This month, Uptown Consortium, Inc. hosted its third virtual panel event. It featured several Avondale community partners and focused on how residents, business owners, organizations, and institutions can take advantage of many opportunities for community involvement.

Mecklenberg Gardens is an Uptown institution. The restaurant and bier garden has created one of the city’s best outdoor dining experiences for more than 150 years. Mecklenburg Gardens has even been ranked as “America’s Best Beer Garden” by Travel + Leisure and "Top 5 Outdoor Dining Spots!" by Cincinnati Magazine.

In 2018, a group of organizations and individuals in Mt. Auburn formed the Mt. Auburn Gardens Initiative & Collaborative, affectionately called MAGIC. The leading organizations include the Mt. Auburn Chamber of Commerce, The Christ Hospital Health Network , The Christ College of Nursing and Health Sciences, The Mac House, Mt. Auburn Baptist Church, The Center for Closing the Health Gap, and Mt. Auburn Preparatory Academy.

Clifton Cares, a nonprofit initiative to support local restaurants and healthcare workers, has raised more than $43,250 and served more than 4,056 meals to hospital employees since it launched on Saturday, March 28.

At the beginning of the 2019-2020 academic year, Uptown Consortium, Inc. (UCI) established its Talent Kitchen Cabinet (TKC), a collection of students and young professionals, to provide feedback on plans, designs and programming for the Uptown Innovation Corridor.

This month, Uptown Consortium, Inc. (UCI) hosted its first virtual panel event to provide resources for small businesses located in the Uptown neighborhoods. Panelists Bob Pickford, Business Coach at HCDC, Inc., and Ella Frye, Director of the Women's Business Center at the Economic Community Development Institute, discussed emergency relief resources and support services as businesses start to reopen. The online event was free and open to all businesses and nonprofits in the community.

Like every organization and company in Cincinnati and around the nation, Uptown Consortium, Inc. (UCI) has shifted to new ways of working during the COVID-19 crisis. We’ve adjusted to working remotely, video calls are the new normal for meetings, and social distancing from our co-workers and partners is critical to flatten the curve.

For more than 10 years, Uptown Consortium, Inc. (UCI) has partnered with HCDC, Inc. to provide support services to Uptown businesses. Bob Pickford, a business coach at HCDC, works one-on-one with business owners to grow their organizations and address individual needs. While HCDC offers some one-off services, Pickford finds that its more beneficial to maintain long-term relationships with the businesses he supports.

Uptown is full of small businesses and nonprofits that are vital parts of the community. Coronavirus closures have impacted many of these organizations, and they need support now more than ever.

Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center’s Critical Care Building is scheduled for completion in fall 2021, and the project is on track to exceed its economic inclusion goals.