SitemapMaking a difference will be the focus of a community service project in the city of Youngstown on Martin Luther King Jr. Day.
The Youngstown Neighborhood Development Corporation is calling on anyone willing to volunteer to help clean up the Cottage Grove Neighborhood on Monday. Work will include cleaning up blight and clearing away overgrown branches and debris on sidewalks. "Neighbors are scared, they're scared people squatting, they're scared of people possibly jumping out," Anika Jacobs said, with the YNDC. Jacobs and the organization's planner joined WFMJ Weekend Today on Sunday to detail why the project could make a significant impact. She says some living in that area fear that blighted homes can become magnets for crime and could harbor individuals willing to commit violent offenses. The project also helps the neighborhood to blend with homes where owners work hard to keep up their properties. "We also try to clean the sidewalks and make them passable, so that the kids who are walking to school don't have to walk in the street," Tom Hetrick said, YNDC neighborhood planner. While it's one day of service, she says the neighborhood is grateful for the support, which often provides results that can last. For the full story from WFMJ, click here.