Find solutions, urges FutureHeights speaker

When community organizer Kirk Noden asked members of FutureHeights to name problems facing the city, the room buzzed.

Participants called out many issues: abandoned homes, foreclosures, and the decline of neighborliness. But the crowd quieted when Noden, the director of Mahoning Valley Organizing Collaborative explained why confronting those challenges is so important for the Heights, and for the state as a whole.

"We can count on one hand the number of successful, integrated cities that are in Ohio, and this is one of a handful," said Noden.

On June 30, more than 100 people attended FutureHeights' annual meeting, which was held at the Rockefeller Building on Mayfield Road The theme, “Beyond Block Parties,” spoke to organizing for qualitative change, said executive director, Deanna Bremer Fisher.

"When people think about community organizing in the Heights, they think 'Well, we are organized. We have block clubs, and we have block parties every year.' With foreclosures, and vacant properties and an increase in crime, most people would agree that the organizations we have, are not as effective as they once were," said Bremer Fisher.

After participants identified problems in the community, Trevelle Harp, the executive director of the Northeast Alliance For Hope and a co-speaker at the meeting said that communities all over the region share these problems.

"I think foreclosures, abandoned vacant properties... you're starting to see those in Shaker Heights and Cleveland Heights," said harp.

Noden ended the meeting with a charge. He reminded listeners that Cleveland Heights and University Heights had been pioneers when it came to integration, and urged them to take a leading role in finding solutions to problems plaguing the state.

"Ohio, quite frankly, is in a lot of trouble. Seven out of eight of our core cities have lost 50 to 60 percent of their population in the last 30 years," he said.

FutureHeights is planning the next step in organizing. For more information, go to www.futureheights.org.

Afi Sruggs is a freelance writer and multi-platform journalist. Listen to her Heights Now podcast on this topic at www.wjcu.org/media/heights-now.