Neighborhoods

Monday, December 4, 2023. 

Year-To-Date REVITALIZATION Recap November 2023

2,511 Yards of Debris Cleared  
750 Tires Removed
1,236 Volunteer Hours
16,860 Linear Feet of Sidewalks Scraped 
251 Trees Planted
193 Roofs Replaced
184 New Clients Enrolled in Housing Counseling
$217,130 in Fresh Produce Distributed
467 Members Served
15,388 Unique Visits
3,050 Participants in 82 Healthy Activities

REVITALIZE!
 

Monday, December 4, 2023. 

Water was leaking into Carolyn’s home, causing damage to her ceilings and belongings. YNDC replaced her roof and she is so grateful. As a retiree, “I would not have been able to afford a new roof,” she said. “YNDC came along with an income based program to help me, and what a blessing, because money only stretches so far.” 

“What I really appreciate is the dignity I’ve been given. Sometimes you can feel like charity and this was not that way. I came into the office and felt welcomed. I was educated about the process.” She takes pride in her home. Carolyn helps to care for her grandchildren and great grandchildren and is so relieved to be able to stay in her home, and stay dry. “The worry has been taken away and I’m so appreciative.” 

Tuesday, December 5, 2023. 

On September 28, 2023, the Premier Bank Foundation awarded a $25,000 grant to assist with the renovation of the Foster Theater. 

YNDC is developing plans to renovate the building as housing and commercial space. Many thanks to the Premier Bank Foundation for their ongoing support!

--

After 95 years offering high-end lighting fixtures and services to the Valley, Bermann Electric Co. closed Thursday afternoon. The owners, mother and son duo, Ann and Mike Madej said they are ready to retire. The family-owned and operated business, started in 1928 with owners Nicholas and Bertille Berman, providing electrical, contracting and retail lighting services throughout the Valley. Their grandson and company president, Mike and daughter Ann, has helped build and sustain their family's shining legacy, but their legacy will continue for those in need. 

The remaining light fixtures in their show room will be donated to various local non-profit organizations like the Youngstown Neighborhood Development Corporation and Habitat for Humanity.

To read the full story from WFMJ, click here. 

The Youngstown-Warren Regional Chamber has been mulling over ideas on how to repopulate the area and how to find the people needed to fill the jobs coming in the next decade. One point that came up in discussion? Bringing in refugees from other countries. In August, as part of its Salute to Business program, the Regional Chamber invited Lee Williams to speak about bringing in refugees. “I started the conversation with the Regional Chamber of Commerce a while ago, to talk about interest in perhaps starting up a local resettlement agency in Youngstown,” Williams said.

Williams is with the Lutheran Immigration Refugee Services, also known as LIRS. “LIRS is one of 10 national nonprofit agencies who work with local partners across the country to welcome people into their communities, help them establish their new lives,” Williams said. The refugee admissions program in the United States is run by the State Department, which this year allowed 125,000 refugees.

The goal of Lutheran Services is to get them self-sufficient as quickly as possible — that means housed with jobs and the kids in school in six months. “The only way that resettlement works well is to have the entire community engaged,” Williams said. “This community was built on the backs of immigrants moving here to produce steel,” said Mike McGiffin, with the Youngstown-Warren Regional Chamber. McGiffin and consultant Emil Liszniansky are driving the effort locally to repopulate. Both are in favor of including refugees. “I don’t see any reason why we shouldn’t embrace people who are from other countries who are coming here to live a better life,” McGiffin said.

What’s needed first is a sponsor for the resettlement agency, which could include Williams’ Lutheran Services or Catholic Charities, which helps with refugee resettlement in other cities. “By having a resettlement agency here, we’d be required to have at least 100 people come in a year as refugees, and it could certainly be more,” said Liszniansky. As an example, Liszniansky cited the post-industrial city of Utica, New York. The city’s population dropped 60% over several decades before the people of Utica started embracing refugees. “They’ve actually got their population slightly on the rebound, and now a quarter of their residents are foreign-born,” Liszniansky said.

Ian Beniston of the Youngstown Neighborhood Development Corporation started looking into bringing in refugees 8 years ago, but the idea never got off the ground.

To read the full story from WKBN, click here. 

For one weekend each month, the 365 E. Boardman St. home of the Youngstown Flea draws people from throughout the region to patronize the maker vendors who set up shop there. Youngstown Flea founder Derrick McDowell, who purchased the former industrial property three years ago, said he wants to see the building reach its full potential as a mixed-use community space and hopes that he can secure funding from the Appalachian Community Grant Program to help bring that about. “We’ve realized that we’ve got quite a gem here in this 150-year-old historic building,” he said. “It’s only right that we pursue the opportunity to open this place up and allow the community to experience the wonder that it has.”

McDowell’s request for $5.2 million in grant funds is among the more than $155.7 million being sought in a grant application to leverage projects in Mahoning, Trumbull, Columbiana and Ashtabula counties that would total more than $431.6 million. The multicounty grant application was submitted electronically Friday afternoon at an event held at America Makes. “I really believe they are strong projects,” said Kathy Zook, Appalachian Regional Commission program manager at Eastgate Regional Council of Governments. Eastgate, the regional infrastructure planning agency for Mahoning, Trumbull and Ashtabula counties, was the lead applicant on the grant application.

Approximately $500 million in American Rescue Plan Act funds was earmarked for Ohio’s 32 Appalachian counties by the Ohio General Assembly and Gov. Mike DeWine with the passage of House Bill 377 in June 2022. The 41 projects covered in the grant requests funding for initiatives ranging from workforce development and downtown revitalization to streetscape enhancements and redevelopment along the Mahoning River. Other requests include money for new major projects by the Mahoning Valley’s two largest history societies, investments to assist two Ashtabula County mega sites and assistance for a thrombectomy-capable stroke center in Mahoning County.

To qualify, projects must address at least one of three priorities identified in HB 377: infrastructure, workforce or health care, according to documents from the Ohio Department of Development, which oversees the Governor’s Office of Appalachia. Additional criteria include having a transformational impact on their communities, being responsive to issues caused by the Covid-19 pandemic and being feasible for completion by October 2026. Awards are to be announced in February 2024. “Not only did we hit all three areas of investment, but we provided documentation to show if we’re successful how this is going to impact our community, and how we will work together to make sure that the project goes to completion and beyond,” Zook said. Added McDowell, “We can really take these spaces to the next level and start letting our community see the gem of a space like this,” with the state’s help.

One project is identified as an all-county project. The Youngstown/Warren Regional Chamber is seeking $562,500, with a match of $661,000, to support development of what is described as a four-county workforce talent retention and attraction ecosystem. Local governments and private entities in Mahoning County are seeking funds for 17 projects. They include the Youngstown Business Incubator, which is seeking $10 million for a graduate additive manufacturing facility, and Oh Wow! The Roger & Gloria Jones Children’s Center for Science & Technology, which wants $913,489 for Phase 4 of its renovation. The Western Reserve Port Authority is requesting support for two projects in the county, a Mahoning Valley workforce welcome center and redevelopment of a Belmont Avenue building.

Mercy Health Youngstown is requesting $5 million to support a $114 million thrombectomy-capable stroke center; QuickMed Urgent Care is seeking $2.8 million for redeveloping the former Silver’s Vogue Shop building, 27 W. Federal St.; Youngstown Neighborhood Development Corp. is seeking $4.9 million for Revitalize Glenwood; and the Mahoning Valley Historical Society, which recently acquired the former IBM Building on East Federal, is seeking nearly $3 million for facility expansion and improvement. 

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

Eastgate Regional Council of Governments, the lead applicant for a $155.7 million state grant to help fund projects in Trumbull, Mahoning, Columbiana and Ashtabula counties, provided more details Monday on the mega project. Mahoning County leads the way with 17 projects, followed by Ashtabula County with 12 projects, Trumbull County with 10 and one in Columbiana County. There also is one project that benefits all four counties – to develop a workforce talent retention and attraction ecosystem that’s led by the Youngstown / Warren Regional Chamber.

The 41 individual projects focus on investments in downtown and riverfront revitalization, health care and / or workforce development. The submission, made Friday to the state’s Appalachian Community Grant Program, is “aimed at creating a regional, transformative change for future economic and community development within our Appalachian region,” Kathy Zook, Eastgate’s Appalachian Regional Commission program manager, said. In Trumbull County, the largest request is $28 million to help fund a $37.5 million project to redevelop the peninsula in Warren, according to Eastgate’s document. The peninsula is a stretch of land along West Market Street named that way because the Mahoning River wraps around it. The land stretches from Main Avenue SW to South Street, is largely vacant and is prime for redevelopment. A group, Fund for Warren’s Future, is leading the effort. According to a request for some of Warren’s American Rescue Plan Funding, the group wants to develop the land to have more than 200 market-rate housing units and more than 100,000-square feet of commercial and retail space.

Also included are infrastructure improvements, the reduction of West Market Street to two lanes and other enhancements. Messages seeking comment were left Monday with Dennis Blank, administrator of Fund for Warren’s Future. Also in Warren, BRITE Energy Innovators has requested $5.5 million toward a $10.4 million project to reconfigure its downtown headquarters to add more workforce training space, and the Trumbull County Historical Society is asking for $4 million of an $8 million project to help stand up a science fiction and fantasy museum downtown.

In Girard, there are two requests — one for $3.5 million toward a $5 million downtown streets improvement project, and $694,440 toward a $22.9 million project to develop the Leatherworks Trailhead, the document states. The Western Reserve Port Authority is also among the requests, asking for $2.5 million toward a $12.4 million workforce development project, the YNG Aviation Education Campus. 

In Mahoning County, the Youngstown Business Incubator submitted a $10 million request to help pay for a $30.2 million Graduate Additive Manufacturing Facility project. YBI CEO Barb Ewing said Friday said at least two of the incubator’s portfolio companies are ready now to move into a larger space, “so we need to get space they can grow into.” The funds would be used to renovate the building to accommodate the companies, which Ewing did not want to identify. There are several building options, but two are concrete, including the building previously owned by The Vindicator newspaper in Youngstown. That site, Ewing said, is the preferred site. Youngstown submitted three requests, including one for $5.5 million of a $28.1 million project on downtown streetscape enhancements; the Youngstown Flea has a $5.2 million request toward a $12 million project for building redevelopment; and Mercy Health-Youngstown has a $5 million request to help pay for a $114 million thrombectomy capable stroke center.

Youngstown Neighborhood Development Corporation has a $4.9 million ask to help pay for a $10.3 million project to continue its work on improving Glenwood Avenue in Youngstown.

To read the full story from The Tribune Chronicle, click here. 

Monday, December 18, 2023. 

On Tuesday, December 5, The Raymond John Wean Foundation awarded a $600,000 grant to YNDC. The grant provides support for general operating, neighborhood organizing, and a Community Engagement Fellow.

The Raymond John Wean Foundation is a private foundation that has a vision of empowered residents, creating a healthy, vibrant, equitable, and economically stable Mahoning Valley. The mission of the Foundation is to advance community building in the under-resourced communities of Warren and Youngstown, in Ohio’s Mahoning Valley, through a powerful combination of grantmaking, capacity building, convening, and partnerships.

YNDC is sincerely grateful for the ongoing support and strategic partnership with The Raymond John Wean Foundation since YNDC was created!

Monday, December 18, 2023. 

On Tuesday, December 13, the Community Foundation of the Mahoning Valley awarded a $12,500 grant for the Glenwood Neighbors Community Safety program.

The program will engage residents and business owners in the neighborhoods along Glenwood Avenue in Youngstown in a coordinated effort to prevent crime by using evidence-based practices for crime prevention through environmental design (CPTED), including installing lighting and doorbell security cameras on homes, businesses, and in public spaces that are in the vicinity of hotspots of violent crime. YNDC will work with resident leaders, business owners, and the Youngstown Police Department to implement the program. Many thanks to the Community Foundation of the Mahoning Valley!

Monday, December 18, 2023. 

On Thursday, December 14, the Youngstown Neighborhood Development Corporation was awarded a $600,000 grant from the Federal Home Loan Bank of Pittsburgh's Affordable Housing Program for the development of affordable housing.

PNC Bank is the member bank supporting YNDC’s application and project. The grant award will be used to construct two new duplexes on Glenwood Avenue as part of YNDC's long term and incremental work to increase housing quality and stabilize the greater Glenwood Avenue corridor.

YNDC is grateful to the Federal Home Loan Bank of Pittsburgh, PNC Bank, City of Youngstown, The Raymond John Wean Foundation, Flying High, and other partners for their support and partnership in making this grant award possible.