A Parish Story from Shorb | Canton, OH

In a seemingly forsaken neighborhood in Canton, Ohio, neighbors are building toward unity and trust to work for the common good as they collaborate for renewal together. Gino Haynes is a pastor, community organizer, consultant, and coach. He’s lived in the Shorb neighborhood of Canton, Ohio for the last 8 years. Canton is known nationally as the home of the Pro-Football Hall of Fame. It was once a suburb which was then transformed by red-lining. 

The Shorb neighborhood is now home to an ethnically diverse, young, cost burdened population. The family poverty level is three times that of the state average and it has the highest crime rates in the city of Canton. Only 24% of the neighborhood residents own their homes, and the average person only lives there for 2 years before moving on. Housing and general living conditions are so poor that in this zip code, life expectancy is 13 years less than just one zip code over. 

“Stats tell one story about people, but people tell a better story.”

- Gino Haynes

Some neighbors began to come together to ask what it could  look like to develop a community in a holistic way with the community, taking the dreams of the neighborhood and helping to figure out ways to bring those dreams to life.

They formed an organization called Canton For All People in 2021. They set objectives for the next 10 years to move toward enhancing public safety, providing affordable housing options for all neighbors, enhancing public health, breaking cycles of poverty, and promoting educational opportunity. 

They’ve created a free market that gives away tons of food every week. They purchase homes, renovate them, and help move people into home ownership. They are in the process of creating a 54-unit mixed income apartment building because they understand that some of the problems have been created by incentivizing people who have the means to move out of the neighborhood to do so. 

Canton For All People sees the beauty and assets of their neighborhood, and their neighbors. For them, what seems to be dilapidated is actually God’s canvas to cultivate places. As Gino says, the government can forsake a neighborhood, and businesses can forsake a neighborhood, but God never does. If God never does, we shouldn’t either.

Gino was recently honored by Canton Regional Chamber of Commerce as a 2023 Twenty under 40 leader who displays passion, strength, and grit through his choice to live, work, and stay in Stark County.

Connect with Gino through his website: https://www.thelegacyinaction.com/

Learn more about Canton For All People: https://cantonforallpeople.org/community-development/