Connecting Muncie Neighborhood partners and resources
Community-neighborhood projects
In this project, Ball State University graduate students worked to manage and organize Big Read activities in Muncie, Indiana. The Big Read is a project which aims to promote reading activities among citizens in local communities. The students learned a variety of organizational and management theories and strategies and put them into practice by marketing and organizing The Big Read program.
The playground began as a seed, an idea that grew at each monthly neighborhood association meeting. The Blaine/Southeast Neighborhood Association formed only a few short years ago in 2011 under the direction of Clifford Clemmons. Supported by a small group of dedicated residents, the association worked with Ball State University urban planning students under the direction of faculty member Lisa Dunaway to develop a neighborhood action plan. The Blaine/Southeast Neighborhood Action plan, finalized in December 2014 provided key information that reinforced the neighbors’ belief that Blaine/Southeast lacked adequate play space for its youth. Located on the far east side of the city, the neighborhood sits removed from Muncie’s established parks and playgrounds.
Planning for the neighborhood playground began in earnest in winter 2014 after the association was successful in attaining a $15,000 KaBoom playground grant. A committee of residents worked diligently to find funding to match the KaBoom grant, to plan for the Community Build Day and to clear the overgrown field where the playground would eventually be built. With the efforts spearheaded by Clemmons and Isabelle Sowers, Muncie Action Plan Volunteer Coordinator, Spring and Summer 2015 were busy with fundraisers and cleanups leading up to the September 12th Build Day.
Build Day was attended by dozens of volunteers who successfully erected a portion of the playground, with the final construction occurring throughout the following few weeks. The October 16th ribbon cutting was well attended by residents, volunteers and city officials. Since October, the playground committee has continued to fundraise for the purchase of mulch and landscaping as well as other necessities like lighting and signage through their GoFundMe site. The Neighborhood Association understands that the playground is a community asset, but one that will require constant oversight and maintenance. Association members are committed to creating a play space that is well-loved and well-used by neighborhood children for years to come.
Associate Professor and Chairperson of the Department of Sociology, Melinda Messineo, led several groups of Ball State students in sociological Immersive Learning projects around the city. Organizations partnered included the United Way of Muncie and Delaware County, Edible Muncie, and the Muncie Redevelopment Commission. In these projects, students worked with their community partners to gather information about literacy opportunities in build spaces (United Way) food scarcity and pantry use (Edible Muncie) and residential decision making processes for young professionals (Muncie redevelopment). The data will be used to inform programs for each of the partners over the next year.
(Current Photos of the future park site)
GO FUND ME – The Blaine/Southeast neighborhood association has set up an online fundraiser to help raise the remaining $16,000 needed to build the playground. The neighborhood’s motto “The Unity of the community gets the job done,” is very true. Please donate and/or share with others!
November 2014 – The Blaine/Southeast neighborhood association was awarded a $15,000 KaBoom playground grant. Residents have formed a playground committee and are currently working to redevelop the old Blaine field adjacent to the Serenity Club, 1215 S. Brotherton, into a new neighborhood playground.
February 2015 – February-2015-Press-Release
March 2015 – The KaBoom grant requires that the playground equipment be purchased from one of four pre-selected vendors. The Playground Committee worked with Matt Bailey, former Superintendent of Muncie’s Park’s Department under the McShurley Administration, to select the vendor and the design of the playground. Located in Parker City, IN, Landscape Structures was chosen as the playground equipment vendor based on the quality of their equipment, their commitment to working closely with the neighborhood association during Build Day, and their willingness to help the association maintain the equipment due to their close proximity to Muncie and their strong relationship with the City’s Park’s Department. The Committee also worked with a BSU graduate Landscape Architecture student to place the playground on the field in the most appropriate location.
April 11, 2015 – A successful clean-up of the field took place from 10:00-12:00. Over 20 volunteers helped clear the field of brush and vegetation in preparation for the fall playground build day. Thank you to all who attended!
May 03, 2015 – The cleanup of the field continued on the same day as the whole neighborhood cleanup. Volunteers were able to make great progress on removing shrubbery and small trees from the fence line. Another field cleanup day is scheduled for Saturday, May 30th.
Habitat for Humanity has begun a process of Neighborhood Revitalization in its service area. Focusing on the South Central and Thomas Park/Avondale Neighborhoods, changing the look and feel of a critical mass of the residences in the target area can achieve significant impact. One element that has been ignored in many programs to date is the businesses that are located within these target neighborhoods. The main goal of this project is to survey the businesses in the target revitalization area to determine the characteristics of the neighborhood that are impacting businesses both positively and negatively.
Students will work directly with community leaders to design a survey instrument, conduct in-person interviews and create a report highlighting the perceived needs of surveyed businesses.
The South Central/Thomas Park-Avondale Energy Plan is a project being developed by residents of South Central/Thomas Park-Avondale and Vectren along with Ball State University graduate students from the Department of Urban Planning. The basis of this project is to create an energy plan for a selected region of the South Central and Thomas Park-Avondale neighborhoods in Muncie, Indiana.
Please visit the plan’s website for more information about the project and the student’s assessment and recommendations.
Class Flier (pdf)