Neighborhoods

Monday, April 11, 2022

418 Cubic Yards of Debris Removed

31 New Clients Enrolled in Housing Counseling

28 Vacant Houses Boarded

26 Emergency Repairs

11 Roof Replaced

5 Vacant Units Rehabilitated

REVITALIZE

The long-vacant plaza at 2915 Glenwood Ave. is being given new life by the Youngstown Neighborhood Development Corporation, a nonprofit organization dedicated to neighborhood revitalization.

“The Glenwood Fresh Market is going to one of multiple storefronts,” says YNDC Neighborhood Stabilization Director Jack Daugherty. “That plaza used to be a daycare center and a soul food restaurant most recently, but it has been vacant for a good five years or so, and before that some of the storefronts were vacant for almost 20 years.” 

Now, with the help of funding from federal block grants, the plaza will include the 1,200-square-foot Fresh Market as well as five other white box spaces available for rent. 

Some sections of Youngstown can be considered food deserts, particularly in neighborhoods without a convenient supermarket. YNDC is doing its part to resolve this. “Residents in this neighborhood, and in other neighborhoods throughout the city, want to see more access to fresh and healthy foods close by because not everybody has access to a car,” Daugherty says.

The Fresh Market will provide produce and healthy food options free of charge to individuals and families whose household income falls 200 percent below federal poverty guidelines. YNDC canvassed the neighborhoods adjacent to Glenwood, literally knocking on more than 700 doors, asking residents what they most wanted to see near them. The overwhelming response was access to healthy foods. This was the primary motivation for creating the Fresh Market.  

To see the full story from Metro Monthly, click here.

Signs have sprouted around Mahoning County: Glenwood Fresh Market.

On Tuesday, the opening of the market, 2915 Glenwood Ave., was celebrated with a ribbon cutting attended by community members, donors, stakeholders and local leaders. The market is one of a handful of projects brought to the city through the Youngstown Neighborhood Development Corp., and its goal to provide healthier food options to Mahoning County residents.

To see the full story from The Business Journal, click here.

Located at 2915 Glenwood Avenue near Idora Avenue, the new facility will be open year-round for members to access free, high-quality, fresh fruits, vegetables, and other healthy foods.

To see the full story from WFMJ, click here.

Officials cut the ribbon Tuesday morning for the Glenwood Fresh Market in Youngstown.

It’s been a long time since people on the south side of Youngstown and neighborhood communities have had a place to get fresh fruits and vegetables right in their own neighborhood. Mayor Tito Browns remembers when they could.

“I knew when the produce came there was gonna be fresh produce. My grandmother would go out. My mother would go out. The community would come out,” Brown said.

The store, located at 2915 Glenwood Ave., will offer fresh produce free of charge for residents who meet income guidelines and have underlying health conditions, saving them from having to travel to Liberty or Boardman to buy what they need at today’s rising prices.

To see the full story from WKBN, click here.

The Youngstown Neighborhood Development Corp. celebrated the opening of the Glenwood Fresh Market Tuesday.

The market will provide free produce to Youngstown households earning less than 200% of federal poverty guidelines. Registration is required.

“We’ve already registered 1,100 members and we’ve had about 775 members serviced through the store,” said Ian Beniston, executive director of YNDC.

To see the full story from The Business Journal, click here.

Monday, April 18, 2022

On April 14, 2022, Citizens Bank awarded YNDC with a $10,000 grant for the Community Financial Empowerment Initiative.

This program includes YNDC’s housing counseling and serves as the foundation for the YNDC’s comprehensive community development model aimed at increasing economic opportunity and quality of life for traditionally underserved city residents, including increased financial stability, quality affordable housing, and asset building.
As a HUD-Approved Housing Counseling Agency, YNDC offers pre- and post-purchase one-on-one counseling services and online education, to assist low- to moderate-income city residents identify and overcome barriers to homeownership, including inadequate savings, income, credit history, and understanding of the home buying process and prepare them for future homeownership, and to provide existing low- to moderate-income homeowners with resources to maximize their limited incomes and minimize repair costs so that they can avoid foreclosure and improve their living conditions.
Thank you to Citizens Bank for their support of this critical free service!

Tuesday, April 26, 2022

On Monday, April 25 CareSource made a $2,500 donation to the Glenwood Fresh Market.

The market, located at 2915 Glenwood Avenue, provides year-round access to FREE fresh fruits, vegetables, and other healthy food items to residents of Youngstown and the Mahoning Valley. The market also provides free health screenings, nutrition literacy courses, cooking demonstrations and other resources to members. Residents can become members if they are a household living under 200 percent of Federal Poverty Guidelines or a SNAP recipient. Please call 330.333.3561 to become a member.

Since the coronavirus pandemic began, the number of homeless children living at city shelters has increased significantly.

Youngstown City Schools officials have also identified three times as many students in need of assistance this year, compared to 2019. John Muckridge, Rescue Mission of the Mahoning Valley president and CEO, said shelter workers expected to take in more women when the shelter moved to its new, 50,000 square-foot facility along Martin Luther King Boulevard in Youngstown, which offers more bed capacity.

But they didn’t expect the number of children who came with them. In 2019, Youngstown City School buses were only picking up a handful of students living at the rescue mission. But in the last few months, that number has tripled, Muckridge said.

On March 8, there were 44 children staying overnight at the rescue mission. That means that for the first time in the mission’s history, there were more children than adults in the Women and Families department on any given day since it opened in 1982, according to a news release from the rescue mission. There are 86 total beds in the family department. The mission counts the number of children by the amount of beds occupied each night, rather than by a head count. The monthly average of child overnight stays increased from 225 stays in 2020 to 680 stays in just the first few months of 2022, according to rescue mission data. Though there are fewer individual children who spent at least one night at the shelter — 90 in 2020, down to 68 this year, the mission reported — the large increase in overnight stays suggests they’re staying for longer.

To see the full story from Mahoning Matters, click here.

A $1.1 million brownfield remediation grant was awarded Tuesday to the Columbiana County Land Reutilization Corp., more commonly known as the Land Bank, by Lt. Gov. John Husted to be used for remediation and demolition of the former East Junior High School in the city's East End.

During an afternoon press conference attended by state, county and city officials, Husted said he and Gov. Mike DeWine conceived the brownfield remediation grant program during the pandemic.

To see the full story from The Business Journal, click here.