Greater Collinwood Development Updates

Greater Collinwood Development Corporation (GCDC) has been busier than ever! Day-by-day we are learning new ways how to serve our community during the current pandemic. For example, GCDC was among a small handful of top performing CDCs to receive CARES Funding through the City of Cleveland, as well as separate funding through the COVIV-19 Rapid Response fund headed by the Cleveland Foundation. With these funds we will partner with Collaboration Station to expand meal service and add meal delivery.  These new grants will allow us to not only maintain our vital food programs during these trying times but to expand capacity.

COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT

Access to fresh food has always been a need in our community, now more than ever. With that, GCDC offers youth breakfast and lunch 5 days a week during the summer and senior meals every Monday, Tuesday and Thursday year-round! Due to COVID-19 all meals are pick up. Produce pick up is twice a month as drive through service.

Other Community Engagement projects include:

  • GCDC has been working hard to educate the community on the importance of taking the 2020 Census. In July several staff members, in masks, went go door to door to encourage census participation as part of a citywide census campaign
  • GCDC is working to secure 1500 pieces of PPE to distribute to our community.  Stay tuned for details regarding upcoming PPE and food distribution events, as well as census and voter participation drives
  • Our Community Engagement Team has been working with last year’s Collinwood Connects grant recipients on their community projects. 10 teams competed last year in Neighborhood Family Feud to receive $500-$4000 in micro grants for community projects. Each team that competed in Neighborhood Family Feud received a mini grant for projects that help build connectedness in Collinwood through fun, meaningful engagements.

BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT

GCDC’s Business Development Team has been working hard with local businesses to secure loans to help them remain open during these challenging times and have helped them obtain free PPE to help them safely serve out community. We recently hired an AmeriCorps VISTA who is focusing on workforce development and assisting with developing partnerships.

Other Business Development Team projects include:

  • Working with Fifth Third Bank to conduct a virtual financial literacy series
  • Becoming referral partners with workforce development programs offered by Ohio Guidestone and Passages
  • Assisting businesses to find space within our community, most recently assisting Dedicated Senior Medical Center, which opened on Monday July 20th

HOUSING AND CODE ENFORCEMENT

Our Housing and Code Enforcement Department continues to offer the same services; however, it is done with extra safety measures in mind. Some of the tasks this team covers includes:

  • Through the Healthy Home Initiative partnership with the city of Cleveland, assisted 147 homeowners with the city’s newly reinstated paint program
  • Managing several residential rentals, one of which we recently leased
  • Continuously looking for opportunities to remove blight and return vacant houses to productive use

COMMUNICATIONS

One of the newest things GCDC launched was an e-newsletter. The e-newsletter is also posted on Facebook and to the GCDC website. For those that do not have access to the internet, GCDC shares every e-newsletter article with the Collinwood Observer that produces a monthly local newspaper. Articles published in the e-newsletter include GCDC and neighborhood happenings, as well as information and resources businesses and residents may find beneficial and useful. To share information that should be included in the e-newsletter, or to sign up to receive this publication, please email clovely@greatercollinwood.org.

NEW OFFICE PROTOCOL

Due to the pandemic, GCDC has had to limit how many people are allowed in the office at one time. With that, staff have been assigned designated days to go in. When we are not physically in the office, we are working remotely. All staff can check their voicemail and access email remotely, and our staff continues to have the goal of returning calls and answering emails within 24 hours.  The following is our staff directory:

Main Office- 216-383-9772

Jamar Doyle, Executive Director
jdoyle@greatercollinwood.org
Phone Extension: 203

Jamie Baker, Assistant Director
jbaker@greatercollinwood.org
Phone Extension: 204

Cynthia Brookins, Director of Business Relations
cbrookins@greatercollinwood.org
Phone Extension: 206

Peggy Kearsey, Housing Manager
pkearsey@greatercollinwood.org
Phone Extension: 207

Aja Aaron-Chappell, Healthy Homes Initiative Coordinator
ajaaron@greatercollinwood.org
Phone Extension: 205

Julia Roberts, Code Enforcement/ Property Manager
jroberts@greatercollinwood.org
Phone Extension: 211

Carly Lovely, Administrative Manager
clovely@greatercollinwood.org
Phone Extension: 209

Greg Pollard, Safety Liaison
gpollard@greatercollinwood.org
Phone Extension: 202

Jan Smith, Office Manager
jsmith@greatercollinwood.org
Phone Extension: 201

Krystal Sierra, Economic Development Specialist
ksierra@greatercollinwood.org
216-268-2138

Five Pointe Community Center- 216-268-2138

Kristian Hunter, Community Engagement Manager
khunter@greatercollinwood.org

Al Freeman, Community Engagement Specialist
afreeman@greatercollinwood.org

Delrico McDonald, Project Coordinator
dmcdonald@greatercollinwood.org

Kasey Rupp-Scott, AmeriCorps VISTA Member
kruppscott@greatercollinwood.org

Mary Fayne, Senior Food Program Manager
216-761-5229

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Volume 12, Issue 8, Posted 6:19 PM, 08.10.2020