Group sponsors ‘Lots of Green’ citywide event

Staff report

YOUNGSTOWN

Youngstown Neighborhood Development Corp. is sponsoring 'Lots of Green 2.0'; A Call for Innovation,” a citywide competition that will ignite vacant-land-reuse projects and empower neighborhood groups to participate in neighborhood revitalization.

YNDC is a neighborhood development organization in the city. Presley L. Gillespie is executive director.

The city has about 24,000 vacant lots, many of which formerly had buildings, and more than 3,500 vacant and dilapidated buildings.

A review committee will assist YNDC in selecting the most-innovative projects to support with financial and technical resources.

Project awards will range from $500 to $10,000. Applications will be accepted until 5 p.m. Sept. 30.

According to the YNDC website, the primary goals of the competition are to:

Enhance the physical, social and economic revitalization of neighborhoods.

Build the capacity of neighborhood groups and grass-roots organizations to implement vacant-land-reuse strategies.

Develop new and innovative ideas for the reuse of vacant land for community improvement and for the reuse of vacant land at scale (multiple lots).

Increase awareness of the opportunities to use this vacant land as an asset.

Leverage additional financial and volunteer resources for vacant-land reuse and catalyze additional revitalization projects.

A representative from each group applying for project assistance must attend one of the workshops planned this month. An RSVP to innovation@yndc.org is encouraged but not a prerequisite for workshop attendance.

Any questions about the program or the workshops can be directed to innovation@yndc.org.