Youngstown City Council considers ways to increase employment opportunities

YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio (WKBN) – Youngstown City Council was presented with a plan Tuesday that could increase employment opportunities for city residents.

It’s called YoROC — which stands for Youngstown Restoration and Opportunity Center — a job training program focusing on the healthcare and culinary arts fields.

Joanna Papada, who works for the Pittsburgh-based job training company Manchester Bidwell, spent the last eight months talking with the people of Youngstown. Tuesday she told City Council’s Community Planning and Economic Development Committee that 40 percent of their Black residents are functionally unemployed, meaning they need multiple jobs to survive.

“There’s a sense of generational trauma, generational poverty that proceeds people and I found that to be the most striking thing in the community right now,” Papada said.

Papada proposed the creation of YoROC. It would be a brick-and-mortar operation, focusing on healthcare specifically medical assistant phlebotomist programs and the culinary arts.

Tuition would be free. The first class would start next July but what’s needed is $1.3 million most likely coming from the state or federal governments.

“Maybe we can convince legislators, and even the federal government, as they bring money from the workforce into the states to stop and think about how we redistribute money,” Papada said.

YoROC would focus on adults and would make their future employers part of the process.

“Not just say we have partnerships with employers — to actually have the employers on-site,” she said.

Councilman Julius Oliver saw how the process worked during a recent trip to Israel and wanted to bring the concept to Youngstown.

“This is something that could totally change the narrative when it comes to employment and family-sustaining jobs in Youngstown,” Oliver said.

First, all of the council must approve the plan.

Committee members were also briefed on the expansion at the P&S Wholesale Baking Company in the Salt Springs Industrial Park.

P&S plans to add two additional production lines, creating 40 new jobs over the next year. To help, city officials are proposing a Job Creation Incentive Grant in which the city would return a certain percentage of the city income tax paid by P&S employees through 2028. The council must still approve the grant.

The committee also heard about the survey being done by Youngstown Economic Action Group of all the city’s street lights. So far, 8,800 street lights have already been accounted for — 700 of which are either not working or not working properly.

During winter, Youngstown pays First Energy $118,000 a month for its street lights. The survey will help determine if it’s getting its money’s worth.

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