The symposium precedes a week of projects April 17-25 in conjunction with Global Youth Service Day (GYSD). United Way of Greater Cincinnati and Children Inc., a United Way agency partner, are teaming up to recruit area youth to sign up for projects.

The April 17 symposium will include:

* Best-practice displays by area schools and other groups, including United Way of Greater Cincinnati’s Youth Engaged in Service (YES).

* Recognition of past service achievements and mini-grants to a select few presenters for use in future projects or as donations to a non-profit agency.

* Leadership development workshops.

* Networking opportunities for youth to discuss current issues facing the community and possible solutions.

* Presentations by national leaders in youth service who have created national movements out of local issues.

For questions or to sign up to host a table or present a topic, contact, Jordan Huizenga, Children Inc., at 859-431-2075, ext. 128, e-mail JHuizenga@childreninc.org.

To sign up for projects for the week of April 17-25, visit www.uwgc.org/gysd, call United Way’s The Volunteer Connection Center at 762-7235, or e-mail nickol.mora@uwgc.org.

Projects will include landscaping and yard work, gardening, serving a meal to homeless individuals, preparing elementary school age children for the Ohio Achievement test (tutoring), and helping “hands on” at a day camp for children with disabilities.

GYSD is an annual event celebrated in more than 100 countries highlighting the contributions of youth to their communities. In the U.S., the event is held in partnership with Youth Service America, an organization working to increase service opportunities for youth during the years they are developing lifelong habits.

“We are very gratified by the hundreds of letters we received from our readers, telling us about the extraordinary women in our community. We were challenged to narrow the group down to 10 honorees for the class of 2009,” said Margaret Buchanan, Enquirer president and publisher.

“It will be a privilege for us to share their stories in our special WOY section on April 18, and at the award luncheon on April 28.”

Nominated by co-workers, volunteers, bosses and those who have benefited from their work, the women have volunteered their time and skills to various needs throughout the community, whether in the schools, arts or social-service organizations.

These 10 women will be honored at the April 28 luncheon at the Hyatt Regency, Downtown:

Suzanne Costandi, Hyde Park: Since arriving in Cincinnati in 1970, Costandi has worked to promote health education for children. The former director of programs and education at the Cincinnati Museum Center helped develop the Children’s Discovery Center and has organized the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra’s “Lollipops” concerts for children. Costandi, who has a nursing degree, has also led capital fundraising campaigns for Mercy and TriHealth hospitals, and worked to raise funding for the needs of elderly people.

Marian Cummins, Independence: Cummins, a nurse and faculty member at Northern Kentucky University, has devoted her time to improving the health of underserved people. In 2003, she started Health From the Heart – now the Nurse Advocacy Center for the Underserved. The program places registered nurses in women’s shelters in Northern Kentucky to care for basic health needs. Cummins continues to coordinate the volunteer nurses who staff the program, which has expanded to include residents of housing projects.

Yvonne L. Edmonds-West, West Chester Township: For more than 32 years, Edmonds-West has nurtured youth through various organizations. She helped bring the Cincinnati Opera’s outreach program – “Oh Freedom!” a musical tribute to African-American history – to schoolchildren across the community. As a member of the nonprofit service group Links Inc., she tutored students at Lincoln Heights Elementary School, and has conducted fundraising for the YWCA of Greater Cincinnati and the Healthcare Connection.

Crystal Faulkner, Hyde Park: Faulkner, a co-owner of the financial firm Cooney Faulkner & Stevens, has volunteered her time to make financial concepts more understandable for the general public. She is founder of Accounting for Kids, a program that introduces financial literacy to students; is a member of the board of trustees for the Economics Center for Education and Research at the University of Cincinnati; and helped develop a financial education program for Cincinnati Public Schools – the first urban school system in Ohio to commit to such a curriculum.

Suzette Fisher, Amberley Village: Fisher, who moved to Cincinnati in 1986, is a founding member of the Women’s Leadership Council for the United Way. She serves on the allocation committee for the Jewish Federation of Cincinnati, and often visits the recipients of the organization’s family services. She also helped reshape the scope and structure of education at Rockwern Academy, a Jewish school serving preschool-grade 8.

Cheryl Hill, Colerain Township: Hill manages a global team as GE Aviation’s sourcing manager for China and India. She is also a volunteer board member for the General Electric Credit Union, where she started on the supervisory committee. She organizes the company’s volunteer work for organizations, including the Freestore Foodbank, St. Rita School for the Deaf and the March of Dimes, and mentors new employees and students in Aiken High School’s College Bound Program.

Rochelle S. Jeffries Johnson, North College Hill: While working for 35 years as a teacher and reading intervention specialist for the Cincinnati Public Schools, Jeffries Johnson provided students with the tools to pursue careers. She also raised record-setting donations for community projects supported by the Alpha Kappa Alpha sorority. Since retiring in 2006, Jeffries Johnson has continued to tutor students of all ages, volunteers at the Springfield Township Senior Center and serves as a volunteer property manager for Lee Chapel A.M.E. Church.

Sister Janet Linz, Over-the-Rhine: While principal at St. Francis Seraph School in Over-the-Rhine, Linz is credited with turning around the grade school by establishing support programs and scholarships to help students continue at Catholic high schools. Now at Purcell Marian High School, Linz formed and leads the Lavatus Powell Urban Students Program to help guide students who are at risk of failing to graduate.

Elizabeth Tu Hoffman, Indian Hill: Tu Hoffman, who was born in the United States but received her primary education in Taiwan, has devoted much of her life to improving the ties between Cincinnati and China. She established E. Tu Associates in 1982, which has helped many small and medium-sized companies establish trade relations with Asia. Since 1976 she has volunteered her bilingual skills for community services, and has served as chair for the Cincinnati-Liuzhou sister-city program.

Ronna Willis, Amberley Village: Willis has chaired major fundraising events for Playhouse in the Park, Cincinnati Opera and the Cincinnati Ballet, in addition to three galas for Jewish Hospital. While serving on committees for the ballet, Willis has supported the needs of dancers, providing Thanksgiving dinners and arranging housing when needed, and she started an education program for the dancers at Cincinnati State. .

 The campaign exceeded its $62 million goal, coming in at $62,025,000.

Drive chairman A.G. Lafley gave the community a figurative slap on the back.

“I am overwhelmed by the generosity,” he said during a noon-hour campaign finale at the Millennium Hotel downtown.

“We entered the last 10 days of the campaign with a gap of about half a million dollars. Two months ago the gap was $2 million. A month ago it was $1 million. With the efforts of literally thousands of people who recognized that this is a year when we could not fall short, we’re here today to announce we’ve met our goal.”

On Aug. 26, in announcing the goal, Lafley took the recession into account and said that $62 million was the minimum the campaign had to reach.

“The current economic situation continues to have a major impact on the number of people seeking help, many for the first time in their lives,” Lafley, the chairman of Procter & Gamble, said today.

Addressing this issue is the role of social service agencies and social welfare programs. While such programs are often criticized, at their best they give disadvantaged, underproductive citizens the means toward productivity, self esteem and economic self-sufficiency.

I took a tour of one such program, Cincinnati Cooks!, last week.

This is the motto of Cincinnati Cooks! It is an intense 10-week program sponsored by United Way and the Freestore Foodbank that teaches the skills needed to work in the food service industry. In addition to food preparation, students must also set tables, take orders, serve food and wash dishes. If it happens in a restaurant, they have to learn it. And that includes fancy French terminology… this is definitely the only place in the city where one might hear the phrases “state penitentiary” in one sentence and mis en place the next.

In addition to food prep training, the students are given ServSafe training which is a food safety course based on CDC guidelines. The course teaches the causes and prevention of foodborne illnesses and is a valuable asset for anyone seeking managerial work in the industry.

Before any culinary training can begin, however, the students must learn basic workplace skills that most of us take for granted but which many of them have not learned. The head teacher, Chef Jeff Pitts, explained that discipline and structure are key elements of the program. Students must arrive by 8 a.m. They must sit straight. They must dress in uniform. They must address everyone by title. They must behave professionally with other students whether they like them or not.

Ordinarily, one might expect the combination of militaristic rule structure and disaffected attitudes to result in high attrition. But in reality the opposite is true because of the presence of former students, including Chef Pitts himself. Graduates of the program return to provide mentoring, guidance and encouragement to current students. This interaction between students and graduates lets students see the life-changing results for themselves and keeps them in the program. As a result, it has a 90% graduation rate. Even more impressive is that just under 80% of graduates were still employed 5 years after graduation (at least when the economy was better).

I spoke with one graduate who expressed great satisfaction with the mentoring aspect because, unlike his regular job as a chef, mentoring had a “humanitarian” aspect of giving back to the community which is something he had never experienced before. This person had previously been in prison and couldn’t get a job afterwards. He told me he was hired within two weeks of his graduation.

The tour included lunch so we sampled the students’ work. I was particularly impressed with my entree, chicken stuffed with wild rice and mozzarella. The chicken was perfectly cooked: delicious, moist and tender. All the food was gustatorily and aesthetically pleasing so it should not have been a surprise to find out that Cincinnati Cooks! has a flourishing catering operation with selections for breakfast, lunch (including box lunches) and dinner. They do weddings and corporate events and provide 1000 lunches every day to low income schoolchildren.

I asked what Cincinnati Cooks! can do with additional resources. The answer, predictably enough, is that it can hire an additional teacher and take on more students. The program is already planning to move into a new building with a kitchen space dedicated to its catering operation which it hopes will expand and generate supporting revenue.

Based on my observations, Cincinnati Cooks! is an exemplary social service program. It provides job skills, personal responsibility and financial stability to those who did not have them. In a strictly economic sense it is an outstanding investment in human capital because it converts an underproductive tax-consuming group into a productive taxpaying group. In a humanitarian sense it lays the foundation for personal pride and self-determination that many students feel for the first time. Such success does not happen by accident and United Way and Freestore Foodbank deserve accolades and gratitude for setting up this effective program that benefits the city.

The most important lesson? “They taught me to just let kids be kids,” said the Newport woman, whose twins, Ben and Bogan, are now 9.

Every Child Succeeds, an Avondale-based home visitation program aimed at helping first-time mothers in Greater Cincinnati and Northern Kentuckygive their babies the best possible start, marks its 10th anniversary this year. Since its founding in 1999, staff have made nearly 300,000 home visits to more than 15,000 families around the region, said president Judith Van Ginkel.

“Our whole focus is on developing autonomy for the moms and the families,” Van Ginkel said. “They’re with us for a certain period of time, and we want to make the best use of that time that we can.”

The program was established as a collaboration between the United Way, Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center and Cincinnati-Hamilton County Community Action Agency when community leaders realized no United Way programs addressed developmental issues for very young children.

Kaycee Kellens’ daughter, Kearney, routinely outsmarts the developmental tests that her home visitor administers. And Kellens credits the program with giving her the encouragement to earn her nursing degree.

“It was nice to have your own personal cheerleader,” the Harrison woman said.

Home visitors work one-on-one with families until the baby turns 3.

Their jobs include everything from getting pregnant clients to a doctor for prenatal care to helping reduce premature birth and infant mortality to teaching parents how to manage temper tantrums.

They also make sure the children are ready to start pre-school when the time comes, Van Ginkel said.

“We’re creating a literacy curriculum for children 0 to 3 in cooperation with the National Center for Family Literacy in Louisville,” she said. “We’re building it. It doesn’t exist.”

The program collects data on all of its families to measure their progress and identify which approaches are effective and which aren’t.

The program’s clients, who tend to be young and poor, are at greater risk for premature birth, which can lead to a host of health and developmental problems for their babies.

The program’s focus on getting moms prenatal care has helped it rack up some impressive numbers:

90 percent of infants and children in the program are on-track developmentally.

90.9 percent of mothers who enrolled while pregnant delivered babies at a healthy birth weight.

99.5 percent of mothers who enrolled while pregnant went to four or more prenatal visits.

Infant mortality rates for families in the program is 4.7, compared to 7.8 for Ohio, 6.9 for Kentucky and 17.4 for the city of Cincinnati.

The program has earned a national reputation for its effectiveness, Van Ginkel said, and staff are working with agencies in Connecticut, Boston and Little Rock, Ark., interested in adapting its principles.

Through its 15 partner agencies, Every Child Succeeds offers a variety of parenting classes.

Kellens and her husband, Vic, attend classes together on effective discipline techniques and other topics. When Kellens struggled with post-partum depression after Kearney’s birth, her home visitor helped her get through it.

“My mother hadn’t dealt with it. My mother-in-law hadn’t dealt with it. So there really wasn’t anyone close that I could ask,” Kellens said. “It was really helpful to have my home visitor there to tell me, ‘It’s not you. It’s not that you’re a bad mom.’”

Kellens and her daughter will graduate in December.

McCutchen still keeps in touch with her home visitor.

That could come in handy, she said when the twins started squabbling with their young sister, Cecily.

“Maybe she’ll come back,” McCutchen said.

Allow me to attack that short-sightedness.

First, as part of the tour that the wonderful folks of United Way of Greater Cincinnati and FreeStore Foodbank arranged for several bloggers, the Cincinnati Cooks! folks were kind enough to include a sit-down lunch as part of the deal. (You can’t comprehend the hearts these people have) They served us stuffed chicken breast–the stuffing being rice, spinach and mozzerella cheese–steamed vegetables, mac and cheese and an apple crumble cake for desert.

I can’t begin to adequately describe to you the delicious looking presentation of the meal. Unfortunately, I was too busy devouring it to take pics of it. As delicious as it looked, the meal tasted even better. Until they invent smell-o-vision or taste-o-blogs, you’ll just have to take my word as a foodie on this. The chicken was moist and the stuffing was perfectly combined in the right proportion (a testament to the roll technique taught by the Master Chefs who donate their time and talents). The steamed vegetables were not mushy in the least (a classic oversteaming issue), but had just the perfect crispness. I love that! I can’t stand mushy veggies. Finally, the apple crumble cake had wonderfully sweet chunks of actual apple in its moist and delicious cake. They were like little surprises of heaven!

So if you come up to me in person and suggest that something like Cincinnati Cooks! doesn’t have quality food, my stomach will literally come out of my body Alien-style and beat you senseless for such buffoonery.

And secondly, allow me to direct you to Cincinnati Cooks! catering service. Oh that’s right, they have their own catering service, in addition to providing food for Kids Cafe everyday. And we’re not talking about little pigs-in-a-blanket appetizer either. They will cater breakfast, brunch, lunch, dinner or whatever you’ve got.

Here’s just a sampling of some of what they offer: Bahamian Albacore Tuna Salad; Carmel Apple & Goat Cheese; Ghiradelli Chocolate Brownies; Fountain Square Hot Breakfast Buffet; Agean Greek Salad; Asiago & Tenderloin of Beef Sandwich; Filet Mignon on Crostini w/Herbed Cheese appetizers.

Hungry yet?

So the next time you think a service organization that deals with food services can’t produce quality dishes, you’d better stop and check yourself. Cincinnati Cooks! can and does. In fact, you should go one better. You should order from Cincinnati Cooks! for your next event. It’s a total win-win situation. The food and service will be top-notch. You’re event guests/participants will be impressed, no doubt. And you’ll be giving back to your community by sponsoring a wonderful organization through your order.

Thanks again to all the wonderful people at Cincinnati Cooks!, The FreeStore Foodbank and United Way of Greater Cincinnati for helping set up the tour, and for an unbelievable couple of hours.

Remember: There are literally thousands of ways to help your community through the United Way. If you haven’t done your part yet, click on the “Live United” button in the right column of my blog or simply click here. I’m sure you will find a way to actively participate. Though the fundraising campaign might end on October 30th, the need and your volunteerism doesn’t.

Check in, pay attention, volunteer, donate and Live United.

With less than two weeks remaining in the 2009 campaign, the United Way of Greater Cincinnati is turning to two strategies centered around the Procter & Gamble Co. to draw new business prospects and support the fundraising effort.

The campaign has reached $45.9 million, or 74 percent of the $62 million goal.

The first strategy is the Live United 100, a recognition opportunity for 100 companies with the highest per-capita giving that have between 10 and 500 employees. The companies recognized will come from those that aren’t already recognized by the Top 25, Tremendous 25 or other United Way lists.

To qualify for the new recognition, participating companies must give at least $10,000 through any combination of corporate, employee or special event fundraising. Recognized companies will be mentioned in a sponsored advertisement in the Business Courier and invited to an exclusive Dec. 1 event featuring a conversation with campaign chairman A.G. Lafley, chairman of P&G, and Courier publisher Doug Bolton. Lafley also will be joined by other Greater Cincinnati CEOs, including the CEO representing the top Live United 100 company, for a panel discussion at the event.

“We are at the home stretch of the annual campaign, and we know reaching out to new business prospects is one way we can boost contributions and our support for critical community services,” United Way CEO Rob Reifsnyder said in a news release.

The second strategy aims to target new business in the brand, marketing, design, advertising and architecture industries. United Way and P&G are planning an incentive event for the region’s marketing and design community. The Jan. 6 event at P&G’s world headquarters will feature a conversation about recently announced changes that bring several of the corporation’s business units together as a single brand building organization. The forum will be led by: Marc Pritchard, global brand building officer; Phil Duncan, global design officer; Joan Lewis, global consumer and marketing knowledge officer; and Chris Hassall, global external relations officer.

Eligible companies would be invited by meeting minimum giving levels for new business ($10,000) or increased giving levels for currently participating companies. That’s $10,000 for companies giving less than that amount in 2008 or a 5 percent increase for companies that gave $10,000 or more in 2008.

For more information about the two new strategies, contact Mike Baker at mike.baker@uwgc.org.

I have been a big supporter of the United Way of Greater Cincinnati. My former employer was as well. So for the past several years, my support consisted of signing a form delegating how much money would be taken from my paycheck and donated. Now that certainly admirable, as the United Way will never turn down monetary donations. However, I should have been doing more.

My current unemployment status, obviously, took away the option of donating cash this go ’round. So I was forced to do things differently. I’m certainly glad I did.

Several days ago I volunteered to use my blogging skills (such as they are) for getting the word out about some of the lessor known programs that UWGC has a hand in. I had the privilege (and I do mean privilege) of touring the Cincinnati Cooks! facility. Cincinnati Cooks! is a program that is sponsored by the FreeStore Foodbank, which gets help from UWGC.

Their motto is “Feeding the Soul of the City”. That’s exactly what they do (although they feed your stomach pretty darn good as well; more on that in a later post). In fact, it’s the most important thing that they do.

Cincinnati Cooks! is a 10-week program that teaches those from low income households all facets of cooking and kitchen operation. Students are not only provided with skills in the kitchen, and a 16-hour “ServSafe” Certification, but most importantly, they are provided with life skills as well.

As our guide, Chef Jeff Pitts (more on him in a later post as well), told us, “those who are accepted to the program are told to be here on their first day at 8am sharp. If they get here at 8:03am, they are told to go home and come back again when the next group begins 5-weeks later.”

If that sounds harsh, it’s not. You ever watched an episode of Hell’s Kitchen? I’ve got friends in New York City who work in kitchens; it’s not that far off. You’re late; you’re out. End of story.

That type of “tough love” is working. The program has over a 70% retention rate of graduates who have gone on to get jobs in the food services industry and keep them. You can just imagine what other things in their lives have improved along with the steady paycheck and increased regiment. And those who graduate and move on often return to donate their time and skills, as their way of paying it forward. In fact, Chef Pitts is a graduate himself! And while I was there, a recent graduate returned to have lunch with students who were in the class after him to talk and encourage them about what lies ahead of them.

Probably the least known part about Cincinnati Cooks! is that the meals that the students cook as part of their training each day are the meals that feed 1,000 children per day in the Kids Cafe sites of Cincinnati and Northern Kentucky. From the moment the students enter the program, they are being taught how to give back, in addition to kitchen skills.

What Cincinnati Cooks! does is some of the most inspiring, yet unknown, work in town. There’s so much that I was affected by that day that I can’t fit in all in one blog. So I’ve decided to make several posts. Just think of it as my own personal investigative series.

Only I’m not looking to catch crooks!  Just donations and volunteers!

So for those of you who donate to UWGC and have always wanted to know, on a more intimate, personal level, what is being done with your money, this is your chance. Follow along with my posts about this program; then get out and volunteer your time at one of your choice.

You can find all the information you need to know at http://www.uwgc.org/ or you can just click the “Live United” button to your right. If there is any information I leave out (after I’m finished with this post series) about the FreeStore Foodbank or Cincinnati Cooks!, you can find out more about them at http://www.freestorefoodbank.org/ And if you just want to donate money and that’s all…well, UWGC will certainly accept that as well.

Just find a way to “feed your soul”.