Back in June, NEOSCC took its board meeting to Mahoning County. As part of our 12 Counties in 12 Months Program, the NEOSCC Board had an opportunity to tour some of Youngstown’s unique assets as well as some of the redevelopment work that is occurring.
Part of the tour was led by Youngstown Neighborhood Development Council (YNDC), a multifaceted neighborhood development organization launched in 2009 in partnership with the City of Youngstown and The Raymond John Wean Foundation to catalyze strategic neighborhood reinvestment in neighborhoods throughout the city. YNDC highlighted some of the neighborhood revitalization work during the tour.
We wanted to showcase a recent YNDC publication: Lots of Green 2012 Impact Report.
YNDC’s Lots of Green program is a nationally-recognized, vacant land reuse strategy implemented in Youngstown neighborhoods by the YNDC and multiple partner organizations. The program engages residents and volunteers through several programs, including Iron Roots Urban Farm, Market Gardener Training, Community Gardens, Green Jobs Training, Lots of Green 2.0, People’s Garden, and Basic Land Stabilization, in reclaiming all vacant land in strategic neighborhoods, transforming the physical fabric of the neighborhood and increasing neighborhood pride and ownership.
In 2012, the YNDC developed Iron Roots Urban Farm that put 1.7 acres of vacant land back to productive use, created jobs for 7 individuals, operated a second year of the Market Gardener Training Program with 25 participants, and trained 14 young adults through the Green Jobs Training program. The organization continued to oversee 5 community gardens,and created 13 new gardens through the Lots of Green 2.0 and People’s Garden microgrant programs. In total, the YNDC implemented vacant land stabilization projects on 90 new lots (14.4 acres).
Read the entire report (pdf download).
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