RACE RELATIONS
Since 2001, GCF has played a significant leadership role in bridging Cincinnati’s racial divide through a number of strategic grants. As the lead supporter of the Mayor’s commission, Cincinnati CAN (Community Action Now), the Foundation provided resources and support to people of our community who are searching for greater justice and equity and those organizations working on lasting solutions to our community’s racial issues. For more information contact Vice President for Community Investment Ellen Gilligan at (513) 241-2880.
Cincinnati in Black & White 2007 Report Released

In 2008, Better Together Cincinnati released Cincinnati in Black & White 2007, A Report to the Community. This publication provides a baseline “report card” on racial disparities in three key areas: education, economics and criminal justice with data gathered and summarized by the University of Cincinnati/United Way of Greater Cincinnati Community Research Collaborative. Please click here to read or download the report.
Released in 2006, as our city was examining the five years that had passed since the outbreak of racial tension and street violence in 2001, Cincinnati in Black and White 2001-2006. This report documents and recognizes Cincinnati’s efforts to address race relations and racial disparities, particularly the work of Cincinnati Community Action Now (CAN) and Better Together Cincinnati. A key recommendation of this assessment was to regularly measure and report on racial disparity in our community. Download the full report here
Who's at the table?

BTC was established in 2003 as a funders' collaborative among 15 partners:

Cincinnati Bell
Convergys Corporation
GE Aircraft Engines
The Greater Cincinnati Foundation
Love Family Foundation
Macy's
Ohio National Financial Services
The Procter & Gamble Company
SC Ministry Foundation
Scripps Howard Foundation
The Thomas J. Emery Memorial 
Toyota Manufacturing North America
United Way of Greater Cincinnati
US Bank
Western & Southern Financial Group

As the name implies, we believe that as a community we are "better together" than we are apart, and the name is meant to convey the importance of bridging our differences and building our community's social capital.

The funders & committed nearly $6 million over five years, and agreed to work together to support a limited number of priority initiatives identified by Cincinnati CAN. BTC will focus on: 

     police/community relations and criminal justice
     economic inclusion
     educational achievement

GCF manages the program on behalf of the funding partners.

Background
In April 2001, Cincinnati erupted in a brief but pivotal spate of violence. Those traumatic events unleashed an outpouring of civic activity facilitated by Mayor Charlie Luken, who appointed Cincinnati Community Action Now (CAN) to "achieve greater equity, opportunity, and inclusion for everyone by addressing the disparities that impact people in need, particularly in the African-American community."

At about the same time, Cincinnati Judge Susan Dlott appointed a special master to fashion a collaborative solution to a class action lawsuit alleging racially biased policing on the part of the Cincinnati Police Department. By late 2002, the Collaborative Agreement had been signed, and Cincinnati CAN had completed its research and planning phase of work. Both initiatives generated specific action items designed to reduce economic and social disparities.

A Collaborative Investment Strategy
It became clear that implementation of both the Cincinnati CAN priority initiatives and the Collaborative Agreement would require significant financial resources over a multi-year period to produce lasting community change. Due to the ambitious scope and magnitude of these efforts, a long-term, community-wide commitment was required. 

Cincinnati CAN's leadership approached GCF to help raise funds and provide grants for several priority initiatives over a five-year period. A "funders' collaborative" was formed to effectively marshal and manage resources from a variety of funding partners. A "funders collaborative" is a means by which multiple grantmakers can come together to accomplish a shared goalthat cannot easily be accomplished by working independently.
Progress to Date
Better Together Cincinnati has awarded grants to five organizations working to improve police-community relations, economic inclusion and educational attainment opportunities. 

Approved Grants

Cincinnati Arts & Technology Center (2003)Start-up
$275,000
The Cincinnati Arts and Technology Center will provide job training in arts and technology to at-risk youth as well as adults who are homeless, unemployed, abused or low-income. The Center is modeled after the nationally recognized Manchester Craftsman's Guild and Bidwell Training Center in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

Community Police Partnering Center (2003-2005)
Start-up
$1,425,000
The Community Police Partnering Center, in partnership with community stakeholders and members of the Cincinnati Police Department, will develop and implement effective strategies to reduce crime and disorder while facilitating positive engagement and increased trust between police and neighborhoods. The Partnering Center will encourage widespread adoption of Community Problem Oriented Policing (CPOP).

Cincinnati Youth Collaborative (2003)
Youth Employment Development Initiative Expansion
$254,000
The Youth Employment and Development Initiative (YEDI) is a year round employment initiative for Hamilton County youth that includes: jobs that will provide a good measure of a young person's skills and challenge their learning; an assessment and recruitment process that allows the identification of the most needy youth; supportive services to will address employment barriers such as transportation and continuation of enrichment services for youth throughout the year.

Greater Cincinnati Chamber of Commerce (2003-2004)
Minority Business Accelerator Start-up
$500,000
The Minority Business Accelerator (MBA) program will support, advance and seed minority business development.  The MBA concept was conceived in the Economic Development sub-committee of Cincinnati CAN's Economic Inclusion team. The MBA program will develop a system that connects businesses with high-potential African American-owned firms that can serve as vendors and help drive achievement of their supplier diversity goals. The program will help community's Minority Business Enterprises to grow and be ready to engage with major corporations and significant public sector projects as suppliers.

Urban League of Greater Cincinnati (2003)
Hard To Serve Planning Grant
$67,000
The Urban League of Greater Cincinnati will develop a long term plan to build organizational capacity in nonprofits delivering job training and employment programs and services to the long term unemployed and underemployed within our city.


For more information ...

For more information on how you can support Better Together Cincinnati, contact Ellen Gilligan, Vice President for Community Investment at (513) 241-2880.