October 2015

Thanks for supporting The Big Idea Challenge!In October 2013, the winners of The Greater Cincinnati Foundation’s Big

Idea Challenge were announced. The Big Idea Challenge was a project GCF dreamed up to celebrate our 50th anniversary. We thought it would be Big, but we never dreamed how Big!

More than 200 people submitted ideas to make Greater Cincinnati greater! These big thinkers were all ages, from all over the region. 6,000 of you voted to pick 7 winners, who received grants to test out their ideas. Read on to see how each project has fared since 2013.

The Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra’s (CSO) Feeding Kids Bellies and Souls took place during the 2013-14 season. The CSO began its partnership with the Freestore Foodbank to arrange performance dates at many of the 24 Kids Café locations throughout Cincinnati that provide free, hot, healthy after school meals to children who might otherwise go hungry outside of school. Through Kids Café, children also take part in recreational activities, get help with school work and receive adult mentoring. By providing an interactive, inspiring musical experience at the Kids Café, CSO strove to feed their souls at the same time their bellies were fed.

In March and April 2014, the CSO sent 21 musicians to seven school and agency sites locations across the Greater Cincinnati region to perform and engage with the students. The BIC funding enabled CSO musicians to reach 433 students in the 2013-14 season. The CSO hopes that this unique partnership between a food bank and professional symphony orchestra will become a model for other organizations around the country seeking to strengthen their communities through deep, meaningful engagement.

A project of the Junior League of Cincinnati, RefugeeConnect assists refugees in our communities by connecting them to the agencies and volunteers that serve them. While many ESL (English as a Second Language) classes exist in Greater Cincinnati, their locations and schedules prevent many refugees from attending, and sufficient translation services are often not available in their languages. The BIC grant provided seed funding to expand weekly classes and educational materials for Burundian and Burmese families in locations with large, underserved refugee populations – North Fairmont and Crescent Springs.

RefugeeConnect volunteers teach English to adult Burundian refugees, serving an average class of 20. Also, they teach a class of 15 adults from the Chin state of Burma. These classes provide not just ESL instruction, but a welcoming environment for refugees and an opportunity for cultural exchange. They promote connections between volunteers and refugees and cultivate community cohesion.

BIC funds were used to purchase ESL materials for the classes. Each student now has their own workbook for homework assignments. Funds were also used host a volunteer training session, create training packets and helped pay for a professional ESL instructor.

RefugeeConnect continues to build capacity in the communities where refugees live and plans to hire an ESL resource coordinator. The goal is to create programs customized for each unique refugee population. BIC enabled them to make significant progress toward this goal.

Cultural Vibrancy: Feeding Kids’ Bellies and Souls

Status: Completed

Economic Opportunity: Expand Adult ESL Resources for Refugees

Status: Completed

Big Idea Challenge Updates

Led by a team from Leadership Cincinnati Class 37 with guidance from the Preschool Promise Community Engagement Team, the Little Kid Gig (LKG) has been rolling out over the past year. The initiative is focused on engaging Cincinnati’s 52 neighborhoods to help drive grassroots community engagement and foster collaboration among these communities about the importance of quality preschool for every child. Each community will be involved with creating a component that will be used to build a large oversized preschool chair to signify their support and commitment to this issue. This project is ongoing as the Preschool Promise evolves and will continue into 2016.

Taking Root is a collaborative campaign addressing the current historic loss of our region’s tree canopy by planting trees, better managing our local forests, promoting the many benefits of healthy trees, and fostering a sense of stewardship among individuals and communities. The Ohio Kentucky Indiana Regional Council of Governments (OKI), the Green Partnership for a Greater Cincinnati, Green Umbrella, and The Cincinnati Zoo & Botanical Garden are conveners of the campaign. The purpose of the Taking Root campaign is to plant 2 million trees in the eight-county Tristate region by 2020.

Since its launch in September 2013, Taking Root has received frequent media attention, and stories have run in the Cincinnati Enquirer, Channel 5, Cincinnati Edition, WNKU, and Soapbox. Its collaborators have done dozens of talks and presentations to diverse and influential organizations.

The Great Tree Summit, held at the Zoo in January 2014, attracted more than 300 people and enrolled them into action teams. Several corporations are now seeking ways to become involved. The Nature Conservancy now joined Taking Root, committing resources that were used to hire a part-time intern to assist with the massive volume of work the Summit created. The next step for Taking Root will be to secure a full time manager/director.

In May 2014, Sarah St. Cyr and Dr. Seung-Yeon Lee of the University of Cincinnati’s Nutritional Sciences Department began collaborating with West End community resident Linda Knight and St. Vincent de Paul Social Services Program Manager Karen Kearney to develop and deliver a community nutrition class that would be relatable to St. Vincent de Paul’s pantry clients. The project team has now conducted several series of the “Promoting Healthy Eating in Food Pantries” curriculum. The five classes in each series, based around topics relating to the food available in the St. Vincent de Paul’s Choice Pantry, have each served a target of 15 participants. Two University of Cincinnati dietetics students joined the team to assist with the second series of classes. Their assistance allowed each class to run more smoothly and gave students the opportunity to volunteer with West End community residents.

Increasing participants’ consumption of fruits and vegetables became the focus. Changes in this consumption, using the National Cancer Institute’s Fruit and Vegetable Food Scanner paired with pre- and post-tests, helped the team gather information to improve future series and implement a sustainable nutrition education program at St. Vincent de Paul.

The BIC grant was used to purchase healthy meals and cooking supplies for each class, as well as a tool or ingredient relating to the daily topics, such as measuring cups, bottles of olive oil, and salt-free seasonings. The funds also allowed the team to provide transportation assistance and Kroger gift cards as an incentive for class participation.

Educational Success: Little Kid GigStatus: In Progress

Environmental Stewardship:Taking Root Tree Planting

Status: In Progress

Health & Wellness: Promoting Healthy Eating at Food Pantries

Status: Completed

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The Kitchen at Findlay Market, now the Charlotte and Edward Unnewehr Kitchen, celebrated its launch last month in a building two blocks from the market that was once a rustproofing garage. The 8,000-square-foot site, which will be completely gutted, will house five state-of-the-art kitchens that will allow food entrepreneurs to create their products and bring them to market. It will provide them with affordable access to commercial grade kitchen equipment and storage to facilitate an increase in their production, enable growth, create jobs, and bring healthy, locally grown and manufactured foods to a wider group of people within the Cincinnati region.

The Kitchen will ultimately be a business accelerator for food entrepreneurs, which will partner with external programs to provide the necessary training, mentors and resources to aid business growth. A program director will serve as a conduit to wholesale and institutional customers helping local food entrepreneurs get their products in more places. The goal is to support existing vendors and create pipelines to Findlay Market for new vendors, especially lower-income and minority-owned businesses. The space is the only one of its kind in Greater Cincinnati and is expected to be finished by this fall.

The BIC helped the Findlay Market Corporation build public awareness for the project, and its funding has assisted with the pre-development work.

Contestant Larry Wulker’s winning submission proposed a study to determine whether the Price Hill and Mt. Adams Inclines could be rebuilt. With the available prize money, GCF staff determined that a full feasibility study was not possible, but that a review could be commissioned of the current state of the two sites and provide options for further study, if the community decided to take up the cause.

GCF engaged two University of Cincinnati co-op students (in architecture and urban planning) to conduct the study. Their completed presentation has been made to staff and Mr. Wulker, and a transportation forum is being planned by Price Hill Will to share the study, along with other options for the incline area, with community members.

Job Creation: The Kitchen at Findlay Market

Status: Completed

Strong Communities: Restore Inclines to Price Hill & Mt Adams

Status: In Progress

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One of the nation’s leading community foun-dations, The Greater Cincinnati Foundation helps people make the most of their giving to build a better community.

We believe in the power of philanthropy to change the lives of people and communities. As a commu-nity foundation, GCF creates a prosperous Greater Cincinnati by investing in thriving people and vibrant places.

An effective steward of the community’s chari-table resources since 1963, the Foundation inspires philanthropy in eight counties in Ohio, Kentucky, and Indiana.

Visit us online at gcfdn.org or call at 513-241-2880.

About The Greater Cincinnati Foundation

Oftentimes, great ideas fail to see the light of day, so this is an inspired idea for

helping people make theirs public.”- community member

It was exciting to be at the beginning of a wave of many contest, challenge, and individual grant programs.

We’re thrilled to see how this culture of ideas and innovation is growing in every corner of our community.

Check out these great programs:

• ArtWorks Cincinnati’s Big Pitch• The Center for Great Neighborhoods

Creative Community Grants and Nano Grants

• Cincinnati Art Ambassador Fellowships• Cincinnati SOUP• Cincy Sundaes• Fuel Cincinnati• People’s Liberty• Summerfair Small Arts Awards• Transform Cincinnati

Our region’s culture of ideas and innovation