It takes courage to join hands across a racial divide. It also take creativity, openness and a little stubbornness.

        These Tristate residents are among the many who this year showed how it's done and inspired people to change:

        Patricia and Dave Bowling of Price Hill regularly haul a 100-foot, cotton banner to area schools, churches and community centers, obtaining the signatures and commitments of children and adults to pursue non-violence as a lifestyle.

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        Amid the famous thumbprints and symbols are signatures of such luminaries as Ohio Gov. Bob Taft and his wife, Hope; Secretary of State Ken Blackwell; Archbishop Daniel E. Pilarczyk; and nationally known rapper Lil Bow Wow.

        Victor Velez is a professional musician who figures he was born and raised to help immigrants settle in.

        Mr. Velez, who plays conga for the regional group Latin X-Posure, runs Awareness for Latinos Arriving in the States (ALAS), which helps Spanish-speaking immigrants and families get the lingual and literal lay of the land. The group sponsors family social events, counseling, education and career development, and youth and mentoring programs.

        Mr. Velez said growing up in New York near Ellis Island inspired him.

        “I saw the Statue of Liberty from my window,” he said.

        Susan Pfau, of the Cincinnati Youth Collaborative's Mentoring Program, launched a “group mentoring” effort in August because the waiting list for adult mentors had reached 600 youths by August.

        By September, she had launched four After-School Girls Clubs at Cincinnati public schools and recruited friends and friends of friends to host them. Now some 50 women are mentoring small groups of 4th-grade girls at weekly meetings and activities.

        Annie McEachirn coordinates the Talking Book program at the Cincinnati Association for the Blind, and is one of its busiest ambassadors, providing diversity and sensitivity training to local companies and agencies.

        Artist Jerry Haffron and a host of volunteers at the Health Alliance of Greater Cincinnati recently completed a massive mural on an outside wall of the Health Alliance of Greater Cincinnati's administration center, on Burnet Avenue in Avondale.

        The 7-foot-tall by 60-foot-wide depiction of various city neighborhoods and residents is titled “The Way to Work.”

        Rita Brock and her family in Burlington, Ky., count among their ranks about 75 extended family members, children, college students and young athletes from around the world and from every social and ethnic background who've briefly lived with them over the years.

        Mrs. Brock, a labor-delivery nurse, said foster care, soccer, school and community activities have meant “having someone speak a different language or be from a different background is normal,” she said. “In my house you can wake up and see someone like that eating across from you at our breakfast table.”

        Derrick Dansby and his small staff at the nonprofit Smart Money have been helping the poor in Over-the-Rhine learn to budget, track expenses, clean up debt and regularly sock away savings. But rioters last spring caused $50,000 worth of damage.

        Mr. Dansby was briefly discouraged.

        “Couldn't they tell that Smart Money is here to help?” he asked himself.

        Others answered by helping Smart Money make repairs and reopen.

        “It has shown that we're not going anywhere. We're committed.”

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