Deanna Bremer Fisher has resigned as FutureHeights Executive Director

Join us in congratulating Kathleen Fant on her retirement

After more than 7 years with the organization, FutureHeights Bookkeeper Kathleen Fant is retiring. She will be leaving the organization as of March 31. Kathleen has been an integral part of the FutureHeights team, adeptly managing our books, administering our classified advertising program, and so much more. She has been the quiet force behind the scenes, who has made sure everything has run smoothly, and she will be greatly missed. Please join us in thanking Kathleen for her contributions to FutureHeights and in wishing her well in her retirement.

THANK YOU to everyone who joined us for our first Crowdsourced Conversations forum on April 27th.  It was truly a blast for us and we can’t wait until our next forum, coming up at the end of June!  Details coming soon…

This year, FutureHeights and Friends are bringing you a conversation-based forum series that brings Heights residents together to talk about topics that matter to us all.

We are excited to welcome all of our Heights friends and neighbors to our first Crowdsourced Conversations forum on Wednesday, April 27th from 7pm-8:30pm at Coventry PEACE (2843 Washington Blvd, Cleveland Heights). The evening’s topic will be sustainability — and we will be relying on the crowdsourced responses from the Cleveland Heights Green Team’s environmental issues survey to craft small group discussion questions.

The CHGT’s survey was widely circulated from March 1-March 21 and received about two hundred responses from community members — we so look forward to make the conversation about what folks in the Heights are most interested in talking about!

Opening remarks for this event will be made by Councilwoman Josie Moore and members of the Cleveland Heights Green Team.

Crowdsourced Conversations is Not Your Average Forum Series. Over the course of these four discussion-based events, our goal is to provide opportunities for community members to connect with each other and co-create actionable steps to make the changes you wish to see!

All are welcome!

HOW THIS SERIES FLOWS

Each forum will have a pre-survey for you to fill out. We will use your answers to help formulate discussion topics for forum night. During each forum, participants will enjoy the company of small breakout groups where, with the assistance of facilitators, they will dive into the questions generated by survey respondents. After small group discussion, we will reconvene as a group-at-large to share what we talked about. And even after we say our goodbyes, we will keep in touch and keep the conversation flowing, build community connections, and continue to brainstorm actionable ideas.

2022 SERIES TOPICS & DATES:

#1: Sustainability – Wednesday, April 27th from 7pm-8:30pm at Coventry PEACE

#2: Housing – tentatively Wednesday, June 29th (more details soon)

#3: Community Safety – tentatively Wednesday, August 31st (more details soon)

#4: Civic Engagement – tentatively  end of October (more details soon)

This forum series will be an opportunity to connect with other Heights residents about topics that impact us in a variety of overlapping ways. We hope you can join us for all four conversations! Stay tuned for more details soon. Any questions, email info@futureheights.org.

More info here.

THANK YOU!

This forum series is being planned in partnership with FutureHeights Community & Civic Engagement Committee, Cleveland Heights Green Team, Home Repair Resource Center, City of Cleveland Heights Racial Justice Task Force, Racial Inequity Repair Committee of Forest Hill Church, representatives of Cleveland Heights City Council, and more. Thank you for the joy, wisdom, and enthusiasm you bring to the table!

Our friends Cleveland Heights Green Team (CHGT) and Heights Libraries are teaming up to present Earth Month in the Heights.  If you have an event you’re planning in your neighborhood or at your organization that supports sustainable living or earth-friendly practices, add it to the calendar to make it easy for everyone in the Heights to take part all Earth Month long!

Click here for details about Earth Month in the Heights.

FutureHeights is getting involved in Earth Month – Join Us for Crowdsourced Conversations #1: Sustainability

We are excited to welcome all of our Heights friends and neighbors to our first Crowdsourced Conversations forum on Wednesday, April 27th from 7pm-8:30pm at Coventry PEACE (2843 Washington Blvd, Cleveland Heights). The evening’s topic will be sustainability — and we will be relying on the crowdsourced responses from the Cleveland Heights Green Team’s environmental issues survey to craft small group discussion questions.

The CHGT’s survey was widely circulated from March 1-March 21 and received about two hundred responses from community members — we so look forward to make the conversation about what folks in the Heights are most interested in talking about!

Opening remarks for this event will be made by Councilwoman Josie Moore and members of the Cleveland Heights Green Team.

All are welcome!

**This event is free to attend — register here**

EARTH MONTH CALENDAR

View the Earth Month in the Heights Events Calendar

Click here to add your Earth Month Event to the calendar. (Deadline for submissions: 3/1/22)

Please join us in thanking Abby Lawless, FutureHeights Director of Real Estate Development, for her contributions to FutureHeights, and in wishing her well on her future endeavors. Abby earned a Master of Urban Design from Kent State University in December and has accepted a new position with a planning and urban design firm. Since 2019, Abby has been an important part of the FutureHeights team, staffing the Planning & Development and FutureHomes committees, helping us launch the FutureHomes program, and overseeing the rehabilitation and sale of 15 homes, with 5 more due to be completed this spring. Thank you, Abby, you will be greatly missed.

Brand new in 2022: Crowdsourced Conversations – A Forum Series Curated by the People for the People.

This year, FutureHeights and Friends are bringing you a conversation-based forum series that brings Heights residents together to talk about topics that matter to us all.

HOW THIS SERIES FLOWS

Each forum will have a pre-survey for you to fill out.  We will use your answers to help formulate discussion topics for forum night.  During each forum, participants will enjoy the company of small breakout groups where, with the assistance of facilitators, they will dive into the questions generated by survey respondents.  After small group discussion, we will reconvene as a group-at-large to share what we talked about. And even after we say our goodbyes, we will keep in touch and keep the conversation flowing, build community connections, and continue to brainstorm actionable ideas.

2022 SERIES TOPICS & DATES:

#1: Sustainability – Wednesday, April 27th from 7pm-8:30pm at Coventry PEACE

• Visit our sustainability event resource page.

#2: Housing & Neighborhood Preservation – Tuesday, June 28 from 7pm-8:30pm at Forest Hill Church

• Visit our housing and neighborhood preservation resource page.

#3: Community Safety – Wednesday, August 31 from 7pm-8:30pm at Denison Park’s picnic pavilion

• Visit our community safety resource page.

#4: Civic Engagement – Wednesday, October 26 from 7pm-8:30pm at Disciples Christian Church

• RSVP here.

This forum series will be an opportunity to connect with other Heights residents about topics that impact us in a variety of overlapping ways. We hope you can join us for all four conversations! Stay tuned for more details soon. Any questions, email info@futureheights.org.

THANK YOU!

This forum series is being planned in partnership with FutureHeights Community & Civic Engagement Committee, Cleveland Heights Green Team, Home Repair Resource Center, City of Cleveland Heights Racial Justice Task Force, Racial Inequity Repair Committee of Forest Hill Church, representatives of Cleveland Heights City Council, and more.  Thank you for the joy, wisdom, and enthusiasm you bring to the table!

Join Heights Conversations: Intersectionality of Pedestrian Safety on Thursday, March 10th from 7pm-8:30pm.  Featuring panelists Director of the Diversity Institute Dr. Ronnie Dunn, Cleveland journalist Angie Schmitt, CH-UH School District Coordinator of Safety & Security Ricky Watters, and Chair of the Cleveland Heights Transportation & Environmental Sustainability Committee Sam Bell, along with moderator John Piche of Heights Library, this event will explore the social trends that are putting people at risk. And why fundamentally, pedestrian safety is a problem of systematic, structural inequality.

“Intersectionality is a lens through which you can see where power comes and collides, where it interlocks and intersects. It’s not simply that there’s a race problem here, a gender problem here, and a class or LBGTQ problem there. Many times that framework erases what happens to people who are subject to all of these things.”

-Kimberlé Crenshaw [resource: Columbia Law School]

Crenshaw, who coined the term “intersectionality” in 1987, did so after noticing legal gaps in how people from marginalized or minority groups were treated by the law.  This legal use of the term intersectionality has broadened to social contexts as well — and in this forum, we will explore its application to pedestrian safety.

In her nonfiction book Right of Way, journalist Angie Schmitt shines a spotlight on social inequities revealed by pedestrian accidents and pedestrian deaths.  According to the book’s publisher, Island Press, “They don’t happen because of jaywalking or distracted walking. They are predictable, occurring in stark geographic patterns that tell a story about systemic inequality. These deaths are the forgotten faces of an increasingly urgent public-health crisis that we have the tools, but not the will, to solve.” More than 6,000 pedestrians are getting killed every year on American streets, representing an enormous 50 percent increase from the first part of the decade.

In cities like Cleveland Heights and University Heights, so often praised for being “walkable,” how do we see pedestrian safety being addressed, discussed, and prioritized? Join us for a panel discussion to dialogue about this often overlooked anti-racism, diversity equity and inclusion issue.

EVENT DETAILS:

When: Thursday, March 10, 7-8:30 p.m.

Location: Zoom!  Register here.

In preparation for this event, join Heights Libraries for the book discussion of Right of Way on Wednesday, March 2 @ 7pm on Zoom. Register here.

Heights Conversations is a partnership between FutureHeights, Heights Community Congress, Family Connections, Heights Libraries, Cleveland University Heights City School District, Reaching Heights, Road Printz, Compass Consulting Services, and the city of Cleveland Heights that is focused on creating spaces for dialogue surrounding anti-racism and equity issues within the community.

Follow us on Facebook and Instagram!

This February, FutureHeights is teaming up with Heights Community Congress, Reaching Heights, Heights Libraries, CH-UH City School District, Road Printz, Neighborhood Connections, and the City of Cleveland Heights to present “Beloved Heights: Anti-racism Education and Conversation.” Check out our social media every day this month, and join the dialogue about how to be anti-racist.

Follow us on Facebook here.

Follow us on Instagram here.

FutureHeights extends a huge thank you to our AmeriCorp VISTA, Melaney Cook.  Over the past year, Melaney has supported the FutureHomes program and worked closely with data related to our model block areas.  We wish you the best of luck, Melaney, in what lies ahead for you – you will be missed!