Tom Gill, Jacqueline Gillon, Stephanie Buda and Shelly Gracon are thinking outside the box to make their communities stronger. They are this year's #Fresh4, recognized by the Cleveland Leadership Center and FreshWater Cleveland as innovators who are making a difference.

Randell McShepard told a sold-out City Club audience Aug. 16 that the perceived shortage of black leaders is due to a lack of opportunities to be heard. “Minorities shouldn't have to be in protest mode to get the opportunity to speak publicly,” he says.

Changes are in store for the annual One World Day on Aug. 25 in the Cleveland Cultural Gardens, including a new Children's Village, enhanced transportation options and new activities, as well as three new gardens.

Angela Flowers' in-school consulting business took off when she connected with JumpStart Inc., a Cleveland-based venture development group that focuses on women- and minority-owned companies.

Meet the local heroes working to restore a sense of safety in the Clark-Fulton neighborhood.

When Spanish-American Committee executive director Ramonita Vargas submitted 25 nursing candidates to a major medical institution for hiring consideration, she felt positive about their prospects—but was dismayed when all 25 were turned away “because their English wasn’t perfect.”

Third Space co-founder Evelyn Burnett says the point of the workshops is simple: to build awareness around racial equity and inequity. More than 3,000 people from 700 organizations have attended the trainings, which are now offered monthly.

Kauser Razvi says she became motivated to create a literary lot based on the children's book The Wild Robot after the 2016 election. “It’s about identifying, bullying, isolation, and belonging,” she explains. "It's about having value in your own space."

From a dynamic duo bringing back Glenville to a Sudanese designer working on a welcome center for Irishtown Bend, these artists are changing the city's creative landscape.

For the last two decades, Cleveland’s Fairfax neighborhood has been master planning for a renaissance—and now its golden age is in sight. With an ideal location on the $331 million Opportunity Corridor and an array of developments and initiatives coming to fruition, the area is preparing to round the bend on a four-pronged Strategic Investment Plan that began in 2008.

In Cuyahoga County, the infant mortality rate for African-American babies is 15.1 per every 1,000 live births, compared to 3.8 for white babies. In other words, Cleveland's black babies are approximately four times more likely to die before their first birthday than white babies.

Samuel Paredes was 16 years old when he secretly applied for a U.S. visa. His parents had just gotten divorced, and he was still living in Ipiales, a city of 160,000 on the southern border of Colombia. Shortly after the death of his grandmother, he expressed to his mother and father his desire to study cybersecurity—born from witnessing political upheaval—at an American college.

The women come from a variety of backgrounds. Some work in factories or grocery chains, others as school lunch ladies, making $8 to $9 an hour. Others are Hurricane Maria refugees who work for Burlington, some for U.S. Cotton, supporting families as they tilt on the poverty line.

All have one thing in common: the dream to one day be registered nurses.

You likely know the unelected, unsung leaders in your community. They’re the ones volunteering at local events, spreading the word in online neighborhood groups, leading grassroots initiatives, and giving voice to residents who might not otherwise have one. But what you—and they—might not know is that there’s a free program dedicated to helping them harness their superpowers and make even more of an impact.

On the heels of Pride in the CLE, good news out of Gordon Square: after 20 years of operating out of a 5,000-square-foot basement at 6600 Detroit Ave., the LGBT Community Center of Greater Cleveland is ready to move into a prominent, custom-designed and -built, and proud new home across the street at 6705 Detroit.
 

They say one never forgets how to ride a bike—and if the freewheeling folks taking part in Silver Spokes are any indication, it’s 100 percent true. 

If she could afford a car, Antaneshia Fletcher could drive to her job at Bloom Bakery in less than 20 minutes. Instead, she rises at 4:30 am every day so she can spend two hours taking the two bus routes necessary to travel from her home in Euclid to the store near the Cleveland State University campus by 6:30 am.

When Ebony Naylor received her cosmetology license two years ago, she figured she’d mark the achievement by herself. The eight women who had mentored her for a year had other ideas.