Youngstown Receives $30K to Relaunch City of You Campaign

YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio – The Ohio Mayors Alliance has awarded Youngstown with a $30,000 grant award to restart the City of You marketing campaign.

The campaign will highlight Youngstown students heading to college and the wrap-around social services available to them, as well as school-to-work partnerships in the Mahoning Valley.

The alliance is awarding more than $200,000 to seven cities, with Youngstown included, that are supporting Ohio’s Complete to Compete challenge. The program is designed to help meet the state’s goal of having 65% of working-age Ohioans having a two-year or four-year college degree or a trade credential by 2025.

“We need to make sure young people know about the help they can get to realize their educational goals,” said Mayor Jamael Tito Brown in a statement. “We have to break down barriers that prevent the next generation from getting the degrees and credentials they need to compete for good jobs.”

Ohio’s ability to attract and keep good jobs depends on having a highly qualified workforce. An estimated two-thirds of Ohio jobs in the near future will require education beyond high school. Ohio ranks 36th among the states for its citizens’ educational attainment, according to the Lumina Foundation’s A Stronger Nation.

In partnership with Learn to Earn Dayton, support from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and the AT&T Foundation, the Mayors Alliance created the Mayors Education Advocacy Grant program to engage mayors and leverage their voice to help promote Ohio’s educational attainment goal.

“We want to introduce young people to education pathways and business partnerships that lead to exciting careers,” Brown said.

The Alliance has been working to strengthen the partnership between state and local leaders since 2016. For more information on the group’s policy priorities and its members, visit OhioMayorsAlliance.org.

Pictured: Youngstown Mayor Jamael Tito Brown, second from left, accepted a $30,000 grant from the Ohio Mayors Alliance to restart the city’s City of You marketing campaign.

Copyright 2020 The Business Journal, Youngstown, Ohio.