Mission/Goals

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.