Neighborhoods

To watch the full video from WFMJ, click here. 

Monday, June 11, 2018

On Sunday, June 10, 2018, the US Conference of Mayors and Wells Fargo awarded the First Place Small City 2018 CommunityWINS Grant for $150,000 to the City of Youngstown and YNDC for REVITALIZE Youngstown.

The award program honors the best neighborhood stabilization efforts in the country and YNDC’s work was selected as the best in the country in the small city category. The award was accepted by Mayor Jamael Tito Brown at the US Conference of Mayors 86^th Annual Meeting in Boston, Massachusetts. YNDC Executive Director Ian Beniston was also in attendance at the event. REVITALIZE Youngstown is an ongoing effort by YNDC, the City of Youngstown, Mahoning County Land Bank, neighborhood groups, and other community partners guided by Neighborhood Action Plans to stabilize transitional neighborhoods. From 2015 through 2017 the program achieved significant results including: 116 homes repaired and rehabilitated, 683 vacant properties cleaned and boarded, 655 vacant homes demolished, 61 volunteer community workdays, 196 homes brought into code compliance, 10 neighborhood signs installed, upgrades to neighborhood parks, and many other improvements. These activities have resulted in a significant decrease in vacancy, increase in home sales prices, and decrease in crime in the city’s transitional neighborhoods. “This is a great honor for the City of Youngstown, YNDC, Mahoning County Land Bank and our many partners to achieve national recognition for our neighborhood stabilization work. We are making great progress, but have much work to do and will continue doing our best to make an impact,” Ian Beniston, YNDC Executive Director. The grant award funds will be used to renovate 2246 Glenwood Avenue, which is a vacant commercial building that will be used to attract businesses to the Greater Glenwood Avenue Corridor on the south side of Youngstown.

Monday, June 11, 2018

Is your business looking to expand or relocate to a high-traffic corridor? Up to 18,000 square feet of commercial space is currently for lease at 2246 Glenwood Avenue.

YNDC has partnered with the Western Reserve Port Authority to revitalize the Glenwood Avenue property. Businesses interested in leasing space at the facility should contact Ian Beniston at 330.480.0423.

The U.S. Conference of Mayors and Wells Fargo today announced that Mayors Robert Garcia of Long Beach, Calif.; Nan Whaley of Dayton, Ohio; and Jamael Tito Brown of Youngstown, Ohio, received top honors on behalf of nonprofits in their cities with the 2018 CommunityWINS® Grant Program funded by the Wells Fargo Foundation.

Presented at the conference’s 86th annual meeting in Boston, the awards recognize nonprofits and cities for leadership in driving neighborhood stabilization, economic development and job creation. An independent panel of judges selected recipients of the Wells Fargo-funded grants from 188 applicants representing small, medium and large cities.

Launched in 2015 with a three-year, $3 million commitment, the CommunityWINS grants program will extend into 2020 with an additional $3 million investment by the Wells Fargo Foundation, bringing the total to $6 million over six years.

“The conference and Wells Fargo share similar values focused on helping communities across the U.S. succeed, and the 2018 CommunityWINS Grant Program is an opportunity to honor productive neighborhood revitalization efforts that are making a difference,” said Tom Cochran, CEO and executive director of the U.S. Conference of Mayors. “We appreciate Wells Fargo and the Wells Fargo Foundation for their support of the CommunityWINS Program, which also highlights the leadership of mayors and city governments.”

• Long Beach, Calif., Mayor Robert Garcia received the top honor, and a $300,000 grant was awarded to nonprofit Pacific Gateway Workforce Partnership for the Citywide Market for Hourly Labor program. Seventy percent of those with irregular work schedules in the area are disabled or caregivers who work uncertain hours, often for multiple employers. Using software, the city of Long Beach will create a healthy marketplace for hourly labor built around protections, progress, individual control and alignment with employers’ needs. Long Beach will establish a local project team to implement the program.
• Dayton, Ohio, Mayor Nan Whaley was recognized, and a $150,000 grant was awarded to the nonprofit Greater Dayton Union Cooperative Initiative to fund the city’s first cooperative enterprise — called the Gem City Market — a vibrant, community-centered, full-service grocery store. The market will be located in a section of Dayton where more than 40 percent of residents have low incomes and live more than a mile from a grocery store. At 15,000 square feet, the market will provide access to affordable, high-quality food, with fresh produce and meat departments that include items from urban and regional farms and gardens.
• Youngstown, Ohio, Mayor Jamael Tito Brown was recognized, and a $150,000 grant was awarded to the nonprofit Youngstown Neighborhood Development Corporation for the REVITALIZE Youngstown Program. The REVITALIZE Youngstown Initiative is a multi-stakeholder public and private partnership led by the Youngstown Neighborhood Development Corporation to stabilize the city’s distressed and transitional neighborhoods by making strategic investments to eradicate blight and improve housing and property conditions. Grant funds will be used to complete the renovation of 2246 Glenwood Avenue, a vacant and underutilized commercial property along a major city corridor. The renovations will modernize the 18,000-square-feet structure into several turn-key spaces for multiple neighborhood-serving small businesses.

The U.S. Conference of Mayors has announced a $150,000 grant is being awarded to help a group dedicated to revitalizing Youngstown.

The Wells Fargo Foundation presented the CommunityWINS grant to Youngstown Mayor Jamael Tito Brown on behalf of the nonprofit Youngstown Development Corporation.

The award recognizes the YNDC REVITALIZE Youngstown Initiative, which is a public and private partnership designed to stabilize the city's distressed and transitional neighborhoods through investments. To read the full story from WFMJ, click here.

Monday, June 11, 2018

On Monday, June 11, the Youngstown Neighborhood Development Corporation was awarded a $15,000 grant from Chemical Bank to support YNDC's Housing Counseling program.

YNDC's HUD-Approved Housing Counseling program assists clients with credit or financial problems to address those issues, secure a bank loan, and become homeowners. 

The city of Youngstown and Youngstown Neighborhood Development Corp. were awarded a $150,000 grant at the U.S. Conference of Mayors’ annual meeting over the weekend.

The CommunityWINS grant, accepted by Mayor Jamael Tito Brown, will support “a complete renovation” of 2246 Glenwood Ave. as part of the Youngstown Revitalize Initiative.

The 18,000-square-foot building, now vacant, was previously a distribution center for Rescue Mission of the Mahoning Valley. Plans include subdividing the building into turn-key spaces for small businesses.

“We will focus on one street, one block and one neighborhood at a time,” Brown said in a release. “We will continue to fight to improve the quality of life for all residents in the city of Youngstown.” To read the full story from The Business Journal, click here. 

Youngstown Neighborhood Development Corp. received a $150,000 grant from the Wells Fargo Foundation to complete the renovation of 2246 Glenwood Ave., a vacant commercial property.

Mayor Jamael Tito Brown accepted the national CommunityWINS [Working/Investing in Neighborhood Stabilization] grant at the U.S. Conference of Mayors’ annual meeting in Boston over the weekend. Youngstown won first place in the small-cities category – cities with populations of less than 75,000 residents. The grant recognizes nonprofits and cities for leadership in driving neighborhood stabilization, economic development and job creation efforts. To read the full story from The Vindicator, click here. 

Children and teens on Youngstown's southside will have something fun to look forward to at least one day a week this summer. 

You can bet your child or even some parents will complain that there just isn't anything to do in the city in the summer. Well, the ICU Blockwatch and the Youngstown Neighborhood Development Corporation are teaming together to put on the southside summer experience. "We went door to door talking to a lot of folks and we asked them what is one thing that can be done to improve your community. Over and over we hear the kids need more stuff to do. So that's what we're trying to do here, just give the kids more positive things to do over the summer," said Tom Hetrick of YNDC. Conroy's Party Shop on South Avenue was the first destination for the Southside Summer Experience. "We have free food, we have a bounce house, we've got a DJ and a video game truck. And it's all free in your own neighborhood," said Victoria Allen, ICU Blockwatch. Each week for eight weeks, the experience will be held for one day in a different location on the southside. To read the full article and watch the video from WFMJ, click here. 

If you live in Youngstown and are looking for some summer fun, you won't have to go too far because a new event series is popping up in the South Avenue Corridor.

The ICU Block Watch, Youngstown Neighborhood Development Corporation (YNDC) and Youngstown Police Department are looking to fill the south side with what they call the "Southside Summer Experience." For the next eight weeks, in eight different neighborhoods, families will be able to enjoy some free entertainment. Monday night kicked off the first week of the Southside Summer Experience, and kids were able to battle in a game truck, burn off some energy in a bouncy house, eat popsicles and dance to music. "My favorite part is the dancing and the bounce house," said Janese Agee-Wingo. Entire families went to Conroy's Party Shop to check out the fun. "My grandma, my cousins, my sisters, sometimes my mom comes with us," said Antonashia White.

"They should be able to come outside their door, maybe walk to the corner and be able to do something fun and fellowship together as a family," said ICU Block Watch director Victoria Allen. These weekly pop-up block parties are all part of an initiative to bring families together in a safe environment in the south side neighborhoods of Youngstown. To read the full story from WKBN, click here.