Connecting Muncie Neighborhood partners and resources
The expansion of Halteman Park into a Multi-generational Recreational Space project has reached Phase Two. The work will continue to serve as a model for other placemaking endeavors around the city. Click here to learn more about Phase One and how to get involved with Phase Two.
J.P. Hall, BSU Assistant Professor of Historic Preservation and Associate Chair, recently received the 2023 David Sursa Leadership Award for the impact on Halteman Village and the Muncie community as a whole.
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.
In 2014,the Muncie Action Plan (MAP) sponsored an immersive learning project that investigated how communities similar to Muncie are coordinating community-wide sustainability initiatives. One outcome of that project was the development of a template for a “Sustainable Muncie” website that identified the sustainability related organizations and resources throughout Muncie and Delaware County. MAP approached Ball State expressing a desire to revisit those outcomes. The project team was tasked with identifying the organizations and resources currently available in Muncie and organizing that information into a directory for dissemination. The collection of this information will serve two purposes. The first is to aid the MAP in identification of service gaps that are not currently being addressed in the community. This information, in turn, would provide an agenda for future efforts of MAP. The second purpose for identifying these community resources is to develop a single, publicly accessible clearing house where community members, organization leaders, and local decision-makers could find out about all of the community’s environmentally related organizations and resources.
Faculty Mentor: David Hua
Department: Social Work
Community Partner: Muncie Action Plan
Students: Emily Dewig, Austin Fleming, Lindsey Stamper, Quintin Thompson
The East Central Neighborhood Action Plan (ECNAP) is a citizen-generated policy regarding the future of the neighborhood, containing initiatives that will developed by the residents of the neighborhood with the assistance of the students. The ECNAP fell under the umbrella of the Muncie Action Plan (MAP), which is a strategic guide for the city to create an action agenda for the future. A partnership was established with MAP and Ball State University to help with the organization of neighborhoods, to assist with needs assessment/goal setting and to develop collaborative projects that meet the unique needs of each neighborhood. In addition to the action plan, a ECNAP handbook was also produced as a document to aid citizen planners when they begin to enact initiatives from the plan.
Faculty Mentor: Lisa Dunaway
Department: Urban Planning
Community Partner: East Central Neighborhood Association
Students: Joshua Bannister, Josh Campbell, Brendyn Cyrus, Matt Dixon, Alyssa Flandermeyer, Lauren Gillingham, Gregory Huss, Kenta Lanham, Keaton Osborn, Alexander Pormen, Ellen Randall, Ikechukwu Robert-Eze, Paige Story, Taylor Sweet, Shannon Szabo, Jordan Wyatt