FutureHeights to host spring programs

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FutureHeights, a nonprofit dedicated to building a vibrant and sustainable future for Cleveland Heights and University Heights through civic engagement, will host two community programs this spring.

The first is a panel discussion on community organizing. On Thursday, March 14, FutureHeights will host “Won’t You Be My Neighbor?” at the Bottlehouse Brewing Company, 2050 Lee Road. The event begins at 6:30 p.m. and will feature panelists Pete Titas of Cain Park Neighborhood Association; Sarah Wean of the Grant Deming’s Forest Hill Historic District in Coventry Village; Jason Stein, member of Cleveland Heights City Council; and Deanna Bremer Fisher, executive director of FutureHeights. The event is free and open to the public; however, a courtesy RSVP is requested by going to www.bemyneighbor.eventbrite.com.

The second program is the FutureHeights annual meeting with guest speaker Peter Pula, founder and CEO of Axiom News, a Canadian-based community news agency that practices generative journalism, a new method of reporting and storytelling that builds on a community’s strengths, rather than focusing on its weaknesses.

“We harness the power of appreciative inquiry to ask strength-based questions around what’s working, lessons learned from high-point experiences and visions of a better future. The result is stories that produce meaning, hope and inspire ways to act,” said Pula.

Pula’s talk coincides with the fifth anniversary of the Heights Observer, a community news project published by FutureHeights. “From the beginning, the Heights Observer was meant to build community through community participation,” said Clare Taft, president of the FutureHeights Board of Directors. “We seek to report news in a responsible way and to present a more accurate picture of our community. Because stories in the Observer are written by residents, it shows the many good things that happen here every day.”

Pula will speak at the FutureHeights annual meeting at 6:30 p.m. on Thursday, April 18, at the Cleveland Heights Community Center. For more information, visit www.futureheights.org or call 216-320-1423.