The Department of Planning and Development is located inside of Severance Circle.  They offer rental assistance and homeless prevention through the federally funded American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009.  Help is offered to all US residents and citizens.  Cleveland Heights is also home to two food pantries for its residents and residents of the immediate surrounding areas—South Euclid, Lyndhurst, and University Heights.  The Heights Emergency Food Center is located on Mayfield Rd and the Greater Peace Missionary Baptist Church is located on Fairmount Blvd.  The Cleveland Heights Home Repair Resource Center also offers residents of Cleveland Heights and South Euclid free classes on maintain a home.  They also offer discounted rentals on lawn equipment for residents to upkeep their yards.  

	Currently, Cleveland Heights has one high school and the school system is integrated with University Heights. Together they have three middle schools, six elementary schools, one 
early development center, one professional development school, and one boarding school for troubled youth.  Religions are also a diverse part of the city.  There is a large Jewish and Hasidic Jewish population, which maintains many temples. A large Greek Orthodox Church sits atop Mayfield hill near Taylor Rd. Protestant, Baptist, Methodist, Lutheran, and Catholic churches are also spread throughout the city.  A Buddhist Center, Hindu worship site, and Islamic temple are more examples of worshipping places that are located in the city.  A city recreation center is located at the top of Forest Hill Park on Mayfield Rd. between Superior and Monticello.   The Rec-Center hosts a high variety of sports teams and events for youth of all ages with a fee.  There are many shopping districts throughout the city with the largest being Severance Circle.  Lee and Cedar, Cedar Hill and Coventry are smaller, but thriving business districts.  
	The leaders elected leaders of Cleveland Heights are Mayor Edward Kelly, Vice Mayor Dennis Wilcox, Councilwoman Phyllis Evans, Councilwoman Bonita Caplan, Councilwoman Mary Dunbar, Councilman Jason Stein, and Councilwoman Cheryl Stephens.  They are considered leaders since most legal, community decisions ultimately go through them.  There are city council meeting held every two weeks at city hall. Residents can make complaints or comments at these meetings.  All discussions are documented in the Minutes, which are open to the public and available online.

	As a student of human behavior this exercise has helped progress my knowledge in a few ways, but one is greater than the others.  Prior to this exercise, the city council meetings and processes were a foreign entity.  While researching I read many council meeting Minutes and have a better understanding of some of the wants of my own community.  I realized that reading these minutes or even attending a meeting or more can help a social worker better understand the needs of his/her community.  The only set back is that many residents do not use this avenue and there are many more greivances than those mentioned at these meetings.  If a social worker attends these meetings, he/she can also lobby for the peoples’ needs who do not attend by addressing situations his/herself directly at the meeting or taking the grievances up the chain and lobbying at higher levels.
