Central Business Association
The Cleveland Central Weed & Seed Central Business Association (CBA) held their first meeting at the Safe Haven Office. At this meeting, the group outlined the purpose of the organization, goals and objectives, and to introduce the business community to Weed & Seed.
A total of 8 businesses were represented at this meeting. If you would like to join or want additional information regarding the CBA, you can contact Teralawanda Aaron or Orlando Grant at 216-432-1818.
Prostitution Diversion Initiative
In a community survey conducted before the start of the Weed & Seed initiative, residents in the target area stated that one of their biggest safety concerns was prostitution. Residents told stories about their children witnessing acts of prostitution on their way to school and how prostitutes often get arrested but come right back to their neighborhood a few days later when they are released.
To address this issue, Cleveland Central Weed & Seed is starting a Prostitution Diversion Program. Working in collaboration with the Cleveland Municipal Court Judge Anita Laster Mays, Cleveland Probation Department, Cleveland Employment Connections and Cleveland Police 5th District, Weed & Seed will help prostitutes arrested in the target area receive drug treatment and psychiatric counseling as a condition of their probation. Once treated, the women will then work with Employment Connections to get job-skills training and find work.
Our goal is to address the issues that lead a woman to prostitution in order to show her other ways of making a living. Judge Anita Laster Mays is providing $10,000 towards the program, and if it is successful, she will use it as a pilot program throughout the City of Cleveland.
The program began in July 2006 and is expected to have about 20 participants.
For more information about these and other programs, please contact Cleveland Central Weed & Seed Site Coordinator Orlando Grant at (216) 341-1455 or by email at ogrant@bbcdevelopment.org.
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