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RDA Partners with Legacy Foundation to Plan for Transit Oriented Development in Gary

The Board of the Directors of the Northwest Indiana Regional Development Authority (RDA) recently approved a $75,000 matching grant to the Legacy Foundation for its Neighborhood Spotlight initiative in Gary’s Miller neighborhood.

“Over the past two years, the Legacy Foundation and its partners have worked with residents of Miller to identify key assets in their neighborhood and build consensus around a vision for their future,” says RDA President and CEO Bill Hanna. “Among those assets are the South Shore train station and Marquette Park, which are not only important to Miller but are also signature transportation and shoreline resources for the entire region. This grant will help Legacy and the residents of Miller maintain, improve and increase access to those properties for the benefit of all of Northwest Indiana.”

“Legacy Foundation is grateful for the generous support provided by the Regional Development Authority,” said Legacy Foundation President Carolyn Saxton. “Through the planning that has taken place with Neighborhood Spotlight’s collective impact initiative, RDA funding will be directed to solving community problems, creating opportunities and taking action steps to enhance the lives of people who live, work or play in Gary’s Miller neighborhood.”

Neighborhood Spotlight provides a framework for capacity-building, planning and implementation block by block. It is modeled after successful community development work in Indianapolis and Chicago. Neighborhood Spotlight guides a cross-section of community members who work collaboratively and collectively on improving quality of life in their neighborhoods. A convening organization, usually a community-based organization, will spearhead the coordination of neighborhood relationships. Miller hired a community builder and formed The Miller Spotlight Steering Committee to help carry out their community quality of life study.

The Steering Committee conducted more than 200 one-on-one interviews with residents to see what they felt were their community’s greatest strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats. 4,013 comments were collected during the SWOT pro-cess. Over the course of the next steps in the Neighborhood Spotlight initiative a plan of action will be created from these findings.

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