2010 Donor Report - Western Reserve Land Conservancy

Group uses ‘green’ touch
to transform neighborhoods
For some civic leaders, the 23,000 vacant lots in Youngtown might
represent an obstacle that is difficult, if not impossible, to overcome.
Presley L. Gillespie and his team see things differently.
“We believe there is a huge opportunity in Youngstown to turn this
vacant land into neighborhood assets that attract public/private investment
and economic development,” says Gillespie, the executive director of the
Youngstown Neighborhood Development Corporation.
Gillespie, who had an 18-year career in community development banking
before joining YNDC one year ago, heads a city-wide, neighborhood-based
organization launched in February 2009 in partnership with the city and
The Raymond John Wean Foundation to catalyze strategic investment in
Youngstown’s neighborhoods. His five-member staff is initially focusing on
three neighborhoods – Idora, Lincoln Park and Crandall Park North – and is
already seeing results.
In Idora, for example, there are now five resident-operated community
gardens. One is a full-scale urban agriculture demonstration site on a lot where
an abandoned and blighted apartment complex once stood. The demonstration
site also contains fruit orchards and a rain garden to decrease excessive storm
water runoff.
Gillespie says the community gardens give residents access to good, fresh
food. He says green space also increases market value in neighborhoods,
and that is why YNDC is embracing partnerships with such organizations as
the Land Conservancy and Mill Creek Metroparks. YNDC’s “Lots of Green”
program transforms blighted land into neighborhood assets.
“Our overall strategy is holistic and transformative,” Gillespie says. “It
creates healthier families, healthier communities and improves the image and
confidence of the neighborhoods. Because of the gardens, people who never
knew each other are now friends. And they’re talking positively about their
neighborhood again. We’re starting to see results.”
Gillespie, a Youngstown State University graduate who in 2010 was named
to the Board of Trustees of the new Eastern Gateway Community College, says
YNDC values partnerships with organizations like the Land Conservancy as it
seeks to attract and retain young talent to the region.
“We value partnerships very much,” he says, “and we know what the Land
Conservancy brings to the table.”
Merger shows off
‘power of multiplication’
Land conservation in northern Ohio was
the clear winner when the state’s two largest
land conservancies – Western Reserve Land
Conservancy and Grand River Partners, Inc.
– officially merged at the end of 2009. The
Land Conservancy assumed stewardship of
the nearly 3,700 acres preserved by GRP and
added three former GRP employees.
The former GRP headquarters in
Painesville became a Land Conservancy field
office.
Land Conservancy President and CEO
Rich Cochran said the merger “will lead
to more land protected more quickly. It is
an example of the power of multiplication:
While five plus five equals 10, we all know
that five times five equals 25. Before this
merger, we were engaged in addition,
where our work and GRP’s work produced
incremental gains. The merger will produce
a transforming multiplication effect that will
result in greater mission accomplishment.”
The Land Conservancy, which works to
protect the scenic beauty, rural character
and natural resources of northern Ohio, was
formed in 2006 by the merger of eight local
land trusts.
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