Neighborhood Media Foundation exists to strengthen existing neighborhood and community media, to foster new media outlets in underserved communities, to provide funding and expertise to overcome obstacles for small media outlets, and to build networks of assistance and collaboration between small media outlets anywhere in the world where there are communities. Our startup project, the convening and support of NCMA-CLE (Neighborhood & Community Media Association of Greater Cleveland), has helped spark or sustain a list of 15 (and growing!) new and longstanding ethnic and community media produced by and for community members in our focus area of Cleveland, Ohio. Our community-media-only roundtables with newsmakers are an example of our cooperative, collaborative work.
Continue reading “Mayor Bibb Community Media-Only Roundtable on WOVU 4pm March 22”Mayor Bibb Cleveland Southeast Side Town Hall 2023
Mayor Justin Bibb hosted a town hall meeting on Wednesday, November 8th, at 6:00 p.m. to discuss Southeast Side initiatives. The event featured a panel made up of key members of the mayor’s cabinet, including representatives from public safety, building and housing, and public works. The discussion was moderated by Richard T. Andrews, editor and publisher of The Real Deal Press, and president of NCMA-CLE, Cleveland’s ethnic and community media network. This was an opportunity for community members to learn about the upcoming plans for the Southeast Side and ask questions. Residents of the Southeast Side attended in person at Bethany Christian Church or watched the livestream on the City’s Facebook channel (video courtesy of TV20 Cleveland, distributed by Neighborhood Media Foundation).
Cleveland Community Media Producers Hold Roundtable with Mayor Justin Bibb
[Republished with permission from the Plain Press]
At the Neighborhood and Community Media Association of Greater Cleveland first press conference with Mayor Justin Bibb, time allowed each news outlet just one question for the mayor. Below are the questions from the members of the Neighborhood and Community Media Association [and other community media producers] and Mayor Justin Bibb’s responses.
Chuck Hoven, Plain Press
A number of years ago at Walton School I sat in a session with grade school kids and they were asked a what if question. What if they could have whatever they wanted for afterschool programs at their school. And the kids came up with maybe seventy or eighty things within about a half an hour – everything from a sewing club to their own soccer field.
What I wanted to ask you about is the Comprehensive Extracurricular Activities Program. In the late 1990s the Cleveland Browns Stadium was given a tax exemption. The Cleveland Schools were promised that they would be made whole – they wouldn’t lose the tax dollars that would have come from the stadium. It was supposed to be two million dollars a year. And for the first decade it was $2 million dollars a year.
Continue reading “Cleveland Community Media Producers Hold Roundtable with Mayor Justin Bibb”Cleveland Consent Decree Public Meeting on Youth and Policing
By Rich Weiss, for Neighborhood & Community Media Association of Greater Cleveland
The Neighborhood and Community Media Association of Greater Cleveland is providing monthly reports on a series of community conversations about the 2015 Consent Decree negotiated between the US Department of Justice and the City of Cleveland regarding the policies and practices of the Cleveland Police Department.
“This question comes from a fellow student here at Tri-C. He asks in what ways can the policies instated by the Consent Decree be proactive rather than just reactive?”
“Based on research, it was discovered that police officers may hold unconscious biases against minority youth and make assumptions about them based on their age, their race, their dress style, appearance, and other parameters—sometimes Black folks look older than their age. My question is how do we practically reconcile this unhealthy sentiment while ensuring it’s a saner, a safer, and a happy society?”
“Do you believe the Cleveland Consent Decree has prepared police officers to carry out their tasks safely and effectively in such a unique time?”
“What things specifically are being done to have officers engaging and becoming more relatable to the community?”
“Can you file a complaint with the department if they feel like they’re they have an encounter with the officer that was inappropriate?”
“How do Cleveland Police Officers feel about what has been happening, for example last year, and then the overall police brutality, and what steps are you taking to make sure that these things do not happen in the city of Cleveland?”
These were among the questions asked by three Scholars of Cuyahoga Community College (Tri-C) Jack, Joseph and Morton Mandel Scholars Academy during the last conversation held online seeking public input on Cleveland’s Consent Decree. The October meeting focused on “Youth and Policing.”
Continue reading “Cleveland Consent Decree Public Meeting on Youth and Policing”Cleveland Consent Decree Public Meeting on Community Involvement
By Rich Weiss, for Neighborhood & Community Media Association of Greater Cleveland
The Neighborhood and Community Media Association of Greater Cleveland (NCMA-CLE) is providing monthly reports on a series of community conversations about the 2015 Consent Decree negotiated between the US Department of Justice and the City of Cleveland regarding the policies and practices of the Cleveland Police Department.
“On a scale of 1 to 10, what percentage of the Consent Decree [is] considered to be completed? 10 percent, 30 percent, 70 percent?”
“Do you think the Community Police Commission (CPC) should play a more significant role with enforcement power? And are there any down sides to shifting disciplinary enforcement power from the Chief of Police?”
“Why should Clevelanders believe that the CPD can police itself and its behavior without significant oversight from citizens, since we’ve had two federal probes and we still are underneath a Consent Decree beyond its five-year deadline?”
These were among the questions being asked and answered during the monthly conversations held online about the workings of Cleveland’s Consent Decree. The September meeting focused on the “Cleveland Police Commission and Citizen Involvement.”
Continue reading “Cleveland Consent Decree Public Meeting on Community Involvement”Public Input Needed on Cleveland Consent Decree Search and Seizure Policies
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Community members needed to join fifth Cleveland Consent Decree Community Conversation sponsored by NAACP- Cleveland Chapter and United Way of Greater Cleveland: 6:00 pm, May 12
By Rich Weiss, for Neighborhood & Community Media Association of Greater Cleveland
If you missed your chance to attend the April 15th public input meeting on the Cleveland Police Consent Decree, your input is still needed for the upcoming Consent Decree Community Conversation at 6:00 pm on May 12 (on Zoom). This public meeting (co-sponsored by the local chapters of the United Way and NAACP) seeks your opinions and questions on progress of the Cleveland Division of Police in the areas of Crisis Intervention and Officer Wellness.
According to Roger Smith, Administrator of Cleveland’s Office of Professional Standards, “It’s really what the grassroots wants that should be driving this train. It’s important for public figures and people who work in public agencies to understand with clarity what it is the community wants, here—what role they want the police to play in their communities and what kind of rules do they want to govern those interactions. The only way to find that out is to get it from the community.”
Continue reading “Community members needed to join fifth Cleveland Consent Decree Community Conversation sponsored by NAACP- Cleveland Chapter and United Way of Greater Cleveland: 6:00 pm, May 12”Local United Way & NAACP Chapters seek community input on CPD Consent Decree
Rather than ‘flatten the curve’ it is time to ‘crush the curve’
This story was sponsored by the Northeast Ohio Solutions Journalism Collaborative, which is composed of 20-plus Northeast Ohio news outlets including Profile News Ohio and several other Neighborhood & Community Media Association of Greater Cleveland member outlets.
by Rich Weiss and Julia Bejjani
The colder weather has brought with it the predicted spike in new coronavirus cases to the State of Ohio—and the rest of the world—as we all gather more closely, indoors.
In recent weeks, news about vaccine trial progress has brought hope to a coronavirus pandemic-weary global population—particularly those coping with the loss of family, friends, and colleagues to the lethal virus.
The fatigue of this pandemic, mixed with a seemingly insurmountable surge in new cases this fall, plus the hope of vaccines on the horizon, all together could lull us into relaxing our fight to contain coronavirus just as we reach our most dangerous levels of community spread.
Jade Khalife, MD, MPH, MSc., health systems practitioner and researcher for Lebanon’s Joint Health Systems Research project, is arguing that the time is now for Lebanon—and the world—to replicate a set of coronavirus containment policies, called, “crushing the curve,” which show better results than the more widely adopted “flattening the curve” policies.
