Achievement Center
In 2018, The Achievement Center of Erie, Pennsylvania sent a team to attend the Community Innovation Network Appreciative Inquiry workshop. Three of Achievement Center’s remarkable staff came to Case Western Reserve University to learn about the Appreciative Inquiry Process and framework. They learned about the difference between traditional problem solving and a participatory process that identified and unleashed an organization's core strengths, and about celebrating what is right, as opposed to stagnating on what is wrong. They took what they learned back to their organization, and held a summit meeting using the philosophies of Appreciative Inquiry.
Read the Achievement Center story
Bolton Elementary
What would it take to get professional musicians to perform a concert in an urban elementary school? In October 2019, the Cleveland Institute of Music hosted the Innovator’s Monthly Meetup, and an incredible partnership emerged that led to an unforgettable performance by professional musicians at Bolton Elementary School, and laid the groundwork for future collaboration.
Read more about the partnership
AsiaTown Sweetheart
In 2020, during the COVID-19 pandemic, Xinyuan Cui from the Community Innovation Network, and in collaboration with MidTown Cleveland, used Asset Based Community Development principles to do community organizing in Cleveland's AsiaTown neighborhood. With a little bit of support, a small group of talented AsiaTown residents took the challenging situation of the pandemic, added some time, flour, sugar, and a whole lot of love, and created a project to build up their community.