Browse Interviews

Near West Side resident Jim Schlecht recollects his arrival to the Near West Side in the summer of 1972. Schlecht highlights how his faith has shaped who he is today. This interview focuses on Schlecht’s involvement in the Thomas Merton Community along with Cleveland’s Catholic Worker Community. Schlecht recollects his experience working with children and adults with special needs. He later shares how he provided transitional housing while raising a family in the community. Schlecht for many…

25-year-old Gillian Prater-Lee (they/them) shares their experience growing up in Poughkeepsie, New York, and attending Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland. They discuss how social justice has played a key role in shaping their understanding of the city. Prater-Lee recollects their time living at the Catholic Worker House while interning at the Northeast Ohio Coalition for the Homeless (NEOCH). After finishing their MA program at Penn State, Prater-Lee joined Bike and Build, and…

Twenty-five-year-old former German Action Reconciliation Service for Peace volunteer Line-Marie Eichhorst shares what it was like coming to Cleveland for a year in 2018 for ASRP while living at the Catholic Worker House. Eichhorst recollects her involvement with the Inter-Religious Task Force on Central America and the Witness Against Torture to protest the US military detention camp at Guantanamo Bay. She returned from Germany to Cleveland and the Catholic Worker House in 2024 to undertake a…