Youngstown, June 8, 2021 – Youngstown Mayor Tito Brown and Warren Mayor Doug Franklin today announced they will hold a planning session as a precursor to an American Rescue Plan summit of the Valley’s government, philanthropic and private-sector officials to find transformative projects with multi-generational impact using a portion of the ARP funds.

The mayors of the county seats in Trumbull and Mahoning also suggested reserving a portion of funds as a match for competitive state and federal grants yet to be announced.

Mayors Brown and Franklin requested that the Youngstown/Warren Regional Chamber, the largest business organization in the Valley, convene and facilitate the meeting of community leaders to plan the Mahoning Valley ARP summit. The Western Reserve Port Authority, Eastgate Regional Council of Governments and Valley Economic Development Partners will also be asked to participate to bring regional perspectives.

“An opportunity like this comes along once in a lifetime,” said Mayor Brown, whose city will receive more than $80 million worth of ARP funding. “I’m ready to have the conversation about how we each carve out a portion of our windfall to invest in our future Valley-wide.”

The Valley will receive approximately $250 million over the next two years.

“We all have immediate needs to address,” Mayor Franklin added. “But we have an opportunity to share just a portion of our federal stimulus so that over the long haul we generate far more than $250 million worth of economic development and quality-of-life improvements.”

Regional Chamber President & CEO Guy Coviello welcomed the opportunity to convene the summit.

“I appreciate having two mayors make such a forward-thinking offer,” Coviello said. “The Regional Chamber would be honored to play any role our local government leaders want, whether it’s convening, facilitating discussions or anything else to benefit our Valley.”

The next step will be for a summit planning session in late June. Invited to the planning session are the chairs of the two county boards of commissioners, administrators of the largest township in each county, the Valley’s four regional economic development organizations (Regional Chamber, Western Reserve Port Authority, Eastgate Regional Council of Governments and Valley Economic Development Partners), the Valley’s three largest philanthropic organizations (Youngstown Foundation, Wean Foundation and Community Foundation) and several of the Valley’s leading business executives.

For additional information or questions, please contact Kim Calvert, vice president of Marketing at the Regional Chamber, at 330.744.2131, ext. 1235 or kim@regionalchamber.com.