Abstract
Jacquelyn Bradshaw, a native of the Mansfield, Ohio, area and a former schoolteacher, is the executive director of the Phillis Wheatley Association. She discusses the organization’s history, mission, current programs it offers, and how it is working to raise public awareness of its programs and to bolster its fundraising. Subjects include the Emeritus House, Sutphen School of Music, Josephine Kohler Day Care Center, and Camp Mueller.
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Interviewee
Bradshaw, Jacquelyn (interviewee)
Interviewer
Miller, Emily (interviewer)
Project
Project Team
Date
7-1-2008
Document Type
Oral History
Duration
44 minutes
Recommended Citation
"Jacquelyn Bradshaw Interview, 01 July 2008" (2008). Cleveland Regional Oral History Collection. Interview 999053.
https://engagedscholarship.csuohio.edu/crohc000/731
Transcript
Emily Miller [00:00:01] Okay, if I could just have you say your name and today’s date.
Jacquelyn Bradshaw [00:00:06] Jacquelyn Bradshaw. July 1, 2008.
Emily Miller [00:00:09] And your profession is?
Jacquelyn Bradshaw [00:00:11] I’m the executive director of the Phillis Wheatley Association.
Emily Miller [00:00:14] Mm hmm. Good. So, Jacquelyn, did you grow up in the area? Are you from Cleveland?
Jacquelyn Bradshaw [00:00:20] No, I’m not originally from Cleveland. I’ve lived in quite a few places, but my latter part of my childhood was in Mansfield, Ohio, actually a suburb called Ontario.
Emily Miller [00:00:29] Okay. And then how did you come to Cleveland?
Jacquelyn Bradshaw [00:00:32] Oh, I got married many moons ago and came here.
Emily Miller [00:00:35] Okay. And you mentioned that your prior profession was as a history teacher. Is that correct?
Jacquelyn Bradshaw [00:00:43] One of one of my prior professions. I taught school with Moses Ohr Hatorah, which is the Orthodox Jewish school for boys in Cleveland Heights. From there I went to St. Henry’s Catholic School in the Lee and Harvard area, and I finished up at Collinwood Junior High School.
Emily Miller [00:01:00] Do you want to talk about the transition from you becoming the director of the Phillis Wheatley Association, or did you have any work within the association before you became the director?
Jacquelyn Bradshaw [00:01:13] No. Prior to when I left teaching, I went and worked with male felony offenders within a church council and I was their educational coordinator for many years. I won’t say how many because I start to age myself from there. I went on to become the chief operating officer for the Boys and Girls Clubs of Cleveland. So I pretty much since I left teaching, stuck with not for profit organizations. And then from there I came to Phillis Wheatley as its executive director.
Emily Miller [00:01:42] Now how long have you been in Cleveland from now?
Jacquelyn Bradshaw [00:01:46] Oh, originally I came to Cleveland in 1986.
Emily Miller [00:01:49] Okay, so you’ve been here for quite some time. And then how long, and I know, but how long have you been with the Phillis Wheatley Association?
Jacquelyn Bradshaw [00:01:57] Two years.
Emily Miller [00:01:58] Two years. Alright. And what motivated you to become part of the association?
Jacquelyn Bradshaw [00:02:03] Oh, wow. The history. The history of the organization. The Phillis Wheatley Association’s been around since 1911, so it’s 96 years old. And our founder is Jane Edna Hunter. Jane Edna Hunter [inaudible] downtown. Just her whole story and the mission behind how she founded the organization and what it stands for just kind of fits with my mission and where I am in life-
Emily Miller [00:02:27] Which is?
Jacquelyn Bradshaw [00:02:29] Well, Phillis Wheatley- I’m sorry, for Jane Edna Hunter when she founded the Phillis Wheatley association in 1911, it was for working girls that came up through the South. So if you all are history majors, you know about the Great Migration of African Americans north. Well, these were educated African Americans, although they may not have been able to get jobs in their field. They might have to come as a domestic or what have you just to get their foot in the door. There was nowhere for them to stay. So what Jane Edna Hunter and a few other ladies did was basically put aside a nickel and a prayer each week until they raised enough money and they bought several houses doing that. And eventually they started their own capital campaign, what we would call it today. And it was matched by John D. Rockefeller, and in 1927 started to laid the groundwork and the cornerstone for the building that still stands today.
Emily Miller [00:03:20] So what were some of the original goals of the organization?
Jacquelyn Bradshaw [00:03:24] Aside from providing them with a safe place to stay while they were getting transitioned in, she did everything from employment skills. There was a beauty salon in the building, the daycare, which still stands today. She believed that all women should be involved in cultural arts so she founded the Sutphen School of Music, which we still have today. Just everything to make them a well-rounded citizen, basically, for lack of a better word, well-rounded citizen. In ’67, the organization moved from just dealing with women to incorporating seniors. And we’ve since ’67 to this point, that’s what we’ve been dealing with. So we still have all the other programs as well as instead of it being a home for working girls of color, it is now for senior citizens and those with mental disabilities.
Emily Miller [00:04:16] Is there any other missions or goals that they’re presently pursuing that the organization is presently pursuing that you haven’t mentioned.
Jacquelyn Bradshaw [00:04:24] Just basically to be an outstanding social service entity for the whole Cedar-Central community. I mean, that community has such a history in itself, but just to continue to provide, hopefully for the next 96 years, the same level of service for the community, low affordable housing for the elderly, cost efficient daycare in a loving environment, the cultural arts and music. Social skill, not, sorry to say, social skill development. That’s not it. But social outlets for seniors through our Congregate Meals program.
Emily Miller [00:05:02] Okay, I’m going to jump, since you were talking about history, since you know a lot about your foundation’s history, do you remember anything about the Public Works Administration and their dealings with the Phillis Wheatley Association?
Jacquelyn Bradshaw [00:05:16] No, I don’t, but I’ve only been around two years, so you can tell me.
Emily Miller [00:05:19] Oh, well, Matt- [inaudible]
Matt Ferraton [00:05:23] The WPA-
Jacquelyn Bradshaw [00:05:24] Yeah, the WPA, Roosevelt.
Matt Ferraton [00:05:27] Well, they, they actually funded, which is, I think part of the question is the Cedar-Central neighborhood project. They actually funded that in 1937. Okay, so that’s-
Jacquelyn Bradshaw [00:05:42] But you know what would have been perfect? If I could have made it last week and I didn’t have my emergency in my daycare. I have a young lady here, doctor. Well, I don’t know if she’s a doctor. She’s a professor from Clemson University in South Carolina. And she’s doing research on Jane Edna Hunter’s book, Nickel and a Prayer. And she has so much history because Jane Edna Hunter was from South Carolina. So they’ve reconstructed the plantation house she lived in, and she knows all the ins and outs of every little detail prior to probably the thirties, early thirties, when things really took off here. But she has all that history leading up to that point. So she’ll be back. She’s going to do her stuff. She’s coming back to do a sabbatical here, so you guys might want to talk to her. I tried to get her to come, but her plane was leaving.
Emily Miller [00:06:32] Let us know when she comes back. Well, since we’re talking about Cedar-Central neighborhood, can you talk to us a little bit, talk to our viewers about, you know, someone coming outside not knowing anything about the neighborhood? Can you explain, you know, what it is or some of it’s, you know, how your organization benefits it more?
Jacquelyn Bradshaw [00:06:55] Wow, Central from my understanding, ’cause like I said, I’ve only been with Phillis Wheatley two years, but in its heyday, you know, that’s where the Stokes brothers lived and some of the other great African American leaders of the time. So it comes from a rich history now as our neighborhoods, it’s taken its shift and its turns. But our mayor still lives in the Cedar-Central neighborhood. There’s a lot of historic organizations still in that area. There’s Lane Metropolitan C.M.E. Church, which is African American. And there’s also St. John’s A.M.E. Church, which is the oldest A.M.E. church in the city of Cleveland. So I think there’s 17 of them. But so you have this rich history where people still come in. Now the neighborhood is beginning that then took a kind of negative twist, but now the neighborhood is starting to turn back around with rise of properties and all the new housing and things like that, that’s coming into play. Phillis Wheatley still stands to provide those outlets like it did 96 years ago with the programs that we offer, as well as when Phillis Wheatley was first established, those very entities that I talked about, the Stokes brothers. Now I’m drawing a blank of who I was going to say. But it was the mecca for African American politicians and businessmen because they really weren’t places they could go and have a good meal. So they could come to the Phillis Wheatley association, hold their meetings in very respectable atmosphere, have a meal provided for them, which we still do. We still invite people in. We still have meetings. We still try to be involved in the community as well as friendly inn and some of the other neighborhood centers around the area. So I would think that’s our biggest contribution. Aside from the programs, like I said, the daycare, the music school, those type of programs that we’re still offering.
Emily Miller [00:08:54] Can you speak about any of the issues, the specific issues - you said they took a turn for the worse - that the neighborhood faced?
Jacquelyn Bradshaw [00:09:02] Well, like I said before, it’s not unique to any other neighborhood in Cleveland, but as we know, with poverty levels on the rise, gas prices, juvenile crime, anytime you’re in a concentrated area with a low poverty level, you’re going to have those issues. And that’s the trend that Central went to for a period of time where it had a very low poverty level and low unemployment. When you have a high concentration of that, you’re going to have problems, social problems of all shapes, forms, and fashions. But if you, if all the historic entities that were there when it was in its heyday up and left, it would really fall to the wayside. But by us all standing strong and continuing to be there for the community, I think we’re starting to see the upswing. And there’s nothing better than your mayor of your city living in the same community.
Emily Miller [00:09:56] I’d like to go back for a few minutes about those various organizations that you guys have started. There’s a Camp Mueller.
Jacquelyn Bradshaw [00:10:07] Camp Mueller is one of only four African American owned and operated residential camps in the country. And we’re the only one in Ohio. And it’s been around since the early thirties. Jane Edna Hunter was able to secure that land in Peninsula, Ohio, which is right there at Cuyahoga Falls. So that was a feat in itself. We still provide programming to inner-city youth from Central Ward Five. Three of the schools, they go out for day camp. And during the summer, we provide residential camps for our music schools. So they have their own music camp. Our daycare school agers go out and do a week at camp, and then we’re in a collaboration with the NAACP and Tri-C Metro, or actually all of Tri-C for the NAACP’s leadership camp. And that camp is for young African American males, 10 to 13, basically looking at the high level of crime, the gang violence, all the things, because kids just want to belong. And if you don’t give them something to do, they’re going to find it on their own. So Stanley Miller and his team came up with a leadership camp where they come out to Camp Mueller, they get all the programming we offer, as well as we provide different African American male leaders from throughout the city to come out and either give talks to the young men, have dinner with them, just mentor with them. One of the highlights all the young men, besides eating that all the young men talk about is the last night that they’re at camp. My camp director, Marcus Barrett, does a fabulous job of reenacting the adventure or the trials and tribulations of a runaway slave. So they can’t have any flashlights, cell phones, anything like that. And they go on about a two-hour hike where all they can do is feel for the moss, look for the North Star. They’re in the woods. They hear the coyotes. So it’s quite interesting to see them when they come back down that hill, how scared they are. But it gives them a sense of their history, because so much in our schools now, we are teaching our children how to pass a test rather than their history. If you don’t know where you, you all know, if you don’t know where you’ve been, you’re destined to repeat it.
Emily Miller [00:12:31] Do you want to speak a little bit about the Emeritus House? Is that something?
Jacquelyn Bradshaw [00:12:34] That Emeritus House is the building that was built to house the Phillis Wheatley Association. So it’s really one and the same. The only difference with Emeritus House is it’s the main building one through nine. The daycare, the music school, the gym, those are all part of the campus. But Emeritus House was a historic building that was built in 1927, and Jane Edna Hunter built it to house the Phillis Wheatley Association. Now, floors three through nine are those floors for the residents. The seniors that live in the building are those that may have some mental handicaps or physical handicaps, for that matter. We just went through, 80 years later, a $7 million historic renovation of the building. So you have to confess it’s beautiful, which is very pleasing because it was 80 years almost to the day. What is unique to me about the historic renovation is a couple things. One, we had Robert P. Madison International Architects, which is a historic African American architectural firm right here on 30th in itself. So to have an African American organization come back and do the historic renovation of a historic African American organization is wonderful. And the second thing that I’m pleased to death about is Marous Brothers construction brought a female project manager in to do the building. So she ran the whole construction project, Kay Neubert. So here you have a building that was built for women to benefit women. And 80 years later, who would have thought a woman would have been running the whole $70 million renovation? So I’m very pleased with both of those aspects of the renovation.
Emily Miller [00:14:23] What about the school of music? When did that start?
Jacquelyn Bradshaw [00:14:27] School of music also started in the early thirties, as did the Josephine Kohler Day Care. And once again, it was started by Nell Gunn. I think I’m pronouncing her name right. And it was to provide cultural arts for the women. Social skills, dance classes. Board of trustees chair tells me, just like if you grew up in the suburbs, you took ballet or tap or whatever. I know my mother did try to make the little lady out of me. Didn’t work, but he learned a two step. I mean, your parents sent you to learn those social graces at Phillis Wheatley. And we have pictures, all these historic pictures of everyone sitting around learning to dance as well as piano. So today children can receive low-cost piano lessons, voice lessons, bass lessons, trumpet lessons, violin lessons, keyboard lessons. They’re in plays, they’re in everything else. I mean, and it’s just wonderful. We have a lot of foundations that will scholarship so many children, so those that can’t afford can still go, but I still don’t think there’s probably anywhere in the city where you can get private lessons for under $20.
Emily Miller [00:15:38] And who teaches these?
Jacquelyn Bradshaw [00:15:39] We have students from- We have students from, graduate students rather, from Cleveland State that teach music from, what is the name of that? Miss Hogan would kill me.
Emily Miller [00:15:55] Case?
Jacquelyn Bradshaw [00:15:56] No, not Case. It’s a music school. It’s like graduate students come from Cleveland music. What were you starting to speak?
Matt Ferraton [00:16:05] Cleveland Institute of Music.
Jacquelyn Bradshaw [00:16:06] There you go. Cleveland Institute of Music. Christian would- He’s working on his PhD, but he’s one of our piano instructors, so they come from there. We have- I know our teacher that teaches the bass or the string instruments. He tours around town, does the little happy hour sets. But, you know, you have professionals as well as students as well as some of the teachers that actually instruct some of the students that come. So we have some very highly acclaimed instructors that are taking the time to work with these children because I definitely can’t pay them what they’re worth. But it’s neat to see the interaction.
Emily Miller [00:16:46] Can you tell us any stories, any success stories about any of these music students or-?
Jacquelyn Bradshaw [00:16:53] Well, in the two years I’ve been here, there’s not a lot. I have one that’s one of my favorites. We have a young man in our after-school program in the daycare, and he’s probably ten or eleven now. He acted up all the time. I mean, he was always fighting. It was always an issue. It was always something. And you start to run out of people to put him with so that you can continue to teach your class. So one day he was kind of shoved in the room with one of the piano teachers who was practicing for a set he had. And he happened to be playing some contemporary music that the young man knew. And he told him, he said, well, sit down. See if you can do something other than fight all the time. And within two months, he was playing. I mean, just to realize now I understand as a former teacher, he was gifted and talented and he just wasn’t challenged. So that is why he was always acting up. But now he sit him down at piano, he can play by ear, and he’ll just sit down and start playing. So that’s pretty amazing to me because I wasn’t all that musically inclined, even though I played the clarinet for too many years, because that’s what everyone did in school, you know, I can’t play now.
Emily Miller [00:18:09] This gentleman, this kid was from the daycare. Do you want to tell us a little bit more about the daycare itself? You know, when it got set up, who works there.
Jacquelyn Bradshaw [00:18:17] The Josephine Kohler Day Care center has been around once again, the early thirties. The building opened in ’27. And I’ll get the dates wrong, but I know Josephine started in ’32. I think the music school was ’34 and camp was in ’37. But Josephine called the daycare center. We have 108 students. They range from six months, no, 18 months of age to twelve years of age. We’re working on becoming a certified step up to quality daycare center, which is the new thing that everyone has to be at by a certain date. But what I think is really unique about our daycare center is a couple things. I have male teachers, so especially with those after-school age, those young boys, they don’t want to feel like they’re in a daycare. They have some male role models they can look up to that are walking the walk and talking the talk. We provide a hot, nutritious homemade meal every day. They get three meals a day. They get a hot breakfast, they get lunch, they get dinner, and they get a snack before they leave. We pick up and drop off our children to the daycare center and take them to school during the school year. So we’re really providing a service for those parents in a neighborhood that’s trying to do better and shift. So those parents then are able to come to school or begin a job or do those type of things. And most importantly, I think it’s just a very loving environment. I know I go over there and play with the kids, but it’s really just like a family. And so we actually have three or four generations of families that have come through the daycare. Actually, the mayor’s grandchildren actually went to our daycare center. I didn’t know, but he told me that they did.
Emily Miller [00:20:05] Could you talk a little bit about the funding? I mean, I’m sure it’s changed over the years, but, you know, what are your primary sources of funding?
Jacquelyn Bradshaw [00:20:13] Wow. Our primary sources of funding now are city grants, grants from the city, CDBG [Community Development Block Grants]. We have- We’re a United Way organization, so we’re part of United Way, and we have some county dollars with the daycare, but a lot of it’s foundations or corporations. So with any not for profit, I have to start each year over recreating my budget. So I’m writing grants constantly. We were one of the United Way agencies that just received a reduction in our funding. What we found is most of them did with their daycares because they’re receiving funding elsewhere. So that presents a challenge. So you’re constantly working on filling in that gap. But back in the day, when Jane Edna Hunter was running things, she didn’t rely on grants or foundations or anything like that. Back then, when African Americans could only rely on African Americans, she had a program called Friends of Phillis Wheatley, and it was basically a mail, year end mailing, where she’d send out mailings and people would donate money for the cause, basically. And then, or you’d have benefactors like John D. Rockefeller that bought into what the mission was about and assisted her. So we really need to get back to that. And not as dependent as most, not for profits, not so dependent on one or two sources, but to really spread the wealth so that we can continue to be self-sufficient and sustainable.
Emily Miller [00:21:44] Jane Edna Hunter, you said she was from South Carolina. How did this organization pop up at Cleveland? You know, how, do you know how she-?
Jacquelyn Bradshaw [00:21:55] As she transitioned to Cleveland, she was married, decided that basically wasn’t working, and she came to Cleveland. And why she was here, how it all started was the difficulty she had trying to find a place to stay. And the women that she worked with, they found it very difficult to have a place to sleep. You couldn’t go to the Y, you couldn’t go to a hotel. Those didn’t exist. So, as I said in the beginning, that’s where they started putting away a nickel and a prayer. And as the women came and she realized they had other needs, is how she started developing all the other programs that were necessary. And, I mean, we’ve had greats that have come through. Phillis Wheatley, Judge Jean Murrell Capers, the first African American elected city councilman for Cleveland, let alone any major city, who later went on to become a judge. When she was teaching, she got married in the Cleveland public school district. Then if you were a married woman, you couldn’t teach anymore. So she had to lose her job. So she came to work at the Phillis Wheatley Association as a gym instructor, finished her school, went on to become an attorney, city councilwoman. And there’s just the longer I stay with the agency, the more I meet people that have gone through the organization. And just to tell you about the, I guess, the deep character of these individuals, I’m only the tenth exec in 96 years. That says a lot. Jane Edna Hunter was the executive director for forty-some years, and the lady after her, Tommie Patty, was around, like another 36 years as it went down. So this is a lifelong mission that you really have to believe in, because it’s not going to be easy to continue to get the money and the funding and the things that are necessary.
Emily Miller [00:23:45] You mentioned that the judge who faced some gender stereotypes. Can you tell us how those have changed throughout the years? I know you’ve only been the director for two years, but just from your perspective as the director of this organization, in this fight for women, women, what kind of challenges do they overcome, and have they reached their full potential in general?
Jacquelyn Bradshaw [00:24:10] Well, of course we haven’t reached our full potential, but, I mean, studies will still show you that women aren’t getting paid the same rate as men, but we might do twice the workload or the role of a woman. You still may be a wife and mother, so you have those responsibilities. But I think because of women like Jean Murrell Capers and Jane Edna Hunter and others, that it’s more acceptable for you to have a career as well as to be a wife and a mother. It’s okay to have your own goals and ambitions. And those are the type of things that we try to instill with the littlest of our girls on up, that you can make something of yourself if you choose to, no matter what the hardship is. And I think that’s the overall mission, no matter how great the struggle you can overcome. And I think it doesn’t just pertain to women, but-
Emily Miller [00:25:10] What specific challenges do African American women specifically face, as opposed to the rest of the population?
Jacquelyn Bradshaw [00:25:17] Wow. Now that’s a tricky one. Aside from, once again, just the wage difference, we’re still not going to get paid the same amount as a white woman, let alone a white male. But one of the other things is we might get hired before an African American male because we’re considered a double minority at a lower rate. So you can imagine what that would do with the family dynamics. A lot of men still to this day have trouble with a female making more money than they do. I don’t know why, if it’s bringing it home, but doesn’t pertain to me, but that does a lot to your family dynamics. It puts a strain on things other. That was a good one. You caught me off guard on that one. Other issues that would face African American women, I think, are any issue that would face any woman. I think you just need to add a little extra. You’ve always got to, we’re taught as children, you always got to be one step better. You got to be a little better. You got to give 110%, even though someone else might be giving 90, because you’re always going to have, you’re going to be able to look at me and know I’m African American. And that’s going to be your first thought before, is she educated? Is she qualified? Is she anything else? So you have those problems.
Emily Miller [00:26:56] Thank you for answering this question. So from your perspective, what do you see as of all the great things that your association has achieved? The greatest milestone that has been achieved.
Jacquelyn Bradshaw [00:27:12] By your association to continue to be in existence in spite of all of the challenges that not for profits face, those that have dropped off the map, to be a historically African American organization and still be around 96 years later, still providing the same level and quality of services that our founders started, to me, is amazing. It’s really amazing. And I’m overwhelmed each day. I have a vault in my office that every once in a while when I’m tired of working, I go in the vault and I pull out more historical stuff. And I’m just amazed that everything this organization has done, in spite of the economy and we’re still here and still striving to go forward. [whispers] You guys have to come see the vault.
Emily Miller [00:28:04] I had a question about- We talked a little bit about the Cedar-Central neighborhood.
Jacquelyn Bradshaw [00:28:09] Mm hmm.
Emily Miller [00:28:10] Back to that. What other- Who else from, you know, what other neighborhoods have you kind of served or have you, or do other people come from further away?
Jacquelyn Bradshaw [00:28:22] To Phillis Wheatley?
Emily Miller [00:28:23] Yeah.
Jacquelyn Bradshaw [00:28:24] Oh, yes. We have a- Aside from the residents that are senior citizens, we have a congregate meal program that’s called the Swinging Seniors. And they come from all over the city, from Shaker, from Cleveland Heights, from Lee-Harvard area because they remember Phillis Wheatley in its heyday, when it was the place to go. So they still come, and they have all kind of social activities, and they get to eat a good home-cooked meal three days a week. And they play cards and bingo and all the things that seniors do. So they’re from all over. We don’t limit ourselves either with the daycare with just the Cedar-Central neighborhood. We have children that come far and wide because of the services that we offer in our daycare and that we do pick up in the meals and the hours that we stay open, and even the programming that we offer there. It’s not just a babysitting service. Your child will be ready for school. The school ages will get after-school help. We work with the SEMAA [Science Engineering Mathematics and Aerospace Academy] program, with NASA. We try to really provide some concrete programs. As with the music school, we don’t limit ourselves. The majority of our students do come from that area. But we don’t say if you live in Shaker or if you live in Beachwood or you live in Twinsburg that you can’t attend. And we are finding more and more that we’re getting more and more students from the outer-ring suburbs as well as the inner-ring suburbs. And the camp serves the whole city as well as we’re only 17 miles from Akron, so we’re even reaching out to the Akron area. And schools are contacting us in Akron, so we’re not limited. That’s probably a big expanse from the past. That’s something that’s different. I don’t think they had the wherewithal to do that.
Emily Miller [00:30:13] Can you talk about- I mean, I know you don’t have a specific numbers probably in front of you on top of your head, but can you talk like a ballpark of numbers, like how many kids were in the day camp, or, excuse me, the daycare, or how many kids have been served per year or, you know, just some figures?
Jacquelyn Bradshaw [00:30:29] Well, our capacity in the daycare is 108, and I would think there’s very few years that we’ve ever dropped below 80. So somewhere between 80 and 108 over 96 years. Music school is not as many, she averages, probably- Actually, let me backtrack. Our capacity is 108, but with parents being in transition, you might have different influx of children coming all year long. So it’s a little more difficult to pinpoint that. But the music school, she’s probably serving anywhere from 75 to 125 each year. And I think that’s pretty much been standard throughout history. Camp during the school year, we probably serve any given school year. They’re probably serving two to 250 students during the camp in the summer. With NAACP, we serve 300 to 400 young men. Then during the day camp that we offer. And our music school camp is probably another 200 students. And our senior program averages about 100 seniors any given day. So it’s hard because, you know, they might come Monday and someone else comes Wednesday and someone else comes Friday, but we still feel like we’re needed because the people are still coming. We do feel the need, going forward to look at some additional programming. What other things are necessary? Although the things in the past have worked and are continuing to work, what else can we do for our community? What else does the community need? So we’re looking at financial planning, we’re looking at employment skills and entrepreneurial skills. So we’re looking at seeking grants to start those type of programs within the agency as well.
Emily Miller [00:32:22] Do you have any partnerships with any of the local schools or your partnerships with just other foundations?
Jacquelyn Bradshaw [00:32:29] We have partnerships with three of the local schools, Marion-Sterling, the Stokes Academy, and George Washington Carver, which basically surround us. And those are primarily the children that go out to our day camp all year round. Different classroom each week goes out as well as foundations were part of neighborhood Centers association through the construction project of Emeritus House, we partnered with the Famicos foundation. Obviously, we partner with the NAACP. I’m gonna leave somebody out. Boys and girls clubs of Cleveland, we partner with them, especially over the summer. We provide slots for so many of their students to come out to camp each week. Trying to think, who am I leaving out shoes and clothes for kids from one of their distribution sites? I mean, I’d have to really probably have a list somewhere and write them all down.
Emily Miller [00:33:23] But how do you see the area, the general area where Phillis Wheatley Association physically is in the Cedar-Central neighborhood, how do you see that as different from any other neighborhood in Cleveland? Or how does it stand out? Or how does it differ?
Jacquelyn Bradshaw [00:33:44] Different from any other neighborhood? You know, Cleveland is a bunch of big, small towns. That’s how I look at Cleveland. So each community is unique in itself, that everyone knows everyone around Phillis Wheatley. It’s still, if the children are running in the street, a neighbor’s gonna yell out, you know, get out the street. The kid isn’t gonna curse them out. They know they’re neighbors. So you obey your elders, and you kinda move off the street, and you pretty much do what they ask you to do. The neighbors around Phillis Wheatley are very involved in trying to keep crime back, and they’re glad that we at Phillis Wheatley are doing the same thing. We have a community policing unit that’s stationed at Phillis Wheatley two nights a week, which makes it really nice for the residents and the seniors to come to visit, because if they have any questions about the law or ticket or, and they don’t really know what to do, here’s someone that they can answer, ask them questions, and they can answer them for them. So, and even with the residents, they’re very concerned. With three historical African American organizations literally on each corner, we’re pretty much taking care of each other, and they have, their congregations have been coming for years, so everyone kind of pitches in and looks out for each other. Still a long ways to go. Still a long ways to go. But you do see a turn. To give you an example, I was told years ago they would never even consider walking the children, letting them go outside for a walk. And now our children go out and do scavenger hunts in the neighborhood, and they go for their daily walk and they feel safe. So that’s nice. It’s a nice change. And I think it helps that the building went through renovations, so now it seems nice and clean and pretty and not spooky anymore. [laughs]
Emily Miller [00:35:37] Matt, do you have a list of questions or anything that-?
Matt Ferraton [00:35:40] Yeah. You mentioned one of the challenges that as a nonprofit base, is funding. Is there any other challenges that you face? What would be another significant and challenge that you find yourself having to overcome?
Jacquelyn Bradshaw [00:35:56] Well, it still ties in with funding, but you’re limited to the type of employee you can have. You’re limited to the type of, it’s a struggle to get the best supplies. So I know if I get something really nice for my daycare, some of the program is going to suffer. If I realize that, that the children need a new playground, then I know I’m going to have to pull back on the seniors program or I’m going to have to pull back on something else. That’s a constant challenge. You’re limited in the funds that you have to really pay a person what they’re worth. So not that you get bad employees, but it’s just more difficult to find those employees that really believe in the mission and actually even see it as a ministry so that they want to be there and really care about the organization. I’m lucky in the regard that I come. Phillis Wheatley has such a steep history that people remember it and want to come and be a part. But from some of my counterparts with neighborhood centers association, that’s one of your biggest challenges. I am the grants writer. I am the bookkeeper. Although I have an accounting firm that we work with, I have to keep up with the daily payroll and make sure everything’s turned in. It’s kind of like a one-man shop. In my administrative office, there’s three of us. So you’re limited in what you could do. Grant writing. You need to write 25 grants to hope to get three. If I’m the only one writing grants, then I can’t do some of the other things that I’m doing. So it’s constantly a juggling act, but it does all still stem around financing and the funding sources.
Matt Ferraton [00:37:37] Talking about funding sources, you talked about trying to achieve a kind of self-sufficiency. Is there any kind of plan to try to achieve that goal of self-sufficiency?
Jacquelyn Bradshaw [00:37:47] Yes. We’re constantly working on our strategic plan at Phillis Wheatley, with the board of trustees. A lot of it is just increasing the amount of grants and foundations. One of the things that hasn’t happened with Phillis Wheatley in a very long time is marketing the organization. I’ve been to Cleveland since ’86. I worked at the Boys and Girls Club. I worked at all those places, and I had never heard of the Phillis Wheatley Association. So we need to market ourselves and get our name out there more so that foundations know about us, the community knows about us. They still know we’re a viable organization. I’ve had people actually say, oh, you guys are still around. I didn’t know. So all of those things tie in to soliciting funds, because if no one views you as being sustainable, they don’t want to fund you. So we have to be more marketable, and people need to see. And the blessing was our ribbon cutting turned out to be a really huge event for the city. And a lot of the politicians and stakeholders came out, so they realized we’re still here. And we’re beginning to see just a change in that, that we’re here. We’re still trying that type of thing. Did that answer your question? Okay.
Matt Ferraton [00:39:00] You talked about communities looking out for each other. What would be one way that they would look out for one another? If you could give an example.
Jacquelyn Bradshaw [00:39:10] Oh, neighborhood watch. I mean, it’s not different than others, but they have the neighborhood watch. If the children are putting on a performance at Phillis Wheatley, the daycare, the neighbors will come to see just to support the children. They may not even have any children, but they come to support them. We ask, we find that the community responds, and they’ll come just to support.
Matt Ferraton [00:39:34] I just have one last question. At the beginning, you were talking about the mission of the Phillis Wheatley Association, but you also said you had a mission. What is that mission?
Jacquelyn Bradshaw [00:39:44] What is my personal mission? My personal mission I came up with in third grade, but it’s probably been altered just a little bit, but basically to give unto others, not so much as I’d want them to do for me, you know, the golden rule, but just to constantly give, because I had a wonderful childhood. And if you notice, in the beginning, I told you, most of my career has been working with children. I had a wonderful childhood, and I found coming to Cleveland so many adults, let alone children, that hated their childhood. There’s nothing pleasant about it. I try to regress as often as I possibly can, so I tried to give as much of myself as humanly possible to make the next person better, which is why this job was perfect. I’ve always. I told you that I studied history, but my focus was African American studies. I grew up in an environment where my brother and I were the only Blacks at our school. So it was a thirst for me to know my history. So now to come back to a historic organization that happens to be African American, that’s whole mission is to provide quality services to the community. It’s a perfect fit for me because that’s all I’ve ever done. My mother probably would tell you, I give away everything. I’ll never have anything because I always give it away. But that’s just the makeup of who I am. So trying to always make someone better. And here I’m in an organization that the founder, 96 years ago, did it and looked at it in a very well-rounded scenario from the culture and the arts and the history and the being prepared for your workforce, etiquette, skills, and all the things that Jane came up with, I would have never probably been able to. I would help here and there, but I would have never gotten it all in one big package. And I’m able to carry on her legacy, I hope, successfully. Did that answer your question? Because I, you know, I ramble. [laughs]
Emily Miller [00:41:52] You did great.
Matt Ferraton [00:41:53] Absolutely.
Emily Miller [00:41:54] In general, do you see this association with developed, you know, for African American women to begin with, and you spread to, you know, children, and you spread to senior citizens presently, do you see any racial conflicts in anything? Has there been any problems with the whole issue of race, or has that come up in your term of office?
Jacquelyn Bradshaw [00:42:21] Issues with race?
Emily Miller [00:42:23] Like, for example, are there any- Are there white people that volunteer or help out?
Jacquelyn Bradshaw [00:42:29] Oh, yeah. At my annual meeting, we just one of my board members. Okay. You have to remember, this is a historic African American organization. But just like the NAACP or the Urban League. We didn’t do it on our own. Come on, now. So there’s always been white individuals that have been involved. I said, John D. Rockefeller was so intrigued by what Jane Edna Hunter was doing that, he matched her dollars to actually start the renovation of the building. But I have fabulous board members that are involved, and we’re constantly seeking more. Being part of United Way or Neighborhood Centers Association. You can’t isolate yourself. You can still be proud of being an African American, but you can’t totally isolate yourself from the rest of the world. That’s just silly. You can’t do that, and we can’t do that with our children. It’s okay for them to understand they come from greatness, but that doesn’t mean someone else is terrible, so we don’t profess that. And actually, Jane Edna Hunter, in the early forties, actually hired white women to come and work at Phillis Wheatley. So she was integrating way before it was even anyone else was thinking about integrating workplace or anything like that. So, no, just ’cause we’re historic, African American, and proud of that does not mean that we’re gonna be isolationist, keep ourself away from everyone else. We’re all dependent on each other.
Emily Miller [00:43:55] Is there anything else that you want to add or have on record?
Jacquelyn Bradshaw [00:43:58] Just basically that you two need to come visit Phillis Wheatley. Come see all the history.
Emily Miller [00:44:05] Alright.
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