shark&minnow Awards Global Cleveland on #GivingTuesday
Strategic marketing and business consulting firm, shark&minnow, committed to giving back this holiday season. In honor of #GivingTuesday– a global day where businesses and communities come together to celebrate generosity through giving initiatives, shark&minnow launched their 2nd Annual #sharkATTACK contest.
As the winning Greater Cleveland non-profit organization, Global Cleveland was selected to receive a day of complimentary strategy and marketing consulting services.
"Cleveland has a proud history of being a place of inclusion and diversity,” says Hallie Bram Kogelschatz, CEO of shark&minnow. “We are so proud to partner with Global Cleveland to help them ideate around continuing this legacy.”
shark&minnow is a business & marketing consultancy that makes the complex simple. Core offerings include research & insights, strategic planning, design & marketing communications. For more information visit sharkandminnow.com.
Cleveland Multicultural Holiday Celebration
You’re invited to the 7th Annual Cleveland Multicultural Holiday Celebration on Wednesday, December 14, 2016 at the Global Center for Health Innovation, 1 Saint Clair Avenue, NE. The International Community Council-Worldwide Intercultural Network (ICC-WIN) presents this gala event in partnership with the City of Cleveland and with Global Cleveland as a Community Partner. Premier sponsor of the event is US Bank. This is annual signature event of ICC-WIN and provides an opportunity for outstanding international networking!
The event features international foods, international dancer performances, and international fashion show with 20+ cultures represented. There will be a silent auction featuring international handicrafts. Door open at 6 PM and the program continues to 9 PM.
The cost is $15 per person with discounted parking available at City of Cleveland City Hall lots. To register please go to: www.icc-win.org
This event started as a small gathering in the Rotunda of Cleveland City Hall to a major gathering of hundreds of people in the Cleveland Convention Center. Please join me on Wednesday, December 14th and be a part of this wonderful celebration of our multicultural diversity!
Written By: Kenneth J. Kovach, President and ICC-WIN Board of Director
Addressing equity, diversity, and inclusion as a Spark Fellow
Global Cleveland is a proud member of Welcoming America, a nonprofit dedicated to helping local governments and nonprofit organizations build a welcoming infrastructure in more than 100 communities across the United States.
Pictured above, Ohio Fellows: Left Patricia Y. Hernández, Senior Attorney, Advocates for Basic Legal Equality, Inc. and right Melissa Bertolo, Welcome Dayton Program Coordinator, City of Dayton Human Relations Council
In August, I was chosen as one of eight fellows for Welcoming America’s Spark Fellowship (1 of 3 chosen from the State of Ohio). The Spark Fellowship, to advance racial equity, is a two-year fellowship, funded by the W.K. Kellogg Foundation. This intensive fellowship asks fellows to develop programming in our communities to raise awareness of disparities and to develop a strategy for change.
Although, the mission of GC is to attract, welcome, and connect International Newcomers to social and economic opportunities, the Spark Fellowships asks that, while advancing International Newcomer inclusion, we help close the gap in racial equity. This is something that has always been central to our work at Global Cleveland. From the inception of our organization, it’s been clear that our role to create a welcoming place of opportunity for all individuals regardless of race, ethnicity, creed, or sexual orientation.
I am honored to have been selected to represent Global Cleveland and our Greater Cleveland region, in order to address equity, diversity, and inclusion in our welcoming work. The Welcoming Framework incorporates strategies that create more inclusive communities, engaging both International Newcomers and receiving communities. In the past, and moving forward our work will be across the following areas: leadership and communications, equitable access, economic opportunity and education, civic engagement, and safe and connected communities.
In April, I attended my first in person meeting with the 7 other Spark Fellows and staff members at Welcoming America. I look forward to reconnecting with my Fellows, next month at the National International Newcomer Integration Conference, which will be held in December. These interactions help me learn and share best practices that are essential to engaging communities in ways that allow for greater understanding, particularly among people who may have concerns about or are unaware of the changing demographics of our community.
I am thankful to Welcoming America and the W.K. Kellogg Foundation for the opportunity to dive deeper into both racial equity and International Newcomer integration work. I am even more grateful to work with a team of colleagues who are supportive and understanding of my desire to participate in this fellowship.
More information about the fellowship and my fellow fellows can be found here.
Written By: Jazmin Long
Cleveland: My New Home
I was born in Shenyang, a city in the Northeast part of China with about 8 million people, and have lived there for the first 19 years of my life. Summer is not very hot, but winter gets unbelievably cold. Shenyang has a long history: it was once the capital of China during Qing Dynasty; it had suffered from war but has recovered from it; it has been an important industrial center in transition; it has 41 ethnic minority groups living in the city, and the city government legally recognizes five religious beliefs--Buddhism, Taoism, Islamism, Catholicism and Protestantism. If I were to describe the characters of Shenyang, I would say it is very open, diverse, and tolerant. It has a place for everyone, and it has always welcomed people from different cultures.
My whole family lives there, and so do many of my childhood friends. High school was one of the times most unforgettable for me, as it probably is for many of you. The different part of my story is that I was living in a dormitory--since all students were required to do so. I remembered well those days with countless laughter and fights, when 8 of us adolescent girls of different characters all sharing the same dorm.
At the age of 19, I passed the National Higher Education Examination and was accepted by a university in Shanghai. Arriving in Shanghai, I was so surprised, or you may even say shocked, by the prosperity of this city. With a population of 2.5 billion, Shanghai is truly the most populous economic center of mainland China. After spending 4 years in Shanghai, I still didn't experience all aspects of the city. It has countless shops, restaurants, cultural sites, entertainment facilities, an amazing extensive public transportation system, and a very quirk yet balanced coexistence of this “modern new world” and the “old relics”. I love this city so much, and would definitely recommend it to anyone who wants to see what modern China looks like.
Pursuing further education in Canada is probably one of the best decisions I’ve ever made. Living in Windsor, Ontario allowed me to experience North American life and to see other possibilities in my life. The friendly, open-minded Canadian people around me has inspired me to slow down my pace, and to switch my life focus from earning big money to spending time with the people and the things I love. I can feel the change: I became more mellow and considerate. This is also when and where I met my husband.
Upon accepting his new job, my husband and I moved to Cleveland together in April 2016. While he worked as a technical support person for a software company, I found a job as a program associate person at Global Cleveland. Half a year later, I am deeply attached to both the city, and this organization. Cleveland is also an open, diverse, and tolerant city with great vitality, just like my hometown Shenyang. Every day, I am learning more about the cultural, historical aspects of this city, and getting amazed by the theaters, the magnificent buildings in downtown area, and the friendly people I met. It is reassuring for me, as an International Newcomer, to realize that there is a large Migration group here in Cleveland, and I feel very engaged because of all the existing Chinese communities and organizations. Cleveland had its time when the manufacturing industry is prosperous and relied on, and then inevitably experienced the loss of job and the economic downturn when stepping into the new age—surprisingly again, just like my hometown. Like most people I met, I see the possibilities and opportunities here in Cleveland. And I have no doubt that with all the friendly hardworking people, the people with good will and a hope for better future, this city will rise again.
Global Cleveland, a nonprofit with the mission of attracting, welcoming and connecting International Newcomers to economic and social opportunities in Cleveland and Cuyahoga County, is working together with many other nonprofits of the same goal towards Cleveland’s revival. Every day, the people at Global Cleveland work hard to make Cleveland a friendlier place for people from other cities, states, and countries. We talk to individual international students and International Newcomers who have been here for decades; we educate employers and companies on the importance of Migration and assist them with the international hiring process; and we work closely with colleges and universities to present workshops, events and seminars on a variety of Migration-related topics. I feel very lucky to be part of this team, and I am proud to contribute in this process of “making a difference”.
Cleveland is my new home now. My husband and I had purchased a house, brought in our Canadian cats, and adopted a dog from the Summit Humane Society—so pretty much settled in. We are enjoying our little multi-cultural home, as well as our life in Cleveland. Like most other Clevelanders, we have high hopes in this city and expect that, someday, we will witness a more prosperous, more diverse, and more living Cuyahoga County.
Written By: Wenzhu Sun
My Life As An International Newcomer Living in Germany
Three months ago, my husband and I packed up our lives in Cleveland and made the move across the Atlantic to Düsseldorf, Germany. We are both lifelong Clevelanders, and though we love our hometown, we also love traveling, learning languages, and experiencing a different culture. Plus I believe that living in other countries gives you a sense of perspective for the world around you, where you come from, and it allows you to really understand your own heritage and background.
The move to Dusseldorf was not our first international move, so we felt ready for the challenges that come with such a large shift in your daily life. This time around we had my husband’s company supporting us in the move. They sent us a to-do list covering everything from the visa application to registering with city hall upon our arrival. The list was long, but we felt it was manageable.
It wasn’t until we were sitting in the German Consulate in Chicago that I realized we were becoming International Newcomers. The German government has been recruiting young, professional workers to emigrate to Germany to make up for their population loss and low birth rates for the last several years. We fit right into that category, and just like that we were officially International Newcomers.
Our first week as International Newcomers was a struggle. Between awkward cultural mishaps and German bureaucracy, we were wiped. We had to register with the city of Düsseldorf, open a bank account, apply for health insurance, register our dog with the city (he’s an International Newcomer, too, after all), get new cell phone plans, set up our Internet and settle into our apartment. We also had to do all of this in a particular order, because you know how Germans are with their love for orderliness. “Ordnung muß sein,” as they say here. Or, “there must be order.”
We were able to make our way through most of the above with broken German and assistance from my husband’s company, but it took a full week of crisscrossing the city and making repeated mistakes.
Just as my frustration with German bureaucracy was at a boiling point, we stumbled upon a government agency that helped Displaced Personss right down the street from our new apartment. I’m not 100% certain about what services they provide, but there was a steady stream of people coming in and out every day.
I realized not only how lucky we were that we had my husband’s company guiding us through the move, but that we at least had some language skills in our pocket. Not to mention that it was our choice to move to Germany. We weren’t compelled by a lack of opportunity or daily threats to our lives owing to dissident political beliefs or terrorism, like so many of today’s Displaced Personss and migrants are. We also arrived on a date of our choosing without the fear of being rejected at the border. We weren’t greeted by xenophobes threatened by our existence. We didn’t have to cram ourselves into a rickety old wooden boat destined to sink. Instead, we comfortably boarded an international flight and watched Key and Peele’s Keanu.
You know that saying, “walk a mile in their shoes”? I think my husband and I walked about a tenth of a tenth of a mile in the shoes of Displaced Personss and migrants, and even that was especially difficult. These types of experiences are what makes living in other countries worth it. This shift in perspective, this new insight builds compassion and understanding.
In my mind, this experience also reinforces why we need to be welcoming in our own communities and help Cleveland’s newest populations set down roots and bring them into the social fabric of our town. Inspired to help? Start with Global Cleveland, Displaced Persons Response or the Cleveland Displaced Persons Bike Project. Want to do more? Ask around, because the work never stops.
Written By: Melanie Furey
Altogether or Nothing!
Last week I was invited to present THE CLEVELAND STORY in Slovenia. For those of you who know it’s not Slovakia. That’s another amazing country a few hours to the north. Slovenia is where my mom was born, where both of my dad’s parents were born, and if you’ve heard me say or write this before here it is again. As a guest of an NGO (non-government organization or in America, non-profit) called SLOGA and in collaboration with the US Embassy I was invited to present the story of economic integration, security, and community building all through the lens of Migration. Cleveland and Cuyahoga County have a lot to share in so many ways: 1200 Displaced Personss came to NE Ohio last year, we saw over 2500 new US Citizens sworn in at our US Federal Courthouse, and between our 14 institutions of higher learning, close to 8000 students came here to study from a nation outside the US. While the work of harnessing this amazing energy is an ongoing lesson in better and better practices every day, it gave me a chance to talk about so much of the great work underway in Cleveland, Cuyahoga County, and Northeast Ohio TODAY.
From meeting with the civic leadership in Ljubljana (Cleveland’s sister city) to sharing a program with the US Ambassador Slovenia, Robert Hartley, the good work of our community and the many people engaged on so many levels were the common bridges. If you travel to Ljubljana you will see the core of the city are three beautiful often traveled bridges. These and the constant reminders of the beautiful places of worship via the ongoing neverending bells ringing (all day and all night) remind you of the special place that is the capitol. Every person I met with knew of Cleveland, and knew what a warm community we are. I especially appreciated learning from our partners in welcome from Greencard Voices (Minneapolis, MN), Welcoming America (Atlanta,GA) and International Rescue Committee (Miami, FL) and how we could borrow some tools and ideas for our great metropolis.
What challenged me most was the basic exercise of language. Having attended Slovenian language school for 9 years and having been raised by parents who were fluent didn’t make up for the fact that my translation was slow at first, and my desire to fully participate wasn’t always met with my command to do so. But over the course of a few days, something began to move inside my head and heart that made me understand my roots to this people and to this land. There was something equally subconscious and immensely apparent all at once. When I actually ordered a Turkish coffee with the right grammar and inflection, and I was answered as if I spoke this beautiful hard to master language everyday, I was ecstatic. Herein lies my personal lesson: we are all connected to our past and to each other. And while we don’t always have the perfect word or conjugation, the desire to connect and time to put in to this relationship is important. The more we recognize this, build on it, grow our city and our county and country from the inside out, understand that the cavalry isn’t coming because the cavalry is already here, support entrepreneurs, help people start businesses that inevitably welcome and employ native born Ohioans, welcome Displaced Personss who are fleeing hell to come here and start anew, the more we will grow and develop in a way for all of us.
On this day, we at Global Cleveland stand with our sisters and brothers of all faiths, geographies, and cultures. We do so because the act of welcoming for us is natural to who we are on our best days, and because we recognize that competitive, thriving, growing, dynamic communities are ones that celebrate, foment, encourage, and instigate true cultural, racial, and religious diversity.
I’m going to work on my Slovenian. I’m going to cross more of my own city’s bridges. I’m going to welcome more people from Latvia, Puerto Rico, El Salvador, Slovenia, Vietnam, India, China, Central African Republic, and Somalia and all points in between. As the Cleveland Public Library so boldly says on its Superior entrance: US is them. We all have a lot of work to do as we make this place we are from all it is and will be.
Written By: Joe Cimperman, Global Cleveland President
In Medias Res
October is awesome. Our world championship team shared their golden ringed joy, our incredible baseball team began the journey to the World Series, and Global Cleveland held the national stage for its work in welcoming newcomers and bringing prosperity to international and native born alike.
In two separate weeks, Global Cleveland was able to share best practices here and learn of best practices nationally in visits with delegations from Buffalo and in Philadelphia.
While in Buffalo with leadership from The City and County and in dialogue with the leadership in Buffalo we learned a lot, taught a lot and came away with the same understanding here and in Philadelphia.
1. No city/community has finished the book definitively on how to welcome newcomers from the Displaced Persons, new sworn in citizen, international student, globalizing business perspective, but here in The Land we have a lot going for us on many fronts
2. The most successful cities are the ones that work with people coming to welcome more, and the fact is the more a city and community focus on economic development the more people want to come to that place
3. The opportunities that Welcoming and Attracting afford are immense and filled with as many opportunities for the international entrepreneur as they do for people who are born and raised in the United States.
Global Cleveland is lucky to have the staff and board it does. It's also lucky to partner with you. I can say this with no hesitation: there is no other organization that does what we do and there is no greater city and county in which to build a more welcoming global community.
Thanks for continuing on with us.
Happy Dog Takes on the World: The Next President’s Foreign Policy Inbox
Regardless of which candidate prevails on November 8, the next President of the United States (U.S.) will inherit a complicated international landscape and mounting global problems.
The Syrian civil war shows no signs of ending, with a U.S. brokered cease-fire having recently failed and ISIS continuing attacks in the Middle East and around the globe. The United Kingdom will begin Brexit talks with the European Union in early 2017, testing the strength of both a key ally and stability of a key trade partner. Meanwhile, the U.S. relationship with China continues to betray tensions, as Chinese trade and military ambitions grow. And while Latin America is dealing with the fallout from the end of its commodities fueled boom, Migration out of the African continent continues unabated.
What should the main international priorities be for the next U.S. President? Join us, the City Club, International Partners in Mission, and the Northeast Ohio Consortium for Middle Eastern Studies (NOCMES) for a free conversation on the foreign policy issues facing our next president.
Panelists include:
- Anand Gopal, journalist and author of No Good Men Among the Living: America, the Taliban and the War Through Afghan Eyes
- Kathryn Lavelle, Ph.D., Ellen and Dixon Long Professor in World Affairs, Case Western Reserve University
- Qingshan Forrest Tan, Professor of Political Science, Cleveland State University
- This discussion will be moderated by WCPN host/producer Tony Ganzer.
Location: The Happy Dog, 5801 Detroit Avenue, Cleveland, 44102
Date:
November 10
Time:
7:30 pm - 9:00 pm
Global Cleveland Alumni: Grant Gravagna
This summer, I had the incredible honor of serving as a research associate at Global Cleveland. I couldn’t be more grateful to have had the chance.
Over the course of a quick three months, this job opened my eyes to a number of the region’s individuals and organizations that had previously been unknown to me (take the Ukrainian Museum-Archives, for instance).
In addition to other responsibilities, I assisted in producing Global Cleveland’s International Newcomer Heritage Year series, in which a different Cleveland-area International Newcomer is featured each day. The wide-ranging contributions made by so many members of Northeast Ohio’s international community are nothing short of astounding.
Cleveland is a city of welcoming, and each and every day, the experts at Global Cleveland do just that. They enthusiastically attract and welcome global newcomers to this fair city.
While the staff often works behind the scenes, the effects of said work are constantly observed, particularly in the form of new, international neighbors. When Cleveland’s international community is strong, we all benefit.
For the good of this region, the efforts made by Global Cleveland are efforts that should continue for years to come.
Rock The Pitch
Rock The Pitch's primary focus is to help create a layer of support for early stage entrepreneurs and small businesses, whom we refer to as “The Grinders”. By doing this, we hope to create a polished, smarter, and more prepared entrepreneur, allowing us to collaborate with other local funding opportunities and agencies to help these entrepreneurs move forward in obtaining their goals.
I believe we have a fragmented system that simply needs to be fused together with more collaboration and less competition. We all have a similar goal: to help startups and small businesses grow and succeed. We will use Rock the Pitch events to raise capital for micro funding through Investors, sponsors, ticket sales, and donations. The goal is to work together with organizations like Jumpstart, ECDI, SBA, Health-Tech Corridor, City of Cleveland as well as private investors and some of the nations leading VCs to build a fund that will fill this very early stage gap that exists in our region. These organizations have incredibles tools and support for entrepreneurs and small businesses and play a huge part in making RTP's mission come to fruition. It’s a win win for everyone involved. I was blessed to have an Angel like Fred Geis take a chance on me when no others would, and I never forget that. Starting a company is tough and I hope my experiences both good and bad can help others.
The Oct 29th event will be the RTP kickoff discussing how we will be a major cog in the wheel of early stage support for our local startup community. We will also be helping all participating startups by providing micro funding and early stage advisor support. We will have hands-on advisors & partners from Red Point Ventures, Jumpstart, ECDI, Health Tech Corridor, Smartshape, McCarthy, Lebit, Crystal & Liffman Co lawfirm, Cleveland Department of Economic Development and more. This will have a very “Townhall Meetup" feel allowing entrepreneurs to express what they are going through within our region and give the local agencies a chance to share how and where they can help. We have some very intriguing start-ups showcasing from tech to a food truck and it's so exciting seeing what kind of talent we have in our region.
