In The News
Media mentions, ES in the community and key Enlightened Solutions initiatives.
Project Noir In The News
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Is Cleveland still failing Black women? A local research firm seeks answers (2024)
“If you are not investing in the future and success of these women in the city, then you are at a loss,” said Enlightened Solutions’ co-founder, Chinenye Nkemere.
The Gund Foundation awards $11.8 million at its July meeting (2023)
$200,000 over two years to Enlightened Solutions to support its research-based solutions that center the lived experiences of a diverse group of Black women in Cleveland, such as the Project Noir survey.
“If you get poor service at a restaurant, you absolutely will not go back to that restaurant,” Nkemere said.
“Why would we think that somebody that has chronic healthcare problems would want to go back to the same exact doctor, the same exact health care system, to receive the same exact terrible, dismissive and racist care?”
Enlightened Solutions, the Cleveland research and advocacy firm behind the Project Noir study, is consulting with the city on this initiative, providing both data and expertise in developing and gathering the metrics required to measure the Commission’s progress over time.
Meet the Founders of Cleveland Workplace Equity Firm, Demanding the City Do Better for Black Women and Femmes (2020)
Their latest endeavor is Project Noir, a survey for Black Women and Femmes that examines their lived experiences in the workplace, healthcare, and education in Cleveland.
Following Cleveland being ranked by Bloomberg City Lab as the worst city for Black Women to live, Bethany and ChiChi strategized on how to change that. Much can be said about their efforts to hold Cleveland accountable.
Rice points directly to a 2020 "Project Noir” report ranking Cleveland as “The worst city for Black women,” as an explanation for why the numbers are so bad locally.
"Moms really reporting similar situations and instances that are also mentioned in that study. I believe there's a correlation in what they experience," says Rice.
A few weeks ago on the "Sound of Ideas," we talked to the founders of a local research and advocacy firm, Enlightened Solutions, about the results of a year-long survey project called Project Noir, which asked Black women across Northeast Ohio to share their personal accounts of what it's like living in Cleveland. The survey got more than 450 anonymous responses.
Two Northeast Ohio residents have created a project called Project Noir, a study with a series of questions that appraises the depths of struggles for Black women in Cleveland. More than 400 women have participated in the study.
“Black women are not taken as full human beings. We are flattening their experiences,” said Nkemere.
"No more forums or discussions. We need individuals that are able to put money to be able to push the needle here because it is an emergency," said director of strategy and co-founder Chinenye Nkemere.
According to the study, Black women have reported feeling overlooked for a job or promotion, being underpaid, and left out of important meetings in the workplace.
On the "Sound of Ideas," we'll begin the hour by learning more about the results of the survey, released to the public just this week. We'll also find out if there is anything we can glean from the report which could help guide us in the next steps for improving life for the region's Black women.
Joining us are the two women behind Project Noir, Chinenye Nkemere and Bethany Studenic, co-founders of Enlightened Solutions.
When a national livability index labeled the Cleveland area as the worst place in the country for Black women, Bethany Studenic and Chinenye (ChiChi) Nkemere wanted to dive deeper.
As co-founders of Enlightened Solutions, a Cleveland-based nonprofit equity research social enterprise firm, Studenic and Nkemere decided to add authentic voices to the statistics.
"This City Lab article made me reflect on the reality of my experiences over the years. I can honestly say I’ve faced my share of challenges in Cleveland, however- I have also found a tribe of black women who have overcome some of the same obstacles and have excelled right here in Cleveland."
Courtney Ottrix
From health care to education to economics, a recent study has revealed the worst cities for African American women to live, work and thrive in the United States.
Fox 8’s Jennifer Jordan looks at one group of young women jump-starting an aggressive campaign in hopes of wiping out these troubling statistics.
To change this, I am partnering with Enlightened Solutions to present “Project Noir” a research project focused on gaining insight and tangible knowledge from the experiences of Black Women in Cleveland.
Together with The LGBT* Center of Greater Cleveland and research assistance from The Center for Community Solutions, they will study the lived experiences of Black Women in Cleveland, Ohio based on three livability metrics: health conditions, education and income/workplace status.
Cleveland-Focused
Cleveland City Council passed legislation creating the commission in the summer of 2022 to advocate for and create programs and legislation that improve the lives of Black women and girls in the city.
The commission exists to advocate for programs and legislation that’s intended to improve outcomes for Black women and girls, along with their families and communities, by addressing systemic inequalities and structural obstacles that lead to poor outcomes faced by Black women in Cleveland.
Chinenye Nkemere, co-founder of Enlightened Solutions, a local think tank whose work helped inspire the commission, said many Black women in the community reach out to her asking when it will start.
“It’s not even a negative frustration,” Nkemere said. “It’s ‘I want to be useful.’ I want to be able to give my resources or my network. I want to be able to make Cleveland better too. I want to have a hand in it.”
Nkemere is the co-founder of the Cleveland-based nonprofit consulting firm Enlightened Solutions, which was selected to assist with forging the commission.
Following the release of a 2020 study by CityLab that ranked Cleveland as the worst place to live as a Black woman, Nkemere’s firm worked to assemble a report expanding on statistics found in the report.
Intern, Kiliyah Mair asked Mayor Bibb about his campaign promise to create and empanel a Black Women and Girl's Commission.
I knew that there had to be more women who had stories and experiences like mine that reflected the numbers in the CityLab article.
I asked myself, “Who and where are these women that made these statistics accurate and true?” Not only did I want to find them, I wanted to offer them a platform to share their experiences. I wanted to amplify their voices.
City Council Monday night approved legislation that will allow the city to stand up the 14-member commission.
After Bloomberg issued its report, Enlightened Solutions, a Cleveland-based non-profit focused on social equity, surveyed 450 local Black women to find out why outcomes in Cleveland are so poor.
Legislation sponsored by Mayor Bibb and Councilmembers Howse and Gray to address systemic issues facing our city (2022)
Cleveland City Council unanimously passed legislation (ORD 373-2022) to create the Cleveland Commission on Black Women and Girls.
Enlightened Solutions, the Cleveland research and advocacy firm behind the Project Noir study, is consulting with the city on this initiative, providing both data and expertise in developing and gathering the metrics required to measure the Commission’s progress over time.
The culture of our workforce is being challenged and changed by young women who want employers to address issues like diversity, mental health and family dynamics.
What happens when your city is considered the worst place for you to live and work? Cleveland Public Library invites you to join Minda Harts along with the creators of Project Noir & Enlightened Solutions Chinenye (“ChiChi”) Nkemere and Bethany Studenic for this necessary and long-overdue conversation.
Tuesday, March 8th we are going to tell HERstory and celebrate the power of women’s voices in law, film and beyond.
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Tera N. Coleman, Associate, BakerHostetler
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Chinenye Nkemere, Co-Founder & Director of Strategy, Enlighted Solutions
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Bethany Studenic, Co-Founder & Managing Director, Enlighted Solutions
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Facilitated by: Rachael Israel, Counsel, BakerHostetler
Cleveland recently ranked the worst city in America for Black women, who are the backbone of our communities. Mayor Bibb is proud to launch the City of Cleveland Black Women and Girls Commission to create opportunities and improve quality of life for Black women and girls.
Rust belt cities are hemorrhaging talent, as they lag behind cities that invest in equity-based, inclusion-forward initiatives that uplift the lived experience of diverse residents.
Due to COVID-19 and greater socio-political and economic upheaval, Northeast Ohio has the opportunity to position itself as posed for seismic and innovative change.
Chinenye Nkemere and Bethany Studenic create a three-prong urgency campaign to galvanize regional government, corporations and nonrprofits to inrease public accountability metrics and standareds for greater inclusion of Black Women in our region.
Enlightened Solutions a Cleveland based company explains why this sort of thing is called performative allyship. “Their employees, the black employees were repeatedly disciplined, harshly disciplined," said Chinenye (“ChiChi”) Nkemere.
“They were repeatedly put at lower rungs in their in their company. The media heads of refinery 29 only chose two or three black celebrities that they would highlight.