- [Narrator] Production and distribution of City Club forums and Ideastream Public Media are made possible by PNC and the United Black Fund of Greater Cleveland Incorporated.

(upbeat music) (bell sounds) - Good afternoon, and welcome to the City Club of Cleveland, where we are devoted to conversations of consequence that help democracy thrive.

I'm Dan Moulthrop, chief executive here, and a proud member.

And today's Friday, December 3rd, we're joined today by Say Yes Cleveland for a forum as part of our education innovation series.

In January, 2019, Cleveland became the fourth School District in the country to adopt the Say Yes to Education model of tuition scholarships and support services.

It comes with a 25 year commitment, and Say Yes was seen as a game changer for all of us, with the stake in the Cleveland Public Schools.

It opened a new, very optimistic chapter in our communities, decades long effort to improve the Cleveland Schools.

When Say Yes Cleveland first launched, the City Club heard from local leadership on how Cleveland plans to leverage the scholarship program and expand support services.

Since then Cleveland schools, students, and parents have now weathered three school years touched by the COVID-19 pandemic.

And today the increased capacity for support services has never been more critical.

So here we are today, excited to get a three-year progress report on how Say Yes Cleveland has served scholars since its inception and through a brutal last year and a half.

We'll also get to hear firsthand of just how life-changing this initiative is.

Here with us today is Diane Downing, she's executive director of Say Yes Cleveland.

That's only her most recent role, she's been involved in improving our community and just about every role she has taken since coming to Cleveland years ago.

She's going to deliver some remarks about Say Yes, and after that she'll join us on stage for a conversation with Lekisha Rogers, who is a Say Yes Cleveland family support specialist at Joseph Gallagher K-8 School and Leean Andino graduate student at Cleveland State University, and the first CMSD scholar to receive a Say Yes scholarship and finish her undergraduate degree.

You can give that a round of applause.

(audience applauds) So members and friends of the City Club, please join me in welcoming Diane Downing, executive director of Say Yes Cleveland.

(audience applauds) - Thank you, Dan, and thanks to the entire City Club crew for hosting us here today.

And I want to thank PatPat Story and PNC for sponsoring this event and for everyone joining us here today, including my husband, Tom Corrigan, and my daughters Dierdre and Sarah.

I appreciate the opportunity to tell you the story of Say Yes Cleveland so far, just short of three years since the organization was launched in January of 2019.

That kickoff event at John Marshall High School Gym packed with cheering students was a moment I won't ever forget.

I remember it as a moment of profound hope for our city's future, seeing in those students, the beginnings of a transformative program for generations of Clevelanders through the scholarships and support services provided in the Say Yes model.

While there was immense anticipation and expectation around the launch and many local organizations and individuals demonstrated their belief in Say Yes Cleveland through historic pre-launched donations.

There were also plenty of people who understandably thought it all sounded too good to be true.

Three years in, I can tell you that we are well on our way to making good on the promise and the hope sparked at the launch of Say Yes Cleveland.

Both components of Say Yes are support services for students in CMSD and partner charter schools and our tuition scholarships for college or career training after high school have expanded rapidly Over the past three years.

We are on track to complete our plant expansion of Say Yes support services to 100% of CMSD and partner charter schools during the next school year, putting our services in far more schools, far faster than any other Say Yes community.

Even in the midst of the pandemic that shut down our community, we didn't pause our services or delay our expansion.

In fact, from the very beginning of the pandemic, it was clear that the need for support, intervention, and assistance for our students and their families was only growing larger and more urgent than it had been.

We knew we couldn't shut down, we couldn't even stand in place, we had to keep growing so we could help more students and families who were facing a significant increase in challenges around mental health, food insecurities, as well as medical and legal assistance.

This year, Say Yes support services are available in 69 CMSD and partner charter schools, and as I said, will be offered in all of our schools by 2023, meeting our projections for growth and providing this critical support.

While much of the focus in these first three years has been on the scholarships we provide, our impact starts with building a strong foundation through these support services, the cornerstone of our work.

It is our mission at Say Yes not only to make college and job training affordable, but to make higher education attainable, and to do that, we know that supporting the whole student and their family is essential.

Say Yes Cleveland support services start with a student's very first day in pre-kindergarten and follow him or her all the way through high school graduation.

These comprehensive services are offered to every student and their family to overcome the barriers that poverty often puts before them, so that once students graduate from high school, they're on track to take full advantage of the Say Yes scholarship.

These services are made possible by having a Say Yes family support specialist in each school.

And I'm thrilled that I will be joined by one of our first family support specialists, Lekisha Rogers on stage shortly.

Our family support specialists are the true champions of this work.

They change lives every day, providing support, interventions, and referrals to help ensure that each student is healthy, safe, engaged, and challenged.

The impact they have had already is remarkable.

In just the past year family support specialists log more than 40,000 case notes about individual students and made 6,000 individual referrals for services and support.

Those numbers are huge I know, but the individual stories we hear are even more remarkable.

On a daily basis, our family support specialists are involved in situations as varied as securing, and sometimes delivering food to families in need, getting a tutor for a student struggling with a subject, arranging for a free high exam and free glasses for a child who can't see the blackboard, finding emergency housing for a whole family in crisis, or connecting our partners at Legal Aid and the Bar association to families fighting eviction.

All of these needs became more urgent when COVID struck and new challenges were added on top, not least of which was helping CMSD rapidly distribute to every student computers and internet access points necessary for remote learning.

As COVID stayed with us, our family support specialists have often been the first line of support as students and families have continued to face the lingering impacts of the pandemic.

If the story of Say Yes is a story about people, then our family support specialists are the people it begins with.

Several of them are here with us today and I'd like them all to stand and be recognized along with the Say Yes administrative staff, please stand.

(audience applauds) And we all thank you for everything you do each and every day.

The story of Say Yes is also a story about collaboration, about Cleveland's people and organizations coming together to address long time challenges by approaching them in a new way.

Throughout my career, I have believed that our community is at its best when we have robust and strong public private partnerships.

That is exactly what Say Yes Cleveland is, with both our student services and our scholarship programs overseen by volunteer committees, made up of people from dozens of different organizations, public and private, business and labor, philanthropic, and nonprofit, and so many of them are here today, and I thank you so very much.

Collaboration and partnerships are what made Say Yes Cleveland possible, and that is especially true for our newly launched afterschool programming.

Over the last four months, we have worked closely with CMSD's leaders and staff to launch afterschool programming in more than 40 CMSD elementary schools.

Afterschool programs are critical for our students and their families.

We're grateful to Eric Gordon and his team for the funding to make this programming a foundational part of Say Yes Cleveland, and we're excited to be working with so many great provider organizations.

Plans are underway to expand our after-school opportunities to high schools in the new year, and then look ahead to identify how we can best support summer programming as well.

We will also be looking to build on and expand our partnership with CMSD for a prototype program to provide integrated physical, mental, and behavioral health services in Say Yes schools.

The integrated health program funded by the Cleveland Foundation and the George Gund Foundation, as well as other foundations in our community began in four Say Yes schools in 2021, initially via tele-health.

Scaling it will be challenging, but for us at Say Yes, it is emblematic of both the collaborative tactics and the whole child strategy at the core of our mission.

Partnerships don't end with support services.

Say Yes Cleveland scholarships are administered by our friends at College Now Greater Cleveland, and the program requires a mentor for every scholar, for which we need to sign up roughly a thousand new volunteers each year.

I'm going to put in another plug for you all to sign up, to become a mentor.

If you haven't done it yet, it's very easy to sign up.

It doesn't take a lot of time each month, but it is such a huge help to our scholars, the majority of whom are the first in their family to go to college.

So please sign up either at sayyescleveland.org or at the College Now Greater Cleveland website.

Say Yes scholarships are designed to help overcome an affordability gap that for too long put college or career training out of reach for our students.

Over the past 10 years under the Cleveland plan, CMSD's graduation rate has gone up steadily and significantly, yet the high cost of post-secondary tuition meant the college going rate wasn't rising along with the graduation rate, if anything, it was going down.

Say Yes scholarships are designed to fundamentally change that and to make college or career training a very real option for students by covering the cost of tuition after federal and state grants.

Unlike many scholarship programs, we don't have a minimum grade point average or require a lengthy personal essay.

Most importantly, students aren't competing against each other for a few limited spots.

Our goal is to provide a post-secondary tuition scholarship to every single eligible student.

And eligibility is simple as long as the student both lives within CMSD boundaries and is enrolled in a CMSD or partner charter high school for all four years of high school, the student is eligible for our scholarship.

So rather than wondering how they will pay for their child's college, or worse yet the belief that they won't be able to now, parents of Cleveland students can know that a college scholarship will be there for their child, as long as they meet those eligibility requirements.

And Say Yes scholarships aren't just available to this year's graduates, or next year's.

Say Yes scholarships will be available to every eligible student for the next 25 years and they can be used at all of the public universities, community colleges, and career training programs in Ohio, as well as over 100 private colleges and universities across the nation.

25 years is a long time, and we wouldn't be able to look ahead that far without the historically generous pre-launch contributions made to Say Yes Cleveland scholarship fund by the dozens of contributors, including organizations like the Cleveland Foundation, the KeyBank Foundation, and the George Gund Foundation.

I'd also like to recognize the Gund Foundation for adding to their already substantial contribution last month, when they celebrated the career of Dave Abbott, by committing another $1.5 million to the Say Yes scholarship fund in his name, along with a new $5 million grant to establish a living learning community for Say Yes Cleveland scholarship recipients housed at Cleveland State University.

We've already secured-- (audience applauds) And Nick Petty who runs that program is with us today.

We've already secured donations, totaling nearly $95 million toward the $125 million goal that we need to fully fund scholarships for all eligible graduates for the next 25 years.

Our hope is that the remarkable investments made by so many in our community and the continued progress of the program by graduating students every year who are ready and able to pursue higher education will spark interest in others to help us reach the ultimate financial goal.

We are already seeing significant tangible results.

Last year, nearly 1200 Cleveland students from CMSD classes of 2019 and 2020 enrolled in college or career training through the Say Yes scholarship program.

While we won't know how many 2021 graduates enrolled in college this fall for a few more months, because we are waiting for national clearinghouse data.

We anticipate that it will be at least several hundred more.

Our scholars have enrolled in more than 50 different post-secondary schools from excellent nearby public options like Cleveland State, Trice and Kent State to out of state private colleges like Duke, Harvard, and Morehouse.

We have already celebrated our first graduates, including Leean Andino, who used the Say Yes scholarship to pay for her tuition at Cleveland State, and remarkably was able to earn her bachelor's degree in just two years.

I'm glad that Leean will also be joining or I'll be joining her on stage shortly, and that her family is here to celebrate with her.

(audience applauds) In just the last two years, we have paid out more than $3 million in scholarships, and we're eager to pay out much more in the future.

We want every student in Cleveland Schools and their parents to grow up with a certain knowledge that a Say Yes scholarship is waiting for them after high school graduation.

I can't begin to tell you how much that certainty matters, especially in light of how COVID has affected our students.

While we celebrate the milestones we've achieved in the last three years, it's important to recognize that the pandemic's impact on our post-secondary plans of some of our students has affected them and affected them negatively.

Last year, nearly 200 graduates from the class of 2020, who had initially planned to enroll in college chose not to, specifically due to the pandemic.

That's one reason why we're so excited to see the enthusiasm for Say Yes scholarships among this year, seniors, the class of 2022.

On November 1st of last year, Say Yes application completions among seniors were at 19%, this year, they are at 44% and climbing daily.

(audience applauds) In addition, a few weeks ago, we had a chance to see students in-person.

Once again the Cleveland goes to College Fair.

CMSD seniors and juniors met with representatives from more than 70 colleges and universities over the course of two days.

It was a long way from last year's virtual College Fairs, and to us, it was immensely gratifying that every single one of the hundreds of students we talked to knew about Say Yes, knew how to be eligible for our scholarships, and most had already taken steps to complete their Say Yes applications.

While we know that COVID is still with us and that its effects on post-secondary enrollment will continue for some time, we are hopeful that the promise of a Say Yes scholarship will inspire students to pursue a post-secondary education and will help to continue the slow, but steady growth in college going rates among CMSD students.

We know that creating change and seeing the full impact of Say Yes Cleveland will take generations.

Even before the pandemic, many Cleveland students faced barriers stemming from multi-generational poverty.

Those barriers don't come down overnight, which is why the timeframe for Say Yes Cleveland spans multiple generations.

Nevertheless, every part of our work is focused on the urgent need to help our students right now, and to help as many as possible get and stay on track to a successful future for their success and for the economic success of greater Cleveland.

Thank you so much.

(audience applauds) - Today at the City Club we've just heard from Diane Downing, she's executive director of Say Yes Cleveland for the progress report on the last three years of scholarship and wraparound services.

Now we're joined by two additional panelists.

Lekisha Rogers is a Say Yes Cleveland family support specialist.

Prior to joining Say Yes, she served as a care program manager at Cleveland State University and as an investigative child protection worker for Cuyahoga county.

She has a Master's degree from Tiffin and a BA from Wright State University.

Leean Andino you've heard a little bit about for students to receive a Say Yes Cleveland scholarship upon her graduation from CMSD New Tech West High School in 2019, where she was valedictorian, remarkably, amazingly, and wonderfully, yes, right?

(audience applauds) You get to be valedictorian for the rest of your life.

After just two years at Cleveland State, she's got a BA and now she's pursuing a graduate degree at Cleveland State in clinical psychology and the table of Cleveland State administrators over there is giddy to hear her tell the story.

And Leean and Andino I really want to, and I thank you all for being here.

Leean, I want to start with you because this is the story.

So first of all, like how'd you do that in two years?

- So the way I did it in two years was in high school, there's a program called High Tech Academy, which is early college, and I applied for it.

Basically, I do my high school courses along with college courses.

And they give you the opportunity to do classes over the summer, and I just took advantage of it 'cause they told me that if you do, there is the potential of getting your associates well, when you graduate.

So I put in a lot of hard work, a lot of hard effort and took summer classes.

Didn't get to spend as much time with friends and things, but it was sacrifices well-made.

And next thing I knew by the time I graduated high school, I also had my associates degree actually before the week before my high school graduation.

(audience laughs loudly) - That's cart before the horse, but well done.

(audience laughs softly) Can you take us back to January, 2019?

I know you weren't at the event, the kickoff event that Diane mentioned, but you were watching it.

What did you, like take us back to what happened inside when you heard the announcement.

- So I remember that day like it was yesterday 'cause that was the day I found out that I was valedictorian of my class and they put us all in a room to see this livestream video.

And they were talking about that was going to be something very important that they weren't going to tell us until we saw the video.

And I was talking to my friends, like, what if they give us scholarships for college or something?

And some of them cared, some of them didn't.

And the announcement came on that Say Yes was coming to Cleveland, and basically anyone who was eligible is going to have free tuition for college.

And I know I personally got very emotional and I cried in that moment 'cause that meant a lot to me.

And I ran to the bathroom and I called my mom on the phone, I was talking way too fast, and I was trying to explain to her that my college would be free because I had scholarships in line, but it still wasn't enough to pay for my full tuition, and that was something that I was generally concerned about 'cause I didn't know how I was going to pay it, but then Say Yes came along and it was something that was just off my play and I didn't have to worry.

(audience applauds) - Moving into college then and into these last two years ending last spring.

But during those two years and particularly when you started, what did it mean to you to sort of, to have that off your play?

- It meant everything, I could just focus 100% on school.

And not only that I have a very supportive family, they always told me don't work until you finish school.

Not all families are like that, but my family thank God was very much supporting in that sense, and they told me no, focus on school, you don't have to focus on getting money anymore, no one here has to get a second job.

So they just told me to go, head in, and just go for it, and I did.

And so I was able to get good grades and I was able to finish strong, graduated in two years, I had a 3.9 GPA and it was just thanks to Say Yes.

(audience applauds) (indistinct) - I'm gonna be back.

(audience laughs soflty) - Lekisha Rogers, Diane mentioned 6,000 referrals over the last year and 40,000 case notes and she talked a little bit about kind of what sorts of referrals were being made and all of that.

But can you tell us a little bit more about the challenges that families that you work with were encountering that you were able to help solve?

- Mainly I believe the top tier that my colleagues and I have seen since the beginning 2019 and being in the school has been mental health referrals prior to COVID, just learning how students, learning how they interact with their peers, family interactions, dealing with trauma that's happening in their community and how that relates to how they perform in school.

And then after that, we do housing insecurities, food insecurities, referrals to legal aid.

When we drill down to legal aid, we're talking about evictions, we're talking about DV, we're talking about students or parents that are having issues with custody and just want to get some legal advice on how they can move forward so they can support their family.

- So you've you started with Say Yes, you're one of the very first who were hired and now you're managing and supporting 16 other family support specialists as well, right?

- Yes.

- That's fantastic-- - You just let that right in-- - I did.

(audience laughs loudly) It's important though, because I mean that is, this work is, it's not, it's a little bit unprecedented in our community to have someone with a social work background sitting in the middle of a school, and they're just for whatever comes up.

You've done a lot of work in social services and human services, does this feel to you often in that work, you sort of like, oh, if only there was a program that did X or Y, then this never would've happened, does this feel like the thing that was missing?

- Absolutely.

My colleagues and I talk all the time about when we worked at the county and we're children's family services, we're in and out of schools all the time, we're at hospitals, we're in homes, and it's like, if I just had that one person I could call really quick that I know would answer, and if they don't have the answer, they can get me to someone that does.

So like a conduit, I'm directing traffic, just, it was needed because we have so many resources in Cleveland, we have so many supports and they're all awesome, but sometimes we can't access them the way that we should to be able to support our families the way that we need to, because everybody is doing different stuff.

So when you know that you have a family support specialist right in the building and her name or his name is on the internet, you know we're on our website with our email address and our phone number, you know how to reach us, and we're accessible, it changes things.

- And you have relationships with all the teachers in the school?

- Yeah, they know where I'm at.

(audience laughs loudly) - I know, I want you to describe a little bit like what your day is like.

- So, right.

(Dan laughs loudly) So one of the great things about Say Yes is that before there was Say Yes, there wasn't say yes, right?

So when the first day of school for me, 2019, they didn't know I was coming.

So we have to-- - Did you have an office?

- Yes, I did, because my principal knew I was coming, but the secretary and the custodian, they didn't.

So it gave opportunity to forge relationships because you won't know what I do if I don't tell you, or you can't see it.

So that was the time to get to meet the security guard, getting go with the custodians, speak to the secretary, because she, and he know everybody, understanding what teachers do well, who was your middle school teacher, 'cause I'm an a K-8, so my day looks a little different than my colleagues that are in a high school.

But just understanding that, and then the first family that you help, word spreads, you know you could go talk to Ms. Rogers because she does A, B, and C, and she helped me with this.

And so those are the types of conversations that my colleagues and I have with our teachers, with the staff, because we don't know what we can't do until the situation arises.

- Have found anything you can't do?

- But I, yes.

But then I call someone (audience laughs loudly) and they can.

And so I don't have to take the credit for that, I don't have to take the credit for anything, I just want to make sure that the families and the students get what they need.

So as long as we have that collaborative conversation and they know that we're there and we're open to receive resources and spread the word and be a network for our families and our students, then it works.

- Diane Downing, I want to come back to you now, as the Lekisha Rogers is telling the story of how the work works and I know that the kind of model is that the scholarships are the thing that attracts everybody's attention, and it's like money on the table that you don't want to say no to, the support services are where the real meat of the program happens so that there are eventually more students like Leean who are able to access the funds.

But how do you measure the crisis averted, how do you measure the impact of these support services, the mental health crisis that doesn't happen, or the eviction that doesn't happen?

- I think we will see it as we continue to see increasing graduation rates from high school, and then increasing matriculation rates in post-secondary because if we can, through our family support specialists, through all of the wonderful services in Cleveland, if we can break down barriers to students fully concentrating on their education, like what Leean just said, the opportunity to just really go full out on your education, not worry about whether your family is going to be evicted, whether you need food for dinner, I think that's what our longterm, that's our longterm promise, that's our long-term goal.

- You noted that there's about $30 million left to raise, 120 people here in the room, (audience laughs loudly) we're just going to lock the doors.

- Good we're done.

- Your husband's already doing the math, he's like, wait.

But do you see the path?

- I see the path because I see the path through Leean and the graduates that we had from Trice last June, the graduates we're going to see this year, and as those numbers increase and more take advantage of our scholarships, and we see the impact in the community, I see the path.

- When you noted that Say Yes has invested $3 million in scholarships over three years, which actually doesn't seem like that much money, in some ways, I imagine it's going to grow to something like two to three million a year, is the hope, how much does the program itself cost to run annually?

- Well, the program, you mean our administrative staff?

- [Dan] Yeah.

- Well, as you know, we're in partnership with College Now Greater Cleveland, who receives funding from the scholarship board to administer the scholarships.

We have funding for our administrative staff from the SeedMoney that came from Say Yes national, and we've also had some other grants for our programs.

We talked about the great contribution from CMSD, but also from the Mendel foundation.

So administratively, I think we're probably at about 500,000 a year.

- [Dan] Okay.

- But that's in a very round number.

- Looking over at staff nodding, okay?

(audience laughs loudly) We're going to get to questions from all of you in a moment.

So if you do have a question, be prepared for that, but Diane, I was thinking kind of similar to the question I asked Lekisha Rogers about the thing that was missing.

I mean, you've been involved in community improvement and community strengthening from so many different angles in the public sector, in the private sector, in not-for-profit sector.

This must feel like a real wonderful capstone to be able to work on this kind of this sort of thing, with this kind of impact right now.

- It really is.

As I said, in my remarks, our community is at its best when we have great, strong public private partnerships and we're willing to do the hard work, to look at the problems in the community and look at them through a new lens, through new eyes, to come up with different and better solutions.

And so I been very grateful for my career in Cleveland, both as you said, in the public and private sector, but this is really bringing together all of these elements and for what better cause than to increase the educational attainment for our students and to in the process, improve their lives, but also the economic life of Cleveland, of greater Cleveland.

There really is no greater goal for our future if we don't have this, we won't have anything.

So I am blessed.

- Well said.

Leean and Andino, last question, then we'll go to the Q and A. Diane mentioned College Now Greater Cleveland, and the mentorship program, and the mentor that every one of the Say Yes grads receives.

Can you talk a little bit about what it meant to you to have a mentor?

- So my story with the mentorship is kind of funny because in high school there's a lot of mentorship programs and I always found them boring, it's very repetitive of what to expect, here's some tips and I've kind of thought it was going to be the same thing with College Now and Say Yes, and I was kind of bummed, I was like, oh, another mentor, but (audience laughs loudly) sorry.

(audience laughs loudly) - Just what I needed.

- But then I met Ann Gain.

Unfortunately, she couldn't be here today, but she ended up being my mentor.

And when we met that first day, we really just hit it off, we were very similar in our personalities and I came to find out that she was a person that genuinely cared for my wellbeing, she cared about how I was doing, how my family was doing, and it's sort of very different from the things that I experienced in high school, because she was there every single step of the way.

And so it wasn't just getting tips and advice, but I could actually talk to her about my problems, I could reach out to her, text, email, phone call, and she would answer me, we would meet up in person, and she really just helped me navigate college in a time where unfortunately, my parents don't have that experience, so she was that person that I could go to and ask, what am I supposed to do, I don't know what to do, I'm struggling, and she really gave me the best advice possible, and she helped me navigate those two years at CSU.

- [Lekisha] That's awesome.

- That is wonderful.

(audience applauds) - So to be clear, the opportunity to become a mentor is open to everybody listening right now.

(audience laughs loudly) And if you want more information on how to get involved and make a difference there the sayyescleveland.org and College Now Greater Cleveland's website are available to both.

All of you here in the room, all of you listening, all of you watching the live stream, let's go to the Q and A.

We're gonna have microphone set up over here and over here.

And we welcome questions from everyone, City Club members, guests, and students who are here as well, and those of you joining us via the live stream or the radio broadcast on 90.3 Ideastream Public Media.

If you want to tweet a question, because you're either not in the room or shy of the microphone, you can tweet it @thecityclub, or you can text your question to 330-541-5794, again, that's 330-541-5794, and our staff will work it into the program.

And our first question is coming from our state school board representative around Johnson.

- Thank you.

Thank you for being here today.

I'm so proud to be a resident of Cleveland with such a fabulous program.

I have two questions, hope I don't get in trouble.

I have one for Ms.

Downing and one for Ms. Rogers.

Ms.

Downing, so often adults tend to have a tendency to make decisions for young people.

My question is, do you have high school students on your planning committee for Say Yes?

And my question for Ms. Rogers, there was just an article written in cleveland.com about the alarming suicide rate for young black girls in Cleveland.

And so I'd like for you to speak about your involvement with that as a part of the work that you do.

- Well, thank you so much for your question.

I'll go first.

Since your question to me was your first question.

We have had two students on our operating committee, two high school students, and they were selected by teachers and administrators at CMSD, and they have now both graduated, so we are in the process of looking for new student representatives and again, coordinating that outreach with Eric Gordon and his staff.

- So to your question about the alarming suicide rate.

At our school, Joseph Gallagher, we have been working with our K-12 prevention, mental health prevention dollars.

So we do have about three agencies in our building because of the student population is very large at Joseph Gallagher that are coming in to talk about different things that our students are facing.

So we're talking about coping skills, we're talking about identity, we're talking about how we relate to our peers.

In addition to that, we also are working with the West Side Community House, they have a sisterhood program.

So just signing students up for that, then they talk about the same type of things, identity issues, how self-love and through art, they do ceramics and things of that nature, just to touch on that point, because it's serious and it's important, and we have to recognize it because those things, education won't matter if my mental health is off.

And so we have to recognize that we have to put it at the forefront.

And so those are some of the things that I'm working on in my building, as well as some of my other colleagues, they have the same type of programs and concerns as I do.

- [Participant] Thank you.

- We have a text question, a lot of kids are now taking gap years between graduation and college.

How can Say Yes support CMSD scholars who want to, or need to take a quick break for themselves or to support family during this year?

- Great question.

While we encourage everyone to go to post-secondary, as soon as they can, after graduation, we have with consideration and vote by the scholarship board made a recommendation and now a policy that students can access the Say Yes scholarship up to two years after graduation from high school.

Now that was a really, because as I talked about in my remarks, with COVID students had to do other things to help their families.

We recognize that, but that policy is in place and could certainly be used if a student wants to take a gap year.

- Hi, Cecilia Render with Nordson Corporation and I am a mentor, (Cecilia laughs softly) which is where my question comes from.

So my mentee actually transferred schools and so lost her scholarship.

And so I wanted to know if that was something that was in on the minds of how the monies could actually follow the students if they change schools.

- Okay, I would really like to talk with you after the forum, because we are, as I mentioned, every public college and university in Ohio is a Say Yes institution, and we also have partnered with over a hundred colleges and universities across the country.

So if we can talk, I don't want to talk about a specific student, but I do want to put you in touch with Maggie McGrath, who is seated right here and heads up the higher education compact, and Lee Friedman, who is right behind you and leads the work at College Now Greater Cleveland, because I think there will be something that we can do to help your mentee.

And I appreciate you bringing it to our attention and that's what we need to know and what we need to work on.

- Diane just to clarify though, if a student, I mean, students transfer all the time, they get to a school and find out it wasn't a good fit, is Say Yes geared to support that kind of transition?

- Yes.

- Okay.

- That's why I want to know the specifics on this.

- That's why you are sort of surprised by the question.

- Because as I mentioned, we had 15 graduates from Trice last spring.

Well, we want them of course, to continue to get their BA and they have to transfer 'cause they've finished their time at Trace and Say Yes monies are still available to them.

- That's good, thank you.

- Hello, I've had the distinct privilege of getting to serve on one of the task forces in preparation and here's the other presentations.

And one of the things that I was really impressed by about Say Yes, is the actual system, and I'm forgetting the three, there's like three letters you used to talk about the system for actually tracking, knowing when a child needs help, and then being able to follow up and see, did they take advantage of the resources offered, et cetera.

To me, that's very powerful and I hope you would elaborate on it a bit more.

- So it's the post-secondary planning system, and I'm gonna ask Lekisha to talk about how she uses it every day.

- So we informally call it PPS.

PPS works as a tool that we use every day, we log in sometimes five to 10 times a day.

One of the things that makes it a great system is that we have a roster of all our students in our school, and we get information from the data system and CMSD school talks to our program as well.

And we're able to see a red flag alert, or an off-track alert, red flag sometimes look like housing insecurity, a mental health concern, there's some concerns with some physical health.

So we use that tool to reach out to those students in that family.

- Who puts the red flag in?

- It's a algorithm.

- An algorithm?

- From our surveys that we collect from staff and families and students.

- Interesting, thank you.

- You're welcome.

- Was there more about, I didn't, I'm sorry to interrupt you-- - No, you're fine.

(audience laughs loudly) So with that information, that's how we're able to reach.

Our students specifically, they stand out, obviously, if a red flag comes up for housing, we don't not talk about mental health concerns or physical concerns, but it gives them the opportunity to make that student or that family stands out to us, so we can see what it is that they need for support.

There's other fun things in PPS, like off track and on track alerts.

So we have information in the growth plan about a student with attendance or there's issues with some social concerns or anything of that nature when we can refer them to services in the community to support them, and then we track that information to see if the service that we provided has had any impact on how they're performing as a student.

- Great, thank you.

- Good afternoon, thank you all for being here today.

I work with an organization called Open Doors Academy, and one opportunity that we were able to offer this past summer was a summer camp for 500 students coming from six Say Yes schools.

It was in-person.

And one of the critical components of that was that we were able to offer transportation to our scholars.

So I was wondering if you could talk a little bit about opportunities on the horizon to expand access to summer enrichment programming to Say Yes scholars and in particular, the transportation piece that can often be so critical to making that opportunity available.

- So, as I mentioned, we've spent the fall standing up afterschool programs in CMSD and partnering charter K-8s.

I was able to visit the Open Doors Academy summer program, and it was very impressive.

We are still in the process of thinking about summer or beginning to think about summer 2022.

We have done for after-school fall programming, school-based programming without transportation.

Just logistically in the midst of the pandemic this wasn't an easier solution, but nothing is ever off the table, we will consider it, I just don't have more to say about it right now, but thank you and you do work for a wonderful organization.

- Hi, I'm Coleen Cotter with legal aid.

And my question is actually for Ms. Andino.

So you were obviously very successful in school before Say Yes, so congratulations, and able to have the scholarship and the mentor program that you talked about.

But thinking back now to your colleagues and school, K-8, and high school, and especially those who maybe struggled and did not experience the success that you did, what is your advice to the community to Say Yes, in particular, but to the community about what would have made the difference for your colleagues who didn't stay on track?

- I would probably say just reaching out for help.

And I think Say Yes kind of teaches you and show students that it is okay to reach out for help.

And that's something that I had to learn and struggle through, especially in my college years, and I think if I learned that sooner, I maybe could have even done more, and so could have my colleagues, 'cause so many students and some of my friends go through situations they're having hard times at home or having financial instability, but they don't talk to anyone about it, they don't talk to their teachers, they don't talk to the counselors, they don't talk to anyone, and then by the time you're filling out applications for college, everything kind of comes down on you, it's like, this is not possible for me.

So I think it's great that you guys are intervening so early and you guys are kind of teaching us as students, that it is okay to reach out and speak up and ask for help 'cause we're not going to be judged, we're not going to be looked at differently, rather, we're going to be given a hand so we can keep going and be someone in our community.

- Absolutely.

(audience applauds) - I have a question here from our text, another one for you, Leean.

How do you think Say Yes will continue to affect your life, now that you've graduated with your BA and you'll continue to have, will you continue to have a relationship with your previous mentor?

- Well, I currently do so have a relationship with her.

I have not been able to be as in touch, 'cause it's been a busy semester in grad school, but like I said, I can reach out to her anytime, and she is always there for me, and it really has become a friendship.

She loves my family as well, my family loves her.

And Say Yes has changed my life.

I graduated, there has been lots of interviews, a lot of (audience applauds) videos being taken, pictures, and I've been bombarded with that, but it has been a great experience, it has been an honor and I have talked to everyone how, I'm not exactly sure where I will end up, but I do know I want to work for non-profit and work with families, and they've kind of hinted that Say Yes is a good place to go.

(audience laughs loudly) And I've said that if the door's open by the time I graduate, I would be more than happy to continue working with Say Yes 'cause it really is a great and an impactful program.

- It just occurred to me that- (audience applauding) I was just going to say that you're eligible to become a mentor too.

- Yes, I definitely want to do that, so yes.

(audience laughs loudly) - Hi, I'm Helen Williams from the Cleveland Foundation.

Diane, you talked a lot about how this has been a community effort.

I wonder if you could talk a little bit more about the role of particularly the city and the county, you've talked about the role of the district, but the role of the city and the county in this work.

- So our original conveners included the city and the county and along with the Cleveland Foundation, United Way, College Now Greater Cleveland, and with great support from the Cleveland Teachers Union, and I'm so grateful for Sherry Berinsky to be here today, the leader of the Cleveland Teachers Union, and David Quirky, who was the president when I began my tenure.

So again, looking at public private partnerships, the role of the city and the county has been so important and so valuable.

Again, the public sector really committing to Say Yes Cleveland, and the county executive and the county council has for the last three years allocated funds to support the salary and benefits for our family support specialists, along with contributions from CMSD and our partnering chartered high schools.

That is real money, it's millions of dollars every year to support that staff work.

Mayor Jackson has been an incredible advocate for education in Cleveland.

He was one of the very early supporters of Say Yes, he saw it as something that would be a game changer for our students and for our community, and he tasked Monica Price, who is sitting to my left, part of his mayor's office staff to be the person on the ground with us to be there every step of the way as Say Yes was reviewed and then lifted up and launched in Cleveland.

And I think we all owe the mayor as he comes to the end of his time in office a great debt of gratitude, not only for Say Yes, but also for the transformation plan, for the Cleveland Plan Transformation Alliance and everything else that he has done for public education in Cleveland, Ohio.

(audience applauds) - So we do have to wrap it up.

I'm sorry, we couldn't get to that last question, and I really do thank you, Diane, for recognizing the mayor's extraordinary contributions as well as those of his staff.

I was thinking, as we wrap, I was thinking that it was several years ago that College Now approached the City Club to say, hey, we'd like to do a series of programs about potential solutions, these different programs, the Kalamazoo Promise, there was one in Pittsburgh, there's some others and Say Yes was among them being considered, and here we are like six years later or something and making extraordinary progress.

So congratulations to everybody here, give yourselves a round of applause.

(audience applauds) We are going to wrap now and today at the City Club, we've been enjoying a forum featuring Diane Downing, executive director of Say Yes Cleveland, Lekisha Rogers at Say Yes, Cleveland family support specialist at Gallagher K-8 school, and Leean Andino, a graduate student in the first Say Yes, scholarship recipient, who will finish her graduate degree when?

- Hopefully by 2023.

- 2023 and then she'll be on the job market.

(audience laughs loudly) Today's forum is part of our education innovation series, which we do in partnership with PNC and Nordson, and we welcome guests at tables hosted by the Cleveland Foundation, Cleveland State University, the Cleveland Teachers Union, College Now Greater Cleveland, the Legal Aid Society of Greater Cleveland, Open Doors Academy, PNC, and Say Yes Cleveland, we're so happy to have all of you with us today.

Finally be sure to join us next Friday, December 10th in-person here at the City Club, we'll welcome David Harris, he's CEO of the American Jewish Committee, and he is retiring after more than 30 years leading that incredibly important organization.

Tickets are still available.

You can find out more about that forum, all of our upcoming forums, all of our past forums at cityclub.org.

That brings us to the end of our program.

Thank you, Diane Downing, Lekisha Rogers, and Leean Andino, thank you, members and friends of the City Club, thank you Leean's parents and sister.

I'm Dan Moulthrop, our forum is now adjourned.

(audience applauds) (indistinct) (bell sounds) (upbeat music) - [Narrator] For information on upcoming speakers or for podcasts of the City Club, go to cityclub.org.

Production and distribution of City Club forums and Ideastream Public Media are made possible by PNC and the United Black Fund of Greater Cleveland Incorporated.