A partnership between Cleveland State University and the Northeast Ohio Medical University hopes to reach students as early as middle school and inspire them to consider a career in medicine.

Now, a recently awarded $500,000 grant from the Mt. Sinai Foundation will help to support a crucial piece of this program -- a mentoring program to ensure the success of students being trained as primary care physicians.

The three-year grant will focus on linking students wi... Read more >

Believe to Achieve, a program that teaches young people kindness, caring and respect as a means of achieving lifelong success, this year helped dozens of at-risk girls graduate from Collinwood High School.

Now the leaders of Project Love, the nonprofit that is spearheading the program, are planning to expand Believe to Achieve to 12 schools across the Cleveland Municipal School District (CMSD). They are currently seeking funding for that initiative.

"l ascri... Read more >

Chloe Hopson knows firsthand the disparity between urban and suburban arts education programs. Having grown up on South Moreland on the edge of Shaker Heights and Cleveland, she flourished in the arts-rich Shaker Heights school system while many of her Cleveland friends lacked similar opportunities.

That's why Hopson founded the Passport Project 14 years ago. She wanted to provide arts programs to youth living in the Buckeye, Larchmere and Shaker Square neighborhoods,... Read more >

Before a packed house at Severance Hall, Cleveland Foundation President Ronn Richard touted the city's accomplishments in becoming a hub of innovation and taking bold steps to address big problems at the foundation's annual meeting this Tuesday.

Waxing poetic on the gilded stage for a moment, Richard harkened back to the foundation's early days in the 1910's as a time of tremendous innovation in Cleveland. "I still wonder if the past might be prologue... Read more >

Groundworks Dance Theater recently presented an original work choreographed by Lynne Taylor-Corbett that featured rousing Broadway-style choreography set to the music of the 80s band the Pretenders.

The show wasn't exactly what comes to mind when one thinks of contemporary dance, and audiences loved it. Groundworks General Manager Beth Rutkowski says her organization is using performances like this to reach new audiences in Cleveland.

"There are a lot of... Read more >

The Cleveland Public Library recently unveiled TechCentral, a new downtown computing hub that offers free use of laptops, tablets and desktop computers, wireless access and 3-D printing.

A library card is all one needs to access the center, which cost $1 million to build and is located in 7,000 square feet in the lower level of the Louis Stokes Wing.

In addition to being able to explore the latest technology on site, card holders will be able to borrow iPads and ... Read more >

When National Endowment for the Arts Chairman Rocco Landesman toured Cleveland's arts districts last year, he blogged about how they were actively applying the principles of arts-based development and urban placemaking touted daily by the NEA.

Now ArtPlace, a creative placemaking initiative led by the NEA and others, has awarded Northeast Shores Development Corporation a $500,000 grant to engage local artists in creatively combating urban vacancy and foreclosure in Cl... Read more >

During Langston Hughes' heyday, African American theatre was "booming, expressive, avante garde and politically punching," says Anthony Elfonzia Nickerson-El of Project1Voice, a national group that aims to spark renewed interest in black theatre. "Hughes and his contemporaries were the conscience of the community."

Fast forward 80 years. Historically African American theatres continue to play an important role in exposing young people in urban area... Read more >

Santina Protopapa is a self-professed high school "band nerd" who learned about hip hop while organizing a Rock Hall conference, then used it as a launching bad to start her own arts nonprofit.

Ten years later, the Progressive Arts Alliance (PAA) serves more than 1,000 students across Northeast Ohio every week through hip hop arts education.

"Our students have really grown to be leaders through hip hop," says Protopapa, a percussionist and DJ ... Read more >

The Cleveland Carbon Fund has announced three grant awards totaling $15,000 for 2012, including an ambitious effort to increase the number of bike commuters in Cleveland, a backyard composting initiative in Tremont, and a project to make homes in the Central neighborhood more energy-efficient.

Bike Cleveland's project, Creating a Mode Shift, will provide riders with the tools, tips and advice on how to commute to work in Cleveland. The effort includes a commuter chall... Read more >

Christopher Busta-Peck first became interested in teaching others about Cleveland's architectural history when he developed summer history programs for kids as part of his job as a children's librarian.

Too fascinated to put the material down, he soon found himself enmeshed in creating a local history and preservation blog, Cleveland Area History, that has been called the voice of history and historic preservation in Northeast Ohio.

Part of what motivates... Read more >

Technology, health care, food and rock and roll -- these are just a few of the industries flourishing in the eclectic Midtown neighborhood, its leaders told a sold out crowd at the Midtown Cleveland Inc. annual meeting at the InterContinental Hotel.

Key accomplishments within the past year include a successful lawsuit that stopped the Ohio Department of Transportation (ODOT) from closing Innerbelt ramps until a study has been completed; breaking ground on several new proj... Read more >

Communities in Cuyahoga County are recycling about 50 percent of their waste on average, Diane Bickett, Executive Director of the Cuyahoga County Solid Waste District, told the audience at the recent Cleveland Composting and Recycling Forum.

Austin, Texas has an ambitious goal of reaching zero waste by 2040, which means reducing the amount of trash sent to landfills by 90 percent.

The question now becomes: How does our region advance those goals while encouraging... Read more >

Last fall, when the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency held a hearing on the City of Cleveland's proposed waste-to-energy plant, hundreds of protesters turned out to decry the plans.

The gasification plant, which would turn trash into energy to be used by Cleveland Public Power, would result in unacceptable levels of pollution in urban neighborhoods, environmental groups said.

Since then, the city has terminated its agreement with its controversial consulta... Read more >

The Princeton Prize in Race Relations is awarded each year to outstanding high school students across the country who are helping to increase understanding and mutual respect among all races and cultures.

The Cleveland prize, now in its second year, was recently awarded to Demi Zhang, a freshman at Orange High School who has devoted herself to achieving racial and cultural harmony through teaching others. Zhang has exposed her community to Chinese culture through art and ... Read more >

In April, 51 volunteers picked up more than 500 pounds of trash at Edgewater Park as part of an effort to revitalize our city's beaches and reconnect Clevelanders to our lakefront parks.

Among the items that were collected at Edgewater that day were more than 3,000 cigar tips that had washed up in Edgewater cove.

Cleveland has the dubious distinction of being a leader in cigar tip pollution in the Great Lakes region, says Erin Huber of Drink Local Drink Tap. ... Read more >

When the Broadway Farmers Market in Slavic Village piloted a new program to offer a dollar-for-dollar match to Ohio Direction Card customers who purchase produce, it experienced a 191-percent increase in Direction Card sales in one year.

By offering incentives, the Produce Perks program helps to ensure that fresh, locally grown produce gets into low-income households where it's needed most. Many city residents do not have a grocery store with fresh produce within walk... Read more >

Whereas some kids bond with their dads over football or baseball, Jacob Friedman and his dad have always bonded over oldies music stars like Petula Clark and Dean Martin and old movies starring Tim Conway.

Five years ago, Friedman suddenly had blurry vision and he couldn't get out of bed. He was diagnosed with a brain tumor. The nine-year-old listened to Clark's "Downtown" to comfort him as he traveled from his home in Parma to Rainbow Babies and Childre... Read more >

Last year, Akron marketing professional Amy Wong signed up to attend Cleveland GiveCamp for a few hours and ended up staying the entire weekend. She was taken with its mission of helping nonprofits with tech projects -- and she was having a good time.

This year, she hopes to deliver an even bigger impact by serving more nonprofits. GiveCamp, which is part of a national network of events that link technology professionals with nonprofits, is accepting applications until Ju... Read more >