Second AmeriCorps Revitalize Team at Work - Business Journal


Thirteen city residents are beginning a one-year term of service with the Youngstown Neighborhood Development Corp.’s AmeriCorps Revitalize team.

The residents, all young adults, will spend the next year learning new skills while they work full-time to eliminate blight throughout the city.


The team is the second from the AmeriCorps Revitalize program. The first team was involved in boarding up and cleaming more than 500 vacant houses, the rehabilitation of 12 more and grass-cutting work at 7,000 vacant houses, organizers say.

The program is funded through an operational grant provided by AmeriCorps and facilitated by ServeOhio. The city of Youngstown supports the project by providing materials to complete the projects.

“We are grateful for the service of our first AmeriCorps Revitalize team, as they all made progress in building their skills and had a huge impact on neighborhood across Youngstown,” said Ian Beniston, YNDC executive director, in a prepared statement. “We are very excited to have a new larger team that will further increase the scale of our work.”

The new team is composed of Andre Bankston, Cherise Benton, Michael Childs, Anttwon Dent, Keymonnie Harris, Michael Harvey, James Parker, Elena Rapone, Alvin Robinson, Derek Sanders, Deon Shuler, Delante Simms, and DeTwan Walker.

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