March 5: Workforce, Education, Training and Youth Development Committee, Cleveland City Council
Covered by Documenters Michaylah Burch (notes) and Nick Ventura (live-tweets)
Cleveland City Council members heard updates on American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) dollars that they approved for career development and education last year.
A Cleveland job development pipeline
Michelle Rose, executive director of OhioMeansJobs, gave a report on the $10 million that OhioMeansJobs and its partners within the Built Environment Collaborative received for workforce development.
Rose said that the goal is to recruit at least 3,000 people into job training programs for the “built environment” by 2026. They expect this to translate into 800 “grant-impacted” jobs. This includes work in construction, infrastructure, transit and water, broadband deployment, and climate action and remediation.
Of the participants, 65% must be Black Clevelanders, 13% Latine Clevelanders, and 30% women. The racial demographics are consistent with those of Cleveland schools, according to Rose. She said that 241 trainees have enrolled so far.
A trainee fund has also been established to help with barriers to training. Rose described the fund as providing wraparound support. She gave examples of possible uses for the money, such as repairing a car to get to work or enrolling a child in childcare.
Rose said the trainee fund has distributed a little over $13,000.
Healthy Cleveland schools
Marcia Egbert of The George Gund Foundation said that the $3.7 million in ARPA funding that council approved for supporting the Cleveland Metropolitan School District’s (CMSD) Integrated Health Initiative was going towards increasing awareness of health services and improving facilities. This includes updating medical equipment, providing telehealth options, and creating on-site health clinics in schools. Egbert said they are working on three new on-site health clinics.
She said the Cleveland Clinic, MetroHealth, and Care Alliance will provide services through the clinics. Teachers, administrators, and students and their families will have access to the clinics.
Dale Anglin, who spoke as a representative of the Cleveland Foundation before starting a new job, told council members CMSD was able to find their own funding, independent of ARPA dollars, to fund nurses in each school as a part of the initiative.
Note: The Cleveland Foundation is one of Signal Cleveland’s funders, and Anglin sits on Signal Cleveland’s board.
Back to school
Maggie McGrath, executive director of the Higher Education Compact of Greater Cleveland, said that her organization and College Now have worked with 62 “comebackers” since Oct. 1, 2023, to re-enroll in college.
Last year, City Council awarded $300,000 to help publicize College Now’s Comebacker Campaign, which encouraged people who completed some college but did not get a degree to re-enroll. McGrath said that they have worked with 675 Clevelanders since Oct. 1 to determine a re-enrollment plan. They provided 13 of those people with some debt relief through the Cuyahoga County Debt Repayment program, totalling more than $12,800.
McGrath said the majority of the $300,000 they received from City Council has gone towards media, social media, and marketing. She said more than 800,000 people heard their radio ads, and ads on Instagram and Facebook have received more than 5,000 clicks.
Michele Scott Taylor, president of College Now Greater Cleveland, said that College Now is also working to reach more people through their resource center in Tower City and a presence at the Greater Cleveland Food Bank. She said employees will be at the food bank at least two days a week and on weekends.
The Ohio College Comeback Compact helps former students interested in attending a Northeast Ohio public university or community college to re-enroll. Visit College Now for more details on the program.
Read the notes from Documenter Michaylah Burch:
Read the live-tweet thread from Documenter Nick Ventura:
Suggested Reading
Cash-strapped Cleveland schools lose out on millions from tax abatements
Between 2017 and 2023, CMSD lost out on a total of $201.8 million. Backers of the property tax breaks say they are necessary for growth and development.