INDIANAPOLIS – One year after hosting the city’s first Community Development Summit, Mayor Bart Peterson today unveiled a plan of action for taking community development in Indianapolis to the next level.

Joined by many of the same residents and community leaders who participated in the summit, the Mayor outlined the Great Indy Neighborhoods Initiative, a three-pronged program that includes a demonstration project designed to showcase the benefits of comprehensive community development and strengthen and improve local neighborhoods.

Comprehensive community development focuses on all aspects of neighborhood life and encourages multifaceted, resident-led improvement efforts.

Great Indy Neighborhoods was borne from the continued community-wide dialogue that occurred after the one-day summit. The Community Development Strategy Group, a diverse group of community leaders and residents, have championed this effort and moved forward the community agenda of “more [civic] engagement and more success in more places.”

“Building better, stronger neighborhoods takes more than monetary investment and bricks and mortar,” Mayor Peterson said. “It takes the active engagement of our neighborhood’s greatest resources -- its residents -- and a community-led plan that addresses the many aspects of improving quality of life.”

“We recognize that every neighborhood is different, and all neighborhoods have different ideas about what they want to become. The Great Indy Neighborhoods Initiatives take this into account and will help each neighborhood chart its own course,” explained Bill Taft, Co-Chair, Community Development Strategy Group.

The Great Indy Neighborhoods Initiative utilizes three strategies to recognize, equip, organize and expand comprehensive community development efforts across Indianapolis:

1) Spread existing comprehensive community development efforts citywide. The Engagement Initiative is targeted to neighborhoods still in the early stages of organizing, developing leadership, and discovering and focusing their potential. Through building new and improved relationships with one another, neighborhood stakeholders will begin identifying their area's strengths and move toward a shared vision with common goals for neighborhood improvement. The Great Indy Neighborhoods initiative will begin with a strategic marketing campaign to raise awareness and support for community development and encourage existing and new community-building programs to implement these practices in their own neighborhoods.

2) Strengthen the capacity of neighborhood groups to do comprehensive community development. The Implementation Initiative is designed to strengthen neighborhoods that have already made progress toward establishing grassroots involvement. It will help neighborhoods develop partnerships among residents and neighborhood organizations, and create or build on an existing quality-of-life plan. Neighborhoods will be provided resources and support for projects and programs to implement the plan.

3) Showcase the impact of an intense comprehensive approach to community development. The Demonstration Initiative is a more intensive approach that will work with several neighborhoods to develop and implement a comprehensive neighborhood quality of life plan, document their success, and promote their methods in other neighborhoods.

These strategies will be further explored in subsequent community meetings throughout the rest of the year, where stakeholders can both learn more about the program and provide feedback on its content and direction. After the public input period, the Community Development Strategy Group will draft a request for proposals (RFP) calling for applications from neighborhoods seeking support for implementing comprehensive community development strategies.

The Community Development Strategy Group has identified key community partners who will work together on the implementation of Great Indy Neighborhoods, including: the City of Indianapolis, the Indianapolis Coalition for Neighborhood Development, the Indianapolis Neighborhood Resource Center and the Local Initiatives Support Corporation. Over the next two months, the Community Development Strategy Group will be seeking additional community partners to provide feedback on the program structure and to participate in the program implementation.

The Community Development Strategy Group estimates that the Great Indy Neighborhoods Initiative will impact between six to twelve neighborhoods at a cost between $2 million and $4 million over a three year period. The total will vary depending on the number of neighborhoods participating and the number of funding partners identified between now and January. Approximately one-quarter of these funds will be used to organize community residents around creating or updating a quality of life plan, another quarter will be used to build the neighborhood-level capacity and partnerships necessary to implement these plans, and half will be used as seed capital to implement these plans.

Since the Community Development Summit just over a year ago, the Community Development Strategy Group has held a series of public forums to continue the dialogue focused on improving local neighborhoods. The Great Indy Neighborhoods initiative is an outgrowth of this process.

The Community Development Summit brought nearly 400 neighborhood leaders, business owners, residents and representatives of faith-based organizations together to focus on developing a consensus vision for a countywide approach to building stronger, healthier neighborhoods and create an agenda for continuing a dialogue about these issues.