Corporate Profile

Introduction and Background

In 2001, leadership from Youngstown State University and the Wick Avenue area religious and cultural institutions recognized the potential for reinvestment in the Smoky Hollow neighborhood. They recognized the following assets as core building blocks:

• Access: the university controls over 2/3 of the vacant parcels and additional parcels
  are in the city’s landbank;
• Proximity: the neighborhood is located within 5-10 minutes of downtown, the YSU
  campus, and cultural institutions; and
• Commitment: the concentration of long-standing Wick Avenue educational, religious
  and cultural institutions lends a sense of vibrancy and stability to the area.

In June 2002, Wick Neighbors was created from a broad-based leadership to serve as the catalyst for the area’s redevelopment by developing a vision, a reinvestment strategy and by enhancing the “sense of shared place,” of community and the quality of life. This group raised $98,000 from diverse sources and engaged City Architecture to prepare the Smoky Hollow Redevelopment Plan (See Map). Wick Neighbors guided the project planning and garnered significant stakeholder participation in the monthly meetings.

Purpose of Report

The year long planning collaboration laid the foundation for establishing a permanent organization. Many individuals, including stakeholders from throughout greater Youngstown, showed an interest by committing their time, talent and resources. With the Smoky Hollow Redevelopment Plan as the cornerstone, the Wick Neighbors Project Planning Team (WNPT) moved the group from an ad-hoc planning group into an organizational development process.

In the Spring 2003, the Wick Neighbors embarked upon the following initiatives:

1. Establish an organizational structure with the capacity to support Plan implementation over the long run;
2. Design a Smoky Hollow Redevelopment Implementation Program and Strategy: and
3. Identify and assemble the resources necessary to begin.

This report presents the results of this process: the Wick Neighbors, Inc. Action Plan.

Organizational Development

Under the direction of the WNPT, the group began establishing the organization’s expectations, vision, mission, goals, governing principles, committees and committee charges. Four committees were formed and began shaping an action agenda: Smoky Hollow Redevelopment; Design Guidelines; Marketing, Communication and Outreach; and Fund Development.

In July 2003, Wick Neighbors, Inc was created and bylaws adopted. Incorporation papers filed and the IRS Tax Exempt Status application began.
There are two sections that follow. The first section details Wick Neighbors, Inc.’s organizational profile, target area, its vision, mission, goals, stakeholders, values and governing principles. The second section provides additional information on the organizational structure of Wick Neighbors, Inc.

Organization Profile

Wick Neighbors, Inc. is a nonprofit development corporation serving the Wick District of Youngstown, Ohio with the Smoky Hollow Redevelopment as the keystone project. The district’s boundaries are as follows:

• On the west: West side of Wick Avenue
• On the east: Crab Creek/Andrews Avenue
• On the south: Wood Street 
• On the north: Madison Avenue Freeway.
  

Vision:

"To be a place for creative living and working in the heart of the Mahoning Valley by encompassing the strong traditions and the potential of the cultural, educational, religious and business institutions with the historically rich Smoky Hollow neighborhood."

Mission/Statement of Purpose:

"Empowered by the stakeholders, Wick Neighbors will promote and guide their interests through collaboration, planning, development (Smoky Hollow Redevelopment Plan) and the promotion of the Wick District’s cultural, religious, and educational and business community."

Goals:

1. To redevelop the historically rich Smoky Hollow as a regionally competitive contemporary neighborhood.
2. To attract residents and workers back to the city.
3. To create a shared sense of place through the collaboration of the education, cultural, and religious institutions into a vibrant urban center.
4. To serve as a catalyst for Youngstown’s other revitalization efforts.
   

Neighbors/Stakeholders:

• Current Smoky Hollow residents, property owners, potential homeowners and investors
• Members, staffs and/or audiences of the Wick Avenue cultural, educational and religious institutions
• Youngstown State University administrators, staff, faculty, alumni, students and friends
• City of Youngstown and the Greater Youngstown Community
• Local and area-wide businesses
• Financial Institutions-banks, investors
• Developers, contractors, realtors, utilities
• Homebuilders/Remodelers Association of Mahoning Valley
  

Core Values

Healthy communities encourage and support both human development (people) and neighborhood revitalization (place).

Healthy communities enable individuals and families achieve their full potential and emotional well being through providing a safe neighborhoods environment and easy access to: quality education, healthcare, the arts, religious worship and employment.

Positive, lasting change occurs only when neighbors express a common, unified voice and presence of consensus in the larger economic and civic arena.

An enabling organization (Wick Neighbors) must assist in building long-term partnership and collaborations between and among neighborhood residents, city government, the University, religious and cultural institutions, private enterprises and funders.

A strong regional economy must be linked to a vibrant urban center and to its surrounding healthy neighborhoods.

Governing Principles

Promote and encourage extensive volunteer leadership to become a machine for positive change in the community.

Nurture enlightened self-interest and social responsibility within our Wick Neighbors, Inc. membership.

Retain control and independence by obtaining all operating funds from our membership.

Interpret to our constituents the organization’s goals and our progress toward them through conducting an annual membership campaign, thereby instilling a sense of stakeholder ownership in our process, strategies and successes.

Exclude no one; draw strength from a diverse neighborhood stakeholder base.

Ensure quality development by advancing high standards in design and construction methods and materials.

Avoid conflict of interest by not allowing any Trustee to vote on any matter in which the Trustee or its employers has a direct and substantial monetary interest.

Develop and sustain a public/private partnership between our membership and City Hall, thereby offering Wick Neighbors as a useful resource to City Government Departments, while providing our staff and membership with a critical understanding of local government’s structure, powers, limits and initiatives.