The Cleveland Peacemakers Alliance is an independent, neighborhood-based organization dedicated to maintaining peace and keeping young people out of gangs. Through grassroots efforts, the organization utilizes community violence intervention targeting individuals ages 14-24 who face the highest risk of being involved in gun violence. The organization provides a range of services, including court advocacy, hospital-based programs, employment opportunities, mental health services, and more.\r\n\r\nSince 2020, Myesha Watkins has led Cleveland Peacemakers Inc. She is a licensed social worker, youth development professional, and violence prevention expert. In 2021, Myesha was selected to participate in Mayor-elect Justin Bibb\'s transition team and public safety committee. Then in 2022, she was invited to the White House and recognized for her work in violence prevention by President Joe Biden. Earlier this year, she was invited back to the White House after she graduated from the inaugural cohort of the University of Chicago Crime Lab's Community Violence Intervention Leadership Academy.

For generations, leadership in Cleveland's Arab-American community have been working to advance equity and peace for Palestinians, and others, in both our city and the region. But the current round of hostilities and headlines coming out of Gaza has put their cause front and center. To date, more than 36,000 Palestinians-more than half of which were women and children-have perished in Israel's military response to the October 7, 2023 deadly attack by Hamas.\r\n\r\nAcross the country, diverse sectors of advocates have demonstrated on college campuses and spoke out at public events to draw attention to the plight in Gaza. This includes Cleveland, where a repeated call for a ceasefire was won in March. Still, at the heart of it all, is the local Palestinian community, neighbors and coworkers, who are grappling with grief and worry of losing family and loved ones; as well as navigating a documented increase in anti-Arab, anti-Palestinian, and anti-Muslim hate and sentiment across the country.\r\n\r\nWe invite you to hear from key leadership in Cleveland's Arab-American community who hold Palestinian heritage on how their community is faring, and what is needed to move toward equity and peace.

Author Jeff Fuhrer knows the narratives used to shape the economy, and he believes those narratives need to change. Fuhrer is an economist, and has been active in economic research for more than three decades--including the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston where he served as Director of Research, Executive Vice President, and Senior Policy Advisor. Now, Jeff is a Nonresident Fellow for the Brookings Institution and a Foundation Fellow for the Eastern Bank Foundation.\r\n\r\nIn his book, The Myth That Made Us: How False Beliefs about Racism and Meritocracy Broke Our Economy (and How to Fix It), Fuhrer explores the link between widely held but false narratives about poverty and race and poor outcomes for many in the U.S. economy. From a supposedly post-racist nation and the self-made man, Fuhrer argues that systemic racism continues to produce vastly disparate outcomes and that our brand of capitalism favors doing little to reduce disparities.\r\n\r\nIn addition to his book, he is working with a large collaborative to update the findings of the Federal Reserve's 2015 "Color of Wealth in Boston" study. Jeff also recently finished a 2-1/2 year term as a senior fellow at the Harvard Kennedy School of Government.

The Supreme Court of Ohio is the state's highest court and the court of last resort, comprised of the Chief Justice and six Justices. The Supreme Court decides Ohio's most difficult, complicated, and contentious legal cases, mostly appeals from 12 district courts of appeals. Since 1803, the Court has provided leadership for Ohio's Judicial Branch, and administered Ohio's court system.\r\n\r\nJoin the City Club as former Ohio Supreme Court Justices Terrence O'Donnell, and Yvette McGee Brown sit down in conversation with current Justice Patrick Fischer. They will be discussing the critical role, the extraordinary history, and the responsibilities of the Supreme Court of Ohio.

At Paid Leave for All, they know families, and the nation, are strongest when we all have time to heal from illness or injury, welcome a new child, or help a loved one recover or ease their passing. Yet today, the United States is one of the only countries in the world that doesn\'t guarantee any form of paid leave for its people. Paid leave impacts public health, financial security, and racial and gender inequity. Paid leave is also a proven tool to retain talented workers and support economic development.\r\n\r\nWhile the country came close to changing this in 2021 after COVID-19, Congress fell short one vote away from paid family and medical leave becoming federal law. Now, states and cities have filled in the gaps, with more than a dozen programs and cities developing policies for public workers. The City of Cleveland made paid leave available to employees in 2023, and Cuyahoga County similarly followed suit earlier this year.\r\n\r\nDawn Huckelbridge has served as Founding Director of Paid Leave for All since 2019. She has spent her career in gender policy, political organizing, communications, and building early-stage programs and campaigns. Dawn most recently served as Communications Director for Supermajority during its launch and as the Senior Director of the Women's Rights Initiative at American Bridge.

For 80 years, the United Negro College Fund (UNCF) has been the nation's largest guiding light in propelling our nation's Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs)--which educate and support the largest number of the nation's Black professionals.\r\n\r\nThe City Club is proud to partner with UNCF as it marks this milestone to foster a stronger, more inclusive Cleveland community by enhancing educational opportunities for underrepresented students in the region. WKYC\'s Danita Harris will sit down in conversation with Steve Phillips, author of The New York Times bestseller Brown Is the New White and the newly released national bestselling book How We Win the Civil War: Securing a Multiracial Democracy and Ending White Supremacy for Good.

In his latest book, Derelict Paradise: Homelessness and Urban Development in Cleveland, Ohio, Dan Kerr shows that homelessness has deep roots in the shifting ground of urban labor markets, social policy, downtown development, the criminal justice system, and corporate power. Rather than being attributable to the illnesses and inadequacies of the unhoused themselves, it is a product of both structural and political dynamics shaping the city.\r\n\r\nKerr is an associate professor of history at American University. Since his earliest work with the Cleveland Homeless Oral History Project (CHOHP), he has sought out ways to bring the oral histories he has collected back to the communities they originated from. The CHOHP project shaped the core themes woven throughout Derelict Paradise.\r\n\r\nHe is currently working on the Mobilizing Against Homelessness project, which seeks to document and amplify the voices, perspectives, and analysis of those experiencing homelessness in Washington, DC.

According to the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, more than half of suicides are by firearm; and nearly 90 percent of suicide attempts involving firearms are fatal, compared to 5 percent of all other suicide attempts. Suicide ideation to action can be as short as 10 minutes-making access to lethal means a key focus in tackling increasing suicide rates in our communities.\r\n\r\nRecently, the Center for Health Affairs launched the Social Determinants of Health Innovation Hub powered by Amazon Web Services which aims to address structural racism, poverty, and behavioral health crises. They found a correlation between suicide by firearms and historically redlined neighborhoods, poverty, and race. Analysis also showed that firearm suicide among youths as young as 12 rapidly increasing in Northeast Ohio-underlining the critical need to address structural barriers such as unemployment, lack of housing, and lack of reliable and affordable transportation.\r\n\r\nJoin the City Club as Brian Lane, President & CEO of the Center for Health Affairs leads a conversation about efforts to address lethal means, improve suicide prevention, and increase mental health resources in Northeast Ohio.

Morelle McCane qualified for the 2024 Olympic Games last October after she won the silver medal at the Pan American Games in Santiago, Chile. Now, she is the fifth straight boxer and the first female to qualify for the Olympic Games from Cleveland. The last time a Cleveland boxer brought home an Olympic medal was in 1952.\r\n\r\nMorelle started boxing in 2013 - her senior year of high school - training at an outdoor gym at E. 117th Street and Sellers Avenue in Cleveland\'s Glenville neighborhood. Soon after, she received high-level training at the Bob Davis Boxing Club at the Glenville Recreation Center. She will be representing Team USA this July in Paris, where she hopes to bring home the gold and elevate women\'s boxing to a whole new level.\r\n\r\nJoin us at the City Club as we hear from champion boxer Morelle McCane and her journey to the 2024 Olympics.

Few musicians tower like Terence Blanchard. The eight-time Grammy winner has been recording for more than four decades, and though his early work recalls the legacy of midcentury greats, for years now, Blanchard has been remaking and reshaping the genre, turning it into a force to give voice to social change. A trumpeter, pianist, composer, Blanchard has pushed the genre and his own artistry beyond jazz to opera and film scores.\r\n\r\nBlanchard began playing in his teenage years with the Lionel Hampton Orchestra. By the 1980s, he was playing with Art Blakley\'s Jazz Messengers. In the 90s, he began performing solo and working with filmmaker Spike Lee, a collaboration that would include films from Do the Right Thing to BlacKKKlansman. During the same period of time, he began to work in opera, turning Charles Blow\'s 2014 memoir Fire Shut Up in My Bones into an opera for the Metropolitan Opera\'s 2021-2022 season, marking the first time a project from an African-American composer was presented from the Met\'s world-renowned stage.\r\n\r\nBlanchard is in Cleveland for an appearance with The Cleveland Orchestra\'s Mandel Opera and Humanities Festival, where he will perform the music of Wayne Shorter. Before he does, he\'ll join moderator Jeff Johnson on our stage for a conversation about power and his own artistry and what it means to use music to address social challenges.