Health Equity

Health Equity

       In 2008, MVOC launched an organizing initiative on Youngstown’s southwest side.  This particular neighborhood had been plagued by a cluster of unsafe neighborhood corner stores, many of which have served as a haven for violence, including loitering, criminal activity, the sale of alcohol/tobacco to minors, and even shootings.  Local residents voiced serious concerns regarding the effect that these stores were having on the neighborhood.  With assistance from MVOC, grassroots community leaders organized meetings attended by hundreds of residents, launched ballot initiatives, and worked with owners to clean up the stores. 

       The success of this initiative brought about a broader awareness of health equity, both to the residents and to organizers involved in the neighborhood.  Residents began to ask why low-income neighborhoods in the city have no grocery stores, and why the neighborhood corner stores sell liquor and illegal guns but no lettuce, milk, or bread. It became evident that local efforts for health equity in the Mahoning Valley must strategically focus on healthy food policy and providing access to fresh produce and nutritious food choices in chronically underserved neighborhoods.  

       In the summer of 2009, MVOC launched the Healthy Neighborhoods Alliance to examine the issues of health equity, expand its corner store organizing, initiate “market makeovers” of corner stores, examine zoning codes and policies that promote or inhibit healthy neighborhoods, and expand our youth organizing work around health issues.  In the fall of 2009, MVOC received a grant from the Raymond John Wean Foundation to fund the initial phase of this expansion.

   The Healthy Neighborhood Alliance consists of many partners: MVOC, Youngstown Neighborhood Development Corporation, Grow Youngstown, Trumbull Neighborhood Partnership, youth organizations and others MVOC member groups.  Supporting organizations will include (but are not limited to) the cities of Youngstown and Warren, the Mahoning County Soil and Water Conservation District, the Ohio State University Extension, Northside Farmers Market and Villa Maria Farm.  The Mahoning Valley Healthy Neighborhoods Alliance will tackle the issues of health equity and food access on two distinct fronts: community organizing for policy and environmental change and access to healthy foods.

       In terms of community organizing for policy and environmental change, the Alliance will invest in the development of grassroots leadership with a particular emphasis on youth leadership that has the capacity to advocate for safe and healthy neighborhoods throughout the region.  The goals of this strategy include: organizing residents in neighborhoods within the cities of Youngstown and Warren that have inadequate access to supermarkets, organizing youth leaders in the area’s public high schools to advocate for healthy school lunches, and developing community leadership that will research and advocate for innovative policies and programs that increase access to fresh produce and healthy foods in underserved neighborhoods.  This includes establishing a Valley Wide Food Policy Council, driven by grassroots community leaders and including a broad range of stakeholders from the local food system, including producers, land use planners, government officials, community development practitioners, local business owners, environmentalists, and residents.

       Second, The Mahoning Valley Healthy Neighborhoods Alliance will make fresh and healthy food choices available and affordable to a larger percentage of Youngstown and Warren residents by helping to establish infrastructure to support the production, distribution, purchase, and consumption of local fresh produce by low-income individuals through community supported agriculture (CSA) and assist small local grocers and neighborhood corner stores to become a source of fresh and healthy food retail.

       Like many older industrial cities, Youngstown and Warren have experienced thirty years of disinvestment and sharp increases in poverty, vacant properties, population loss, and racial and economic disparities.  Older industrial cities such as these and their ability or failure to transform will have a tremendous impact on the country’s future.  Today, Youngstown having lost more than half of its population now has 75,000 residents, an unemployment rate of 14.6 percent, and only 9.7 percent of its residents have obtained bachelors degree or higher.i  City households earn approximately half the income of their counterparts throughout the state of Ohio, and fully one-third of city residents live in poverty.ii  The City of Warren has also lost 33% of its population has 44,000 residents and does not fare much better. 14.1 percent of Warren residents are unemployed, 19.4 percent of Warren residents are living in poverty, and 10.9 percent have obtained a bachelors degree or higher.iii Demographically, Youngstown is 47% African American and 7% Hispanic and Warren is 26% African American with a small Hispanic community.  These two cities are located in what is referred to as the Mahoning Valley region in Northeast Ohio in Mahoning and Trumbull Counties.

   As population within the core cities has declined, grocers and other stores providing fresh produce and nutritious foods have left the city, leaving the remaining residents with little or no access to the choices necessary to maintain a healthy diet.  These cities redefine the notion of what a food desert is because access to healthy foods evades such a large percentage of families.  Below is an analysis of access to healthy foods in the city of Youngstown:

Considering these limited options in tandem with a lack of access to fresh produce and healthy food choices, it is no surprise that local obesity, diabetes, and asthma rates exceed the national average.  Studies have demonstrated that residents of distressed urban neighborhoods carry a 50 to 80 percent increased risk of heart disease and related disorders.  In the Youngstown-Warren-Boardman MSA, 27.8 percent of residents are obese.  Correspondingly, 9.3 percent of the region’s residents are currently being treated for diabetes, compared to 8.7 percent of the national population.  And with 9.7 percent of its residents stricken with asthma, Youngstown is ranked eighth of the 15 worst cities for asthma in the nation.iv  Locally, the high incidence of these diseases (particularly in the African-American community) is linked to various environmental issues, including poverty and poor air quality in urban neighborhoods.

i U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, April 2009

ii CFED, “An Individual and Community Asset-Building Assessment of the Mahoning Valley”, June 2009

iii U.S. Census Bureau

iv Vindicator, “Youngstown Among Worst Asthma Cities in U.S.”, Tuesday February 27, 200

Health Care Reform

MVOC has continued to be the Valley’s leading grassroots voice in the national fight for health care reform. Over the past few months, community leaders made thousands of calls throughout the 6th, 16th and 17th Congressional districts.

In the past year, MVOC has rallied residents throughout the Valley, across the state, and on Capitol Hill in support of health care reform. MVOC organized two public meetings in 2009 with its state and national partners – in Ohio and Washington, D.C. – with over 500 people present at each event. Early this year, U.S. Senator Sherrod Brown attended a rally in Northeastern Ohio to listen to testimony of Mahoning Valley residents. Brown has continued his strong support for the creation of a public insurance plan that would force private insurance companies to lower their costs.

In August, MVOC brought a group of concerned clergy in favor of reform to U.S. Congressman Charlie Wilson’s office to discuss reform. Area labor unions have also played a key role in pushing for reform. This summer, Tom Connelly, president of the Ohio Nurses Association/Youngstown General Duties Nurses Association, helped lead an MVOC march for reform.

The Mahoning Valley Organizing Collaborative (MVOC) is working to fight for health care reform that will ensure health coverage for all Americans, make that coverage affordable, and hold the health insurance industry accountable.

An MVOC delegation is joining the PICO Organizing Network, the Center for Community Change and SEIU for a national affordability summit to further push for a good final bill.

Health care reform is one piece of the broader issue of health equity.

Hear first-person testimonials and learn a little bit more about MVOC's work with Health Care Reform at our October 2009 Press Conference.

Leaders leave the headquarters of Anthem Health Insurance in Cincinnati

Leaders make their voices heard inside corporate headquarters