New neighborhood-based schools, preschool for all toddlers, a program to increase black entrepreneurship and home ownership are some of the 30 programs that Cincinnati Community Action Now (CAN) leaders say they'll launch in the next year.

        Many of the programs are in conceptual stages, they said, but others are on the verge of implementation, awaiting funding or investment.

        Cincinnati CAN's co-chairmen — Ross Love, the Rev. Damon Lynch III and Tom Cody — discussed these plans in a meeting with The Cincinnati Enquirer editorial board Wednesday. They also responded to Mayor Charlie Luken's criticism about CAN's progress.

ROAD MAP

Cincinnati CAN listed some of the potential programs each of its six committees is developing. Police and the Justice System Committee    • Assess Cincinnati police practices and “best practices” in other cities.    • Undertake “cultural change” efforts to improve police attitudes and practices toward African-Americans.    • Target youth needs, involving community members as well as police.    • Create “top-to-top” links between police leaders and community/neighborhood leaders.    • Develop “effective, credible” citizens' police review system.    • Pass charter amendment to improve accountability of police leaders — done.    • Eliminate the disparities between how city and county judicial systems handle bad-check and first-time offenses in criminal cases. Education and Youth Development    • Expand/upgrade early childhood programs and in-home parent training.    • Establish full-time preschool for every child, ages 3 to 5.    • Modify public school curriculum, employ computer-based “best practices.”    • Create smaller, neighborhood-based schools.    • Provide alternative parent/family structures, including boarding schools for “the most at-risk” kids.    • Create “eye-opening” summer jobs and comprehensive youth development program. Economic Inclusion    • Use the regional “one-stop employment center” to fill public/private jobs, hold regular job fairs, and tie in mentorship and training programs, and reach ex-offenders.    • Get employers to hire underskilled people for craft-oriented jobs, provide mentoring and training.    • Address inner-city workers' transportation needs to outlying job sites.    • Include African-Americans on local corporate boards.    • Urge companies to establish minority supplier programs.    • Establish a multifaceted capital fund.    • Give entrepreneurs access to financial and legal services, advisers and business mentors. Housing and Neighborhood Development    • Buy, renovate and build housing and businesses in needy areas.    • Reuse vacant buildings and land.    • Help more people qualify for home ownership. Health Care and Human Services    • Expand neighborhood clinics to include behavioral health and oral/dental care.    • Create a coordinated plan for indigent health care. Media, Communication and Cultural Change    • Execute a TV series supplemented by group dialogues on race.    • Create public service campaign to change attitudes.    • Support a broad range of dialogues.    • Study media practices, promote cultural awareness and sensitivity for media personnel.

        Mr. Luken Wednesday said CAN was moving too slowly on recommendations for improving police-community relations. He announced he would ask CAN to report to him in 60 days on ways to implement the Department of Justice's recommendations to improve Cincinnati police practices.

        The Rev. Mr. Lynch, who a few weeks ago said he was contemplating leaving the group because of its failure to affect people at street level, defended CAN's pace.

        “CAN is on target, as far as our time line,” he said. “If the work was easy, it would already be done.”

        Some of the work on CAN's drawing board includes:

        • Establishing a full-time preschool for every child ages 3-5.

        • Modifying public school curriculum to incorporate “value-based” and computer-based education.

        • Undertaking a “cultural-change” process to affect police attitudes and habits toward African-Americans.

        • Urging Cincinnati companies to start minority-supplier programs to provide a foundation for new African-American enterprises.

        • Facilitating the purchase, renovation and building of housing and businesses in needy areas and reutilizing vacant buildings and land.

        • Eliminating city and county judicial disparities in the prosecution of bad-check writers and first-time offenders.

        Once all these programs are agreed on by the commission, they will be transferred to “implementation teams” that will seek funding and resources to make them reality.

        Identifying funding sources and investors remains a major challenge, CAN leaders said, bigger than the administrative, regulatory and legal red tape. The commission is also trying to coordinate with community agencies to strengthen existing programs.

        CAN leaders say they've set their sights on long-term, systemic change, not a “Band-Aid approach” to issues of police-community relations, unemployment and education.

        “For many people, CAN symbolizes the hope that things can change quickly,” Mr. Love said. “Our very name created the sense that we would be able to change things in one summer, when that was not ever possible.”

        The Rev. Mr. Lynch said many of the issues CAN could have tackled quickly and easily had already been looked at by other agencies.

        “Most of the low-hanging fruit had already been picked,” he said. “What was left were the hard, systemic issues that Cincinnati faces. ...” The commission has had an impact, Mr. Love said.

        For example, the group takes credit for the passage Tuesday of Issue 5, the charter amendment allowing the city to hire department heads, including police and fire chiefs, from outside the city. Some police critics say that will go a long way toward reforming Cincinnati's police department.

        “CAN played a decisive role in getting the charter amendment on the ballot,” Mr. Love said. “We came up with the proposal that was finally approved by council.”

        Still, Mr. Love said, he understands why CAN gets criticized for its lack of progress: poor public relations.

        But all that's about to change. Over the next two weeks, CAN plans a marketing campaign — including public forums and radio, TV and newspaper spots — to bring people up to date on CAN's initiatives.

        CAN also expects to get Cincinnati's youth more involved in its planning through teen forums and perhaps a youth advisory board, Mr. Love said.

        A year from now, Mr. Love predicted, many of CAN's key programs should be in plans and some tangible signs of change should be evident.

        “I see CAN as a much smaller group, that will serve as more of a monitor, to see what is working and what is not working,” he said.

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