Neighborhoods

Some areas in Youngstown will be getting a facelift thanks to a partnership between the Youngstown Neighborhood Development Corporation (YNDC) and AmeriCorps National Civilian Community Corps (NCCC).

Congressman Tim Ryan announced the partnership on March 12 saying the partnership will “further YNDC's mission to improving neighborhoods and the quality of life for residents of Youngstown.”

The partnership will continue until April 25.

The NCCC will help YNDC prepare vacant homes for renovation or board them up for safety. They will also clean up trash and debris, clear overgrown areas, repair fences in public spaces, and landscape public areas. To read the full story from WFMJ, click here. 

Monday, March 18, 2019

YNDC is seeking candidates for a Neighborhood Organizing VISTA position who will increase our capacity to bring individuals out of poverty by eliminating barriers to economic opportunity that exist in our neighborhoods.

This will be accomplished by equipping residents, organizations and institutions with the tools to harness their own power to affect neighborhood progress. Members will work alongside a talented and highly motivated team of organizing staff and neighborhood leaders and will help to organize people and resources to accomplish these tasks. Re-purposing vacant property will create a physical environment that encourages economic opportunity and neighborhood reinvestment. Equipping neighborhood residents, groups, and institutions with the tools and skills necessary to harness their own collective power will help to eliminate social and structural barriers to opportunity while ensuring that reinvestment benefits residents.

For more information and to apply, please click here.

Monday, March 18, 2019

On Monday, March 18, 2019, the Garden Club of Youngstown conducted its monthly meeting at YNDC.

The group discussed YNDC's neighborhood revitalization and tree planting activities. At the end of the meeting the Garden Club of Youngstown awarded YNDC with $1,500 for tree planting. Many thanks to the Garden Club of Youngstown for the support!

Tuesday, March 19, 2019

On Saturday, March 16, nineteen volunteers helped clean up vacant properties along Ravenwood Avenue at a Newport Neighborhood Workday.

Volunteers from Flying High, NEOMED Physicians for Social Responsibility, YSU Journalism, and YSU Honors Communications joined YNDC and the AmeriCorps NCCC Oak 3 Team to help remove 20 cubic yards of debris and 9 illegally-dumped tires from vacant lots. The group also reclaimed 430 linear feet of sidewalks to make them pedestrian-safe. We’d like to thank all the volunteers for their hard work!

Wednesday, March 20, 2019

On Wednesday, March 20, the First National Bank Community Foundation
awarded YNDC with a $10,000 grant for Housing Counseling.

The Housing Counseling
Program helps individuals identify and resolve barriers to homeownership
through one-on-one counseling sessions. Thanks to the First National Bank
Community Foundation for their support!

The Raymond John Wean Foundation board approved Community Investment Grants totaling $226,383 to four organizations at its quarterly meeting this month.

The grants are to be used for integrated, equitable solutions aligned with the foundation’s four strategic priorities, which are community revitalization, economic opportunity, educational opportunity and public sector leadership.

Grant recipients are:

Trumbull County Historical Society, Voices Oral History Project: Designed to add a depth of understanding to Warren’s historical record by engaging residents from the Southeast Side, Southwest Side, Quinby Park and the North End in unearthing facts and sharing memories experienced in their neighborhoods that shaped Warren’s rich history. For information, contact Meghan Reed at 330-394-4653.

Fund for Our Economic Future, Choose Extraordinary - Advancing Growth and Opportunity in Northeast Ohio: The fund, an alliance of funders, works to provide economic growth and equitable opportunity to job creation, job preparation and job access for Northeast Ohio residents. To read the fund’s 2018 report, visit www.thefundneo.org/our-research/two-tomorrows.

National Inventors Hall of Fame (NIHF), Invention Project: Programming designed to engage 50 Warren and Youngstown City School District middle-school students in real-world challenges in which they leverage their understanding of economics and gain an entrepreneurial introduction to the business of innovation, from prototype to product launch. Learn more at www.invent.org/.

Rockwood Leadership, Leadership Now-Ohio: This cross-sector fellowship program convenes “key influencers and those poised to be key influencers” from across Ohio to build sustainability, bolster personal ecology and create cross-sector alliances. The deliberate inclusion of leaders from the Mahoning Valley will provide opportunities for collective thinking about building strong movements at home and across the state, ultimately translating to an increased capacity for Ohio to create change at the local, state and national level.

Other grants awarded are: Community Foundation of the Mahoning Valley, Healthy Community Partnership–Mahoning Valley Program, Trumbull Neighborhood Partnership, Health and Wellness of the Residents Project, and Youngstown Neighborhood Development Corp., Health and Wellness of the Residents Project. To read the full story from The Vindicator, click here. 

The Raymond John Wean Foundation approved community investment grants totaling $226,383 at its quarterly meeting earlier this month, approving awards to seven organizations.

Trumbull County Historical Society was given a grant for its Voices oral history project, which will engage residents across Warren to collect the history and shared memories of their neighborhoods. The histories will be compiled to create an electronic oral-history map.

Fund for Our Economic Future’s award will be used to support it economic development work throughout northeastern Ohio. The agency’s three-year goals include defining and maintain a regional growth agenda, creating a leadership network and pooling resources to drive innovation. To read the full story from The Business Journal, click here. 

Phil Kidd might be one of the most pivotal figures in the city of Youngstown in the last decade.

Scott Schulick offered that up. Think about that.

Jay Williams. Jim Tressel. Eric Ryan. A few more like that.

Phil?

It’s pretty accurate – especially if you’re talking specifically Youngstown borders.

Besides most pivotal, Phil’s also one of the most intense.

And one of the most engaged.

And one of the most polarizing.

I write all the above and will write a bit more below with this preface:

I was always a Phil fan, but for a brief period. For about nine months or so, I would have welcomed time with a death row inmate before engaging Phil. To read the full article from The Vindicator, click here. 

Tuesday, March 26, 2019

On Tuesday, March 26, 2019, the Youngstown Neighborhood Development Corporation (YNDC) was awarded a Dominion Community Impact Award at an awards ceremony at the Great Lakes Science Center in Cleveland for its work along Glenwood Avenue on the south side of Youngstown.

YNDC was one of 14 organizations throughout northeast Ohio selected for an award. YNDC was awarded for its ongoing Clean Up Glenwood Avenue program.

Clean Up Glenwood Avenue is an ongoing effort to stabilize and revitalize Glenwood Avenue. Over the past year YNDC has completed multiple projects along Glenwood Avenue including: rehabilitating a four-unit apartment complex and single-family homes; cleaning and greening vacant lots; planting 145 trees; adding LED spotlights to enhance safety at Glenwood Community Park; and reactivating one of the largest underutilized commercial buildings on the corridor.

“The residents of Youngstown deserve to have neighborhood corridors that are safe, vibrant and provide economic opportunity and access to the essential quality-of-life needs,” says Jack Daugherty, the YNDC’s Neighborhood Stabilization Director. Clean Up Glenwood Avenue has also generated tangible economic benefits including six permanent jobs, 25 construction jobs and the opening of three businesses, helped YNDC forge strong community partnerships, and laid the ground work for additional development and improvement along the corridor.

The grant award funds will be used to further improve the Glenwood Avenue Corridor.

Dominion Energy has honored Youngstown Neighborhood Development Corp. for its clean-up efforts along Glenwood Avenue, as well as Trumbull Neighborhood Partnership for its Building a Better Warren initiative.

The community improvement groups were two of 14 organizations from northeastern Ohio presented with the Dominion Community Impact Award at a ceremony Tuesday at the Great Lakes Science Center in Cleveland.

Both organizations received $7,500 grants to continue their work in Youngstown and Warren.

Over the past year, YNDC’s Clean Up Glenwood Avenue effort has included the rehabilitation of a four-unit apartment building and several single-family homes, the opening of the Glenwood Business Center, cleaning vacant lots, planting 145 trees and installing LED lights at Glenwood Community Park. The effort has result in six permanent jobs and 25 construction jobs.

“The residents of Youngstown deserve to have neighborhood corridors that are safe, vibrant and provide economic opportunity and access to the essential quality-of-life needs,” said Jack Daugherty, the YNDC’s neighborhood stabilization director.

Trumbull Neighborhood Partnership’s Building a Better Warren program offers city residents employment to renovation, demolish or remediate blighted properties. In its first year, the program employs seven full-time. To read the full story from The Business Journa, click here.