Funds Available for Neighborhood-based Projects

Author: Heather Williams, Program Manager Building Better Neighborhoods, Ball State University
Photo: Riverside-Normal City residents Jen Erickson and her daughter Anika wearing their neighborhood t-shirts while setting up for the June 2nd RNC summer picnic.

Muncie, IN is unique among many similar sized communities in the Midwest in that the city is largely broken into neighborhood associations that cover nearly the entire geographic span of the city. If you live within city limits, it’s likely that you live in a neighborhood and there’s a pretty good chance that that neighborhood has an association that meets regularly and is working to constantly improve the area in which you live. Muncie is also unique in that it has several local foundations who understand the importance of grassroots organizations working towards neighborhood revitalization and community building. Ball Brothers Foundation recently awarded a Rapid Grant to Muncie Action Plan to support these local efforts at the neighborhood level.

A similar grant made to MAP in 2016 allowed the Old West End to purchase receptacles for pet waste for the two pocket parks that the neighborhood association installed and continue to manage in partnership with the City of Muncie Parks Department. Also utilizing these past project funds, the Riverside-Normal City Neighborhood Association was provided funding to purchase marketing materials, including t-shirts for residents and window clings that will be displayed in businesses located within the neighborhood. This type of branding helps increase awareness of the neighborhood association that will ultimately help connect students, residents, and businesses, creating a sense of community among neighbors.

East Central Neighborhood Association utilized funds to host their annual Pumpkin Carving event for children in the neighborhood. According to Lynn Thornburg, board member, the funding allowed the association to meet the expectations of the kids who attended, connect with new residents, and collaborate with MadJax, which hosted the event in 2017. Equally important, student volunteers from the College of Architecture and Planning and Phi Delta Gamma were involved in the event, allowing, “neighbors to get to know some of the students on a different level,” and giving, “the students a different perspective of Muncie and the Downtown area.”

In 2018, Muncie will see projects pop-up in neighborhoods across the city and these projects will be resident driven and designed to meet the needs of the neighborhoods in which they are focused. Neighborhoods applying to MAP for these funds will need to meet basic requirements of an organized association and have resident buy-in in the project. But creativity is key, as associations can plan for projects that meet their individual needs. Neighborhoods interested in accessing these project funds should visit the Resources page. Applications will be accepted through July 9th with a funding announcement at the Neighborhood Leadership Council Pool Party at Tuhey Pool on July 17th.

VIDEO: 2018 IDEA Conference

Each year the IDEA conference has brought together over a hundred leaders representing Muncie’s neighborhoods to develop and strengthen community-building skills. Take a look at this year’s conference.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ihkKWvCmeqE&feature=youtu.be

Neighbors Show They Care About McKinley

(Above: Volunteers improve 710 N. Mulberry St. by painting plywood and picking up trash)
Article by Heather Williams

Each neighborhood has its own unique history of development, from farmland, woods, or even marsh to streets filled with two-bedroom bungalows or elaborate Victorian mansions. North, south, east or west, Muncie’s neighborhoods are no different, each unique in character and filled with the hopes and dreams of its residents. Last weekend, a small group of residents gathered together to lift the hopes and dreams of McKinley neighborhood residents through beautification efforts that painted boarded windows and doors and cleaned trash and debris from two abandoned homes located on North Mulberry St.

Volunteers Aimee Robertson-Fant, Kyle Johson, and Augusta Wray work to cover plywood securing the abandoned home at 710 N. Mulberry St.
Volunteers Aimee Robertson-Fant, Kyle Johson, and Augusta Wray work to cover plywood securing the abandoned home at 710 N. Mulberry St.

Responding to the recent cleanup efforts organized by City of Muncie departments, including the Muncie Police Department, Muncie Sanitary District, and Building Commissioner’s office, amongst others, Muncie Delaware Clean and Beautiful put a call out on Thursday morning for volunteers. Partnering with the Muncie Action Plan and Ball State’s Building Better Neighborhoods program, Muncie Delaware Clean and Beautiful set up their trailer on Mulberry Street on Sunday afternoon and directed volunteers in painting boards and cleaning up years of discarded debris.

Derek Tulowitzky, Muncie Delaware Clean and Beautiful Community Cleanups Chairperson, helped organize the event and secure volunteers to help. Tulowitzky noted that, “It’s by no means a solution for the issues that led to this home’s abandonment, but hopefully it shows folks that neighbors care about their neighborhood.”

Muncie Police Department officer Mike Mueller, who helped spearhead the city-wide cleanup of the neighborhood that inspired Sunday’s efforts, understands the importance of this neighborhood as it is directly across from the city’s only high school and on a major thoroughfare for visitors and residents traveling to and from Muncie’s downtown. Mueller believes all parties interested in neighborhood revitalization may be able to work together at similar cleanups in neighborhoods throughout the city, hopefully beginning again in 2018.

Trash and debris was cleaned and windows boarded at 741 N. Mulberry St.
Trash and debris was cleaned and windows boarded at 741 N. Mulberry St.

Muncie Action Plan Neighborhoods Coordinator, Aimee Robertson-Fant, hopes that this is just the first of many efforts to support and encourage community building in the McKinley neighborhood. “McKinley is a vital neighborhood to organize and the momentum to do that is now. Not only are Walnut Commons, Elm Street Brewing Company (which is also transitioning into a family eatery) and other businesses investing in the future of McKinley, there is a community-wide, collaborative plan materializing which will help streamline and more efficiently address abandonment and vacated homes, of which is among the greatest and growing challenges McKinley has faced the past several years, as witnessed by the several abandoned houses on Walnut Street, facing Central. We owe it to the students and families and Muncie Community Schools to help continue efforts for this neighborhood to become healthy again.”

Ball State Immersive Learning students, under the direction of faculty member Lisa Dunaway, worked alongside residents in spring 2017 to develop a combined Minnetrista and McKinley Neighborhood Action Plan. This document may serve as a guide for resident-driven revitalization efforts.

Volunteers braving cold temperatures on Sunday morning to show their love for McKinley include Derek Tulowitzky, Aimee Robertson-Fant, Augusta Wray, Tracy Whelan, Jake Turpin, Kelyn Alexander, Kari Wissel, Aaron Brunsman, and Kyle Johnson (not pictured)
Volunteers braving cold temperatures on Sunday morning to show their love for McKinley include Derek Tulowitzky, Aimee Robertson-Fant, Augusta Wray, Tracy Whelan, Jake Turpin, Kelyn Alexander, Kari Wissel, Aaron Brunsman, and Kyle Johnson (not pictured)

On Nov. 28th at 6pm, come to a community meeting to discuss the future of the McKinley neighborhood. Building Better Neighborhoods and MAP will host the meeting at Muncie Central and encourage the participation of residents and businesses. Attendees will be invited to participate in the 100 Stories and 100 Dreams for Abandoned Properties project. The aim is to collect as many stories about and ideas for blighted properties as possible, as part of a city-wide effort to address blight by creating a new land bank. Urban Planning Professor John H. West will be on hand to talk with and collect stories.

According to Robertson-Fant, “One of best ways to support our one and only high school is take care of the neighborhood surrounding it. Fortunately, there are a lot of people and organizations who want to work together to help see that happen.”