What's Happening
(Check back often for updates.)
Enter Our “Name That Room” Contest
The Raymond John Wean Foundation is seeking creative suggestions to name the community meeting room that will be part of our new home on Warren’s Courthouse Square. Enter as many names as you’d like and be entered into a drawing to win a $50 gift card from the Mocha House!
This ground-floor space will hold up to 120 people for conferences, meetings and events, and will have a licensed catering kitchen (sorry, no weddings or parties!). The room is a large, open space allowing for any number of seating and event configurations – classroom style, conference set-up, tables and chairs, etc. There will be audio-visual and sound equipment for presentations of varying kinds.
We envision the meeting room being used frequently by the Foundation, nonprofit and civic groups, schools and others to bring people and organizations together to share information, develop solutions and plans to address community issues, and build a stronger civic life in the Mahoning Valley.
Send your ideas to our “Name That Room” contest care of ccrooks@rjweanfdn.org by December 9, 2011, and don’t forget to include your name and contact information so we can notify the winner of this contest. Thanks for being part of this effort!
The YNDC Begins to Attract Residents to Youngstown Neighborhoods
August 31, 2010 – The YNDC’s Healthy Homeownership program, which provides homebuyers with homebuyer training and up to $5,000 of downpayment assistance has begun to attract new residents to Youngstown’s Idora and Crandall Park North Neighborhoods. The program, which began operation in March 2010, has attracted several new residents to city neighborhoods.
Read the full press release
The Raymond John Wean Foundation Organizes Delegation to Lobby for the Mahoning Valley
WASHINGTON - When the Brookings Institute decided to take a serious look at communities that are suffering from population loss, local leaders wanted to make sure that the Mahoning Valley’s needs and ideas were considered.
Joel Ratner, president of The Raymond John Wean Foundation, assembled a team that he believed could go to Washington in mid-March and explain to the powerful think-tank what has happened in the Mahoning Valley and to identify some of its most current needs.
The team included Youngstown Mayor Jay Williams; William D'Avignon, director, Youngstown Community Development Agency; Jennifer Roller, a program officer of The Raymond John Wean Foundation; and Presley Gillespie and Ian Beniston of the Youngstown Neighborhood Development Corporation.
The team drafted a lengthy report detailing key issues that have been affecting the Mahoning Valley and met with leaders from various federal agencies, including Housing and Urban Development, the Environmental Protection Agency and the Department of Transportation.
The local delegation wanted to be sure that the Mahoning Valley’s experiences would be considered when national leaders begin discussions about how government and philanthropic organizations can join together to help cities grapple with the physical effects of “severe and sustained population loss.”
The Mahoning Valley delegation joined teams from Cleveland, Detroit and Flint, and will now be involved in future discussions and work dealing with many of the critical issues facing de-industrialized cities. Brookings officials said the four communities were chosen for participation because “they are the farthest along in thinking and implementing related to vacant land reuse.”
The Brookings Institute is expected to continue this work and has now reserved a spot at the discussion table for the Mahoning Valley. Announcements about future steps are expected in the coming weeks.
The Raymond John Wean Foundation leads 'On-the-Ground' Tour of Valley
Read More, See Pictures
Many Mahoning Valley Organizations Perform Important Work
The Raymond John Wean Foundation is proud of the work of many area organizations, including those that it helps to fund.
Read about some of their programs and progress:
The Youngstown Neighborhood Development Corporation
The Neighborhood Food Pantry
The Grey to Green Festival
The Spark Program - Warren City Schools