Neighborhoods

Monday, April 24, 2017

In April 2017, YNDC sold a fully revitalized home in the Brownlee Woods Neighborhood to a new homeowner.

1674 Wakefield Avenue sold for $55,000. Congratulations to the new homeowners and thank you for your investment in Youngstown’s neighborhoods.

Monday, April 24, 2017

Invest in Fresh! Buy your Iron Roots CSA share and enjoy delicious fresh fruits and vegetables for 20 weeks from June through October. The success of our Iron Roots programs (like CSA) helps us sustain the farm and allows us to continue to provide farm programs and services to the community!

Your membership also includes a weekly newsletter, exclusive member’s events, recipes, and storage tips. Please contact farm staff by phone at 330.480.0423 or email at produce@yndc.org for more information or to fill out an application and purchase your CSA share. We need your help to reach 100 CSA members! Help us spread the word by telling your friends and family about our CSA!

Share Price: $650 for the season ($32.50 per week)

Ohio Direction Card users can participate for as little as $15 per week!

Contact farm staff by phone at 330.480.0423 or email at produce@yndc.org to purchase your share.

Click here to learn more about our Iron Roots CSA.

Tuesday, April 25, 2017

On Saturday, April 22, fourteen volunteers from Eastgate Regional Council of Governments, YSU Honors College, YSUscape, and Wick Park Neighborhood Association helped clean up Wick Park and the Arlington Heights Neighborhood.

Volunteers removed a total of 86 tires, 23 bags of trash, and boarded and secured 8 vacant homes. Many thanks to all of the volunteers and Belleria Pizza of Warren for donating lunch!

Wednesday, April 26, 2017

A mural has been installed in the Oak Hill Neighborhood at the Needles Eye Christian Life Center on Oak Hill Avenue.

Together, Four Square Block Watch and YNDC team members created the Oak Hill Mural’s theme of Oak Hill community role models committing themselves to not only creating opportunity, happiness, and stability for future generations, but also the beautification of the neighborhood and the city. The mural depicts the likeness of several Four Square Block Watch Members, Greater Friendship Church, New Bethel Baptist Church, and St. Patrick’s Church, and includes children playing along with beautifully colored trees. The mural was designed by YNDC Marketing Coordinator Brandi Takas and painted by Muralist Tommy Morgan.

The Community Foundation of the Mahoning Valley awarded $379,430 in grants and distributions following its first grant cycle of 2017.

The funds include $76,000 in grants to 11 nonprofit organizations in Mahoning and Trumbull counties that submitted requests through the Community Foundation’s online grantmaking process. In addition, $303,430 was distributed outside of the grant process at the recommendation of advisers to component funds of the Community Foundation.

The largest grant was $12,500 to Youngstown Neighborhood Development Corp. for its Glenwood Neighbors Initiative. This project, funded by The Collier Endowment Fund and Kennedy Family Fund, seeks to improve the quality of life, safety, public health and perception of the Glenwood Avenue corridor to foster reinvestment and economic opportunity.

The YWCA of Warren received $12,000 in support of its Girls’ STEAM Camp from the Kennedy Family Fund and Ralph E. and Esther K. Meacham Memorial Fund. The summer camp focuses on science, technology, engineering, arts and math for girls.

The following were additional grants made by the foundation’s component funds:

$10,000 to Ronald McDonald House of Cleveland Inc. for room sponsorships for Mahoning Valley residents (First Place Community Fund and Kennedy Family Fund)

$10,000 to Mahoning Valley College Access Program Inc. for the MVCAP College Guides High School Program (First Place Community Fund and Kennedy Family Fund)

$7,500 to Youngstown State University’s Regional Economic Development Initiative for the Innovative Plan for Leveraging Arts Through Community Engagement (INPLACE) project (The Collier Endowment Fund and Kennedy Family Fund)

$6,000 to The Ohio Foundation of Independent Colleges to provide scholarships through the First Place Community Fund Scholarship Program to Mahoning and Trumbull county students (First Place Community Fund)

$5,000 to East Side Organization Project for its Senior Financial Empowerment Initiative (Kennedy Family Fund)

$5,000 to National Inventors Hall of Fame for Camp Invention summer program for underserved Mahoning Valley children (Kennedy Family Fund)

$4,000 to Making Kids Count to provide Mahoning and Trumbull County Comfort Kits (Young Philanthropist Fund)

$3,000 to Trumbull Neighborhood Partnership for Building a Better Warren Community Projects (Kennedy Family Fund)

$1,000 to Boardman Township Park to support its Adventure Day Camp (Kennedy Family Fund)

The beneficiaries of the $303,430 in distributions are:

Neil Kennedy Recovery Clinic

Boardman Local Schools

Columbiana County Community Foundation

Mahoning Valley Historical Society

Champion Schools

St. Edward Church

Diocese of Youngstown

Trumbull Family Fitness

Youngstown State University Foundation

Youngstown Cityscape

Mercy Health Foundation Mahoning Valley

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

Friday, April 28, 2017

The Community Foundation of the Mahoning Valley awarded YNDC with a $12,500 grant for the Glenwood Neighbors Initiative.

This initiative, funded by The Collier Endowment Fund and Kennedy Family Fund, seeks to improve the quality of life, safety, public health and perception of the Glenwood Avenue corridor to foster reinvestment and economic opportunity. This involves ongoing improvements to Glenwood Avenue: lighting, public art, vacant lot improvement, and streetscape revitalization. Many thanks to the Community Foundation for their support!

More than 150 people got their hands dirty Saturday morning as they volunteered at the Boys and Girls Club of Youngstown.

Volunteers worked to improve upon the area outside of the club’s building, hoping to make it a more inviting and safer place for the children to play. They spread mulch on the playground and cleared sidewalks, all while working through the rain.

 “A lot of our kids live in this neighborhood, so with them living in the neighborhood it helps them take pride in cleaning up their side of town,” said Germaine McAlpine, the club’s CEO.

The Boys and Girls Club also teamed up with the Youngstown Neighborhood Development Corporation, who is already working to beautify the city.
More than 40 percent of the children walk to the club each day.

“If you saw the sidewalks before this morning, there was just a little narrow path and some of it was just completely covered in grass, so that means kids can’t walk to the Boys and Girls Club safely,” said Tom Hetrick, YNDC’s neighborhood planner.

One of the volunteers is a basketball player at Youngstown State University, Ryan Strollo. He says he likes to volunteer at the club to help make an impact on the children. “They look up to us and that’s the bottom line. If they can come see us play, but at the same time see us out here doing this stuff that they’re also doing, it just means that much more to them,” he said. Strollo added that he enjoys giving back and seeing how happy everyone gets once a project like this is completed.

Organizers of the clean-up initiative say plans for another day of working are already underway.

To read the whole story from WKBN, click here.

The Community Foundation of the Mahoning Valley
awarded $379,430 in grants and distributions in its first grant cycle of the
year, the organization announced.

The funds include $76,000 in grants to 11 nonprofit
organizations in Mahoning and Trumbull counties, as well as $303,430 that was
distributed outside of the grant process.

The largest grant, $12,500, went to the Youngstown
Neighborhood Development Corp. for its Glenwood Neighbors Initiative. The
project seeks to “improve the quality of life, safety, walkability, public
health and perception of the distressed Glenwood Avenue corridor to foster
reinvestment and economic opportunity,” according to a news release.

Also, the YWCA of Warren received $12,000 for its girls’
STEM Camp, which will take place this summer.

Other grant recipients were the Ronald McDonald House of
Cleveland; Mahoning Valley College Access Program; Youngstown State University
Regional Economic Development Initiative; the Ohio Foundation for Independent
Colleges; East Side Organization Project; National Inventors Hall of Fame;
Making Kids Count; Trumbull Neighborhood Partnership; and Boardman Township
Park.

To read the whole story from the Vindicator click here.

Tuesday, May 9, 2017

On Tuesday, May 9, YNDC and the City of Youngstown kicked off Walk to School Week by holding the first Walking School Bus at Williamson Elementary School. 

A Walking School Bus is a group of students that meet along the school route to safely walk to school together.  The mayor, city officials, police officers, parents, and transportation planners from Eastgate Regional Council of Governments joined the students in walking to school. Students that participated will be entered into a drawing to win a bicycle and helmet. Walking School Bus events are scheduled for McGuffey and Taft Elementary Schools later this week and all Walking School Buses will continue at each school throughout the rest of the school year. Walk to School Week is part of the Safe Routes to School program which seeks to increase safety through infrastructure improvements and educational programming. As part of the program, deteriorated and non-existing sidewalks and curb ramps will be installed around Taft Elementary this summer with improvements planned for Harding, Williamson, and McGuffey Elementary Schools within the next two years. 

A school bus in Youngstown wasn’t
driving on the road, rather, it was on the sidewalk.

Tuesday morning, the “walking bus” helped children navigate
their way to school and encouraged them to stay active. Led by a team of police
officers and city leaders, including Mayor John McNally, the walking bus took
students down the street, through crosswalks and other situations they will
encounter before they get to class. Organizers said kids that walk and bike to school are more
energized to start the school day.

 “Research has shown that walking and biking helps students
focus more in school, which would improve their grades, and that is really what
we want — our students to succeed,” said Safe Routes to School Coordinator
Heather Bielik.

The walkers will meet every Tuesday and walk to school until
the end of the school year. The event is hosted by the Youngstown Neighborhood
Development Corporation, Youngstown City Schools and City Kids Care.

To read the full story from WKBN, click here.