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Mission/Goals

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Our Mission

YNDC is committed to improving the quality of life in Youngstown by building and encouraging investment in neighborhoods of choice for all.  We aim to accomplish this mission through a dual approach that includes strategic investments to rebuild market confidence in neighborhoods with strong assets, and broader partnership strategies to strengthen Youngstown’s community development capacity and the citywide infrastructure supporting neighborhood revitalization.

Our Goals

YNDC’s central purpose is to foster the transformation of vulnerable, undervalued and transitional neighborhoods into healthy neighborhoods of choice – places where people are willing to invest their time, energy and resources and where residents can manage their own problems.  YNDC has set the following goals to guide its neighborhood transformation agenda:

  1. To rebuild market confidence in neighborhoods through strategic reinvestment and neighborhood improvement activities in focus neighborhoods.
  2. To strengthen the social fabric of neighborhoods through the active participation and involvement of residents and neighborhood organizations in planning and activities of YNDC.
  3. To encourage all community development actions in Youngstown to have a clear strategic outcome and every outcome to be leveraged to maximize its impact.
  4. To forge strong partnerships and effective collaboration among stakeholders to layer the resources necessary to be successful.
  5. To increase wealth and asset building through the appreciation of home values and other advancements.
  6. To foster the development of a new language for community development and revitalization.
  7. To operate in a manner that cultivates hope for positive community change among all residents of Youngstown.
  8. Expand the pool of public and private resources directed toward the revitalization of Youngstown’s neighborhoods.

Our Guiding Principles

In addition to the above goals, YNDC will also follow a set of guiding principles in all aspects of its organizational and program decision-making.

  • Inclusion/Diversity  YNDC is committed to an aggressive policy of openness and inclusion in all aspects of its work.  This includes extending opportunities to all parts of the Youngstown community to offer input on critical program decisions, and to compete fairly for contracts YNDC may award or job openings that may be created as a result of its programs and investments.
  • Integrity  YNDC pledges to maintain the highest ethical standards in its organizational and programmatic decisions and expects its staff and board to maintain these standards in their dealings with one another and YNDC’s external stakeholders.   
  • Collaboration  YNDC believes strongly in the principles of collaboration and partnership and is committed to working collaboratively with others to advance common goals and expand the overall impacts of its work.
  • Transparency  YNDC will operate with openness in all its key decisions, including its choices of where and how to invest the resources entrusted to it, with whom it chooses to partner and contract, and how it makes its own administrative and governance decisions. 
  • Innovation  YNDC understands the direct benefits of learning and innovation in all aspects of its program; it will continue to seek better ways of accomplishing its strategic goals and is committed to introducing new programmatic and management approaches wherever appropriate.