2015 Fellowship program to work with Plan 2020 to apply action steps to vision

INDIANAPOLIS (June 1, 2015) – Nine emerging leaders will play a pivotal role in setting the stage for implementing the Bicentennial Plan – a visionary, community-unified component of the Plan 2020 initiative and the future of Indianapolis-Marion County.

Last year, the CityCorps Fellowship program was designed to generate new ideas around defined themes — Choose, Connect, Love, Serve and Work – which were relevant to Plan 2020 committees. This year, Plan 2020 is shifting into the next phase, turning research, data, and ideas into tangible action steps towards improving neighborhoods, increasing connectivity, advancing workforce development and promoting civic engagement in Marion County. These 2015 Fellows will work to inform technical plans of the city (like the Comprehensive and Regional Center Plans), build capacity for a movement (like #loveindy), and supplement capacity for implementing partners.

“The 2015 fellowship program will infuse Indianapolis’ Plan 2020 process with ideas, insights and action through research, technical support and creativity,” said Brooke Thomas, Deputy Director for the Greater Indianapolis Progress Committee and Co-Manager for the entire Plan 2020 Initiative. “This year’s Fellows will do more than just brainstorm new ideas, they will inform the technical city plans and build capacity for the #LoveIndy movement and some of our implementing partners.”

CityCorps Fellows were selected through a Request for Proposals (RFP) process issued by Plan 2020. Proposals were evaluated based on the contribution their ideas had on envisioning and improving the future of Indianapolis and addressing specific needs set forth by the Plan 2020 team.

“The CityCorps Fellows are a group of individuals who are passionate about cities and have a desire to influence the future of our community through the Plan 2020 process,” said Tamara Zahn, Plan 2020’s Fellowship Coordinator. “We look forward to leveraging their thought leadership and creativity to improve the vitality of our community.”

The CityCorps Fellowship program is jointly funded by the Lilly Endowment and Community Development Block Grants. The paid Fellows will complete their fellowships by mid-August, 2015.

The CityCorps Plan 2020 2015 Fellows include:

Indianapolis Transit Oriented Development Fund
Gary Reiter

This fellowship will research the feasibility and steps necessary to create a fund to preserve affordable housing near the City’s current and future transit stops. The Indy TOD Fund fellowship will evaluate the acquisition fund modeled in New York and Denver to meet the needs of Indianapolis to ensure that affordable housing is included in development around an expanding transit system. The proposed fund would operate as a line of credit to a yet to be named well‐capitalized nonprofit (“WCN”), with funds held largely on the balance sheet of a Community Development Financial Institution (“CDFI”).

A Collective Effort: Utilizing and Leveraging the Intellectual and Civic Capacity of Indy’s Youth
Aaron Harrison and Samantha Helferich

This fellowship creates an executable strategy for engaging Indianapolis’s youth in our city’s efforts to develop and implement the strategic framework necessary to make it a better place to live, work, serve, love, and connect. This work will create a plan for a scalable program that: (1) utilizes project‐based curriculum co‐developed by Indianapolis educators, entrepreneurs, and community innovators to empower students (grade range to‐be‐determined K – 12) to view their world through the lens of an entrepreneur or community innovator; (2) tasks students with developing solutions to the priorities inspired by those within the Bicentennial Plan; and (3) aligns with Indiana Academic Standards, with a particular emphasis on STEM and the arts.

Creating a CivicTech Culture: How Open Data Can Transform Indy’s Public Agencies and Workforce
Matthew Kirby, in conjunction with Mean City Consulting LLC

This fellowship will look at what it takes to foster and lead a civic tech culture in Indianapolis. It will set the groundwork for a sustained open data initiative that establishes a city‐wide open data policy and guidelines, creates a single online portal where data can be easily accessed by the public, and provides regular programming that introduces the data to the public.

Loving Indy: Measuring and Leveraging the Loyalty of Indy’s Young Professionals
Molly Chavers, in conjunction with Indy Hub

This fellowship addresses attracting and retaining great talent by examining the strong connection between engagement and loyalty. The fellowship work will build on previously conducted research, undertake a survey to measure (and benchmark) loyalty and present results in a way that employers and community leaders can easily access and use as a guidepost for future planning and action. The fellowship will further review available research and seek to identify additional indicators that can easily be tracked to measure residents’ love of Indy.

Positive, Productive and Proactive: A Strategy for Activating Minority Young Professionals toward Civic Engagement
Marshawn Wolley

This fellowship will identify the civic infrastructure and successful engagement strategies used by civic organizations to engage minority young professionals. Documentation will support the development of a scalable strategy for increasing and supporting engagement of minority young professionals in civic activities.

Teacher-based Neighborhood Development Playbook
Roberto Garza, in conjunction with Harrison Center for the Arts/City Gallery

Teachers living in the neighborhoods where they teach offer early signs of positive results for students, teachers and neighborhoods. This fellowship will examine what tools and policies are needed to increase the use – and success—of this emerging place‐based approach to improving education? How can evidence-based models be scaled up for greater success?

Manufacturing Workforce Strategy Plan
Emily Scott, in conjunction with Riley Area Development Corporation

This fellowship will identify, prepare, place and support individuals for manufacturing jobs in Indianapolis, primarily from low‐income, blighted, minority, and other marginalized communities. The fellowship will work with existing organizations and institutions engaged in these efforts and create area‐specific programs to support the strategy and employment pipeline.

Planning for Resiliency in Indianapolis
McKenzie Beverage

This fellowship will lay the groundwork for a resiliency master plan that builds the capacity of Indianapolis residents, communities, businesses, and systems to survive, adapt, and grow regardless of the chronic stresses or acute shocks they experience. It will assess environmental, economic, and social risks confronting Indianapolis, identify related assets, analyze current programs, and recommend a decision‐making framework. The fellow will facilitate a process to effectively identify, convene, educate and engage stakeholders on the information and tools needed to develop a resiliency plan. A report with the outcomes of this process will be produced.

Visualizing Progress: Designing a People‐centered Implementation Dashboard for Plan 2020
Aaron Ganci

This project will undertake the planning, design, and development of an online Plan 2020 Implementation Dashboard to share on-going progress. This dashboard will be created using a people‐centered design methodology that will ensure it is useful, usable, and enjoyable for all of its various users.

About Plan 2020
Plan 2020, the Bicentennial Plan for Indianapolis, defines a new approach to planning in Indianapolis. Plan 2020 meshes community vision, values and strategy with an unprecedented, coordinated update to core city government plans. The plan is a collaborative initiative between the Greater Indianapolis Progress Committee, City Department of Metropolitan Development, and the community to make Indianapolis a better place to live, work and visit.