YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio - Concerned citizens met Thursday at Union Baptist Church about the current state of Youngstown and how they want to see the city move forward. Organizers talked about the top issues people care about in a recent survey.

The number one issue for 4,000 Youngstown residents surveyed by the Mahoning Valley Organizing Collaborative (MVOC) is jobs.

The group held a town hall meeting Thursday about the results and possible solutions.

"If you don't have a good educational base, I'm saying what corporation or place of employment wants to come in to hire a non educated employee," said the Rev. Lawrence Underwood of Youngstown. He attended the meeting to hear solutions for the city's problems.

The second issue that topped the list for residents is what they call mass incarceration. Organizers describe it as a lack of job opportunities for people with a felony record.

The group supports efforts to ban the box that asks whether or not you are a felon on job applications. It would push the background check to the end of the process.

Akim Lattermore, a community organizer with MVOC, said, "I had jobs, but it wasn't jobs that I felt were equal, my opportunity for jobs weren't equal. So I went back to college and I got a couple of degrees and I still find it hard sometimes to get a job because I'm a felon."

Education was number three. A panel of 12 parents with MVOC have drafted their top priorities for the new CEO. Number one is a free public school education.

The Reverend Underwood believes student success starts at home.  "It's a matter of the values that you instill in your children because there needs to be an outcry for more parenting," he said.

The executive director said the issue of education topped vacant properties after the CEO run school plan was proposed and became law.