Neighborhood Connections

Ear­li­er this year I was nom­i­nat­ed to be a mem­ber of the Neigh­bor­hood Con­nec­tions Grant Mak­ing Com­mit­tee which is fund­ed by The Cleve­land Foun­da­tion [a pub­lic char­i­ty with super nice digs]. I did­n’t think the inter­view went to well, main­ly because of my age, lack of expe­ri­ence and the inten­si­ty of the com­pe­ti­tion [three weeks of inter­views and only one posi­tion and six alter­nates to fill], but I got a call from Joel Rat­ner today, telling me that I had been select­ed as an alter­nate. This basi­cal­ly means I do all the work that the full com­mit­tee mem­bers do, but don’t get a vote. This is still bet­ter than I had hoped for, as this will look very nice on a résumé and will allow me to expand my par­tic­i­pa­tion and knowl­edge of and in the Cleve­land com­mu­ni­ty. This is the type of civic involve­ment that I most enjoy, help­ing folks empow­er them­selves. Hope­ful­ly the process will be as rosy as I hope, although I’m sure read­ing through all the grants and research­ing them will be a bit of a chore.