It’s time to celebrate the people and organizations that do great work in our community. It’s time to celebrate the people and organizations that do great work in our community! Nominations open today for the annual $25,000 Anisfield-Wolf Memorial Award to a nonprofit organization for outstanding service and the Most Treasured Volunteer Awards. Who will...
Barriers to accessing and navigating OhioWIC: user experiences can inform improvements
By: Hope A. Lane-Gavin, Fellow, Health Equity, The Center for Community Solutions Katherine Ungar, Policy Associate, Children’s Defense Fund – Ohio Over the past several months, The Center for Community Solutions and Children’s Defense Fund-Ohio have worked together to evaluate the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program to Women, Infants, and Children (WIC). WIC is a critical program,...
Racism as a Public Health Crisis: Mental Health Pipeline
A temper tantrum over a pair of sunglasses led to the arrest of a six-year-old. That six-year-old child with known medical issues was arrested by the school’s resource officer, placed in zip ties by another officer, put in the back of a police car, taken to a juvenile center for processing fingerprinted, had their mug...
Greater Cleveland Area Organizations Seek to Build Human Capital Through Ohio’s Capital Budget
The Ohio General Assembly will soon take up a state capital budget that will top the $2 billion dollar mark. Several health and human service organizations in Greater Cleveland are making the case for why their organizations should receive some of these funds via a community project designation. In the last state capital budget, 13...
Public Health Emergency Unwind: Nutrition
From the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic and subsequent Public Health Emergency (PHE) it was clear that in order to mitigate the virus’ harm on our public health infrastructure, our economy and life as we knew it, governments, from Congress to City Hall, needed to prioritize strengthening the health and human service safety net. Across...
Ohio Benefits Self-Service Portal Gets Important Upgrade; Ohio Starts to Commit to Human Centered-Design
By: Rachel Cahill, Visiting Fellow, Public Benefits Jami Turley, Ohio Benefits System User Ohioans have long faced problems using Ohio’s online application and case management system for key work supports, including the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), Medicaid, and Ohio Works First (OWF). In November 2020, Community Solutions published a paper entitled, Prioritize Customer Needs...
Exploring the Digital Divide in Ohio
Ohioans are becoming more connected than ever before. According to the newly released American Community Survey 2020 5-year estimates, 84.9% of Ohio households (4,003,564 households) are connected to the internet. The majority (84.5%; 3,988,413 households) of these connections are high speed broadband connections, such as cable, fiber optic, cellular data, or satellite services, however, a...
Impact of Ohio Substitute House Bill 327 on Non-Profit Organizations
Ohio Substitute House Bill 327 is currently pending before the House State and Local Government Committee. The bill, as drafted, would impose sweeping new prohibitions on local non-profit organizations implementing inclusion and diversity programs in the State of Ohio if they receive any funds from the State of Ohio or an Ohio political subdivision. The...
Emily Campbell and Emily Muttillo Move into New Leadership Roles at Community Solutions
Emily Campbell has been appointed chief operating officer for The Center for Community Solutions. In this new role she will oversee all the research, policy, and administration related activities of the organization. Emily Muttillo has been appointed as the new Williamson Family Fellow for Applied Research and will serve as director of the Community Solutions...
Getting older and getting connected
What do your seventeen-year-old niece and seventy-four-year-old uncle have in common? An obsession with TikTok? Maybe, especially if they live in Lorain County. A recent community needs assessment of older adults in Lorain County paired with census data has revealed some surprising and exciting data related to older adults and internet usage. And while Uncle...