By Henry Shorr
Students at Youngstown State University are improving Mahoning Valley neighborhoods through work with the Youngstown Neighborhood Development Corporation.
Part of the role students have had with the YNDC recently has been helping set up the fresh market in the newly renovated Neighborhood Retail Plaza at Glenwood Avenue and Canfield Road. Ian Beniston, executive director of the YNDC, explained the work that has gone into refurbishing the building.
“That building was vacant and fire-damaged for a number of years, and now we’re putting the finishing touches on it. It’ll have five businesses in it,” Beniston said. “I would say [there were] 50 or more of YSU students that participated in that project, helping clean the building out over a period of years and get it to where it is now.”
Beniston said there are five businesses that will run out of the newly developed building, including the fresh market, a youth organization and an urgent care.
Susan Payton, Manager of the Glenwood Fresh Market, said there are plenty of opportunities for students to get involved.
“There’s a lot of different brackets of students who could benefit from [volunteering]. Social workers could benefit from that — coming here, giving their time because a lot of folks are looking for help and they don’t sometimes know where to find it,” Payton said. “It’s really like, how can I as a student benefit by talking to clients that [are] relevant to the major that I’m in? I would love it if I had students that would be interested to come here and talk to clients, get to know them and benefit from this program itself.”
The YNDC, which started in 2009, revitalizes and develops neighborhoods around Youngstown. Beniston said they are focused on bringing life back to every part of Youngstown neighborhoods — including housing services, neighborhood cleanups, data collection and commercial stabilization.
“It’s neighborhood stabilization, so a lot of it revolves around housing and housing quality,” Beniston said. “[We’re] doing a lot of neighborhood cleanup activity; whether that be working with neighborhood groups to clean up vacant properties, clean vacant lots, plant trees, do things that add value to the neighborhood.”
Beniston said much of this work is conducted by interns, many of whom are YSU students. Interns at the YNDC work as canvassers, grant researchers and project leads. Many YSU interns at the YNDC earn full-time jobs at the organization.
“Interns have done everything from working on organizing things like community workdays, where we have volunteers to do work, to most recently this past summer,” Beniston said. “We had a YSU intern that participated in our city-wide housing quality survey and he was one of two people that went street-by-street in the city and survey every residential property.”
John Bralich, program director at the YSU Center for Applied Geographic Information Systems, connects many students with the YNDC and other neighborhood development organizations in the Mahoning Valley. He said that internships and volunteer opportunities with community partners like the YNDC are very beneficial for students.
“It’s, you know, the opportunity to get your feet wet a little bit and get some experience in the field,” Bralich said. “Whether it’s something that you do for your job or your career, or just as a volunteer or, you know, be involved in some way that is something as small as a vacant lot cleanup, … it can make a huge difference in the lives of the residents.”
Bralich has worked with Beniston and the YNDC since its inception in 2009 and said the YNDC has made strides in neighborhood development.
“You go from, you know, the like, 4,500 vacant structures in 2008 to maybe about 1,500 now, and about maybe 650 to 700 of those that need to come down so they can progress,” Bralich said. “Students have a role in it — whether it’s out just hitting the pavement, surveying properties, engaging residents, you know, canvassing neighborhoods, helping them facilitate the community, things of that nature.”
Beniston also emphasized that the YNDC takes applications for paid internships year-round, even when it doesn’t have a specific job posting. Students interested in work with the YNDC can email a resume to info@yndc.org
To apply to volunteer at the Glenwood Fresh Market, call Susan Payton at (330) 356-3561
