Et cetera : Oak 1 Helps Improve Living Conditions in Youngstown

By Laurie Miller AmeriCorps NCCC’s Oak 1 began working with the Youngstown Neighborhood Development Corporation (YNDC) on Tuesday, July 17, 2012 in Youngstown, Ohio. In recent decades, Youngstown has suffered from a 60% population decline due to the departure of the steel industry. The YNDC’s mission is to encourage the reinvestment and to revitalize the various neighborhoods throughout the city. Oak 1 is assisting the YNDC in many of their programs, largely through the vacant land stabilization program, which involves clearing vacant lots of debris and trash. The cleaning up of vacant lots can lead to a reduction in violent crime, improved health and safety of residents and reduced vandalism. Oak 1 has been in Youngstown for one week and during that week, the team has cleared out four vacant lots. In addition, Oak 1 has also worked on one occupied house, clearing her yard of debris that the owner could not clean up. Oak 1 participate in one of their community volunteer days in which volunteers painted the side of the local playhouse theater in order to prime it for a mural and then weeded out the local public community garden. NCCC Oak 1, in partnership with the YNDC, is looking to improve the living conditions for all the Youngstown residents and to create an environment where people would be willing to move to the community. Oak1 enjoys being able to work with an organization that is dedicated to its mission and innovative approach to completing its objectives.