Neighborhoods

Nearly 1,000 volunteers participated in hte 21st annual Day of Caring in Youngstown.

To watch the video from The Vindicator, click here.

Many South Side residents will notice their neighborhoods are a little cleaner, and perhaps safer, thanks to the efforts made by 1,000 volunteers from schools, businesses and organizations for the 21st Annual United Way Day of Caring.

A sea of volunteers wearing lime green shirts gathered at the Covelli Centre for breakfast before the Friday event.

United Way President Bob Hannon said this year boasted the largest turn-out in the event’s history.

Last year, there were 850 volunteers.

The volunteers’ tasks varied. They did everything from landscaping to installing smoke detectors in homes.

Volunteers that weren’t working in neighborhoods helped 18 nonprofit agencies around the city.

“It’s just a day to feel good about the community,” Hannon said. He thanked companies for allowing their employees to spend the day volunteering for a good cause.

United Way partnered with the American Red Cross, the Youngstown Neighborhood Development Corp., the city, Lowe’s and Green Youngstown for the event. Huntington Bank and Hometown Pharmacy are among the sponsors.

Mayor Jamael Tito Brown told the crowd their participation is key to making better the lives of the families who live in the South Side neighborhoods where they worked.

Tonya Rhodes with the group Building Neighborhoods of Youngstown said the amount of volunteers was overwhelming. To read the full article from The Vindicator, click here. 

Focusing on the Taft Promise Neighborhood, 1,000-plus volunteers spread across Youngstown for the United Way Day of Caring.

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

Becky Wessel wasn’t going to let a torn meniscus prevent her from participating in this year’s United Way Day of Caring.

On crutches because of the injury she incurred while training for a race, the commercial operations officer for Home Savings Bank in Youngstown went from house to house with her coworkers and a crew from the American Red Cross to install smoke detectors in the Taft Promise Neighborhood on the South Side.

“I didn’t want to not support my team. I wanted to be a part of this,” she said. 

Wessel was part of 15-person crew from Home Savings that participated in the 21st annual Day of Caring sponsored by the United Way of Youngstown and the Mahoning Valley.

Unable to do the installation work, Wessel spoke with homeowners to explain the importance of fire safety and how the smoke detectors work. She also left behind documents to help them prepare a fire escape plan.

“I have been volunteering for the United Way Day of Caring for several years. I’m very passionate about it,” she said. “When I have the opportunity to help people, I want to do it.” To read the full article from The Business Journal, click here.

Neighbors and volunteers in Youngstown got their hands dirty Friday to clean up their city. It was part of the United Way's Day of Caring.

"Born and raised my whole life," Elijah Stroughter said.

When Elijah came home Friday to the place he's been living for seven years, he was in for a big surprise.

"I just seen the whole community of people, just cleaning up. I thought it was beautiful. I didn't know who did it," Elijah said.

It was the United Way of Youngstown, which partnered with the Youngstown Neighborhood Development Corporation for the 21st annual Day of Caring.

"We're working on cleaning up abandoned houses. We're working on vacant lots, cleaning up sidewalks, getting brush, trash, debris out of our neighborhoods," said Jack Daugherty, with YNDC.

Jack is also a Youngstown native.

"I'm very proud of Youngstown and I want to see it be the place that we want it to be -- we, the residents, want this city to be," he said.

Each year, the United Way and YNDC choose a section of the city to clean up. This year, it was the south side.

The cleaning happened on Marmion Avenue all the way to E. Avondale Avenue, and between South Avenue and Cottage Grove Avenue.

More than 90 businesses and other organizations came to help. Altogether, there were 1,000 volunteers. To read the full story from WKBN, click here.

Tuesday, September 11, 2018

On Friday, September 7, The United Way of Youngstown and the Mahoning Valley partnered with YNDC for the 21st Annual Day of Caring.

Over 700 volunteers joined YNDC in the annual day of service and helped scrape sidewalks, clean up vacant properties, install smoke detectors and security lights, and clear brush and debris on the South Side of Youngstown making this year’s Day of Caring the largest yet. The focus areas this year included stretches of Marmion, Florida, Boston, and Avondale Avenues, Erie Street, and Rush Boulevard in the Cottage Grove and Taft Promise Neighborhoods. Volunteers helped to remove 850 cubic yards of brush and debris from vacant properties - that’s 28 tractor trailers! An additional 367 illegally-dumped tires were removed from vacant properties and properly disposed of. Volunteers scraped and reclaimed 8,772 linear feet of sidewalks increasing safety for pedestrians. Volunteers from The American Red Cross also installed 90 smoke detectors and 124 security lights at occupied houses in the target area this year. In all, over 160 properties received improvements during the day of service. Thank you to all the volunteers that participated this year and helped us to improve Youngstown’s neighborhoods! 

Power, race and revitalization were discussed Tuesday night during the City Club of the Mahoning Valley’s free community panel at the Youngstown Playhouse.

The panel featured Alan Mallach, the author of “The Divided City: Poverty and Prosperity in Urban America”; Evelyn Burnett, the co-founder and sponsor of ThirdSpace Action Lab and ThirdSpace Cafe in Cleveland; and Presley Gillespie, former Youngstown Neighborhood Development Corp. executive director and current president of Neighborhood Allies.

Ian Beniston, executive director of the YNDC, moderated the discussion.

Prior to the panel discussion, Mallach discussed his new book, which explores the recent revitalizations in older Rust Belt and Midwestern cities – Cleveland, Pittsburgh and Detroit, for example – and how those revitalizations, while positive, haven’t succeeded in alleviating entrenched poverty in those communities.

“Huge parts of these cities are being ignored despite these revivals,” Mallach said. “Many of the areas that were poor before the revivals remain poor after.”

Mallach argued that strong local leaders and institutions working toward a common goal that emphasized reinvestment into local neighborhoods is paramount to addressing the struggles faced by post-industrial cities such as Youngstown.

“Youngstown State University is a central part of the picture,” he said. “If they could become a real partner with the city and neighborhoods, they could become real leaders in a revitalization. They’re a key player here.”

Near the end of the evening, the panelists discussed what the public can do to engage in the continued revitalization of the city. To read the full story from The Vindicator, click here.

Putting an end to racism, creating healthy neighborhoods and carving early career paths were among the suggestions at a discussion on revitalizing Youngstown Tuesday evening.

About 200 people listened to the City Club of the Mahoning Valley talk at the Youngstown Playhouse -- a few even spoke up.

"Places like Youngstown have a really tough time of it," said Alan Mallach, who is considered one of the best urban development minds in the country.

He was on the panel, saying cities like Youngstown need to focus on a decent quality of life in the neighborhoods.

"You need a good program of code enforcement, rental registration to make sure that housing is safe and healthy," Mallach said.

Also on the panel was Presley Gillespie, who founded the Youngstown Neighborhood Development Corporation and now has a similar position in Pittsburgh. He said Youngstown needs to work with existing companies and train people for jobs that are already here.

"To identify what those jobs are, what are the skills that are needed to excel in those jobs and start with youth at a very young age to prepare them for those jobs."

The third panelist was Evelyn Burnett, who grew up in Youngstown and now helps low-income communities of color in Cleveland.

"I think if cities don't get serious about entrenched systematic racism that permeates every one of these systems that we're talking about," she said. To read the full article from WKBN, click here. 

By many metrics, the revitalization efforts in Youngstown have been successful. Downtown is regaining its vibrancy, large development projects have gotten underway in recent years and crime is dropping.

But the success isn’t being felt by all. It was that segment of the city that was the focus of the City Club of the Mahoning Valley’s “Views & Brews: Revitalizing Youngstown” discussion Tuesday night.

“Although we really see a lot happening downtown and in the corridors, there’s still some issues with poverty, crime rates and inner city states,” said Lynn Bilal, the organization’s project director. “We are listening. We hear what you’re saying about issues happening around development we see and hopefully they can have ideas about what can be done and how we can reframe revitalizing Youngstown.”

The panel, moderated by Youngstown Neighborhood Development Corp. Executive Director Ian Beniston, featured Youngstown native and Third Space Action Lab co-founder Evelyn Burnett, YNDC founding director and current Neighborhood Allies President Presley Gillespie and Alan Mallach, author of “The Divided City: Poverty and Prosperity in Urban America.”

What could most impact the revitalization of Youngstown, especially beyond the central business district and major corridors, is the creation of stable, well paying jobs, the panelists agreed.

“Half of the adult men in the city of Youngstown are unemployed, but when we look at stats from the [Youngstown/Warren Regional Chamber], they say there are 15,000 unfilled jobs in the region,” said Beniston before the panel. “Clearly, there’s a challenge we all need to work together on.”

Mallach noted that he found a vast majority of people working within Youngstown city limits earning more than $40,000 per year live outside the city. To read the full story from The Business Journal, click here.

To watch the video from WFMJ, click here.