Neighborhoods

Monday, January 15, 2018

On Wednesday, December 20, the Thomases Family Endowment of the Youngstown Area Jewish Federation awarded a $5,000 grant to YNDC for the Glenwood Neighbors project.

This initiative will improve the quality of life, safety, public health, and perception of the Glenwood Avenue corridor to foster reinvestment and economic opportunity. The work will include improvements to Glenwood Avenue:  lighting, public art, vacant lot improvement, and streetscape revitalization. Many thanks to the Thomases Family Endowment for their support!

Today’s national holiday rises as more than a day off work to honor the legacy of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., the titan of the modern civil-rights movement in the United States.

Like many other American holidays, it is also a time to reflect on, appreciate and recommit to a set of singularly American attributes that holidays represent. It is not unlike the Fourth of July, when U.S. citizens of all backgrounds take time to relish the freedoms and liberties we continue to enjoy. It is not unlike Memorial Day, when we recognize and honor the American attributes of selflessness and sacrifice for a higher cause. Nor is it unlike Thanksgiving Day, when we celebrate that quintessentially American trait of compassion and thankfulness for the bounties for which we have been blessed. On today’s holiday, the 33rd official national observance of MLK Day, all should take time to reflect not only on the man but on his noble ideals of tolerance, diversity, acceptance and community building. Today those principles have seeped into the daily mindset of most – but not all – American citizens. This holiday also is a day to act on those ideals in both our words and deeds. To read the full story from The Vindicator, click here.

To watch the video from WFMJ, click here.

Temperatures in the low teens didn't stop a group of young people from volunteering to clean-up a Youngstown neighborhood as part of their day of service in honor of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

The Youngstown Neighborhood Development Corporation, in partnership with AmeriCorps VISTA and AmeriCorps State, met on the South Side early Monday to work at fourteen blighted and vacant homes in the Cottage Grove neighborhood. The volunteers are boarding up the houses and clearing debris from the properties. The YNDC says the unsightly lots have become sites for gang activity, drug use, and other criminal activity. The VISTA team is teaching the volunteers and residents how to conduct basic clean-up and board-up procedures of vacant properties. To read the full story from WFMJ, click here.

The Youngstown Neighborhood Development Corporation — in partnership with AmeriCorps VISTA and AmeriCorps State — led a “work day” in Youngstown’s Cottage Grove neighborhood.

The revitalization effort is in honor of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. For the full story from WKBN, click here.

The Youngstown Neighborhood Development Corporation — in partnership with AmeriCorps VISTA and AmeriCorps State — will lead a “work day” in Youngstown’s Cottage Grove neighborhood. 

The revitalization effort is in honor of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Those wishing to participate should meet in the 100 block of E. Judson Avenue on Monday at 8:30 a.m. Volunteers will clean up trash and board up windows of 14 vacant homes in the area. According to YNDC, the homes have become sites for gang activity, drug use and other criminal activity. For the full story from WKBN, click here. 

Making a difference will be the focus of a community service project in the city of Youngstown on Martin Luther King Jr. Day.

The Youngstown Neighborhood Development Corporation is calling on anyone willing to volunteer to help clean up the Cottage Grove Neighborhood on Monday. Work will include cleaning up blight and clearing away overgrown branches and debris on sidewalks. "Neighbors are scared, they're scared people squatting, they're scared of people possibly jumping out," Anika Jacobs said, with the YNDC. Jacobs and the organization's planner joined WFMJ Weekend Today on Sunday to detail why the project could make a significant impact. She says some living in that area fear that blighted homes can become magnets for crime and could harbor individuals willing to commit violent offenses. The project also helps the neighborhood to blend with homes where owners work hard to keep up their properties. "We also try to clean the sidewalks and make them passable, so that the kids who are walking to school don't have to walk in the street," Tom Hetrick said, YNDC neighborhood planner. While it's one day of service, she says the neighborhood is grateful for the support, which often provides results that can last. For the full story from WFMJ, click here. 

Despite the snow, volunteers gathered in the Cottage Grove neighborhood as part of a community clean-up.

To watch the video from The Business Journal, click here. 

Across Youngstown on Monday, several groups paused to reflect on Dr. Martin Luther King’s message. His famous “I Have a Dream” speech still echoes in the minds and hearts of many, making it even more prevalent today.

With that in mind, it was addressing the racial conflicts in society and cleaning up our neighborhoods that banded several groups together. “We have to use this time to look in the mirror and ask ourselves, ‘What are we doing, each of us, to address the racial divide?'” said Dr. Willie Jennings, with Yale University’s Divinity School. Jennings was at the First Presbyterian Church on Wick Avenue on Monday, addressing racial issues and how to create what he calls a “just and beloved” community. “Racial division is built upon geographic separation, segregation, and so we have to start to challenge that if we’re going to have a viable future,” he said. Jennings talked about how every aspect of a community has to come together with a common goal to foster education and entrepreneurship while addressing racial divides. “We have to think about how we live and where we live,” he said. To read the full story from WYTV, click here.

What prompted Anika Jacobs’ desire to busily improve the look of a home in the cold and get covered with burrs? 

“Today, we’re following the teachings of Martin Luther King to serve. Everyone can work together,” explained Davis, a neighborhood organizer with the Youngstown Neighborhood Development Corp. Despite the 12-degree weather, Davis was undaunted and happy to join several dozen YNDC and other volunteers for today’s community-service work project in the city’s Cottage Grove neighborhood. In addition, the cleanup effort was part of the Martin Luther King Jr. National Day of Service to honor the civil-rights leader’s life and legacy. To read the full story from The Vindicator, click here.