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After conducting 300 relational meetings with residents, public officials, clergy, and local school leaders, NOAH held a series of three community dialogues in Feb. of 2008. Over 140 key leaders from 23 East Cleveland Institutions gathered for three community dialogues designed to identify issues and build relationships between community leaders. The themes of the Dialogues were “Pressures on the Family,” “Pressures on Our Institutions,” and “How Can Our Diverse Institutions Unite to Deal with These Challenges.” Leaders identified four areas of focus; the abandoned building crisis, strengthening schools, safety issues, and lack of recreational opportunities for youth.

Leaders prioritized building a relationship with City schools as the first step and set up a series of meetings with the Superintendent of Schools in East Cleveland to collaborate and build stronger parent participation, improve safety for children walking to and from school, and develop strong parent leaders that can advocate around broader issues facing the community. In the fall of 2008, NOAH created five Parent Safety Patrols at all the Elementary Schools in the City. The abandoned building crisis has created special problems for students on their way home from school. The Patrols consist of roughly 10 parent leaders at each school that stand at major trouble spots on the children’s routes home equipped with walkie-talkies to report major problems that may occur. After having great success working with the schools, parents and community leaders have also turned their attention to the abandoned building crisis. It’s the single most important issue facing schools, faith institutions, and stakeholders in the city.

The ECOP project now has roughly 100 community leaders at each planning meeting demonstrating that residents are hungry for change on a broad scale. On October 28th, 2008, the project held its first public meeting at Heritage Middle School with over 240 residents attending. The mayor, the state representative and state senator, city council, and public school officials attended pledging to work with NOAH’s leadership around issues leaders identified. Around this same time, NOAH hired Blainey Trevelle Harp as its second full-time organizer working in East Cleveland. Trevelle had been working in the schools as a mentor and as a local resident has deep connections in East Cleveland. This effort has been successful because of the trained professional staff working on the Project.

NOAH/ECOP leaders are currently working with Case Western Reserve University on our Abandoned and Vacant Property campaign. Case students and faculty have joined East Cleveland residents to carry out surveys and enter them into the GIS mapping system. This data has now been compiled and will allow residents to identify vacant lots that will be used for playgrounds and community gardens. Residents are seeking to locate community gardens and playgrounds near public school facilities and to tear down hazardous properties that are adjacent to local schools. NOAH staff and leaders also sit on the Health and Wellness Committee for East Cleveland Schools. The Committee is seeking to organize high-school age students that NOAH can develop as leaders to spearhead creation of block clubs and work to create community gardens.