The City Club of Cleveland Podcast

The future of Cleveland\'s thriving music and arts scene begins with our youth. For decades, studies have shown that high quality music instruction leads to a variety of benefits for young people: greater confidence, self expression, collaboration, leadership, and creativity-to name a few. Our communities benefit, too. Yet, the high costs of instruments and supplies make it challenging for many talented young people to explore their creative potential. And decades of nationwide disinvestment in K-12 music education only adds to the challenge.\r\n\r\nYet, here in Cleveland, we are home to several leading arts and cultural institutions that have truly changed the narrative and raised the bar for musical education for our city\'s young people. The Music Settlement and The Rainey Institute were both founded over 100 years ago to provide arts and culture education to Cleveland\'s immigrant and wage earning population. They have since grown into neighborhood anchors, together serving thousands of youth. Founded in 1995, the Contemporary Youth Orchestra allows students to study and perform new and contemporary music-introducing students to opportunities in the creative arts industries. Together, their work continues to increase access to music education, empower the next generation of artists, and strengthen Cleveland\'s cultural economy.

In a moment where more people than ever are feeling the weight of "the system," or even losing faith in individual self-determination, how do we reclaim agency within this system?\r\n\r\nIn Liberated Mind: A Guide to Black Clarity, author Dr. Timothy D. Goler examines how inequality becomes embedded not only in institutions but also in perceptions and the internalization of stereotypes. \"For generations,\" Goler notes, \"Black people have been taught to cope, adapt, survive. We learned to shrink in rooms that weren\'t built for us. To silence ourselves before speaking. To call exhaustion \'strength\' and suppression \'discipline.\' We mistake the weight we carry for who we are. But what if that weight was never ours to begin with?\"\r\n\r\nDr. Timothy D. Goler is a nationally recognized social psychologist and educator whose work examines how people come to understand themselves under pressure. His scholarship bridges medical sociology, social psychology, and culturally grounded approaches to community life, with a particular focus on how structural racism, intergenerational strain, and life course stressors shape the mental and emotional realities of Black people. Dr. Goler is also the founder and former CEO of the HBCU Preparatory Schools Network in Cleveland; and a co-founder of PolicyBridge, a public policy think tank connecting academic insight with applied practice.

As Towards Employment celebrates its 50th anniversary, join the City Club and kick off the first annual Dignity of Work forum-a community conversation exploring the future of work, economic mobility, and the partnerships that create pathways to rewarding careers.\r\n\r\nAs Cleveland continues to adapt to changing labor markets and emerging industries, this conversation will offer timely insights into how workforce innovation can expand opportunity, strengthen businesses, and build a more inclusive regional economy.\r\n\r\nIn a moderated conversation, Jill Rizika will speak with Earl Buford, President of the Council for Adult and Experiential Learning (CAEL) and one of the nation\'s leading voices on workforce development, adult learning, and talent strategy. Together, they will explore how communities, businesses, educators, and workforce organizations can work together to ensure that every individual has access to meaningful work and opportunities for economic advancement.\r\n\r\nThis moment also serves as an opportunity to honor the legacy of Towards Employment\'s three transformational leaders-founder Soad Mansour, former Executive Director Walter Ginn, and retiring President & CEO Jill Rizika-whose collective leadership over the past five decades has helped thousands of Greater Cleveland residents overcome barriers to employment and build family-sustaining careers, while providing talent to our local businesses.

Across the country, communities are increasingly turning to cultural planning to support and grow their creative economies. Whether a city is actively drafting its first vision or beginning to activate it, the process requires constant adaptation, collaboration, and shared learning.\r\n\r\nThis forum explores the practical tradeoffs, constraints, and successes of shaping local culture at every stage of development. Featured arts leaders will share insights from peer communities on how these ongoing planning efforts play out amid civic and economic realities-offering an open space to learn from peer communities, ask questions, and deepen shared understanding about what cultural planning can look like in practice, while reflecting on Cleveland\'s evolving cultural landscape.

Democracy works best when citizens are more informed and better understand the institutions that govern them. And advocacy work and movement building become more effective - and successful - when citizens are empowered to become active participants in shaping their communities, and their future.\r\n\r\nYet, the halls of the Ohio Statehouse can seem like an overly complex, insiders network-hard to break through. So, what really happens in the Ohio Statehouse? And what does lobbying and advocacy work actually look like, in action?\r\n\r\nAs we mark the nation\'s 250th birthday, the City Club\'s 2026 Outdoor Summer Series WE THE PEOPLE will dive into topics centering our communities, organizations, and the very people who help our democracy thrive.\r\n\r\nJoin us at the City Club for a discussion with those who know the secrets of the Statehouse, learn how to enact change from within, and find out how things really get done at the Ohio Statehouse.

Nationally, 1 in 7 children is abused before their 18th birthday, and there are over 19,000 reports of child abuse and neglect annually in Cuyahoga County alone. To help address these issues, Canopy Child Advocacy Center (CAC) opened its doors in Cuyahoga County in 2018. It was the last urban county in the country to establish a CAC, a national model for helping children and families affected by abuse and neglect.\r\n\r\nBefore the CAC, and in communities without a CAC, an abused child would have to tell their story an average of nine times to receive the services and support necessary to begin the healing process. And some abused and neglected children do not receive services at all. The innovative CAC model reduces potential trauma for children and families impacted by child abuse by having clients come to one child-friendly, trauma-informed location when they receive services and resources to begin the healing process. Today, Canopy CAC serves nearly 5,000 children and families affected by abuse and neglect, and behind every one of those numbers is a child who was believed, supported, and given a chance to heal.\r\n\r\nJoin us at the City Club as we hear directly from Jennifer Johnson, Executive Director of Canopy Child Advocacy Center, on how they are advancing child safety, addressing abuse, and supporting healing of the region\'s youngest victims.

There was a time when the premise of nanny robots and artificial intelligence raising our children was merely the subject of Steven Spielberg\'s futuristic sci-fi films. The future, it seems, is now.\r\n\r\nAs AI enters nurseries, playrooms, and classrooms, parents are being sold a "smart" childhood at every turn. With mainstream use of artificial intelligence, the power of parent talk and human interaction in childhood development has become even clearer. In her latest book, Human Raised, author Dana Suskind, MD, reveals the possibilities and perils of using AI and related technologies for child-rearing. What do parents and caregivers need to know to assess individual technologies and foster the skills needed to thrive growing up in an AI-driven future?\r\n\r\nDr. Suskind has authored over 45 scientific publications and is a member of the American Academy of Pediatrics and a Fellow for the Council on Early Childhood. She is also the founder and Co-Director of the TMW Center for Early Learning + Public Health, Founding Director of the Pediatric Cochlear Implant Program, and Professor of Surgery and Pediatrics at the University of Chicago. Her previous books include the New York Times bestsellers Parent Nation and Thirty Million Words.

As we mark the nation\'s 250th birthday, the City Club\'s 2026 Outdoor Summer Series WE THE PEOPLE will dive into topics centering our communities, organizations, and the very people who help our democracy thrive. As one of our nation's oldest democratic public spaces, libraries have become deeply integrated into our communities-meeting a wide variety of social and civic needs. Due to its wide breadth of services and role as an anchor in every Cleveland neighborhood, the Cleveland Public Library (CPL) has been dubbed \"The People\'s University.\"\r\n\r\nThis summer, CPL launched One Cleveland: A citywide civic pride campaign that celebrates the people, neighborhoods, stories, and institutions that connect us as Clevelanders. Intended to mark the city\'s 230th birthday, One Cleveland highlights the creativity, resilience, and shared experiences that shape our city. Included as part of the campaign is the Cleveland 230 List, a recognition of 230 individuals (past and present) whose work, leadership, and impact reflect the spirit and strength of our city.

Ron O'Leary, Cuyahoga County valuation administrator, Tatiana Guzman, public finance professor, and Howard Fleeter, state and local finance economist, unpack Ohio's property tax maze. They trace historical roots, explain valuation and appeal processes, unpack school funding and HB 920 mechanics, and examine rising valuations, abatements, and pressures on local budgets.

The story of the Ursuline Sisters and the Sisters of Charity of St. Augustine in Cleveland begins with the city's first bishop. Just three years into his ministry, the Most Rev. Amadeus Rappe recognized that serving Cleveland's rapidly growing community would require support. He reached out to both orders, who answered the call-five Ursuline Sisters arrived to educate the city's children, and a year later, the first public health nurses began caring for local families.\r\n\r\nFor 175 years, the Ursulines and the Sisters of Charity have served Northeast Ohio through education and healthcare, founding and stewarding institutions that have helped shape Greater Cleveland-Beaumont and Urban Community Schools, St. Vincent Charity Medical Center, and Joseph & Mary's Home, among others-and transforming countless lives along the way.\r\n\r\nJoin us for a conversation with leaders from both orders as we explore the enduring legacy of women religious in Greater Cleveland-their extraordinary lives, their service and sacrifice, and their vision for the future of the communities they continue to inspire.