Neighbor Power! and GINI Two Successes for Our City

More than 200 neighborhood leaders recently met to celebrate community accomplishments and ensure future success for the city at Neighbor Power! A Gathering to Inspire Greater Indy Neighborhoods at the University of Indianapolis.

The Southeast neighborhoods were well represented at Neighbor Power! — picking up multiple awards at an exciting ceremony on Oct. 16 and sending several leaders to present in workshops during the gathering on Oct. 17.

The Bates Hendricks Neighborhood Association won Neighbor Power’s new Inspiring Places Award or its no House Left Behind initiative identifies the worst abandoned homes and helps turn these properties into assets—making this neighborhood in the southeast side of Indianapolis an even better home for its residents. The award came with a $1,000 prize and a one-of-a-kind physical award created by SEND’s Kipp Normand.

Bates Hendricks and SEND also won a Collaborative Spirit Award presented by Indianapolis Neighborhood Resource Center for the 2008 Fab For Less project designed to enhance the 1400 and 1500 blocks of South New Jersey Street. This initiative engaged residents in visioning, planning and implementing a transformation of their two blocks and eventually leveraged more than a million dollars of investment.

A host of neighborhood leaders — many representing the Southeast — led workshops on a wide variety of topics, sharing their successes and finding connections with other leaders for future collaborations. Workshops covered topics from economic development innovations, to green development, to helping young people. One workshop even ended in a parade around the facility. Workshop leaders from the Southeast included Despi Mayes of the Bates Hendricks Neighborhood Association, Jeff Miller of Fletcher Place, Connie Zeigler of the North Square Neighborhood Association, Jerry Keys of the Pleasant Run Grocer, Elizabeth Ryan of the Fountain Square Arts Council, and Mark Stewart and Paul Baumgarten of SEND.

All in attendance enjoyed a moving keynote talk by Sacramento, Cal. mayor and former NBA standout Kevin Johnson. And Neighbor Power! included a session to brainstorm “what’s next” for neighborhoods and the city and concluded with a networking reception.

Now, everyone is invited to continue the conversations started at Neighbor Power! and sign-up for peer-to-peer networks on a variety of topics at www.greatyindyneighborhoods.org. If you missed it, videos of all of the workshop presentations will be available online in the coming months.