Cincinnati is beautiful, and the nonprofit Keep Cincinnati Beautiful is committed to keeping it that way. Through programs that help communities transform into vibrant spaces, Keep Cincinnati Beautiful’s success can be seen in tree plantings and vibrant artwork, but its greatest success may be unseen through removing over eight million pounds of litter across the Queen City. Southwest Ohio Parent spoke to Jonathan Adee, the executive director of Keep Cincinnati Beautiful, to learn more about this important organization.
Give us a quick overview of how you help the community.
Keep Cincinnati Beautiful (KCB) enhances economic development and beautifies all 52 neighborhoods of Cincinnati and beyond. By utilizing thousands of volunteers and leveraging partnerships, we provide more than $20 in value for every $1 in public support. We educate children and adults, and provide job opportunities to Cincinnati Public Schools (CPS) graduates. We transform neighborhoods, creating public spaces that reduce crime. We eliminate environmental crime and paint boarded-up buildings to increase economic development.
What youth and education programs do you offer?
We work with CPS to provide immersive learning opportunities to beautify their campuses. Tree the CRC provides tree plantings to Cincinnati Recreation Centers and Roots to Boots provides a pathway to careers in sustainable horticulture for CPS grads through a partnership with Cincinnati State.
What art and greenspace programs do you offer?
Our primary greenspace program is called Spaces to Places. We work with neighborhood partners and community groups to identify spaces that could be community assets, such as pocket parks. Research shows that each urban green space reduces violent crime by 12% over a 1-mile radius.
Our two primary arts programs are Future Blooms and Murals. Future Blooms provides crime reduction, blight reduction and economic development opportunities by painting windows and doors on boarded-up buildings, making them more attractive for renovation or sale. KCB also paints murals and installs traffic box wraps. Our murals are done for neighborhood reclamation rather than workforce development reasons and incorporate designs that can be executed by volunteers.
What is the Adopt A Spot program?
Adopt A Spot is a way to make Cincinnati clean and litter-free one block at a time. People sign up and pledge to keep their “spot” clean for two years. KCB provides the materials, support and assistance to help adopters. Currently, there are more acres adopted than all of Disneyland or Kings Island.
What events do you have coming up that we should mark on our calendars?
We have Don’t Dump the Nati events the last Friday of each month from March to November and Great American Cleanup events all year long. We are gearing up for the Greatest American Cleanup, a nationwide event to pick up 25 billion pieces of trash between now and our nation’s 250th birthday. Our signature special event, the Cincy Block Party, is on October 24.
With summer coming, do you offer volunteer opportunities for kids?
Children can volunteer with their families in the Great American Cleanup events and Adopt A Spot and with their classmates through Tree the CRC. More information can be found on our website, keepcincinnatibeautiful.org.
