In 2007, neighbors from around the eastside came together to set benchmarks for how they wanted to see their community prosper. The culmination of those efforts became what would eventually be the original Quality of Life Plan, which was completed as part of the Great Indy Neighborhoods Initiative. The original plan was set forward as over 200 action items to improve the quality of life of near-eastsiders and worked both as a tool for community development and engagement.
The first quality of life plan set its benchmarks to expire at the ten-year mark, a date which landed squarely in the famously unprecedented year of 2020. Despite the challenges brought to the community over the past 18 months, folks across the near eastside still rallied together to complete the second Quality of Life Plan and continued their work virtually. New focus areas were added to this second iteration of the Quality of Life Plan, with objectives related to health, sustainability, equity, and the arts being included.
In addition to the new focus areas and goals added to the second Quality of Life Plan, Community Action Teams (CAT) were introduced as outlets for targeted community involvement in the implementation of the Quality of Life Plan goals. These CATs include both community members and implementation partners and allow for the focused implementation of community goals.
Recently, several CATs (Safety, Sustainability, and Arts & Culture) updated the community on their progress over the last quarter at their first in-person summit since the COVID-19 pandemic. The summit, which took place on August 5th of this year, allowed for discourse concerning goal implementation, the effectiveness of CATs, and direct outreach to vulnerable populations. The summit itself had excellent turnout, and was a wonderful opportunity to meet community members who are passionate about improving the quality of life of near eastsiders. For more information on how to get involved, please see the links below:
Quality of Life Plan summits occur quarterly, both in-person and virtually. Dates for upcoming summits can be found at http://neareastplan.org/
CATs are a great way to become more involved with the community, more information can be found at https://indyeast.org/join-a-community-action-team-today/
For any other questions about the Quality of Life Plan, please contact rgrant@jbncenters.org