Neighborhoods

Thursday, April 1, 2021

The documentary film featuring the work and team of YNDC along with other Youngstown residents titled "The Place That Makes Us" aired nationally on 170 stations on the PBS WORLD Channel on March 30!

The film is currently available to stream on the America ReFramed website and on the PBS video app now for a limited time.

To watch the documentary NOW click here.

The Cleveland International Film Festival is known to show a wide variety of features and short films.

However, in recent years, a special part of the festival has been its Local Heroes Competition, which Festival Associate Director Patrick Shepherd described as being an annual celebration of films made about Ohio, in Ohio or by Ohioans.

While the novel coronavirus is still keeping many folks out of theaters, this year’s CIFF45 Streams — taking place April 7 through 20 — is offering audiences the ability to stream its Local Heroes Competition films from the safety of their own homes.

Based on an audience vote, the winner of this competition, who will receive a $5,000 cash prize, will be announced at the CIFF Closing Awards Ceremony.

To see the full story from The News-Herald, click here.

Thursday, April 1, 2021

YNDC is proud to announce the publishing of its performance report from the 1st Quarter of 2021! 

The performance report highlights the work of YNDC from January to March 2021. An electronic copy can be downloaded below.

Monday, April 5, 2021

630 Cubic Yards of Debris Removed

67 Emergency Repairs

12 Owner Occupied Home Repairs/Rehabilitation

27 Vacant Houses Boarded

REVITALIZE

ORCHID: To the Youngstown Neighborhood Development Corp. for its ongoing successes in revitalizing homes and neighborhoods throughout the city.

Most recently, its achievements won it a featured segment on the WORLD Channel’s “America Reframed” series. The YNDC episode titled “The place that makes us” and shot over several years, aired last week but is available for online streaming at worldchannel.org. It also will be a part of the esteemed Cleveland International Film Festival this year. We’re pleased to see the good works of YNDC Director Ian Beniston, his staff and his legions of hearty volunteer workers get the national and international recognition they so deserve.

To see the full story from The Vindicator, click here.

"I live in Youngstown. I live in this community. So whenever we do work here it's not just, you know, it's not just coming in and helping somebody but it's actually impacting my neighbors and impacting my life by impacting those neighbors," Sokol said.

Sokol is the housing director at Youngstown Neighborhood Development Corporation, which works to transform blighted neighborhoods into areas where people and businesses will invest.

"Our mission is to improve the quality of life in the city of Youngstown. Specifically, the city's neighborhoods," she said.

Sokol and a few of her colleagues are featured in a documentary airing this month called "The Place That Makes Us." It was filmed over three years by PBS and explores how Sokol and others choose to stay in their hometown and help rebuild it rather than relocate.

The idea actually started with a joke from Sokol to one of the directors.

"I was taking her around to different houses and I joked with her that I always thought that we should have our own HGTV show because I think that what we do is really important and I think that our product is really beautiful. And I think our homes are just as nice as what you see on those shows but it's also for a much deeper cause," Sokol said. "And so I thought it would be a really cool thing. And I was just kind of just dreaming a little bit and joking with her and she looked at me real seriously and said, 'Well, why would it have to be HGTV? Why not PBS?"

To see the full story from Spectrum News, click here.

The Cleveland International Film Festival is known to show a wide variety of feature and short films.

However, in recent years a special part of the festival has been its Local Heroes Competition, which festival Associate Director Patrick Shepherd described as being an annual celebration of films made about Ohio, in Ohio, or by Ohioans.

While COVID-19 is still keeping audiences out of theaters, this year’s CIFF45 Streams — taking place April 7 through 20 — is offering audiences the ability to stream its Local Heroes Competition films from the safety of their own homes.

Based on audience vote, the winner of this competition — who will receive a $5,000 cash prize — will be announced at the CIFF Closing Awards Ceremony.

To see the full story from The Chrinicle, click here.

In this episode of The Real T, Lisa Resnick welcomes Ian Beniston, Executive Director of the Youngstown Neighborhood Development Corporation (YNDC).

Beniston and Resnick discuss community redevelopment and the mission of the YDNC: to improve the quality of life in Youngstown by building and encouraging investment in neighborhoods of choice for all. 

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

Tuesday, April 6, 2021

The Eastgate Regional Council of Governments (Eastgate) has awarded the City of Youngstown a $21,000 grant for the Glenwood Avenue Active Transportation Improvement Plan.

This project is a comprehensive study to improve pedestrian, cycling, and public transit infrastructure along Glenwood Avenue from Mahoning Avenue in Youngstown to Shields Road in Boardman in order to improve access to economic and recreation opportunities for residents who live in the adjacent neighborhoods. The plan will use Complete Streets and Safe Routes principles to make active transportation a safe, viable, and affordable option for residents. It will improve quality of life, health outcomes, access to jobs, prevent pedestrian fatalities, and help to overcome racial inequities perpetuated by the regional transportation network. The City of Youngstown will serve as the project sponsor with Boardman Township as co-sponsor. Mill Creek MetroParks, the Youngstown Neighborhood Development Corporation (YNDC), multiple neighborhood groups, and corridor businesses will serve as partners. A qualified transportation planning firm will be hired to prepare the plan in coordination with partners.

The deindustrialization of the Northeast and Midwest in the 1970s left Youngstown, Ohio, scarred with abandoned factories, high unemployment rates and dilapidated neighborhoods.

Youngstown’s declining economic situation led many former residents to flee for greener pastures. And while there have been notable attempts to bring the city back from economic ruin, they haven’t been completely successful.

But there are some Youngstown natives who have chosen to stay and work to revive their city, as chronicled in the new “America ReFramed” documentary “The Place That Makes Us,” directed by Karla Murthy.

To see the full story from Market place, click here.