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Who are you?
Who is on
your Board?
Do you have a
one page summary?
How many people
come to Elementz?
What is your
target constituency?
How do you get
input from youth?
Did you model your
project after others?
What is your
budget?
Does CONTROL have
any other projects besides Elementz?
What is the need
you plan to address?
How did you
discover this need?
Do you
collaborate with any other organizations?
What are your
goals and outcomes of 2006?
What is your long
term vision?
How do you see
your work being funded over time?
WHO ARE WE?
Citizens Organizing Neighborhoods to Regain Our Liberation
(CONTROL) was formed in the months following April 2001’s
civil unrest. We were a group of young people living and
working in Over-the-Rhine, listening to the community’s
concerns, finally deciding we had to do something. From the
beginning, we discussed everything from drugs and violence
to housing and employment – but police-community relations
was clearly the issue most on peoples’ minds. Walking the
streets with literature about citizens’ rights interacting
with police and monitoring that interaction, we had a unique
opportunity to hear what young people wanted. We heard time
and again that youth needed a place to go. We began work on
Elementz: The Hip Hop Youth Arts Center in September 2003
and opened our doors February 24th, 2005.
CONTROL’s mission is to work with Cincinnati residents to
promote creativity, accountability, and equality by
providing access to relevant resources
ARE YOU A 503(c)(3) DESIGNATED ORGANIZATION?
Yes, we received this designation from the IRS in November
2003. Our tax exemption letter is available upon request.
WHO IS ON YOUR BOARD?
Click here for the names and affiliations of board
members in a Word document, and click
here to see the html version.
DO YOU HAVE A ONE PAGE SUMMARY?
Yes, here it is LINK
HOW MANY PEOPLE COME TO ELEMENTZ?
We have an average of 80-100 young people aged 14 to 24
coming to our center every night we are open (Tuesdays,
Wednesdays, and Thursdays from 5 to 10 PM).
WHAT IS YOUR TARGET CONSTITUENCY?
We work with youth who gather “downtown”- the
Over-the-Rhine/West End area. While this group is primarily
low-income African Americans, many young people in the Hip
Hop scene from other backgrounds have expressed interest in
Elementz. We of course welcome this diversity.
HOW DO YOU GET INPUT FROM YOUTH?
We surveyed over 1000 people to decide what our work should
be based on, over 500 to pick the name of our center, and
recently completed over 100 surveys for our
quarterly evaluation.
Click here for
survey results (please note: a couple numbers are skewed
due to poor questions – most notably the number of kids in
school) as well as the surveys themselves. Surveying has
shown us what we should be doing and how to improve our
work, as well as all
DID YOU MODEL YOUR PROJECT AFTER OTHERS?
From the very beginning we did considerable national
research to see what is working with youth in similar
demographic populations. Please see our
Links &
Inspirations
page for information on other similar youth-driven programs
that we learned and continue to learn from. Specifically,
we have modeled Elementz after a place in Denver, Colorado
called The Spot, founded in 1991. The Spot’s Executive
Director made a consulting visit to Cincinnati upon our
invitation in June of 2003, then two of our members went to
Denver in September 2003 to attend a weekend workshop titled
“Starting Your Own Adolescent-Focused Youth Center.” Through
ongoing contact with The Spot as well as use of their 300
page how-to guide, we are confident we can create a place
that will provide young people what they need into the next
decade.
We are also now working with the
All-Ages Movement Project
to develop a network of organizations and support to
spread and support innovative work like ours across the
country.
WHAT IS YOUR BUDGET?
Please contact us for our most recent budget.
DOES CONTROL HAVE ANY OTHER PROJECTS BESIDES ELEMENTZ?
CONTROL is working on both Elementz and the Campaign for
Youth – for information, please check out
www.campaignforyouth.com. We are also developing a
Leadership Development Program, which can be accessed
HERE
WHAT IS THE NEED YOU ARE WORKING TO ADDRESS?
Young people ages 14-24 need more youth-oriented places to
go. They need safe and empowering places with access to
resources relevant to their interests and talents. Hip Hop
is the voice of young people today. Hip Hop has been the
biggest selling musical genre since 2000, and the overall
culture continues to permeate everything that youth do –
from their fashion to their speech. Elementz is a place
where young people and their ideas are respected. Youth have
input and gain ownership in the space. Young people need
somewhere like Elementz.
HOW DID YOU DISCOVER THIS NEED?
We discovered this need because we are young people and we
know what we need. Just to be sure, we talked with our
friends and our friends’ friends. We surveyed over a
thousand youth, set up speaking engagements at schools, and
met with others working with youth in Over-the-Rhine and the
West End. We know there is a need for a Hip Hop based youth
center because we asked youth what they wanted and then
truly listened.
DO YOU COLLABORATE WITH OTHER ORGANIZATIONS?
We have strong relationships with several local
organizations. The Campaign for Youth is a collaborative
effort with the League of Young Voters Education Fund. We
do not have any other formal collaborations at this time.
WHAT ARE YOUR GOALS AND OUTCOMES FOR 2006?
Please contact us for our most updated set of goals and
outcomes.
WHAT IS YOUR LONG
TERM VISION?
Since forming CONTROL almost 5 years ago, we have worked
consistently to address the needs of the community,
particularly focusing on young people. Our long-term vision
includes an emphasis on leadership development and
sustainability. Elementz is our anchor project, and we are
confident it will fuel the other work we have in mind by
providing access to a steady stream of young people in the
community. We are already looking into earned income
strategies such as small business development that will
allow us to sustain our work more independently than the
average non-profit organization. Below, you will see the
first few steps of our long-term vision and strategic plan.
STEP 1: From the beginning, our focus has been to create
positive change in peoples’ lives. We see Elementz: The Hip
Hop Youth Arts Center as the first step in a long-term
strategy to do just that. By providing relevant resources
and a safe space at Elementz, we are both meeting immediate
needs and creating a place where we can begin to build
relationships and trust with youth in the community.
STEP 2: As we build relationships and trust with the young
people who frequent Elementz, we are excited about the
opportunity to develop young leaders. We take steps
consistently to ensure that youth recognize their
ever-changing and expanding roles in our youth-driven
concept. We are now looking into how we can further or our
work in leadership development – a broad concept we have
broken into components of 1) personal empowerment, 2)
political education, 3) critical thinking, and 4) community
organizing.
STEP 3: We believe work on leadership development will lead
to a clearly more engaged and empowered young citizenry, and
we look forward to increased youth input at this point. We
expect that new leaders will engage in several ways,
including weighing in on community concerns, working on
issue-based campaigns, and continuing the process of
developing new leaders themselves. Already, we’ve identified
issues like the need for more access to quality youth
employment, better educational opportunities through the
public and charter schools, and more chances for youth to
express their opinions.
HOW DO YOU SEE YOUR WORK BEING FUNDED OVER TIME?
For long term and future funding, we plan to continue to
keep diversified sources of income. We expect foundation
grants and individual contributions to provide the bulk of
our resources. Currently, we have a donor base of over 150
individuals that we will cultivate and grow through
fundraisers and giving programs. In-kind support will grow
over time, and we will continue to plan special events to
promote Elementz and raise funds. We are committed to a
local funding base, and believe that a strong budget is made
up of everything from grants to endowments. We are confident
that young people will show their desire for Elementz to
continue to exist and the Cincinnati community will respond
to our need. Furthermore, local and national research tells
us that we have a unique and desired project with fantastic
potential for growth on the long term. Over time, we are
also committed to earned income strategies that will likely
include small business development.
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