Q3 2020 PACT Quarterly Newsletter: BRINGING TECHNOLOGY HOME – ONE STEP AT A TIME
Your quarterly update on what's going on in your neighborhood.
Message from Autumn Glover, President
BRINGING TECHNOLOGY HOME – ONE STEP AT A TIME
COVID-19 has put a spotlight on health disparities, social justice inequalities and more as we continue to maneuver and adjust our daily lives. Another disparity the virus has highlighted is the limited access to technology in our neighborhoods. It is a reality that many families in the PACT geography do not have technology and/or the tools necessary to access online job applications, telemedicine information and appointments, the ability to log online to complete critical schoolwork and more. It became noticeably clear that the digital divide was real and still an issue in our community. This is why PACT established the PACT Connected Communities Fund in March of this year.
Our goal with this fund is to achieve fixed internet that is affordable and effective for every household in the PACT geography and provide families with devices and digital literacy to expand opportunities for work, education, telehealth and social benefit.
We have been deliberate and busy. Partners have responded to our requests to help address this technology gap in our neighborhood. I am thrilled to report recent successes and that we continue our focus.
PACT participated in The Columbus Foundation Big Give and has also received grants from the Foundation – thank you to so many of you who contributed!
PACT has used funds to conduct a community engagement survey to understand both current household provisions and patterns or experiences with technology. We talk to hundreds of you this summer – thank you!
This survey design will be replicated for research to engage additional Near East Side residents and other Columbus pilot communities.
The Columbus Foundation granted PACT a pilot feasibility study to determine possible technologies that could be introduced to increase affordable internet in the PACT area, based on ACS and PACT Community Engagement survey. The study was completed by AECOM a technology engineering firm. And we’re working now with Smart Columbus and the City of Columbus to consider next steps on options for make these opportunities a reality.
PACT has also been awarded a $200,000 Resilience Fund grant from Columbus/Franklin County CARES Act funding that will be used to purchase devices for residents of the PACT planning area.
I am leading a national consortium focused on the Digital Divide for place-based nonprofits that are members of the Purpose Built Communities network.
And I recently shared with Columbus CEO Magazine why digital equity is urgent and must include access to culturally responsive literacy resources, https://www.columbusceo.com/business/20201005/moonshot-idea-closing-digital-divide
Digital exclusion comes at a cost we cannot continue to carry if we want to be a smart, future-thinking community. Every industry relies on the internet. Every small business, household, urban and rural community will require affordable and effective internet for our economic future, schooling and health, making solving this problem unavoidable. As technology continues to evolve, closing the divide will only grow more challenging. PACT will continue our efforts to close the digital divide and bring real solutions to our neighborhood to be a model for how community collaboration and focus can equip families to achieve optimal health and well-being.
Autumn Glover,
President
A MILESTONE FOR THE DECADE – CELEBRATING 10 YEARS AS COMMUNITY QUARTERBACK
Mark your calendars! December 6, 2020 will be the 10th-year anniversary of PACT. We are proud of our ten-year journey and the commitment to this community to address the social determinants of health through place-based program and project investments, made possible through the investment of $10 million from the OSU Jobs Growth Incentive Fund and other funding partners including the City of Columbus and Columbus Metropolitan Housing Authority. In July 2019, PACT was realigned to be solely funded by Ohio State. Planning for acknowledgment of this milestone underway – so stay tuned for more to come.
ROAAR KICKS OFF FIRST SERIES WITH A FOCUS ON RACE AND POLICING - JOIN THE CONVERSATION
Register today for The Ohio State University Roundtable on Actions Against Racism (ROAAR) Safe Spaces/Safe Communities conversation - Thursday, October 8 at noon. The first in a series, this virtual town hall brings business, city government, public safety and mental health leaders together to focus on a critical conversation about racism and the role policing plays in creating safe spaces. You will hear from Columbus City Council President, Shannon Hardin; Executive Vice President, Chancellor for Health Affairs, The Ohio State University and Chief Executive Officer, Wexner Medical Center, Harold L. Paz, MD, MS; CEO and President, Columbus Partnership, Alex Fisher, Department of Public Safety Director, The Ohio State University, Monica Moll; and CEO, Alcohol, Drug and Mental Health Board of Franklin County Erica Clark Jones.
Moderator will be Darrell Gray, II, MD, MPH, FACG and Associate Professor, College of Medicine, The Ohio State University Medical Director, Endoscopy and Gastroenterology Services, Ohio State East Hospital Deputy Director, Center for Cancer Health Equity, OSUCCC The James Cancer Hospital.
Sign up today for this Thursday, October 8, 12 pm To Register: go.osu.edu/ROAAR
OSU EAST EXPANDS WEST WING - OPENS NEW SURGICAL SPACE
Ohio State East Hospital is growing to better serve the Near East Side with the highest quality of care to meet our community's needs. The $26 million, 40,300-square-foot surgery unit includes the renovation of 11,800 square feet of existing surgical space and an additional 28,500 square feet of new space. The west wing expansion features a renovated and expanded outpatient surgery unit with four state-of-the-art operating rooms, including a hybrid operating room to facilitate interventional radiology procedures. Check out the unit through a video tour of this new addition to our neighborhood's healthcare needs.
NOTED ARTIST JENIFER LEWIS HEADLINES 3RD ANNUAL COLUMBUS WOMEN & GIRLS’FEST
Columbus Women&Girls’Fest 2020 invites the entire community to join its free virtual fest on October 17, 2020, noon to 7 p.m. National artist Jenifer Lewis, a multi-award-winning actor, author, activist and performance artist, who currently stars as grandmother, “Ruby,” on the prime time hit TV show Black-ish, will be the festival headliner. Ms. Lewis is intergenerationally known and loved for her viral political song videos, among them: “All Hand On Deck,” “Get Your Knee Off Our Necks,” “ and more. Her 2017 memoir, The Mother of Black Hollywood, details her journey from poverty in Kinloch, Missouri to celebrated Hollywood stardom.
Local artists participating in the fest include: local artists and cultural leaders such as Barbara Fant and The Black Girl Rising Poets, Suzan Bradford and Thiosanne West African Dance Institute, Maylena Marshall (Fort Hayes student gospel singer); Caroline “Inspires” Bennett (soul singer), Children’s Literature workshop with Dr. Carlotta Penn (first 20 registrants who attend receive free book); What it Means to Hold the Line for Black women, girls, femmes with Dr. Shemariah Arki and more.
For the schedule visit cbuswgfest.org for the full schedule. Pre- registration is required, you can sign up here.
FREE FLU SHOTS THROUGHOUT THE MONTH OF OCTOBER
Throughout the month of October, The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center is offering flu shots close to where you live, work and worship!
· Trinity Baptist Church, 461 St Clair Avenue, Columbus, OH 43203
· Shepard Library, 850 N Nelson Road, Columbus, OH 43219
You must call to make an appointment by calling 614-688-8881. Appointments are required and are available beginning at 3:00 p.m.
Why get a flu shot this year?
To get the valuable protection a flu vaccine offers. It increases your chances of not getting the flu.
It helps protect your loved ones. Your flu shot protects you and anyone you might otherwise have infected if you contracted the flu. Everyone over the age of 6 months, and especially those over 60 or those with chronic conditions, should get the flu shot.
It’s worth the time. A few minutes getting the flu shot could save you weeks of recovering from the flu.
To prevent “coinfection”— The flu shot can significantly decrease your chances of getting a potentially life-threatening co-infection by both the flu and COVID-19.
Deliver Black Dreams
"As long as there is poverty in the world I can never be rich, even if I have a billion dollars. As long as diseases are rampant and millions of people in this world cannot expect to live more than twenty-eight or thirty years, I can never be totally healthy even if I just got a good checkup at Mayo Clinic. I can never be what I ought to be until you are what you ought to be. This is the way our world is made. No individual or nation can stand out boasting of being independent. We are interdependent. "
– Martin Luther King, Jr.
If we believe Black Lives Matter then we must commit to #DeliverBlackDreams
Deliver Black Dreams is a fully executed brand to express a winning narrative with an intentionally Black aesthetic. This effort came about with a consortium of activists, practitioners, and organizations spanning the midwest region including Ohio, Minnesota, Michigan, and Wisconsin. Deliver Black Dreams is more than a campaign it is a commitment. It is about connecting cultural products such as public art and creative activations to tangible systemic change that reimagines a world where all of us can thrive. Deliver Black Dreams is centered in a Black voice and affirms that Black Lives Matter AND if they do then we must make a commitment to Deliver Black Dreams.
Deliver Black Dreams Columbus came about in partnership with Maroon Arts Group, Greater Columbus Arts Council and Columbus City Council in an effort to create public art acknowledging that Black Lives Matter. Our goal in the short-term is to activate Black creatives in Columbus in creating public art centering our core narrative 'Deliver Black Dreams.' Our long-term goal is to change the culture. We are encouraging people from all sectors to get involved from arts & culture, healthcare, education, political, and residents to reimagine and design a city where ALL OF US can live abundantly. These short and long-term goals are inextricably linked because people in our community are suffering and discouraged by the injustices we see and need the form to follow functional change in our city. We don’t want the murals to be just window dressing to cover up the systemic issues our city has. We deliver Black dreams by making sure that the most vulnerable amongst us are heard and can thrive in this city.
By activating a shared brand no matter what particular campaign we’re conducting, we reinforce our overarching narrative and our shared values. As a choir, we want to repeat the same notes to be heard through the political noise.
Press Release
Columbus Commits to Deliver Black Dreams, a New Aspirational Racial Equity Campaign
Maroon Arts Group and Greater Columbus Arts Council Partner with the City of Columbus on Major Black Lives Matter Public Art Project
A new multifaceted racial equity campaign called Deliver Black Dreams is getting under way this fall in Columbus. Deliver Black Dreams will use public art as a launch point for a sustained and future oriented approach to achieving racial equity in Columbus, one that helps the community reimagine and design a city where everyone can live abundantly.
Created by Marshall Shorts, designer, principal at Artfluential and co-creator of Creative Control Fest, Deliver Black Dreams is a campaign OF, BY and FOR Black people. It is a campaign that seeks long-term change in the culture, and a future where Black people and those who love them are free to choose their destiny, free from oppression.
“Deliver Black Dreams is about creating a city for ALL of US, where ALL can live abundantly,” said Marshall Shorts. “Deliver Black Dreams is more than a campaign. It is a commitment. It is about connecting cultural products such as public art to tangible systemic change that reimagines a world where all of us can thrive. Deliver Black Dreams is centered in a Black voice and affirms that Black Lives Matter AND if they do then we must make a commitment to Deliver Black Dreams.”
The first phase of the campaign is based in visual expression and will employ Black artists to create public art and encourage mentorship of young people and new artists around the central narrative of “Deliver Black Dreams” in three to six large-scale murals this fall and in spring 2021.
The other major visual expression components for Deliver Black Dreams are:
Free, outdoor exhibitions in neighborhoods throughout Columbus of the Art Unites Cbus temporary murals created after the June protests—locations to be installed in late October include Coleman’s Point on Civic Center Dr., Easton, Huntington Center, King Arts Complex, Lincoln Theatre, Maroon Arts Group Box Park, McConnell Arts Center, Ohio History Connection and the Short North at Greenwood Park at 4th and High. See related release.
Cash awards to Black filmmakers and photographers to tell the story of the protests in their own voice. See announcement of award recipients.
Privately funded murals such as April Sunami’s new mural Black Women Matter at 859 E. Long St. in King Lincoln/Bronzeville.
Additional components that involve mentorship of young artists are being developed.
“Columbus should be a place free of racism and oppression--a place where all our residents can thrive, not just a few. The city of Columbus believes in investing in public art by African Americans that will inspire our community now and in the future,” said Mayor Andrew J. Ginther. “The installations of public art for Deliver Black Dreams will lift up the hopes and aspirations of our minority residents and challenge our broader population and city leaders to commit to equity in all walks of life. There is no greater calling than bending the curve of history, and the future, to justice and equality. Now, more than ever, Columbus strives to be a city where we can and will Deliver Black Dreams.”
“I am proud to support the work of Delivering Black Dreams, and cannot think of a time better than the present to uplift and empower our community,” said Councilmember Shayla Favor, who led the funding effort at Columbus City Council. “This project is about more than just public art. It is about recommitting ourselves to achieving true racial equity so that future generations can all have the same opportunities to fulfill their biggest and wildest dreams.”
Deliver Black Dreams seeks to develop community partnerships, programming, outreach and mentorship that can have a long-term impact in not just the cultural sector but education, health, safety and economic sectors as well.
“The short-term goals—public art—and long-term goals—changing the culture—of Deliver Black Dreams are inextricably linked,” explains Shorts. “People in our community are suffering and discouraged by the injustices we see. We need form to follow functional change in our city. We deliver Black dreams by making sure that the most vulnerable amongst us are heard and can thrive in this city.”
Funding for the public art and visual expression components of Deliver Black Dreams is provided by the City of Columbus, American Electric Power Foundation, Huntington and Grange, with additional support from the Greater Columbus Arts Council and the Art Unites Cbus project and Orange Barrel Media.
Maroon Arts Group mission: to develop and provide a platform for conscious art centered around the preservation and promotion of cultures of African descent. maroonartsgroup.com
Greater Columbus Arts Council mission: To support and advance the arts and cultural fabric of Columbus. www.gcac.org. The Greater Columbus Arts Council receives major financial support from the City of Columbus, Franklin County Commissioners and the Ohio Arts Council.