the workshops.

 

Eastside Organizing Project (ESOP) – A partnership between MPCZ, ESOP and the City of Cleveland for foreclosure prevention, orientation, intake, and related predatory lending prevention services on the western end of Mt. Pleasant. ESOP completed intakes on fifty-five (55) homeowners from the Mt. Pleasant Community. Twenty-three still have files that are open; fifteen (15) received a modification of their loan; one received a forbearance plan; one a repayment plan, and there were seventeen (17) homeowners ESOP could not help. ESOP began its program in June 2008 and ended May 2009. ESOP trained residents in searching for houses that had been designated as eyesores, and did their intake every Thursday at MPCZ offices on foreclosure prevention, and held several community meetings. The target number of the project was to reach 100 homeowner occupied to assist preventing homes from being foreclosed, reduce or to avoid predatory lending practices and work with the Residential /Commercial Code Enforcement staff on abandoned and vacant properties. The overall goal of the project was to communicate with Mt. Pleasant homeowners and residents about predatory lending and foreclosure prevention, and provide information and services that would help them save their homes from foreclosure and reduce or avoid the impact of other predatory lending practices in the community and surrounding areas, to involve residents in revitalizing the Mt. Pleasant Community through engagement in community organizing, problem solving, and as required, direct action.

 

Community & Family Empowerment

 

New Sardis Primitive Baptist Church Camp Youth “Young Mind’s Under Construction” Summer Camp Year 4 began June 9th and ended August 1, 2008. This was the fourth year of funding for the camp. There were over 75 Mt. Pleasant youth enrolled, with twenty-two parents participating as volunteers, chaperones, and drivers. There were over thirty youth on the waiting list. The camp offered Movie/Film-making, Friendship Quilt making (presented to MPCZ), Literary Club, Computer/Creative Writing Class, Cultural Awareness field trips, Sports/Mentoring and Fun with Math. The camp opened at 8 a.m. and closed at 5 Mondays through Fridays to accommodate the working parents. The students were provided with breakfast and lunch and other exuberating activities.

 

New Sardis Primitive Baptist Church Year 5 - Camp Youth “Young Mind’s Under Construction.” Summer Camp began June 15th and ended August 7, 2009. This was the fifth year of funding for the camp. 75 was the targeted number of Mt. Pleasant youth, but eighty-one (81) Mt. Pleasant Youth were served. The camp provided a safe, learning environment and provided Computer/Writing classes, Social Learning, Drama/Music, Health/Fitness, Sports/Mentoring, Recreation, and Cultural Awareness Fieldtrips. The camp opened at 8 a.m. And closed at 5 Mondays through Fridays to accommodate the working parents. Available parents volunteered at the camp as their schedules allowed. An awards ceremony was held at the end of the camp and the youth demonstrated some of the acting techniques they learned during the summer. The students were provided with breakfast and lunch. Funder and members of the participants’ families attended.

 

Neighborhood Leadership Institute/A. J. Rickoff School/New Sardis Community Garden - a partnership between the three brought students and parents, teachers and other stakeholders in Mt. Pleasant together to help create a garden on site at A. J. Rickoff. The garden is tended by both young and old tended by residents as young as 3 and as old as 70+ creating an intergenerational community and encouraging residents to maintain and work together in a healthy environment. There is now a functional community garden at A. J. Rickoff.

Peace in The Hood – Peace Camp - Peace in the Hood provided activities for 40 Mt. Pleasant youth ages 5-18. Activities included African Dance and Drumming, yoga, physical fitness, arts and crafts, conflict mediation/resolution classes, swimming and field trips to the zoo, museums, parks, library, and other events in the city to expose them to positive activities; tutoring in math and reading, group discussions on global issues, and building self-esteem, spoken word and poetry, arts and crafts, physical activity, recreational activities, group games, entrepreneurship, and financial literacy. The youth also visited the African American Museum in Detroit, Michigan. The principles of peace were taught. Camp began June 21 and ran through August 7, 2009 from 8:30 until 5, five days a week. There were seven (7) objectives that Peace in the Hood Summer Camp sought to address:

The camp hosted “ A Peace Camp Celebration” at the end of the project period.(See attached). Parents, friends, print media, Councilman Zach Reed, and staff was in attendance.

 

Education

The Out-of-School Time Program began September 15th at A. J. Rickoff on Monday, and at Charles Dickens Tuesday, September 16, 2008. A. J. Rickoff OST was held on Mondays and Wednesdays from 3:00 p.m. until 5:30 p.m. at A. J. Rickoff and Charles Dickens on Tuesdays and Thursdays from 4:00 p.m. until 6:30 p.m. The OST ran through May 29, 2009. The goal of the OST program is to expand the value of educational opportunities and benefits available to Mt. Pleasant residents resulting in increased numbers of graduates with viable options for pursuing life-long learning; career goals or entrepreneurial opportunities. The objective was to create an in-school center for community education, training and services with activities that would improve student attendance, decrease behavioral issues; and increase Achievement Test Scores. There were up to twenty (20) students enrolled in each class at both schools. The Out of School Time Program included the following at each school:

Neighborhood Leadership Institute (NLI)

 

NLI was invited to participate in MPCZ’s OST program. NLI manages the OST program as well as obtain the Use Permit for the use of the two schools, provided afternoon snacks for the participating students at each school, and ran two (2) programs – Daoud’s Puppets and C.S.I., a forensic science program under NLI’s Youth Development Program.

C.S.I. (Criminal Science Investigation) a forensic science program where students at each school were exposed to a Forensic Science Curriculum that taught them how to problem solve, examine and gather relevant evidence, state observations and make conclusions from their findings. The students wrote a mystery script (Case of the Missing Social Worker) and practiced dramatizing it for MPCZ’s Annual Community Meeting on May 16, 2009. Two Forensic Scientists (a crime scene investigator and a fingerprint examiner) from the Cleveland Police Department visited the class to give the students a hand on experience. This program also prepared youth for high school as well as improved their knowledge of career choices, basic life skills and techniques for introspective examination to improve their academic achievement and study skills.

Young Audiences Arts Enrichment:

SPELLMASTER

DANCE AFRIKA DANCE VILLAGE INSTITUTE

 

BOYS 2 MEN:

D.I.V.A.:

During the program year the following activities took place in both programs:

Percussion instruments

BEECH BROOK

Beech Brook also provided Anger Management services on an Out-of-School time basis to those students at Charles Dickens and A. J. Rickoff from January 2009 through May 29, 2009. Each school received four (4) hours of programming a week. Students were identified by school staff or made a self-referral and received one-on-one individual support. The program assisted at-risk students to prevent high-risk behaviors in the schools, and provided referrals for other social services or other preventative services that were needed by the students.

 

Beech Brook’s evaluation findings suggested that the program was successfully transforming student attitudes related to anger and aggression. Both teachers and students rated the program positively. Students were most satisfied with the program staff, while teachers were most satisfied with the staff listening and being nonjudgmental. The students rated the Out-of-School Time program positively.

 

During the September 2008 to May 2009 time, Beech Brook served 528 students, 50 in the Out-of-School Time program and 478 (19) classes) in the in-school time programming.

PolicyBridge

MPCZ accepted the responsibility as lead agency in the (Mt. Pleasant/Slavic Village/Central) neighborhood for this project. This is a social marketing campaign in response to the “Rap on Culture” report released by PolicyBridge which noted how anti-education messages were dissuading urban youth from academic achievement. In an effort to counter these negative messages, they launched a campaign that bombarded 3 Cleveland neighborhoods ( Mt. Pleasant, Central and Slavic Village) with positive messages about education, using every media outlet available over a nine (9) month period (November 2008 through August 2009). The campaign uses the tagline “Education Pays – Get Yours” with a second tagline of “Live More, Be More, Do More.”

Although the target audience for the campaign were 10-13 year old boys, the campaign reached all ages, ethnic groups and genders. African-American boys between the ages of 10-13 were selected as the target group for this campaign because they are the most vulnerable to the negative messages aforementioned and young enough to be positively influenced.


Four (4) Mt. Pleasant Youth, two (2) from A. J. Rickoff, and two (2) from Charles Dickens were selected and interviewed here at MPCZ along with their parent/guardian. Four were also selected from the other two neighborhoods and the group is referred to as the Youth Advisory Council. They met 4 to 5 times over the nine month period of the campaign to evaluate the campaign and to offer new ideas that would make the campaign more effective. Each student received a $50 stipend for their participation; $25 after the first two meetings and the balance at the end of the campaign.

The goal of the project was to create a carefully-crafted social marketing campaign to counteract negative images of and messages about African-American youth and education. PolicyBridge worked with Cleveland State University and Case Western Reserve University to evaluate the impact of the program. If successful, the campaign will be offered up as a model for possible city-wide implementation.

MPCZ ACTIVITIES

2008-2009

Residential & Commercial Code Enforcement Program

CDBG grant funds afforded MPCZ the opportunity to hire a Residential & Commercial Code Enforcement Specialist. This program is designed to protect the life, health, safety and welfare of Mt. Pleasant residents, targeting the western portion of Mt. Pleasant. Staff identified properties for health and safety code violations and works with Councilman Zach Reed, Ward 3 and the City of Cleveland Building & Housing and Health Departments. Staff monitors cases that land in housing court and respond to inquiries for program support. Staff promotes community aesthetics by encouraging residents to keep their properties violation free. Activities include:

Community Mobilization

NEF funding from the City of Cleveland Department of Development provided staff to continue providing support to existing Ward 3 Block Clubs on the western end of Mt. Pleasant. The Community Outreach Coordinator staffed meetings to address residents concerns with the possibility of identifying and implementing solutions. Re-engaged and established additional block/street clubs and trained new street clubs. Community engagement helped to identify and implement urban streetscape projects through the Beautification Committee and Street/Block Club presidents. Activities included:

With NEF funding, MPCZ worked in partnership with ESOP (East Side Organizing Project). This was a one year pilot project to provide information and prevention services related to foreclosures and predatory lending practices for the western portion of Mt. Pleasant. The project focused on two strategies for strengthening the Mt. Pleasant Community:

Other activities included:

Wealth Building Series 4

This program offered avenues to Mt. Pleasant residents to get a positive answer on loans, ways to improve their credit, teach them how to budget for tomorrow, and prepared them for retirement. MPCZ applied existing community resources to support Mt. Pleasant residents in their challenge to build personal and community wealth. The Wealth Building courses sought to help individuals and families build, own, and have access to financial and social assets enabling them to exert control over their live sand participate in the economy and society with greater value and impact. All classes were free and each participant learned proven strategies to building individual and family wealth. Courses included:

Plain Talk

MPCZ was solicited by the Cuyahoga County Board of Health to be a Plain Talk site under its Wellness Grant as part of the Teen Wellness Initiative. This is a partnership between the Cuyahoga County Board of Health, Public Private Ventures (P/PV) and MPCZ. The project ran through June 2009. MPCZ started the planning phase of implementing the Plain Talk Model (PT) a “Train the Trainer” program in the Mt. Pleasant Community. The planning involved carefully examining the phases of the PT model and assembling a team for the program implementation which was implemented in two (2) phases:

 

MPCZ has been designated as a model Plain Talk site, in addition to Perth Amboy, New Jersey. This designation provides technical assistance from Advocates for Youth and the National Association of Family Planning and Reproductive Health. These national organizations are providing training, new media technology and interaction with local health clinics. Training by Advocates for Youth was instrumental in forming the Mt. Pleasant Youth Advisory Council.

 

Youth Advocates Network Timeline

Mt. Pleasant Resource Directory

Developed by MPCZ staff to assist providers, gatekeepers and other stakeholder’s access to human service programs, activities and information serving residents in the Mt. Pleasant Community. Organizations patiently provided the information necessary to maintain the accuracy of the database and to make the Directory possible. The Directory is provided to enhance the providers access to information about services provided in the Mt. Pleasant Community and is designed to make providers aware of services being provided to the residents. The listings in the Directory is based on information supplied by agency representatives.

Mt. Pleasant Community Website

Community website developed www.mountpleasantneighborhood.com to enhance the image of Mt. Pleasant, improve and expand communications among the residents of Mt. Pleasant, institutions, organizations and agencies serving the community, businesses, potential entrepreneurs, faith-based institutions, other stakeholders, the City of Cleveland, Cuyahoga County, and visitors to the community. Included on the website:

MPCZ Website

The agency website www.mpcz.org developed as a strategic marketing/communications with the primary objective of informing the Mt. Pleasant Community and other stakeholders on the activities of MPCZ, and to enhance the image and knowledge of MPCZ throughout the community, City of Cleveland and beyond. Included on the website:

 

Special Commission on Missing Persons & Sex Crimes Investigations. Invite your neighbors to offer suggestions & ideas via: Mail - Special Commission, PO Box 93296, Cleveland, OH 44101 Voicemail Number: (877) 322-9866 Email: commissioninput@gmail.com.