Promise Zones are high poverty and high capacity communities where the federal government will work with local leaders to increase efforts to achieve neighborhood created goals and priorities.
Promise Zones are selected through a competitive grant application process. For the second round of applications, there were a total of 123 applications and eight of those were selected to receive the Promise Zone designation (six urban, one rural and one tribal).
There are 22 Promise Zones nationwide. In 2014, the first five were announced. In 2015, eight more, including the near Eastside of Indianapolis, were announced. In 2016, the final nine were announced.