Lt. Governor Suzanne Crouch and the Indiana Office of Community and Rural Affairs are now accepting applications from Indiana Main Street organizations who have inspiring and imaginative downtown revitalization projects in their community.
“Indiana’s downtown spaces are the heart of the community, and by encouraging individuals to take stake in their quality of life, we will see a better outcome in the revitalization of these main streets,†Crouch said. “I look forward to seeing the finalists’ presentations and how they really took the guidelines and transformed them into ideas that will upgrade their area.â€
The goal of the Main Street INspire Idea! competition is to encourage the Indiana Main Street network of communities and professionals to design creative projects for the benefit of their communities. The submitted projects should:
- Connect to the community’s vision to create vibrant, people-centered places to live, work and invest;
- Support at least one of the four key points Main Street programs have been using as a guiding framework for nearly 40 years: economic vitality, effective promotion, quality design and sustainable organization; and
- Focus on highly visible changes, measuring progress and results that will demonstrate the revitalization effort is successful.
“We are excited to provide an opportunity to our Main Street organizations to continue to further revitalize their downtowns,” said Jodi Golden, Executive Director of OCRA. “We hope this competition will produce a spark that could lead to improved commercial vitality in rural downtown districts.”
Any active Indiana Main Street community is eligible for the two $5,000 minimum prizes, which will be distributed at the Great Lakes Main Street Conference. All submissions will be reviewed and five finalists will be announced on Friday, July 12, 2019. Finalists will receive two free conference registrations where they will present their projects during one of the sessions.
