Author: Josh Medore | Photo credit: Josh Medore
The path to community revitalization isn’t just through demolishing blight or changing a neighborhood’s image to attract visitors. From where Oak Hill Collaborative sits, improving technology – and the technological skills of residents – can be just as important.
“Some sort of economic prosperity is vital if you’re going to revitalize a neighborhood. If you don’t have success in that area, then it’s hard to guide that neighborhood back up. If you offer people the tools they need so they can get jobs, start businesses or some other way of making money, then it guides that process right along,” says Pat Kerrigan, director of the Oak Hill Collaborative.
Inside the nonprofit’s two-story building just south of downtown Youngstown are spaces dedicated to technology, whether it be 3D printing, music recording and podcasting, CNC machining or just basic computer skills.
But just providing those tools isn’t Oak Hill Collaborative’s main goal. It’s providing a communal space for people to learn together. Beyond the classes it hosts to teach about technology and providing the materials people need, the nonprofit also gives spaces to organizations active across the area – United Returning Citizens and The Buckeye Review among them – and offers meeting spaces for groups like the Friends of the Mahoning River and the League of Women Voters.
“Yes it’s about technology, but it’s also about neighborhood cohesion. This is a place where people – neighbors – can come and learn about these things together. There aren’t many places in Youngstown and Warren where people can come together and organize. Providing that is always at the back of our mind,” Kerrigan says.
As its grown since 2014, Oak Hill Collaborative’s most recent major project has moved its focused outside its own walls. Through the FCC’s Affordable Connectivity Program, the organization can help residents reduce their internet bill by up to $30 a month. Oak Hill also offers discounted computers to those who need them.
“The digital divide isn’t just about having a computer, it’s about having access to information. If you don’t have access, you’ll be left behind,” says Steve Kristan, Eastgate Regional Council of Government’s broadband coordinator and a digital inclusion consultant with Oak Hill. “Even something like a government program – even the Affordable Connectivity Program we offer – requires you to be online. And access alone doesn’t do it; you need access, technology and the knowledge to use them both.”
Aided by a $5,000 grant from the Kennedy Family Fund at the Community Foundation of the Mahoning Valley, Oak Hill Collaborative is working on expanding its services, including the possibility of expanding its programming into Trumbull County.
In its 2019 American Community Survey, the Census Bureau ranked Youngstown as the second-worst city in the state with 47.5% of the households in the city lacking access to broadband internet. Warren ranked as the fifth-worst with 43.7% of households lacking good internet.
“The internet can level the playing field. It’s not just information on buying a car or ordering groceries. It’s people who are better-informed for local elections or on public policies,” Kristan says. “People think it’s just about the internet or just a computer, but it’s about more than that. It’s about getting people trained so they know everything they can do with those things.”