SitemapIf you live in the city, look for stepped-up efforts to fight blight, create added green space and improve educational opportunities to come to a neighborhood near you.
“What you will do in Youngstown over the next year is highly important. You will be helping to improve our city on a daily basis,” Mayor John A. McNally told about 20 members of the Youngstown Neighborhood Development Corp. and Ohio Reading Corp. organizations that have dedicated one year to serve on behalf of AmeriCorps, a 23-year-old national civil program devoted to a variety of public-service projects.
The community volunteers were sworn in during a one-hour gathering Friday morning at YNDC’s headquarters, 820 Canfield Road, on the South Side.
YNDC hosted the event, which also was part of the 2016 AmeriCorps 1 Millionth Member National Swearing-In ceremony to celebrate 1 million current and past members who have served the organization since 1994 in efforts that include expanding educational and economic opportunities, fighting blight and poverty, strengthening nonprofit agencies’ impact and revitalizing neighborhoods.
McNally applauded the new AmeriCorps volunteers for assisting elected officials and other city stakeholders with work such as mowing lawns, boarding up vacant homes and participating in neighborhood cleanup efforts to enhance the city’s overall quality of life.
One of those ready to get started was Brian Wallace, 32, of Youngstown, who hopes to make a positive impact on the East Side, where he’s lived most of his life.
“There’s too little going on. I’d like to liven up the East Side; it’s the lost part of town,” he said with a hint of frustration.
Wallace said he wants to see a full-service grocery store open to eliminate the so-called food desert in that part of the city. In addition, he hopes to paint some buildings to “add more life” to the area’s aesthetics, Wallace continued.
Among those looking forward to working with the volunteers is Sean McKinney, the city’s buildings and grounds commissioner, who said that their work in improving quality-of-life concerns will uplift and change residents’ lives for the better.
In addition, the volunteers’ work will be another piece in Youngstown’s attempts to reinvent itself, added state Rep. Michele Lepore-Hagan of Youngstown, D-58th, who also praised neighbors’ efforts to work with one another in creating added greenspace.
The AmeriCorps workers also will be a great boon to YNDC’s efforts to rehabilitate and remodel some homes as part of the organization’s direct-service program. They will receive an allowance and an educational stipend at the end of their service, noted Ian Beniston, YNDC’s executive director.
Also, YNDC sponsors a local VISTA (Volunteers in Service to America) program that helps the organization recruit new volunteers, form partnerships and develop programs, among other things, noted Anika Jacobs-Green of AmeriCorps VISTA.
Sarah Lowry, the Northeast Ohio regional representative for U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown, D-Cleveland, praised the new volunteers for serving as role models and for their efforts, which also will include educational endeavors.
“The energy you put in the community spreads and is contagious,” she said.
Making additional remarks were state Sen. Joe Schiavoni of Boardman, D-33rd; Mahoning County Commissioner Carol Rimedio-Righetti; Sophia Buggs, owner of Lady Buggs Farm on the South Side; Angie DeNicholas, Ohio Reading Corps.’ regional coordinator; and Meredith Pugh, program officer for ServeOhio, an organization that administers AmeriCorps’ state programs.
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