EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
The near Eastside is empowered by generations of community led initiatives and projects, making it a vibrant and exciting place to live, work, worship, learn and play.
In 2007, the near Eastside took part in the Great Indy Neighborhoods Initiative and developed its first neighborhood led community plan. The plan served as a guiding document for neighborhood residents and leaders alike and provided a picture of the vision and spirit of the near Eastside.
In 2018, neighborhood leaders recognized that the plan needed an update, as many of the action items had been completed and the neighborhood had seen vast changes since the creation of the original plan. In the summer of 2018, the near Eastside began the process of creating a new, refreshed quality of life plan. The planning process consisted of a survey, focus groups, action teams, canvassing, a visioning day, two open houses, and over 100 meetings with neighborhood leaders.
The 2019/2020 Near Eastside Quality of Life planning process culminated in the creation of nine neighborhood focus areas, each with corresponding priorities and action items.
QUALITY OF LIFE FOCUS AREAS
HOUSING
The near Eastside is a place that promotes fair, equitable, and affordable housing for all, without regard to income, race, ethnicity, housing status, or class and that improves the community as a whole while not forcing others out.
SAFETY
The near Eastside is a safe and accessible community that promotes public safety initiatives and fosters strong relationships between a well engaged community and public safety agencies.
EDUCATION
The near Eastside is a place where residents can engage in quality holistic learning opportunities throughout their lifetime.
EQUITY AND
ENGAGEMENT
The near Eastside is a place where neighbors choose to value each other as assets and facilitate engagement across all races, ethnicities, gender identities, sexual orientations, economic statuses, ages, abilities, entry statuses, and legal statuses.
HEALTH, WELLNESS, AND FAMILY STRENGTHENING
The near Eastside fosters innovative partnerships to ensure all community members have access to health, wellness and family strengthening resources.
ECONOMIC AND WORKFORCE DEVELOPMENT
The near Eastside mobilizes existing assets and attracts new investment in our local residents, businesses, and places in order to maximize their full potential as we create abundant and productive linkages to our city, state, and beyond.
SUSTAINABILITY
The near Eastside is a place that embraces and pilots sustainability initiatives in order to mitigate the impacts of climate change and prepares businesses, residents, and spaces to become carbon-neutral by 2040.
PLACEMAKING AND INFRASTRUCTURE
The near Eastside is a place that creates, restores, and preserves a connected and accessible community through a resilient and sustainable built and natural environment.
ARTS AND
CULTURE
The near Eastside is a place where arts, culture, and creativity are valued as vital contributors to the character, quality of life, and economy of the neighborhood.
The plan brings together the neighborhood vision for a vast array of topic areas, representing the dreams and plans of hundreds of hardworking near Eastside residents. The plan seeks to capture not only the vision for the near Eastside, but also the specific ways in which the vision will be implemented.
USING THE PLAN
IMPLEMENTATION
Each Quality of Life Plan action item will be tracked using the following process/benchmarks.
1.
ENGAGE RESIDENTS & COMMUNITY PARTNERS
Residents and partners will be enlisted to identify wants, needs, goals, and desired outcomes. They will also be engaged to access relevant expertise and resources.
2.
ASSESS & PLAN
For each action item, the relevant group will assess current conditions as necessary and develop a collaborative plan to achieve the goal.
3.
GATHER RESOURCES
The relevant group will gather funding and any other resources necessary to implement the action item.
4.
IMPLEMENT
After these steps are complete, the relevant group will Implement the collaborative plan & report on their progress.
These benchmarks will be used instead of traditional performance metrics, allowing for greater flexibility in implementation by individual neighborhood groups and to increase transparency for neighborhood members. Information about these benchmarks will be collected and posted on the Quality of Life Plan website quarterly.
In addition, lead agencies will compile a separate annual report on the state of Quality of Life on the near Eastside. This report will include high level indicators from a variety of outside data sources designed to measure quality of life on the near Eastside.
The plan was not designed to be a static document. The Quality of Life Plan will be regularly updated through quarterly summits. A neighbor or neighborhood group can request permission to pursue or add, modify or remove priorities and/or action items. Learn more about that process here.