UNIDOS is a Hispanic resource group that strives to foster a diverse and welcoming workplace culture. The group aims to be the vehicle to pull in Hispanic talent from colleges and job fairs, a cogent point considering diversity is among Forest City's core values.

Tucked away behind Rockefeller Park lies a historic neighborhood filled with stately, brick homes built at the turn of the last century. It has remained stable despite Glenville's struggles, and now rising interest in University Circle is propelling early signs of growth.

Cleveland almost lost native son Daniel Gray-Kontar to California's charms. But this writer, poet, performer and father has come home and into his own as an educator and stalwart youth advocate.

The Cleveland-based nonprofit International Partners in Mission has worked on projects in more than 40 countries around the world. Last month, it held a weeklong series of events to celebrate its milestone anniversary.

As part of the Lockwood Thompson Dialogues, LAND Studio and Cleveland Public Library invite you to a weekend filled with dance workshops, discussions about dance and a nighttime community dance party.

The event, which is called "STEP OUT, Cleveland ... SHAKE OFF THE RUST!", takes place November 8th-9th at the Global Center for Health Innovation.

Presenters, workshop leaders and performers include DJ FreQ Nasty, an electronic music producer and developer of The Yoga of Bass, a study of the spiritual connection between yoga and dance; Ana Rokafella Garcia, a B-girl and filmmaker who broke into dance in New York City during the early days of the hip hop scene; and Ragen Chastain, a dancer, marathoner and Health at Every Size advocate who travels, speaks and blogs at danceswithfat.org about self-esteem and body image.

Clevelanders who will be presenting include Jasmine Dragons, Cleveland Exotic Dance, and DJ Red-I and Daniel Gray-Kontar of Sanctuary Cleveland.

All events are free. In a press release, LAND Studio invites participants to:

"SPEAK UP at a live, interactive discussion with experts who will open up about struggles, successes, and finding their voice through dance.

SHAKE LOOSE with free public classes at varying levels, aimed at letting the inner dancer – experienced or not – break out.

GET DOWN with a nighttime dance party that's open to all!"

There will also be a cash bar and food trucks on site. C'mon down and shake it!

As part of its centennial celebration, the Cleveland Foundation has anounced that it is giving away a free day of theater at Playhouse Square. The gift includes 2,300 free tickets to five holiday performances by the Cleveland Play House, Great Lakes Theatre and Cleveland Public Theatre on Sunday, November 30th. To be eligible, you must enter your name into an online ticket lottery system for the chance to receive up to four tickets to a single show.

From the press release:

"The Cleveland Foundation Day of Theater will include the following productions at PlayhouseSquare:

·         'A Christmas Story' by Cleveland Play House at the Allen Theatre at 2:30 p.m. and 7 p.m. (family-friendly show)
·         'A Christmas Carol' by Great Lakes Theater at the Ohio Theatre at 3 p.m. (family-friendly show)
·         'The Santaland Diaries' by Cleveland Public Theatre at the Outcalt Theatre at 4 p.m. and 7:30 p.m. (adults-only show)

Beginning today, people can enter the online lottery at www.playhousesquare.org/giftlottery. The website is currently open and will remain open for 100 hours or just over four days, until 1 p.m. Friday, Nov. 7. This lottery is not first-come, first-served; residents will be randomly selected to attend the performances."

The Cleveland Foundation has helped to sustain and bolster all three theater organizations, and officials decided to use this latest centennial gift as a way to expose more Clevelanders to the gift of theater.

In our hyperconnected, digital age, people hunger for real stories. In Cleveland and across the country, storytelling nights are growing thanks to the popularity of The Moth, This American Life and other programs that elevate life into art.

Young people born in Cleveland in the 90s don't feel a sense of nostalgia for the city's heyday. Instead, they see an increasingly vibrant city as a place of opportunity, provided we stay on our current path.

The premier healthcare gathering in the country takes place this week at the Cleveland Convention Center. Here are four Cleveland healthcare innovators being featured at the conference.

In September, innovators from around the country convened in Detroit to exchange their ideas for building better cities and stronger communities. For three days, Detroit was transformed into a marketplace for ideas for cities.

With fireworks and smoke machines, and science experiments galore, CWRU officials on Thursday officially broke ground on the new home to thinkbox, a collaboration and innovation center housed in the former Lincoln Storage Building, now known as the Richey-Mixon Building.
 
The CWRU board of trustees voted unanimously last Sunday, October 12 to approve the renovations with the $25 million out of a $30 million goal. Phase I is due to be completed in August 2015.
 
Phase I includes renovations to the first four floors. A glass skyway will connect the athletic center to the thinkbox entrance. The first floor will be a community floor with a bike station. “It will be a younger-feeling creative space that suits our students’ lifestyle,” explains thinkbox manager Ian Charnas. “The second floor will be the ideation floor with amenities such as whiteboards and meeting rooms modeled after Stanford d. School in California.”
 
Floors three and four are dedicated to some real hands-on innovation. Three will house a prototyping floor and a small metal shop, will offer tools for nearly every metal project conceivable. “We’re sending an email out, saying 'come enjoy several thousand square feel to do your projects and get messy.'”
 
Charnas expects thinkbox to both attract and retain innovative thinkers to Cleveland. “This is helping to build industry in the region,” he says. “Most of our students are recruited from outside of Cleveland, and even Ohio. This is a big golden carrot to keep these folks in the area.”
 
The announcement was made during Case’s homecoming celebration. Case president Barbara Snyder was accompanied by the major donors to make the announcement amid smoke machines and fireworks displays on monitors. Instead of a ribbon-cutting, the group flipped a giant old-fashioned power switch.
 
Students dressed in white lab coats embroidered with thinkbox and blue hard hats made commemorative chocolate coins using liquid nitrogen, with the help of Sweet Designs Chocolatier and Piccadilly Creamery. A laminar flow fountain – the kind where the liquid leaps about – dispensed punch that shot from a white display case into guests’ glasses.
 
Charnas says they hope to raise the remaining funds in the next year and shoot straight into phase II renovations, which will include the remaining top three floors.
 
 

Low-income workers often lack the basic skills needed to find a good job. To bridge the gap, experts says it's essential to invest in training. Yet despite millions of people out of work, programs are hard to find.

Last week, a group of innovators behind small scale, place-based projects around the country convened in Detroit and talked about what works in their cities, sharing stories of success, failure, hard work and creativity.