The Shenango Valley Initiative plans to rally people of faith around the idea of building up the area with education, jobs, home-ownership and transportation.

"Part of what we want to try to do is incrementally create change," said Robert Clark, community organizer for the Shenango Valley Initiative.

The hour-and-a-half-long rally Sunday at First United Methodist Church at 237 West Silver St., Sharon, will start at 4 p.m.

"Our primary purpose is to engage the churches and the community to inform them and energize them in relation to issues that affect all of our lives," said SVI Board President the Rev. Larry Haynes.

SVI wants to address home-ownership, job creation and recreation.

"We are trying to identify sustainable homeowners and involve them in programs with the assistance of First National Bank and hopefully additional banking institutions," Clark said.

SVI members believe that home-ownership by those with lower incomes would strengthen neighborhoods and families, and they see the creation of job-training centers connected to more home-ownership.

"It's empowerment," said Rev. Haynes, who is pastor of Grace Chapel Community Church, Sharon. "Inside the churches, there are people who need an opportunity. We need to develop some training programs for the under-employed and the unemployed. Why would a new business come to a community where there's no trained people?"

SVI's vision also includes an emphasis on recreation for neighborhood kids.

"There are people in churches who are unable to serve in the choir or teach Sunday school but can throw a basketball and at the same time, teach values," Rev. Haynes said.

SVI would like to see satellite sporting programs from the local YMCA or Sharon's Buhl Club come into "neglected" areas of the Shenango Valley. "I think these groups are willing to do that. But no one's ever asked them to," he said.

A regular transportation system in the valley is another focus of the SVI rally, with an emphasis on transportation for people who work non-traditional hours.

"I think there's going to be some fresh thinking and some new ideas," Haynes said.

"For too long, the churches have been disengaged in the process. The challenge for us as a people of faith is to get involved in the process," said Haynes. "We're trying to cast a vision with a ladder to it."

Clark, speaking of the SVI, said, "Our focus is to get to the root causes of inequality in the community and to develop strategies with leadership from the local congregations."

The rally is a collaboration with the Shenango Valley Ministerial Association, the Sharon-Hermitage Clergy Association and Christian Associates of the Shenango Valley.