Civic Innovation Lab grants $60,000 to new projects
Initiatives target a news service and upcycling products
CLEVELAND (December 19, 2008) – The Civic Innovation Lab, a project of the Cleveland Foundation which provides grants and mentorship to individuals with ideas for improving Greater Cleveland, recently awarded grants to two entrepreneurs.
MedCity News Service, founded by former Plain Dealer reporters, Chris Seper and Mary Vanac, received $30,000 to create a medical industry news service and web site which will cover Northeast Ohio's growing medical community. The service will provide comprehensive industry-wide coverage of innovation and influence in medical and health-care communities and will deliver local professional medical news to the communities it covers.
MedCity News is aimed at professional stakeholders in medical and health-care communities including major health-care providers; medical professionals; pharmaceutical, medical device and medical equipment makers; and other news outlets interested in breakthrough coverage involving the business of medicine among others.
Cleveland is the ideal location to start MedCity News because it is home to several world-class medical institutions; features a rapidly growing medical industry and healthcare investment community; and a significant number of healthcare employees, which creates a large pool of potential local readers to complement a national audience.
Jennifer Thomas, the Lab’s director, said these new initiatives are examples of how the Lab supports entrepreneurs building new industries.
“Chris and Mary are creating a new approach to journalism using their expertise and passion. They are a talented team and committed to this product. The Lab is energized by their willingness to push innovation in an industry that is experiencing rapid change."
Thomas Mulready, the founder of CoolCleveland, and Earl Pike, CEO of the AIDS Task Force of Greater Cleveland, will mentor MedCity News for the Lab.
BeeDance, founded by Mike Dungan, received $30,000 to create a virtual platform that identifies, locates, and connects useful waste materials to community members and groups that view the items as being essential to their program or process.
BeeDance promotes the practice of upcycling, a low impact form of recycling that uses the embodied energy already in place from the fabrication of an item to find a new or similar purpose.
Mike brings previous success to this project as the co-creator of ZeroLandfill, a Cleveland based volunteer group that has successfully diverted 75 tons of architectural and construction samples from the landfill in several communities and returned these items to local arts educators, students, and artists as classroom and studio supplies.
The BeeDance name is derived from a unique behavior exhibited by the honeybee that is mimicked in the design of this new online service.
Bees communicate food resource locations to the rest of the colony by a sophisticated dance. The BeeDance platform will emulate this characteristic by locating and communicating new sources of materials to various audiences using current mapping and social media technologies.
“Mike has assembled an impressive team to tackle this creative solution to managing and reclassifying waste. His understanding of this budding industry and commitment to innovate is impressive,” says Lab director Jennifer Thomas.
Colleen Gilson, Executive Director of Cleveland Neighborhood Development Corporation, and Andres Gonzales, Director of Diversity and Community Outreach for the Cleveland Clinic will mentor BeeDance for the Lab.
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Civic Innovation Lab, a project funded by the Cleveland Foundation, fuels innovation by providing mentorship, training and funding of up to $30,000 for ideas that have a measurable economic impact on the Greater Cleveland community. Since its launch, in September 2003, the Civic Innovation Lab has provided more than $1.3 million in grants to 45 initiatives and trained more than 650 entrepreneurs. For more information on Civic Innovation Lab, please visit www.civicinnovationlab.org.
Established in 1914, the Cleveland Foundation is the world's first community foundation and the nation’s third-largest today, with assets of $2.2 billion and 2007 grants nearing $85 million. The foundation improves the lives of Greater Clevelanders by building community endowment, addressing needs through grantmaking, and providing leadership on vital issues. Currently the foundation proactively directs two-thirds of its flexible grant dollars to the community's greatest needs: economic transformation (including advanced energy and globalization), public school improvement, early childhood and youth development, neighborhoods and housing, and arts advancement.
For more information on the Cleveland Foundation, please visit www.clevelandfoundation.org.
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