By Jennifer Conn, Akron reporter, cleveland.com

The Kenmore Neighborhood Alliance has received a $150,000 grant aimed at helping residents secure well-paying jobs while expanding the culinary presence on Kenmore Boulevard.

The CareSource Foundation’s two-year, $75,000-per-year grant will pay for the nonprofit Jump On Board for Success (JOBS) to train, license and prepare struggling Kenmore mothers for culinary careers.

CareSource awards grants to nonprofits working to eliminate poverty and address the health needs of families. JOBS works to combat generational poverty among mothers in the Kenmore area.

The culinary program, launched this week, will take 20 to 30 single mothers through several six-week courses, while providing them with transportation and childcare. The program is designed to:

• offer students experience at restaurants close to home
• equip them with chef tools for use at home and at restaurants pay for Level 1 and Level 2 culinary licensing
• provide 50 percent of wages paid to licensed graduates if employed at restaurants within KNA’s area of focus 

Students also will receive counseling on banking, budgeting and saving through the Financial Empowerment Center in Kenmore. The center was launched last year by the city and the United Way of Summit County to offer free financial services to all Akron residents.

KNA has been focused on strengthening and launching businesses on the boulevard since its inception in 2016. Early on, the group conducted a survey in which residents listed a coffee shop and restaurants as the top two things they wanted on the boulevard.

The group also commissioned KM Date Community Planning to conduct a retail study that revealed more than $25 million in restaurant revenue is leaving Kenmore every year to nearby malls and business strips.

“That’s money that could and should be supporting our neighborhood with jobs and food for our residents and vibrancy for business district,” Tina Boyes, Kenmore Neighborhood Alliance’s executive director, said in a news release. “This grant will help us meet an immediate need of an at-risk group of residents while adding another tool to attract healthy food to our neighborhood. I call that a win-win.”

KNA is working to prepare the neighborhood to take advantage of activity expected to come via a new employer at the nearby site of the former Rolling Acres Mall. The city is working with a yet-to-be-named developer and expects the development will bring 500 jobs paying an annual average of $60,000.

“Eighty-six percent of folks who shop on Kenmore Boulevard are not from Kenmore, and from zip code data we know their average annual income is more than $66,000,” Boyes said in the release. “They’re demanding food and coffee like our residents are, who we know will patronize them, so we believe restaurants can do very well here.”

Live Music Now is bringing another season of top-notch regional live music to Kenmore Boulevard thanks to The Big Love Network, a group of organizers, artists and healing practitioners who advocate for social equity through activism and the arts based on Carey Ave.

Led by local musician Zach Freidhof, The Big Love Network has already hosted musicians like LA-based Rachel Roberts, Angie Haze and rapper A-MINUS at the venue.

“Live Music Now provides a great opportunity to engage both residents and folks from around the city who may not be overly familiar with Kenmore,” he explained. “Partners in our network are bringing diverse music into this space, allowing a safe and inclusive space for people to get to know others.”

Live Music Now started as a collaborative enterprise between Kenmore Neighborhood Alliance, the Big Love Network, Open Tone Music, and Kenmore-based Jim Ballard Skylyne Studio and Studio 1008. Patrons were asked to donate $5-10 – or whatever they could afford – at the door, which went directly to the artists. All money made at the bar supported Kenmore Neighborhood Alliance.

Big Love Network is continuing this model, seeking to provide an example of a new economy of cooperative and collective ventures.

“If this model can be successful in Kenmore, it can possibly be an opportunity in other neighborhoods as well,” Zach said.

Live Music Now is sponsored by Kenmore Neighborhood Alliance. All other funds to keep the events running come through donations at the door, which pay the artists, and the purchase of beverages at the bar.

Upcoming shows include:

• Thursday, Feb. 21 – Female Showcase w/Bethany Joy, Jose McGee & Indre
• Friday, March 8 – Ray Flanagan and Zach
• Friday, April 5 – Jeri Sapronetti (Time Cat)

“It’s refreshing to have a space where the artists and the community can co-create and come together,” Zach said. “Big Love is excited to be part of the Kenmore neighborhood.”

Doors open at 7 p.m. for all Live Music Now! shows. Suggested donation is $5-10. For more information and a full list of upcoming shows, visit www.facebook.com/KenmoreLiveMusicNow.

Dan Rowland Photography at 989 Kenmore Blvd. is the newest addition to the Boulevard District’s growing enclave of creatives.Dan is a freelance commercial photographer specializing in architectural, interior, family and artist portraits, product, nature and out-of-the-box thinking.

Dan has 35 years of photography experience. He studied commercial photography at the University of Akron and began his career under photographer Jim Maguire as an assistant and studio manager.

“I opened my own studio and pursued more of a fine art style photography using an old 4×5 field camera, the type where you pull the cloth over your head,” he said.

Dan went on to learn the ins and outs of the The Zone system, a technique for determining optimal film exposure and development formulated by world-famous black and white landscape photographer Ansel Adams, from one of Adams’s students, Howard Bond.

Dan also has his teaching degree and hopes to someday use his studio as a photography classroom. Until then, he holds meeting for the Rubber City Camera Club, which takes place every 2nd and 4th Wednesday of the month at 7 p.m. at the studio. Everyone is welcome, from seasoned photographers to those new to the field.

“Every meeting will be devoted to a photo critique. There are no rules regarding subject matter,” he said.

To learn more about the Rubber City Camera Club, contact Dan at danrowland2011@gmail.com or 330-671-4382. Or, for more information about Dan Rowland Photography or to book a session, visit https://www.danrowlandphotography.com.