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Less than 1 week… Will you help create NEO’s Future?

April 24, 2013 in Engagement, Scenario Planning

What are you doing April 30, May 1 or May 2?  Creating NEO’s Future Depends on You?

Speak up and voice your opinions about OUR home!

What brought you to Northeast Ohio?

What keeps you here?

What do you value most about Northeast Ohio?

What will keep you and your family here in the future?

The Northeast Ohio Sustainable Communities Consortium (NEOSCC) will be hosting a series of workshops to create a vision for a Vibrant NEO in the year 2040. Workshops will be two hours long and will be held at various locations throughout the region.  Please feel free to pick the time and location that is most convenient for you, regardless of your county of residence.

Your help is needed to help NEOSCC focus the workshops on issues that are most important to YOU – today and in the future!

CLICK ON THE BLUE LINKS BELOW TO REGISTER! ALL WORKSHOPS WILL BEGIN 6:30 PM.

April 30

Oberlin (Lorain, Medina, and western Cuyahoga)
The Oberlin Inn, 7 North Main Street, Oberlin, OH 44074

Warren (Mahoning, Trumbull and Ashtabula)
John F. Kennedy High School, 2550 Central Pkwy Ave SE, Warren, OH 44484

May 1

Cleveland (Central Cuyahoga and inner-ring suburbs)
Third Federal Savings & Loan (Auditorium), 7007 Broadway Avenue, Cleveland, OH 44105

Canton (Wayne and Stark)
The Metropolitan Centre, 601 Cleveland Avenue NW, Canton, OH  44702

May 2

Akron (Summit and Portage)
Akron Urban League, 440 Vernon Odom Boulevard, Akron, OH 44307

Warrenville Hts. (Lake, eastern Cuyahoga, and Geauga)
Corporate College – East, 4400 Richmond Road, Warrensville Heights, OH 44128

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What future do You want for Northeast Ohio?

April 12, 2013 in ACT, Engagement, Scenario Planning

Interested in learning more about the Vibrant NEO process and the schedule for the rest of the year?  Download our new overview piece, What future do YOU want for Northeast Ohio?

 

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Digi-NEO…facts about Northeast Ohio

March 15, 2013 in Conditions and Trends, Connections, Engagement, Environment, News, Quality Connected Places, Transportation

During the course of developing the NEOSCC Conditions and Trends Platform, we developed 33 findings across the subject matter areas of economic development, transportation, housing, the environment and quality connected places in Northeast Ohio.  In order to communicate some of these findings, we have developed the Digi-NEO program which highlights different facts about the region’s successes as well as its challenges.

Visit our Digi NEO Gallery to learn more about our region.

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Earthfest 2013

March 14, 2013 in Environment, News, Sustainability

Join Earth Day Coalition for EarthFest 2013 at this year’s new location, the Cuyahoga County Fairgrounds, on Sunday, April 21 from 10am-5pm. In partnership with the Sustainable Cleveland 2019 initiative, we will be celebrating Advanced and Renewable Energy. Presented and organized by Earth Day Coalition since 1990 and now in its 24 year, EarthFest is Ohio’s largest environmental education event and the longest running Earth Day celebration in the nation.

NEW this year:

• Advanced and Renewable Energy exhibit area next to the Fairgrounds’ dramatic 500kW wind turbine and Energy Education Center. Attendees will learn first hand about exciting initiatives in our region as well as home products and conservation methods that utilize advanced energy sources, minimize emissions and maximize efficiency. Additional exhibit areas will include 175+ exhibitors in Clean Transportation (with Ride-and-Drive), Local and Sustainable Food, Green Home Improvement, NEW Lawn & Garden, Health and Fitness, Community Works and Family Fun. Also, visit the NASA Glenn Research Center Village at EarthFest.

• Families will have a fun-filled day with amusement rides, inflatable obstacle courses, petting zoo, urban farm animals, a beekeeper exhibit and more!

• Guests will enjoy microbrews, all-day chef demos and a huge selection of healthy and delicious local food from your favorite food trucks, such as Izzy Schrachner’s StrEat Mobile Bistro. (Look for a list of trucks and menus in our upcoming eblasts and on our website).

• Listen to all-day music and the best of Northeast Ohio singer-songwriters, musicians and bands on multiple “Party with the Planet” entertainment stages organized by students enrolled in Cuyahoga Community College’s entertainment booking class.

• Ride your bike to EarthFest, park at the Ohio City Bicycle Co-op valet station at the Bagley Road Fairgrounds entrance and get FREE admission to EarthFest.

• Take walking tours of Baldwin Wallace University’s solar, wind, composting and green building installations led by students from the university.

• Visit the regularly scheduled flea market repurposing event which will take place on the Fairgrounds during EarthFest and receive a dollar off admission to EarthFest.

Admission:
$3 ages 2-11; $5 ages 12+; FREE under age 2, for anyone who rides and parks their bike at the Fairgrounds entrance, and to guests who ride RTA’s Redline (regular fare) from any station to Brookpark Rapid Station and take the free EarthFest shuttle to the Fairgrounds.

We are accepting entries for the Hope and Stanley Adelstein Awards for Excellence annual K-12 Earth Day Art, Poetry and Essay contest. Cash prizes will be awarded at 11am Welcoming Ceremonies. Brochures are available on our website.

Exhibitor and sponsorship opportunities are available. Call (216) 281-6468 or visit www.earthdaycoalition.org for more information.

Help spread the word about EarthFest! Download an EarthFest flyer here to print, forward to friends and share through social media!

 

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Join The Oberlin Project for a Local Food Event

March 12, 2013 in News, Quality Connected Places

Saturday March 16th
10:30am-1:30pm
Oberlin High School, 281 North Pleasant Street
This pop-up event will bring together interested members of the Oberlin community, area farmers, and food buyers in Lorain County for a day of learning, sharing, and connecting. This event will feature a local market, three (3) local food films, and local food presentations. The local food films and speakers are listed on the back of this flyer.
This event is free and open to the public.
www.oberlinproject.org 

 

 

Local Food Hub Pop Up Event Presentations & Cinema Schedule

In conjunction with the Oberlin Project’s Pop-up Local Food Hub, are local food presentations each half-hour and local food films produced by three local film-makers. These presentations and movies will present creative and innovative ways that communities in Ohio engage local food systems to support health, environmental sustainability, and a stronger local economy.

Local Food Hub Pop Up Presentation Schedule – Oberlin High School Auditorium:

10:30 a.m. Glenn Gall – Healthy Food, People, Farms, Planet
11:00 a.m. Ruby Beil – Sustainable Agriculture at Lorain County Community College
11:30 a.m. Chet Bowling – Oberlin Kitchen Incubator
12:00 p.m. Tracie Haynes/Dave Sokoll – Neighborhood Food Development
12:30 p.m. Nick Swetye – The New Agrarian Center/City Fresh
1:00 p.m. Frank Whitfield – Local Foods and Youth Education/Engagement

Each presentation is 10-15 minutes with 10-15 minute question and answer session.Local Food Hub Pop-Up Event Cinema – Oberlin High School Library:


10:30-11:30 Network Theory – Athens, Ohio – Network Theory (Brad Masi, MikaJohnson, 2013) looks at how communities in Southeast Ohio engage local food systems to build a more resilient economy and a more inclusive democracy. (Topics: food hubs, rural self-reliance, network weaving, staple foods, local food processing, business to business connections)

11:30-12:30 PolyCultures – Cleveland and Northeast Ohio – PolyCultures – Food Where We Live (Tom Kondilas, 2009) looks at the inter-connected efforts between urban and rural communities in Northeast Ohio to grow a healthy and sustainable regional food system. (Topics: urban food access, ecological farming, urban agriculture, local economies)

12:30-1:30 For the Love of Food- Oberlin, Ohio – For the Love of Food (Brad Masi, Mika Johnson, 2012) looks at the past and present of Oberlin’s pioneering efforts to localize its food supply, learning from those on the ground doing it and their perspectives about the future of local foods in the community. (Topics: entrepreneurship, homesteading, education, youth)

The Pop-Up Cinema is a collaboration between: Art + Practice, LESS Productions, and Blue Heron Productions. These films star the many diverse members of Ohio communities that are coming together to grow a stronger and more resilient local food supply. The films feature inter-connected vignettes, so come in and out as you please and see what best practices you might want to apply to your community!

These events will help you learn, connect, and share your ideas about local foods. We encourage you to share you thoughts and ideas about your vision of local foods in Oberlin using the “idea wall” areas during this event.

Free and Open to the Public! 

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Hey! – SAVE THE DATE – Vibrant NEO Public Work Shops

March 6, 2013 in Engagement, News, Scenario Planning

What are Vibrant NEO 2040 and Scenario Planning?

VibrantNEO 2040’s scenarios will tell stories about our possible futures, based on where Northeast Ohio is today and the choices we might make about how we use our land and how we invest our resources. Once we create these scenarios, we will be able to compare how successful they are at achieving our common goals for the region, judge which choices would be best for Northeast Ohio’s future, and create a shared vision and framework for the future around those choices.

You are invited to attend an upcoming workshop to share your voice in the conversation. We have selected six city locations throughout the region for your convenience. Pick a date and location that works for you!

April 30:

Oberlin (Lorain, Medina, and western Cuyahoga)

Warren (Mahoning, Trumbull and Ashtabula)

May 1:

Cleveland (Central Cuyahoga and inner-ring suburbs)

Canton (Wayne and Stark)

May 2:

Akron (Summit and Portage)

Warrenville Hts. (Lake, eastern Cuyahoga, and Geauga)

ALL WORKSHOPS WILL BEGIN 6:30 PM.

Exact locations and registration will be available soon.

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YNDC’s Iron Roots Urban Farm

March 1, 2013 in Mahoning, News, Quality Connected Places, Sustainability

Construction has begun at the Iron Roots Urban Farm site. The construction project includes the complete renovation of the 91 year old, 2,693 square foot historic home and the construction of a new 1,200 square foot processing and training facility. The project also includes the installation of walkways, parking, signage, and other critical facility upgrades. The project is being completed by DSV Builders and is expected to be complete by June 1, 2013.

The new facility will be home to several programs to train residents in the skills necessary to become market gardeners and food entrepreneurs or enter the environmental workforce, as the site will give residents hands-on experience at a working urban farm. The farm will also train residents in the preparation of healthy meals and processing of fresh produce. Additionally, the facility will have space for community meetings and other neighborhood revitalization activities. YNDC is also working with the Common Wealth Inc. Kitchen Incubator to provide residents all the necessary training space and equipment needed to launch their new enterprises.

Iron Roots Urban Farm is a fully functioning urban farm that grows produce available for sale at the Northside Farmers’ Market, Poland Farmers’ Market, and is included in shares of the Grow Youngstown CSA program.

For more information, please visit: the IRUF Facebook page at http://www.facebook.com/IronRootsUrbanFarm or the YNDC website at http://www.yndc.org/programs/iron-roots-urban-farm. Stay tuned for more updates soon!

 

 

 

What Can I Do Today?

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Mahoning River Corridor People’s Garden Program

January 31, 2013 in ACT, Mahoning, Quality Connected Places, Trumbull

The Mahoning River Corridor People’s Garden Program, funded by a grant to the Youngstown Neighborhood Development Corporation (YNDC) by the United States Department of Agriculture, will provide microgrants for the establishment of gardens to serve as community educational resources to residents of Mahoning River Corridor communities. Groups located within Lowellville, Struthers, Campbell, Youngstown, Girard, McDonald, Niles, Warren and Newton Falls are eligible to apply. All projects must be new garden spaces, and can be vegetable gardens, recreational gardens, or wildlife gardens. Projects will be chosen based on innovative design, community impact, project sustainability, and the project’s potential for community environmental education. Training workshops will be held In the month of February (see dates and locations below). A representative of each group applying for a grant must attend one of these training workshops. In 2012, the program supported the creation of 10 new gardens in Mahoning River Corridor Communities, including community vegetable gardens and native planting gardens. In 2013, the program will support 10-12 new garden spaces.

Grants will assist community groups with the establishment of new gardens, including vegetable gardens, recreational gardens, and wildlife gardens. Grants will be awarded through a competitive process, in which grantees will design their garden project and demonstrate community support and resources for the projects. Projects must be new or beginning their first year of full operation. Projects will be chosen based on innovative design, community impact, project sustainability, and the project’s potential for community environmental education. The program will be focused on neighborhood associations and resident groups, building their capacity to respond to challenges in their own neighborhoods through the creation of gardens on existing vacant land and the establishment, maintenance, and use of community forests as neighborhood assets. All garden projects will receive technical assistance and educational signage.

For additional information on how to apply

What Can I do today?

 

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Regional Land Protection in Northeast Ohio

January 15, 2013 in Environment, News, Quality Connected Places, Sustainability

The Western Reserve Land Conservancy (www.wrlandconservancy.org) has recently completed Common Ground, a regional land protection report for northern Ohio. The Western Reserve Land Conservancy is a nonprofit conservation organization in Moreland Hills, dedicated to preserving the natural resources of northern Ohio. Common Ground is the first-ever collaborative look at conservation in Northeast Ohio. The report is the result of the efforts of the region’s conservation community over the past year. It will soon be released to additional conservation partners and to the public.

Regional land conservation provides many benefits for Northeast Ohio. The ultimate objective of land conservation is to preserve the natural resources of the region that optimize quality of life for its inhabitants, including animals and plants as well as humans. Conservation protects existing open spaces, productive agricultural lands, ecologically-sensitive areas, and encourages more efficient land use within the existing development footprint. The ultimate vision of Western Reserve Land Conservancy is to ensure Northeast Ohio will be an authentic place where development is concentrated in historic urban areas such as Akron, Elyria, and Youngstown, in historic Western Reserve villages such as Chagrin Falls, Medina, Wooster, and Hudson, and, as needed, in new areas that promote lasting, community-oriented development. Working farms and urban gardens will flourish, supported by local markets that provide healthy and fresh produce that connects citizens to the land in a tangible, enduring way. Parks and preserves will connect people to the land, provide a safe place where children can play, and support a quality of life that attracts and retains diverse residents.

However, the Western Reserve Land Conservancy is not alone. Other land conservancies, both small and large, have operated successfully to protect many acres of farms, forests, and fields from spreading development. Some of these include national-level organizations like the Trust for Public Land (www.tpl.org) and The Nature Conservancy (www.nature.org). Others include local-level organizations within Northeast Ohio such as Gates Mills Land Conservancy (http://gatesmillslandconservancy.org/), the Killbuck Land Trust (www.killbucklandtrust.org) and the West Creek Preservation Committee (www.westcreek.org).

The Western Reserve Land Conservancy plans to release Common Ground over a series of events during the month of February. For more information about the report’s release, please contact the Conservancy at (440) 528-4150 or info@wrlandconservancy.org.

What Can I Do Today?

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“Treecycling”

December 29, 2012 in Communications, News, Sustainability

As the last post of the year, we thought it would be good to focus on a creating a more sustainable holiday. Every year, there is a debate about which is more environmentally friendly: artificial or natural Christmas trees. Regardless of what you chose this year, you can’t leave it up forever. There are a number of ways you can dispose of your natural Christmas tree to reduce the environmental impact. Here is a great infographic from GOOD.is on some of those the ways. Click on the image below to visit the original post.

A GOOD.is

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