I appreciate Angie Schmitt's efforts in covering stories about Youngstown's revitalization. Thursday, I read Man gives back to Campbell by fixing Company Houses:
"Taking it back from rats and groundhogs — for three months, they've been slashing through shoulder-high grass, unburying sewer grates and edging sidewalks. Taking it back from absentee landowners — they plan to make a presentation on the issue before county commissioners. Taking it back from vandals and thieves — they've organized a block watch."After reading this, I thought, here's a guy who's putting it on the line for his community. We should be out there helping him. I sent an e-mail to a group of friends and quickly found they were as excited about helping as I.
I contacted Tim Sokol, and he was extremely excited to hear about the response and the promise of help. We'll be going out Saturday, August 25th, from 8am to 2pm. You can join us by RSVPing to the evite. A list of needed items is here.
After our recent efforts to put a stop to the deconstruction of West Federal Street, Jim Cossler of the YBI said it was all well and good to stop something, but what were we going to start. I had been unable to get the question out of my head until seeing the enthusiastic response to my query about the Campbell Workers' Housing project. Here was an urgent need with real benefit. Through the eagerness of my friends, I was able to connect that need to people power that could get it done. If we could recreate that connection for other projects, we could begin a process of providing human resources to worthy causes and accelerate change.
This weekend, I set up the Center for Altruism. Its mission is to identify and partner with community-focused efforts, augmenting planning, publicity and people. If the next few months are anywhere near as exciting as the past few months have been, Youngstown is going to wake up soon to a palpable new spirit of energy and generosity that has been percolating just below the surface. It started with 2010 and has spilled over into the grass-roots. Now it's being formalized and codified to add legitimacy and facilitate partnerships.
Naysayers beware: the new Youngstown is here, and it's for real.
