Mission

IMPACT Over-the-Rhine employs and trains inner-city adults and at-risk youth on a year-around basis. IMPACT OTR focuses on youth to:
• Develop good work habits
• Learn to take responsibility for themselves and their actions
• Stay in school/graduate from high school
• Build self-respect
• Help them become more employable

IMPACT OTR does this through organized efforts to improve the physical appearance and livability of Over-the-Rhine. It works in partnership with neighborhood organizations, the City of Cincinnati, and downtown businesses.

History

In 1991, a group of concerned citizens from the Rothenberg Improvement Committee, Over-the-Rhine Community Council, and the Over-the-Rhine Chamber of Commerce started IMPACT OTR with the help of then Vice-Mayor Peter Strauss and Clean Cincinnati, Inc. Tthe full-time director began work with inner-city teenagers in June of that year. From 1994 to 1999, IMPACT OTR was a self-sustaining project of the Over-the-Rhine Foundation whose focus, like IMPACT OTR's, is rooted in Over-the-Rhine. On January 1, 1999, IMPACT OTR became a public, charitable non-profit organization governed by a Board of Trustees.

Goals

• Assure that participating youth stay in school until the completion of high school.
• Provide youth an opportunity to earn as they learn.
• Help IMPACT OTR youth remain drug-free and out of the courts.
• Clean up, paint, plant and generally beautify the sidewalks, vacant lots, small gardens, and Findlay Market facilities of Over-the-Rhine.
• Conduct an introductory program for youth 8 to 13 years old, called the Early Opportunity Program.
• Increase access to skill training opportunities for youth and adults.
• Encourage Over-the-Rhine businesses to hire and train IMPACT OTR youth who have successfully completed the IMPACT OTR program.

Activities

• Work year-around with dozens of inner-city, at-risk youth.
• Provide these young people employment plus enrichment opportunities such as canoe trips, hikes, museums, opera, ballet, theater, farm visits, baseball games, family picnics, and seminars.
• Tutor IMPACT OTR youth as needed.
• Organize and run small neighborhood clean-up and recycling projects.
• Clean sidewalks and vacant lots from Broadway to Elm, Central Parkway to McMicken on a regular basis.
• Plant, maintain, and manage Eco-Gardens.
• Clean and maintain Findlay Market and the surrounding area.
• Cooperate with local groups in projects and community events.
• Seek and fulfill contracts to keep neat and clean the grounds of city-wide festivals and Over-the-Rhine events.
• Participate in the Summer Art Works Program and Art in the Market Project.

Eco-Gardens Project

An Eco-Garden Project has been started whereby participating youth plan, plant, maintain, and manage a market garden enterprise. They offer fresh produce for direct sale through the Findlay Market Farmers Market. In the future, a youth-developed specialty food product (such as salsa) will be created and sold. This project creates opportunities for inner-city youth to cultivate self-reliance, job skills, and entrepreneurial aptitude while beautifying blighted areas. A community service component is included whereby youth build raised bed gardens for disadvantaged inner-city families so they may grow their own fresh, healthy vegetables.

Accomplishments

• Restored a 5,000 square foot garden in cooperation with the Civic Garden Center.
• Put up murals on Vine and 12th Streets.
• Raised capital funds to purchase and renovate a small building to serve as IMPACT OTR's headquarters.

To make a donation, or for more information, please contact:
IMPACT Over-the-Rhine
P.O. Box 10003
Cincinnati, OH 45202
(tel) 513-241-8934
(fax) 513-241-5564