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City Club of Valley called ‘huge success’
YOUNGSTOWN
Education and changing attitudes are at the heart of developing a workforce that will attract businesses offering the good jobs needed to keep talented young people in the Mahoning Valley.
That was the basic message espoused by panelists in a wide-ranging conversation about economic development and what’s good and not-so-good about the Valley during the inaugural event of the City Club of the Mahoning Valley Wednesday at Stambaugh Auditorium.
Panelists were Ohio Sen. Capri S. Cafaro, D-32nd; Tom Humphries, president and chief executive officer of the Youngstown-Warren Regional Chamber; Jim Tressel, ninth president of Youngstown State University; and former Youngstown mayor Jay Williams, appointed by President Barrack Obama to head the U.S. Department of Commerce’s Economic Development Administration.
The event began with questions posed to the panelists by moderator Tim Francisco, a YSU English professor and codirector of the Center for Working Class Studies at YSU. Some 300 attended the event.
“We have made tremendous progress, but there is still a long way to go,” said Cafaro.
The economy was stable when she came into office in 2007, Cafaro said, but two or three years later the recession hit, leading to 14 percent unemployment and “prolonged economic devastation.”
The federal government’s bailout of the auto industry was critically important, she said, but noted that government can’t solve all the problems.
“It takes public-private partnerships, and education is critical,” she said.
Tressel said he is grateful for the opportunities available in the Mahoning Valley, but noted “with extraordinary opportunity comes awesome responsibility.”
“At YSU, we collaborate with everyone to find ways, inch-by-inch, to get better and find the path everyone needs to develop a workforce that will attract employers and impact the economy,” he said.
“I’m not sure you can do anything great unless you do it together. At the end of the day, we wouldn’t have this many people here if you didn’t have people who care,” Tressel contended.
“I don’t know if we’ve done a good job of recognizing our opportunities and how much work is needed to take advantage of them,” he continued. “I think churches can play a role in letting families know what it takes to take advantage of opportunities, whether it is a college degree or learning a trade. That message to young people has to happen seven days a week.” And Williams suggested, “We have to stop framing trades as an inferior educational choice.”
Over the past decade the perceived importance of Choffin Career & Technical Center Schools and the Trumbull County and Mahoning County career and technical centers in preparing young people to enter the workforce has declined, said Williams.
He was responding to a comment from a representative of the Western Reserve Building & Construction Trades Council that slots for apprenticeships go wanting for qualified candidates, partially because they are not well-prepared coming out of high school.
Those skills are in demand, Williams said.
Humphries discussed some of the changes in attitudes that are making positive things happen in the Mahoning Valley.
“What didn’t work was the evolution of industry here. We sat on the sideline, but that’s changing. We don’t wait to act anymore,” he said.
He noted that in the late ‘90s, General Motors Lordstown was slated to close, but “the people changed what happened inside those walls and the plant survived.”
“We need a whole new mind set,” Cafaro added. “We have to collectively come together and change the narrative and talk about what’s good in the Mahoning Valley and not talk it down.”
When asked what he learned about economic development in Washington, D.C., that would help the Mahoning Valley, Williams said it is just the opposite. Living and serving in the Mahoning Valley was a good “proving ground,” the former mayor said, adding that concepts learned here prepared him to serve at the federal level.
The first event of the City Club of the Mahoning Valley was a “huge success,” said Dan Moulthrop, chief executive director of the City Club of Cleveland, of which the Mahoning Valley organization is a chapter.
Moulthrop said the audience was a great cross-section of the community, and he was “really struck” by the number of people from diverse backgrounds who stepped up to ask questions.