The Valley Vision 2050 economic development program that received $1 million in funding Nov. 30 from the Mahoning County commissioners is built on a strategic plan written by the economic development arm of the accounting firm Ernst & Young.

Five existing Mahoning Valley economic development groups presented the Valley Vision 2050 strategy to the commissioners and talked about the Ernst and Young plan being a roadmap to the program’s success.

That plan was written after an information gathering process from August to December 2022 that received input from eight local focus groups, 38 interviews involving 80 local participants and 60 organizations, as well as input from JobsOhio, the state’s private, nonprofit economic development corporation and its Northeast Ohio partner, Team NEO.

PUBLIC INPUT

The strategic plan says one takeaway from the input is that a “vision and strategy are needed to make the Mahoning Valley more economically competitive.”

Public input indicated that the Mahoning Valley needs “additional resources committed to marketing, recruitment of businesses into the community and other “project management in order to more effectively compete” with other regions of the country.

The input also indicated that “many stakeholders reported feeling excluded from economic development” prior to the leaders of the 2050 initiative inviting them to participate in the strategic plan.

The plan cited the 2017 International Economic Development Council in stating that the following are the “traits” that “high performing regions” of the country and organizations have:

1. Having strong community support and leadership from the business community.

2. Having a strategic plan.

3. Transparently communicating activities and measurable progress toward goals.

4. Being efficient with funding and resources.

5. Serving their regions ethically and effectively.

Two of the leaders of the program, Guy Coviello and Jim Kinnick, said the Ernst & Young strategic plan will be instrumental in carrying out the 2050 plan.

An Ernst & Young team came to the area to talk to people and “looked at peer communities and put together the 2050 idea for us, so there is guidance in there as to how we move forward,” Coviello, who is the president and CEO of the Youngstown / Warren Regional Chamber, said. “We’re not going to stray from that.”

Kinnick, executive director of the Eastgate Regional Council of Governments, called the strategic plan “the foundation of why we are here today. We took that plan, we implemented what we needed to involve the right people and grow.”

Coviello and Kinnick made the remarks after the Mahoning County commissioners approved the $1 million allocation of general funds.

The Trumbull County commissioners later indicated a willingness to approve at least $500,000 toward the program and possibly another $500,000 at a later date, but have not yet aapproved the allocation of the funds. They are expected to vote on it at this week’s meeting.

UNIFIED MARKETING

Another area stressed in the strategic plan is creating a “regional visioning and strategy effort” to create a “powerful, unifying marketing campaign with a compelling brand to attract and retain people and companies.”

It states that the goal of a planning effort is to “align stakeholders around a shared vision and goals for a community’s future economy.”

Stakeholder input indicated that the five Mahoning Valley Partnership groups should “consider inviting a broad-based, inclusive group of stakeholders to serve on a steering committee” to get the program started “as it raises money, hires dedicated staff and launches the program.

“Convening people to focus on the immediate task for enhancing economic development capacity will provide an opportunity for leaders to build a track record of working together,” as the five groups have done so far, the plan states.

The report which was completed in February 2023, endorsed having the program run as part of the Youngstown/Warren Regional Chamber. The other four groups that have developed the program are the Western Reserve Port Authority, Eastgate, Youngstown Foundation and Valley Partners.

“There is no designated lead economic development organization under the JobsOhio system for the Mahoning Valley, but interviews and focus groups revealed that the (Chamber) is viewed as acting in that capacity,” the plan states.

The Chamber works closely with JobsOhio and Team NEO on industrial development and delivering services to its members.

The Port Authority is focused on economic development through redevelopment and revitalization, “particularly in urban corridors,” the plan states.

Eastgate is the region’s “long-term planning agency and federally designated Economic Development District and is a “critical funding partner, focused on accessing federal and state sources for improving the region’s infrastructure.”

Valley Partners is a private, non-profit small business lender, leveraging Small Business Administration programs and revealing loans funds to help local entrepreneurs start and grow their businesses in the Mahoning Valley.

The Youngstown Foundation is among the largest and longest operating community foundations in Ohio and supports community development and quality of life projects.

ROADMAP

The strategic plan advises the five “Mahoning Valley Partners” to expand to “form the MV 2050 Committee by April of 2024. “The new committee oversees MV 2050 planning and expansion of the region’s economic development program as an advisory group to the Regional Chamber.”

Coviello said the the commissioners from Mahoning and Trumbull would be members.

By summer of 2024, the committee “launches MV 2050 to create and implement a regional vision and strategy.”

The larger committee “could include public sector, private sector and community leadership and would eventually lead the region’s visioning and strategic planning efforts.” The strategic plan states that committee could include private sector members from the region’s largest employers, public sector members from from Trumbull and Mahoning counties and the cities, townships and villages within the two counties.

It could also include postsecondary education and training providers, K-12 education partners, tourism promotion organizations and other local and regional community partners such as community based non-profits.

Once the larger committee is created, the five groups “would lead an initial convening to communicate the broader vision of MV 2050,” as well as the committee’s two-part mission: strengthening the region’s economic development effort and creating and implementing a bold vision and strategic plan for the region.

An early task of the MV 2050 committee “is to articulate a vision statement and agree on MV 2050’s mission and purpose,” the strategic plan states. “It should be aspirational, but not so grandiose as to seem unattainable. It should be simply written, clear in purpose and inspirational to motivate action.”

It gave “one way of achieving that” using some suggested terms: “In 2050, the Mahoning Valley is a thriving, diversified economy built on collaboration, investment in opportunities that make an impact and a commitment to inclusive prosperity.”

Stakeholders agreed that the “region’s ability to grow and prosper would be strengthened by speaking with a unified voice, working from a coordinated agenda and collectively measuring and achieving agreed upon outcomes.”

The strategic plan stated that stakeholders “expected that collaboration to improve the business climate, strengthen the talent pipeline and promote a more positive image for the Mahoning Valley.”

A way that could be put into a mission statement was given: “MV 2050 is improving the future of the Mahoning Valley through regional collaboration in community, economic and workforce development.”

GOALS

A separate document provided to the Mahoning County commissioners by the five groups states that among the goals of MV 2050 are to reverse these trends found in the Youngstown, Warren, Boardman Metropolitan Statistical Area:

¯ Loss of more than $2 billon in annual payroll since 2000.

¯ Loss of 13 percent of the labor force (34,000 workers) since 2000.

¯ Since 2010, second largest population loss in the United States.

¯ Youngstown having the highest poverty level in Ohio and Warren having the second highest poverty level in the state.

The Vindicator partially confirmed the poverty claim by viewing the “Ohio Poverty Report” from June 2020 published by the Ohio Development Services Agency’s Research office. It based its poverty numbers on U.S. Census data.

The data showed Youngstown having a poverty level from 2014 to 2018 of 36.2%, and Warren having a poverty level of 35.6 %, ranking the cities with the third and fourth highest poverty rates in the state.

It ranked two college towns, Athens and Oxford as having higher rates than Youngstown and Warren. Cleveland.com reports that the income of students living in addresses such as college apartments are counted when determining poverty.

Cleveland.com also reported in December 2022 that East Cleveland had a a higher poverty level than Youngstown or Warren in the Census Bureau American Community Survey results that had just been released at that time.

East Cleveland’s poverty rate was 39%, compared to Youngstown’s poverty rate of 35.3% and Warren’s poverty rate of 34.6%.

erunyan@vindycom