Say Yes Cleveland is excited to share that SayYesCleveland.org has been refreshed with new content and materials. The revamped layout provides a crisp, white background with modern branding, vibrant colors, and an easier method for students and families to find the information they need to obtain scholarship information and support.

The new website is meant to be more helpful than ever before with easy-to-use tools including the My College Checklist, which helps students plan out their post-secondary plans, as well as the Find A School tool, which helps them locate colleges and universities, and the updated Scholarship Guidebook, designed to answer questions individuals might have about using the Say Yes scholarship toward tuition at a college or career training program after high school graduation.

The new website, designed by Nesnadny + Schwartz with generous support from the George Gund Foundation, took a year to develop with the assistance of a steering committee that included leadership and critical input from Say Yes Cleveland, College Now of Greater Cleveland, Cleveland Metropolitan School District, and Twelve Literary and Performative Arts Incubator. Local artists such as Lisa Kessler, McKinley Wiley, and Amber C. Ford contributed artwork and photography.

“We’re extremely excited to introduce our new website to the community, in particular our students and their families,” said Jon Benedict, Say Yes Cleveland’s Director of Communications. “Our goal has been to make SayYesCleveland.org, first and foremost, a tool that helps students and their families navigate the college-going process and connect to all the supports that Say Yes Cleveland offers. We’re so grateful to our many great partners, and especially the support of the Gund Foundation, for making this vision a reality.”

In addition, the website provides stakeholders and community members with streamlined access to the most recent Say Yes Cleveland news, impact reports, partnerships, donation/mentoring opportunities, and more.

In Summer of 2022, Say Yes Cleveland Family Support Specialists (FSS) extended into all 104 CMSD and partner charter schools. As a result of this expansion, the website now provides students and families with access to online support outside of school hours, in addition to on-site assistance during the school day.

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One way to support Say Yes Cleveland is to help stock the Family Support Specialist’s (FSS) Care Closets. Say Yes Cleveland’s Family Support Specialists serve as a resource in the schools to identify, engage, and assist students and families. The FSS connects students and their families with needed services. Their office is often a place where students go for a winter coat, school supplies, clothing items, hygiene supplies, or a snack and a listening ear. 

The items on this list are based on what we hear from the Family Support Specialists. Because the FSS’s are school based, they are able to communicate daily with students and families and have a pulse on needed resources. Your gift from this list will help stock the Family Support Specialist’s Care Closets, so students can get what they with minimal disruption to the school day. 

If you are interested in doing a donation drive to support Say Yes Cleveland, please contact Lisa Baskin Naylor at [email protected] or 216-904-5166.

Start Shopping Here Today! 

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Say Yes Cleveland is excited and grateful to welcome new contributions awarded by The George Gund Foundation’s board of trustees in honor of retiring Foundation president, David Abbott. The two new contributions benefiting Say Yes Cleveland scholars are:

A $1.5 million contribution to the Say Yes Cleveland Scholarship Fund. This contribution brings the total funding secured in donations and pledges to nearly $95 million, approximately 76 percent of the $125 million needed to guarantee tuition scholarships to all eligible students for the next quarter-century.

A $5 million grant that will establish a Living Learning Community for Say Yes Cleveland scholarship recipients at Cleveland State University. This grant will fund room and board for four cohorts of 30 students apiece, with all costs covered for the first two years and half room and board covered the second two years.

Diane Downing, executive director of Say Yes Cleveland, said:

“There are few organizations as critical to the existence of Say Yes Cleveland as The George Gund Foundation, and few people as integral to our work as Dave Abbott. Dave and the Gund Foundation not only helped lay out the strategic framework on which Say Yes is built, but they were also early and historically generous contributors to the Say Yes Cleveland scholarship fund. That’s what makes these new donations made in Dave’s honor so unexpected, meaningful, and deeply appreciated.”

David Abbott, president of The George Gund Foundation, said: “From our Foundation’s first investment in Say Yes Cleveland back in 2018, we have viewed it as a long-term investment in the young people of Cleveland. We are hopeful that our community can close the $125 million fundraising goal in these next two years, and then turn its attention beyond the tuition scholarship to the whole cost of postsecondary attendance. Our grant to the Living Learning Community at CSU is intended to jump start that effort, so that more students have an opportunity to live on a college campus, surrounded by supports that help them through graduation.”

“We do think these grants will create renewed interest in contributing to the Say Yes Cleveland Scholarship Fund and help us get closer to meeting our $125 million goal,” added Ms. Downing. “We are already seeing significant, tangible results. Last year, nearly 1,200 Cleveland students from CMSD’s classes of 2019 and 2020 enrolled in college or career training through the Say Yes Cleveland scholarship program. We have paid out more than $3 million in scholarships already, and we are eager to pay out much more in the future. We want every student in Cleveland’s schools, (and their parents) to grow up with the certain knowledge that a Say Yes scholarship is waiting for them after high school graduation. But to ensure that this commitment is guaranteed for at least the next two generations of students, we must achieve our fundraising goal.”

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Say Yes Cleveland (SYC) is excited to announce that the Cleveland Institute of Art (CIA) has agreed to join the coalition of private colleges and universities that participate in the Say Yes scholarship program.

Diane Downing, Executive Director of Say Yes Cleveland, said: “The Cleveland Institute of Art is one the premier art schools in the country, and we are thrilled that our scholars now have this exceptional local option available to them through our scholarship program.”

“Say Yes Cleveland and CIA share the goal of empowering young people through education and resulting careers,” said CIA President + CEO Grafton Nunes. “We are proud to partner with Say Yes in providing CMSD students with the platform and the process to make their visual dreams a reality for the benefit of themselves and their community.”

CIA signed an agreement in March to join the Say Yes to Education Chapter Alliance Higher Education Compact. The Compact is a group of more than 120 private colleges and universities across the country that have committed to raising the high school and college graduation rates of low-income and underrepresented students through participation in the Say Yes scholarship program. Other local institutions that participate in the Compact include Case Western Reserve University, John Carroll University, the Cleveland Institute of Music, and Baldwin Wallace University.

“CIA is deeply committed to co-creating the future of the City of Cleveland, and this partnership plays a key role in furthering our mission of cultivating creative leaders, inspiring people, strengthening our communities, and contributing to a thriving and sustainable economy through an innovative education in art and design,” said Senior Vice President of Academic Affairs + Chief Operating Officer Kathryn Heidemann, who will become CIA’s President + CEO on July 1, following Nunes’ retirement. “This is a win-win opportunity for these students, for CIA, and for the City of Cleveland.”

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As part of this agreement, the Cleveland Institute of Art has agreed to offer a minimum of two, but up to five new Say Yes Scholarships each year to eligible applicants who gain admission to CIA from the Cleveland Metropolitan School District. For accepted applicants whose annual family household income is at or below $75,000, the Cleveland Institute of Art provide a grant that is equivalent, at minimum, to the cost of full tuition and mandatory fees. For accepted applicants whose annual family household income is more than $75,000, Say Yes Cleveland will provide a Choice Grant of up to $5,000 per year that can be applied to tuition and mandatory fees.

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Say Yes Cleveland is thrilled to announce that the Jack, Joseph and Morton Mandel Foundation has contributed $500,000 towards Say Yes Cleveland support services.

“We are extremely grateful to the Mandel Foundation for their generous support of Say Yes Cleveland’s support services,” said Diane Downing, executive director of Say Yes Cleveland. “While Say Yes Cleveland’s postsecondary scholarships often get the most attention, support services are the cornerstone of our long-term work. By helping students overcome the barriers that poverty often puts before them, they can stay on track to success and be prepared to take the full advantage of the Say Yes scholarship waiting for them after high school graduation.”

The Mandel Foundation’s grant will help fund the school-based support services Say Yes Cleveland provides for students in the Cleveland Metropolitan School District (CMSD) and partnering charter schools. Services include a Family Support Specialist in each school; the Say Yes Postsecondary Planning System, which helps identify student needs and enables the Family Support Specialist to connect them with services and support; and access to services such as after-school and summer programing, mental health services, and free legal assistance for students and their families.

Mandel Foundation President and CEO Jehuda Reinharz said, “Say Yes Cleveland is doing work that helps students and families today and will also help to improve Cleveland’s economy, neighborhoods, and workforce over the coming decades. It’s a strategy perfectly aligned with the Mandel Foundation’s commitment to urban engagement.”

“This contribution to Say Yes Cleveland support services is really an investment in a more dynamic, thriving future for our community,” said Stephen H. Hoffman, Mandel Foundation Board Chair. “These services help students overcome the significant challenges associated with multi-generational poverty, challenges that leave no room for setbacks and often hinder postsecondary pursuit or performance.”

During the two years of Say Yes Cleveland, the organization has sent more than 1,000 CMSD graduates to postsecondary education with the Say Yes Cleveland scholarship program, in addition to developing and launching support services programming.

Say Yes Cleveland support services are intended to be responsive to the evolving needs of students, so as more is learned about those needs, Say Yes Cleveland works to develop corresponding new programs and services. The first year of support services identified a large unmet need for mental health services for students; in response, Say Yes is expanding mental health counseling using State of Ohio grant funding.

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