In 2018, the Randolph County Economic Development Corporation approached Ball State University’s Indiana Communities Institute to assist them in developing a new, innovative, and more comprehensive approach to building a stronger and more sustainable community. From those meetings came “Cultivating Community: A New Approach to Growing Home” which launched in 2019.
Since that time this initiative has accomplished creating a brochure that promotes all of the parks in Randolph County, created Randy Raccoon, a mascot for our parks, created a “Forum of Funders” with 10 voting members, established an internship partnership between local schools and businesses, and confirmed waterway navigability or lack thereof and planned waterway protection education, among other things.
Earlier this year, a series of four listening sessions organized by Randolph County United, the Community Foundation of Randolph County, and Ball State University’s Indiana Communities Institute, were held in communities throughout the county. During these sessions, attendees came up with a number of issues they felt should be addressed in order to improve the quality of life in Randolph County.
Last Thursday, a meeting called “Cultivating Community: The Next Act” was held at the Randolph County Fairgrounds where the information collected in those sessions was further discussed, combining and narrowing them down to come up with those issues felt to be most important. Attendees then broke into groups with each group selecting an issue they felt strongly about.
The groups then attempted to come up with actions that could be taken to address their issues, and create a reasonable timeline for these actions to be taken. Another meeting will be held at noon on Dec. 8 during which these groups will report on their efforts to address their issues and determine the next steps that need to be taken.
These meetings have helped to identify issues that are important to members of the community, and allow members of the community to gather and discuss ways to address the issues, the next step is to turn those discussions into actions that will improve the quality of life in Randolph County by addressing the issues that are of most concern to its residents.