CCR History
Beginning with community spirit (1994)
Seasongood Forum on Diversity & Governance, 10-8-94
900 invitees, 600 attendees.
Recommendation to "form an alliance for civic renewal" (1995)
To bring together citizen activists to began ongoing deliberations about issues of governance in the Cincinnati area, and
To build local civic capacity for addressing governance problems.
Civic Index administered and interpreted by National Civic League
A new organization takes shape (1996)
Five guiding principles, 5 working committees to work on procedures and selection of issues. Ex-Governor Gilligan brought his Civic Forum members to CCR.
Draft of Regulations
11-23-96 Announcement to press of CCR's birth [150 attending]
CCR formally begins
4-26-97 Regulations adopted by Membership.
6-16-97 membership at 107. Executive Director Vivian Lansky hired.
10-21-97 IRS approves 501(c)(3) status: TIN 31-154 2748.
By end of year, 238 members.
Position statements on key community issues
10-97 Endorsed Issue 6, allowing City Manager to hire police & fire chiefs, rather than civil service procedures.
12-97 Recommended the reports of New Ohio Institute and BEST as the appropriate bases for a) public school reform and b) school funding formula.
4-98 Opposed Issue 2, a 0.5% sales tax, as inadequate to satisfy the OH Supreme Court DeRolph decision.
4-98 Supported the decision by the I-71 Oversight Committee and OKI Board to move ahead on light rail.
4-98 Published Goals for public transportation and land use, in conjunction with Loveland Community Image Survey report.
6-98 Published top-10 CCR priorities for Regional Capital Projects, in response to a business priority list issued 4-97.
10-98 Opposed Issue 12, prohibiting raising Cincinnati's ticket tax to fund $100 million commitment to help fund CPS building repairs.
4-99 Membership reaches 272 at Annual Meeting.
10-00 Published “Parham Elementary School Community School Demonstration Project”, which the CPS Board used as a model for Neighborhood Learning Centers.
10-00 CCR takes the lead in facilitating Myron Orfield’s study, “Cincinnati Metropatterns”, with a $117,000 grant [9-01] from the Regional Initiatives Fund of the GCF.
9-01 “Cincinnati Metropatterns” report issued which identified impact of regional segregation based on income and race. .
10-02 Membership supported Issue 2, bond issue for CPS building program, Issue 7, sales tax for SORTA, Issue 6, sales tax for Butler county regional transit authority, and opposed Issue 8, partial repeal of Fair elections Amendment.
6-03 CCR issued “Responding to Cincinnati Metropatterns with Strategies to Improve Our Region”--how to address the disparities caused by regional segregation based on income and race.
V. Promoting local government collaboration
11-05 Joan Riehm, Vice Mayor of Louisville, highlights experience of City of Louisville/Jefferson County merger at Annual Meeting
11-06 County Commissioner Pat Dewine and City Councilman Chris Bortz identify need to share services
4-07 Government Cooperation and Efficiency Project (GCEP) begins
5-07 Joint Economic Development District (JEDD) Workshop
VI. Community engagement take center stage
11-07 Contracted by regional planning effort, Agenda 360, to engage 1,500 citizens at 28 different locations.
8-08 Held first Citizens Connect event at Grammer’s
6-09 Merged Citizens Connect concept with Agenda 360 Transformational dialogs with showing of The New Neighbors
2010
With two successive Seasongood grants: 1) held four City of Cincinnati budget dialogs in the Spring with citizens deliberating in small groups how to allocate $52M in projected 2011 deficit; 2) conducted fall online survey detailing citizen views on City budget—over 1000 people participated; 3) presented both reports to City Council. These were major initiatives that consumed almost all of CCR’s efforts for the year. Much time was spent working with the City budget office to develop the material, and building a coalition of civic organizations to co-design and promote the process.
2011
Created “Collaborative Governance for Resilient Communities” paradigm to focus organization on the movement toward deliberative democracy and active citizenship.
With Wilder grant, created an online, interactive report on policing and public safety—hosted 10 dialogs with over 300 diverse citizens; recorded an expert panel discussion on policing practices and budgeting (which was excerpted online); researched via Dr. John Eck the data on effective policing practices; intersected citizen viewpoints with the research data to show where citizens agreed/disagreed, and where those beliefs aligned with the data.
Trained citizen leaders in collaborative community building through the Citizens’ Toolkit interactive educational series.
Helped the City of Cincinnati build citizen connections that lead to sustainable neighborhood change by consulting with the City’s Neighborhood Enhancement Program.
Advocated for civic engagement as a steering committee member in the Plan Cincinnati and Core Change initiatives.
Educated U.C. students through guest teaching in DAAP planning department classes.
Co-designed and facilitated the Bridging Broadway community planning initiative for holistic neighborhood development around the new casino.
2012
Ongoing advisement of Police Chief Craig in building a citizens advisory board.
Ongoing design and facilitation of community engagement for Captain Lee in Cincinnati Police District One (to create a community-police partnership in co-creating public safety).
Worked on the Core Change “design team” to ensure robust community participation in the Core Change retreat.
Educated U.C. students through guest teaching in DAAP planning department classes (Professors Grundy, Honadel, and Zapata).
Facilitated a Price Hill parenting collaborative between Santa Maria, Beech Acres, 4C, Literacy Center West, and LifePoint (formerly Family Services).