Current Projects

Curing Breast Cancer

Michele Young spearheaded the recent passage of Ohio House Bill 371 with an all-star team of legislators and scientists. Due to these efforts, every Ohio woman now has access to an early screening for breast to cancer to save lives.

While Ohio’s Breast Cancer Bill was passed, much work remains throughout the nation to provide all women with early detection of breast cancer. Fellows will help us introduce congressional breast cancer legislation, advocate for federal funding towards a cure to end breast cancer once and for all, and change the lives of all women in the country.

Addressing the Mental Health Crisis

Our society is facing an unprecedented amount of crises from housing, gun-violence, addiction, gender-based violence, and many more. Mental health is often found at the heart of these issues but receives little attention, and when it does, little is done to address the crisis.

This year, we hope to start collaborations that will help us heal a hurting nation. Fellows will have the chance to influence where this work leads whether through policy, advocacy, or increased funding.

Restorative Justice in Schools

In 2017, Gabriel Taye tragically committed suicide after years of being bullied at school. Michele Young was one of the lead lawyers representing Gabriel Taye’s family and started a mission to stop bullying.

We now work in collaboration with the Bootsy Collins Foundation, Cincinnati Public Schools, and others to enact restorative justice policies that ensure children receive the attention needed to stop bullying and heal. Fellows will join us in launching the Justice League for Children to inspire every child to dream, end bullying, and pass legislation.

Previous Projects

Saving Lives on the Road

Michele’s Don’t Text and Drive Campaign aired for years on Local 12, CW, and Star64. She has an anti-texting presentation for school assemblies too. If you want Michele to come, please contact her here.

Feeding the Hungry

We live in a community in Cincinnati where the child poverty rate is 53.1 percent and many children go to bed hungry. We want to change that and to support the extraordinary efforts of local leaders to bring healthy, local food to the tables of our children, while also ensuring that this food is coming from farms that treat their workers and animals humanely.

Our 2018-2019 effort was to support the leadership of the Good Food Coalition, a visionary idea begun by Los Angeles mothers, that has caught fire across country. The Young Public Interest Initiative plays the role of “convener” for the coalition, acting as an unbiased entity that will see the Good Food Purchasing Policy through to the end. The Young Fellows listened to members and reacted to their concerns, worked closely with leaders bringing together coalitions, and worked to create a plan and push the policy forward through the Cincinnati Public School District. As of January 28th, 2019, the Cincinnati School Board became part of the GFFP joined Los Angeles, Oakland, Chicago, Washington D.C and other cities, adopting the program that changes the way our schools purchase foods so our tax dollars are spent wisely to usher in a new era of healthy, sustainable and value-based local food that will feed all children in every Cincinnati public school.

The 2021 focus will be to support efforts to feed hungry children.

Learn more: goodfoodpurchasing.org and please join us.

Ending Exclusion

Imagine if we all agreed to be an inclusion zone where everyone had a seat at the table. This holiday season, our project is to transform our community into an inclusion zone where leaders and organizations agree to come together to work with us to solve the issue of exclusion. The Young Public Interest Initiative aims to solve the issue of exclusion through a multitude of mediums targeted towards raising awareness, educating on the necessity of empathy, recognizing biases and changing our culture.. We created, aired an inclusion and anti-bullying campaign on Local 12, Local CW, and Star 64. We have held anti-bullying rallies.

The 2021 effort will be to continue this effort.

Furthering Minority Voices

Michele has focused on bringing in new voices into the public sphere. Her fellows worked with the Asian Pacific Islander American Public Affairs Association (APAPA) to host a political forum on the University of Cincinnati’s campus during the 2018 midterm elections. This forum featured candidates running for a vast spectrum of positions on the federal and state levels and was targeted towards speaking to issues that Asian Americans experience. Additionally, her 2018-2019 Fellows organized a meet and greet event for presidential candidate Andrew Yang, the first Asian American to seek the nomination for the Democratic party and one for Justice Melody Stewart. Justice Stewart became the first African American woman to serve on the Ohio Supreme Court where she is now a champion for minority voices in Ohio.

The 2021 effort will focus on developing the leadership voices of youth because they are of our future.