SitemapA project being proposed by Councilman Julius Oliver that would support entrepreneurs and the city’s youth is “designed to incubate community,” the First Ward councilman said. The project will face a key vote Monday night, when Oliver and his colleagues on City Council will consider an ordinance to fund the purchase of a building (pictured above) where the proposed community center – although he hesitates to call it that – would be located. “It’s not actually a community center. It is, but it’s way more,” he clarified.
If approved by council members, the legislation would allocate to the Western Reserve Port Authority $150,000 of the $2 million of the American Rescue Plan Act funds designated for projects in the First Ward. The funds would be used to purchase a former Meridian HealthCare building at 64 Ridge Ave. The port authority’s board of directors approved a resolution in June to accept the ARPA funds and to acquire the property on the city’s behalf.
The center that Oliver envisions would provide incubation space for small businesses. As a condition of tenancy, the business owners would be required to permit high school-age youth to shadow them. That would not only acquaint them with what the business owner does – potentially planting the seeds for teens to start their own businesses later – but also introduce them to people in the neighborhoods so they potentially would be less inclined to cause mischief in the community. The initiative also addresses a specific unmet need for local youth, he said. While there are several programs that deal with youth who are struggling, at risk or in trouble already, there are no programs to “deal with good kids and make sure they never become bad kids,” he asserted.
“It prevents little Johnny from breaking into Ms. Johnson’s house because he knows Ms. Johnson,” Oliver said. “We don’t have any programming that strategically raises our kids to become great community members,” he continued. Many youth programs are geared around athletics, which doesn’t interest everyone, he added. Oliver said he became familiar with the concept when he accompanied Bonnie Deutsch Burdman, director of community relations and government affairs for the Youngstown Area Jewish Federation, on a trip to Israel in 2020. While there, they visited the Akko Center for Arts & Technology, also known as A-CAT, which exposes children of various cultural backgrounds to multiple occupations.
A-CAT is part of the network of such centers – including the Hope Center for Arts & Technology in Sharon, Pa. – that follow the model of the Pittsburgh-based Manchester Bidwell Corp. to help people get themselves out of poverty, according to Burdman. Akko, a city in the northwest part of Israel, is one of the most diverse areas of the nation. “There’s a tremendous need in the city of Youngstown and surrounding areas for solid growth opportunities for area youth,” Burdman said.
While there are several youth-oriented programs locally, none fulfill “a workforce development type of role where you can capture kids at an early age, teach them life skills, dignity, etc., and ultimately have them grow into adults with the direction of what they want to do with their lives,” she said. “We’re basically killing two birds with one stone, all of it designed to serve the community with the purpose of sustaining neighborhoods again,” Oliver said. “Youngstown used to be full of mom-and-pop shops all over the place. We want to reintroduce that into our future generations with this programming.” Ian Beniston, executive director of the Youngstown Neighborhood Development Corp., was involved with early discussions regarding the concept. “Generally speaking, the vision for the project is good,” he said.
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