It was determined Xavier University — which operates Cincinnati’s CBI initiative — would design and then launch the program locally, providing MUM would then take over its operation.
Three areas were deemed to be the focus of the CBI’s operations:
-Downtown
-The Douglass Park neighborhood
-The Damon Park neighborhood
“Instead of a shotgun approach where you pull the trigger and send a lot of monies from a lot of people going to a lot of programs, you have a very focused concentration of funds and partnerships (in) a few neighborhoods at a time,” said Melissa Taylor, director of the MUM CBI and a contract employee of Miami.
In the Douglass Park area, a mentoring program and a parent resource center began in 2010. The CBI assists the mentoring community in networking.
Jasmine Chapman, a 16-year-old junior at Middletown High School and Butler Tech, takes part in the high school mentoring group Young Phenomenal Women.
“You get a sisterhood,” she said. “(Mentors) have been through the high school. They know the different pressures you’re under.”
The resource center, which opened in July of 2010, has served more 300 families. Geared toward young mothers, it provides both tangible and intangible offerings. Items like diapers and car seats are available, and speakers are brought in on a regular basis for the benefit of parents.
In the Damon Park area, a partnership with the Salvation Army and Middletown City Schools has led to the creation of a GED program. Held on Monday and Wednesday mornings, the program offers incentives for students who attend regular sessions. Students can receive a $20 food card. Plus, the $40 testing fee to take the GED may be waived.
More than 100 have enrolled in the program within the past year. Rose Marie Stiehl, Middletown schools’ adult education principal, said the program shoulders more than GED attainment.
“Many times, a person walks into class at the third-grade reading level,” Stiehl said. “The GED isn’t always the goal, but getting them to a level where they can take the GED is.”
The CBI operates as a partnership between Miami, the United Way of Greater Cincinnati-Middletown Area and the Middletown Community Foundation. Its annual budget is $150,000. There is only one full-time staff member.
The programs in the Douglass and Damon parks neighborhoods are evolving, Taylor said, but the goal is to grow them to the point of where the group’s efforts downtown have taken them. The CBI, over a two-year period, raised $100,000 to establish and fund a spin-off downtown non-profit organization, Downtown Middletown, Inc.
The new non-profit will be able to raise money in addition to what the city has and to focus mainly on marketing and promoting downtown. A downtown manager was recently hired and will start in January. A nine-person board has been established.
“Our goal is to create sustainable organizations for each one of our initiatives the same way we did for downtown,” Taylor said.
The city is partnering with the CBI in developing these downtown initiatives.
“They have done a great job,” said City Manager Judy Gilleland. “I applaud them for targeting three areas right out of the box.”
Taylor said the initiative the organization represents is a top driver of neighborhood support nationwide.
“There are three nationally-recognized drivers of community change: educational attainment, access to jobs and quality of place, which is where the CBI comes in,” she said. “In the past decade and a half, there has been sweeping research conducted by national think tanks like the Brookings Institution, who has studied cities nationally for two decades.
“People are choosing to live, work and operate business in locations that have ‘quality of place,’” she said, adding that this may include character, culture or safety.
Mike Sanders, the longtime executive director of the United Way of Greater Cincinnati-Middletown Area, played a key role in the creation of the local CBI. The opportunities it can create, he said, are without measure.
“These programs,” he said, referring to the mentor groups, parent resource center, GED program and Downtown Middletown, Inc., “would not exist if not for the work of our partners and the community building institute.”
Contact this reporter at (513) 705-2871 or andrew.sedlak@coxinc.com.
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