Healing Spaces (Cleveland Documenters, Neighborhood Connections, Black Girl Media, WOVU, A Greater Buckeye): The collaborative will utilize Cleveland Documenters to talk with community leaders who have activated vacant land in their neighborhoods and, by doing so, tended to their community’s need for beautiful spaces that feed the soul. This project will be done in three phases: a listening survey
; reporting; and transformation. Cleveland Documenters will begin by surveying their neighbors, Neighbor Up members and other Cleveland residents about their environmental justice concerns. A team of Cleveland Documenters will then conduct video interviews with community gardeners talking about their work and its history, successes and challenges, and what the future holds. They will also take the learnings from the surveys and transform a vacant lot into a vibrant community space; they will share videos, talkbacks, and other communications from this space as well as others throughout the summer via publishing partner A Greater Buckeye and with media partner WOVU. The project will close with the showing of a short documentary in the fall. With support from Cleveland Documenters and Neighbor Up. Funded by Black Environmental Leaders (BEL) in partnership with The Center for Community Solutions, Cleveland Foundation and The George Gund Foundation.
