Projects of Heights-Hillcrest-Lyndhurst AAUW

Helping High Schools

Help the “Cleveland Metropolitan School District” was a branch goal in 2004.  The project we found was one of updating the popular New Little Book: Citizenship, geared to the old Proficiency Test to help high schoolers pass the new Ohio Graduation Test in social studies.  From 2007 when The New Little Book: OGT Social Studies was first published to the end of the project in 2013, the project distributed more than 27,700 copies to more than 25 school districts, teachers and tutors, libraries, AAUW Ohio branches, and other interested readers.  In the first year, every school district that used The New Little Book, OGT raised their students’ social studies scores.

We are indebted to many for their advice, expert writing and review of the material, funding, and production.  As you can see by the length of the list far below, this project was a community effort to help Cleveland and it grew to help all of Ohio when AAUW Ohio adopted it as the Ohio’s Making History project.  Any omission is our error and certainly not intentional.

Now, the Ohio Graduation Test is gone and Common Core is here, but the message remains—social studies should expand your understanding of your community, society, and world.  What happened, why did it happen, and what does it mean?  So, don’t throw out your copy, because you probably will view ideas differently in five or ten years-reread it then-or you may want a quick review for another course or for your children.  The New Little Book aims to help people develop decision-making skills and recognize the need to use those skills for the good of our culturally diverse, democratic society and our interdependent world.  We are still here waiting for you to join our group, lead our community, and to be an active, informed voter.

Steering Committee: Nancy Stellhorn, coordinator; Sarah Maasz, finance, Janet Bowden, Mary K. Evans, Ranelle Gamble, Kathe Mayer, Clara McCann

Cleveland Metropolitan School District: Allan Keller, social studies teacher whose writing, thorough research and professional experience were essential; Linda Wilson, for her unstinting advice about grammar, reading level, and glossary items; Jim Templeman, Bruce Ransom, and Sean Patton, social studies teachers; Neil Murphy and Duane Olderman, social studies coordinators.

Funding: The Cleveland Foundation and the Gund Foundation; Women Business Owners Educational Foundation, fiscal agent.

Support and production staff: American Association of University Women, Heights-Hillcrest-Lyndhurst Branch; proofreading help provided by our partners Delta Sigma Theta and Alpha Kappa Alpha sororities and AAUW-HHL member Charleen Gawronski.

Printing and Design: Color Bar Perlmuter

The Little Book project for the previous test, the Ohio Proficiency Test: Betty Rose, Louise Steele, and Linda Wilson, and Church of the Covenant Cleveland for granting permission to use and modify their copyrighted study guide.

Helping Caregivers Help Seniors

Because the majority of caregiving falls to women, HHL wanted to solve the needs of those who needed help to keep seniors in their homes.  In 1990, the Cleveland, Ohio area did not have a central source of information, so we decided to produce one by computerizing all of the available information.  Since computers and the Internet were not available to everyone in 1991, we decided to make printed copies.

With the help of a community action grant from AAUW, we printed the first edition in 1991 and a second, updated and expanded 635-page edition in 1992 that contained information for services of more than 1,300 providers in the six-county Cleveland Metropolitan Area.  The information was organized into 10 geographic areas, 16 service categories arranged by geographic area, and a cross-referenced comprehensive alphabetical list.

Western Reserve Area Agency on Aging and the Cuyahoga County Department of Senior and Adult Services advised our group and at the close of the project, DSAS purchased the data for county use.

This project grew from the need of one of our members who had trouble finding help for her elderly parents.

Helping Women Return to School

Because AAUW encourages further education and retraining for women to secure their economic future, HHL developed a resolution to encourage its members to designate their alumnae donations to colleges and universities to be allocated to a sequestered and continuing fund to aid re-entry or independent women students.  The resolution was adopted by AAUW Ohio in 1989 and by national AAUW at its 1993 convention in Minneapolis. The branch funded letters to all Ohio colleges and universities urging them to include the information on their donation cards.

This project was spear-headed by a member who returned to school, working during the day and attending night classes for 17 years at what is now know as Case Western Reserve University.