Unsung Hero: Adelyn Hall, Community Learning Center Institute (CLCI)
Gus Ricksecker, Campaign Manager
The one place where every family goes, regardless of neighborhood, is to their children’s school. In Cincinnati, conditions got to the point where the Ohio Supreme Court ruled that some of our school buildings were so bad they were in violation of the Equal Educational Opportunities Act. From that, CLCI was born with the intent of stabilizing schools and creating positive neighborhood conditions for learning for Cincinnati’s most vulnerable populations.
Now, they are imagining schools as a neighborhood hub, not just a place where the kids go to learn during the week. The schools they work with act as connectors for the resources the city and nonprofits provide directly to residents. The best part? All the work that CLCI does is based on the vision, wants, and needs of the community.
“I would really like to say that I’ve come up with some of the great ideas we’ve put forward, but the reality is all of those ideas came from the residents,” Adelyn told me.
The work Adelyn does ranges from having individual meetings with parents and families to helping to create entire neighborhood plans. She works closely with community councils, school resource coordinators, and nonprofits to connect parents and residents with the resources they need to be successful.
When asked if COVID had seriously impacted her ability to outreach to the community, she responded enthusiastically.
“Just like the founding of CLCI, out of crisis is born opportunity,” she told me.
Because of COVID, her work has become much more individualized. In fact, the engagement has actually expanded. They have an online presence like never before and have worked hard to list out resources on their website where previously someone might have had to come into a school to get them. With the onus on them and not the families, they have had to step up in a big way.
There are some challenges, however. It is difficult to get the same sense of comradery they have had in the past without in-person meetings. With COVID too, home stability has become even more important — and in some cases harder to achieve. These make the work that Adelyn and CLCI do even more important.
She believes, like the campaign, there is a lot of progress to be made in Cincinnati in the coming years, but it is a city beaming with possibility.
“Cincinnati is, in many ways, an unsung city,” she told me, smiling.
A perfect ending to a wonderful conversation.
To find out more about CLCI, you can visit: https://clcinstitute.org/
