The United Way of Greater Toledo announced May 10 the Schools as Community Hubs initiative in partnership with Toledo Public Schools, the Toledo Federation of Teachers and the Toledo Association of Administrative Personnel. It is a community-based initiative managed by the United Way to offer resources to students, parents and area residents.

“The Schools as community hubs is going to be a very important feature of the Toledo Public Schools as we move forward,” said Jerome Pecko, superintendent of Toledo Public Schools. “The local organizations we have met with before are very excited. We anticipate nothing but good coming of this. The concept of a community hub inside a school gives us the opportunity as educators to provide more assistance to the parents of the students that we work with every day. That is huge in terms of the opportunity we think our students will have as a result of that.”

The program will be implemented this fall at the Leverette and Robinson buildings with each school having a lead non-profit organization managing the community involvement. The United Way will put out a Request for Proposals to the community in order to choose the lead organization for each school.

“This is going to be led by the teachers, the administrators, the neighborhood, the parents and the kids,” said Bill Kitson, president and CEO of United Way of Greater Toledo. “They’ll co-create the kind of hub they need in their neighborhood. Eventually, what you see at Leverette will be different than what you see at Robinson, because those neighborhoods are different. The programs and services they need are going to be different.”

The goal of the program is to turn schools into the center of their neighborhoods while helping students achieve the ultimate goal of graduation.

“We know those formative years from kindergarten all the way through eighth grade are critical,” Kitson said. “If we can wrap a community around them so they know when they leave that school and walk down the street that their neighbors are with them in the challenge of graduating, it’s going to be an important and special thing. Ultimately, we need the entire neighborhood to grow with those kids.”

The new program will also lead to additional investing in Toledo communities by organizations such as the Local Initiatives Support Corporation (LISC) which has invested more than $90 billion in central Toledo communities over the last 20 years according to LISC Senior Executive Director Hugh Grefe.

“The powerful strength of the idea of Schools as Hubs cannot be underestimated,” Grefe said. “It is incredibly important to have those schools be hubs of community life in every possible way. We’ll be able to feel confident we can bring even more resources to Toledo to invest in the areas around targeted schools. That makes us more excited.”

Read the May 15 edition of the Toledo Free Press for additional details on the new program.

Tags: Bill Kitson, Hugh Grefe, Jerome Pecko, LISC, Toledo Public Schools, United Way

This entry was posted on Tuesday, May 10th, 2011 at 2:52 pm and is filed under Community, Education.
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A is for Ashford, Michael: Councilman and churchgoer.

B is for Bell, Mike: The Man. The Mayor.

C is for Conklin, Lee: Sunday must-see TV.

D is for Dunn, Lee: Banker and straight shooter.

E is for Epstein, Brian: EPIC ambition for next-gen leadership.

F is for Folk, Marc: Man of arts and letters.

G is for Grefe, Hugh: Housing Fund defender. Has a right to expect city to keep its promises.

H is for Herwat, Steve: Deputy mayor in charge of city’s daily operations.

I is for Iott, Rich: Seeking to unseat the icon.

J is for Jacobs, Lloyd: Large and in charge at UT.

K is for Kozak, Chris: Philanthropic utility player.

L is for LaClair, Robert: Fifth Third boss.

M is for Monske, Dean: Deputy in charge of city’s development; tied to banking industry.

N is for Napoli, Joe: Wildlife fan with an affinity for Mud Hens and Walleye.

O is for Oostra, Randy: ProMedica’s medicine man.

P is for Pecko, Jerome: New TPS superintendent; on heavy levy duty.

Q is for Quilter, Bernie: Lucas County court clerk supreme.

R is for Rothenbuhler, Ron: Union man, Democratic leader.

S is for Stuart, Andy: Clear Channel master and commander.

T is for Toth, Paul: Port Authority main man.

U is for Ujvagi, Peter: Career politician.

V is for V’Soske, Mark: Chamber of Commerce honcho.

W is for Word, Fletcher: Publisher for the people.

X is for Xunming Deng: Co-founder of Xunlight, the great light hope for the future.

Y is for Yenrick, Tim: Red Cross man.

Z is for Zerbey, Joe: Deck chair arranger. Iceberg scout.

Michael S. Miller the is editor in chief of Toledo Free Press and Toledo Free Press Star.  E-mail him at mmiller@toledofreepress.com.

Tags: Andy Stuart, Bernie Quilter, Brian Epstein, Chris Kozak, Dean Monske, Fletcher Word, Hugh Grefe, Jerome Pecko, Joe Napoli, Joe Zerbey, Lee Conklin, Lee Dunn, Lighting The Fuse, Lloyd Jacobs, Marc Folk, Mark V'Soske, Michael Ashford, Mike Bell, Paul Toth, Peter Ujvagi, Rich Iott, Robert LaClair, Ron Rothenbuhler, Steve Herwat, Tim Yenrick, Xunming Deng

This entry was posted on Friday, August 13th, 2010 at 12:00 am and is filed under Lighting The Fuse, Opinion.
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More than 20 years ago, civic leaders in Toledo and Lucas County decided that our community should join more than 700 cities, counties and states in creating a locally controlled and funded resource devoted exclusively to advancing the quality, accessibility and affordability of local housing. They recognized that our community’s housing priorities could not be served by relying solely on state and federal resources.

The Housing Fund is a freestanding nonprofit organization modeled after housing funds across the nation. The Fund channels local financial resources into local housing programs and projects. Having local funds dedicated to housing means that our community is able to address program and project financing gaps not covered by external resources. These local funds assure that housing projects and programs can also serve people slightly above the income restrictions associated with federal and state dollars granted to the City.

The Housing Fund helps create sustainable housing developments and neighborhoods by assuring that more of the “working poor” can participate. In doing so, it allows our community to overcome the limitations of the “one size fits all” nature of state and federal funds.

The Housing Fund board includes representatives from private and public organizations concerned with housing: The Toledo Board of Realtors, the City of Toledo, Lucas County, Lucas Metropolitan Housing Authority, the Toledo Home Builders Association, Local Initiatives Support Corporation, the Toledo Fair Housing Center, Toledo Area Ministries, the Greater Toledo Housing Coalition, the Ability Center of Greater Toledo, Toledo-Lucas County Plan Commissions, NHA/Mildred Bayer Homeless Clinic, Fifth Third Bank, the Toledo CDC Alliance and AFSCME Ohio Local 8.

To achieve the purpose of housing funds, local government must commit a dedicated revenue stream to its local fund. Although there are many options for how that can be done, it must be reliable and dedicated in order to place the local housing fund on a sound footing. Typically, local governments dedicate a portion of a fee, such as the hotel-motel tax or the real estate conveyance fee to support local housing funds.

At issue now is an obligation of the City of Toledo to provide funds resulting from its use of a $3 million Urban Development Action Grant to build the Superior Garage in Downtown. The legislation in effect resulted from negotiations between the City and the Greater Toledo Housing Coalition; the Housing Fund serves as the fund recipient and program manager to oversee the use of the committed funds.

The Housing Fund works in tandem with other resources to help people in neighborhoods csuffering from blight, vacant lots or homes, and other effects of disinvestment and declining property values.  In doing so, the Fund seeks to increase property values, neighborhood stability, and local tax revenue. Housing developers — including private and nonprofits — along with organizations providing housing related services such as foreclosure prevention counseling are invited to submit proposals the Housing Fund. Through this competitive process, the Board seeks the strongest and most effective proposals.

In 2009, the Housing Fund approved grants to the Ability Center to help 25 households improve home access; to United North to assist 25 households with emergency repairs, to the North West Ohio Development Agency and Neighborhood Housing Services to assist in preventing tax foreclosure; and to Toledo Community Development Corporation and Friendship New Vision to help 25 current homeowners with needed repairs. In 2008, the Housing Fund assisted Maumee Valley Habitat for Humanity in constructing five new homes and it supported the Toledo Fair Housing Center’s assistance of 10 households to through the Restoring the Dream Predatory Lending Remediation Program. The Fund also made a loan to support the Dorr Street Brownstone development.

Although resources available to the Housing Fund remain modest in comparison to the challenges facing housing in the greater Toledo area, the Fund Board is committed to working with local government to ensure that we have the strongest possible local housing program.

The Housing Fund Board agrees strongly with the Toledo Board of Realtors President Mary Ann Coleman, who wrote the following to members of City Council:

“It is with great concern for citizens in need that I write and urge you to ask Mayor Michael Bell to reconsider his recent decision to discontinue funding the Toledo-Lucas County Housing Trust. Now is the worst time to stop funding any organization that has a good track record of making a difference in Toledo housing. If we do not continue to work on housing issues, nothing else will matter. No one will want to live in Toledo.”

Hugh Grefe is senior executive director at Local Initiatives Support Corporation. E-mail him at HGrefe@lisc.org.

Tags: AFSCME Ohio Local 8, City of Toledo, Fifth Third Bank, Housing Fund, Hugh Grefe, Local Initiatives Support Corporation, Lucas County, Lucas Metropolitan Housing Authority, NHA/Mildred Bayer Homeless Clinic, the Ability Center of Greater Toledo, the City of Toledo, the Greater Toledo Housing Coalition, The Toledo Board of Realtors, the Toledo CDC Alliance, the Toledo Fair Housing Center, the Toledo Home Builders Association, Toledo Area Ministries, Toledo-Lucas County Plan Commissions

This entry was posted on Thursday, August 12th, 2010 at 2:26 pm and is filed under Guest Column, Opinion.
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