MUNCIE, Ind. – Better jobs, affordable housing and healthy neighborhoods in Muncie will be the goals of a new downtown center funded by a $400,000 federal grant to Ball State University. Ball State and the city will open a Community Outreach Partnership Center early next year with a U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development grant awarded Aug. 28.

The center will address two major community needs identified in several local studies: improved job opportunities for the underemployed workforce, and affordable housing and development of resident-driven plans for targeted neighborhoods.

"It’s going to impact neighborhoods," said Teresa Jeter-Newburn, community builder in HUD’s Indiana state office. "This is a catalyst that can boost other partnerships. A project like this is very attractive to organizations that will be involved to attract additional resources."

The HUD grant will be matched by $600,000 in commitments from Ball State, the city of Muncie, the Muncie-Delaware County Chamber of Commerce and Star Financial Bank.

Ball State is among 16 colleges and universities chosen nationwide for $6.4 million in new grants from HUD’s Community Outreach Partnership Centers (COPC) program. More than 87 schools competed for the funds.The COPC program is administered by HUD’s Office of University Partnerships, which works to join colleges and universities with their communities in a shared search for answers to urban problems.

The annual COPC grants help schools to provide technical assistance, training and applied research to community-based groups and local governments. Through the projects, students learn about their communities and neighborhood residents gain access to the knowledge and resources of higher education institutions.

"These grants allow communities and universities to get together and solve these low-income issues," Jeter-Newburn said. "Certainly Ball State has done its part in reaching out to the community, and this is another way the university is continuing that partnership."

Muncie’s Community Outreach Partnership Center will facilitate initiatives in five key areas:

• Neighborhood revitalization: community cooperatives for purchasing building and landscaping materials, technical assistance in landscaping and construction for the Muncie Housing Coalition, prototype designs for parking/garage issues and home rehabilitation projects, and fair housing information for residents.
• Employment opportunities: evaluation of workforce needs for existing and targeted industries, skills assessment and retraining of underemployed residents, evaluation of the potential to attract "sustainable" industries such as recycled building materials, and a plan for a high-tech business park.
• Downtown revitalization: plans for connecting the downtown with other parts of the community, a database of available downtown properties, and identification of business opportunities.
• Homeless needs: a study to determine the demographic characteristics and long-term service needs of Muncie’s homeless.
• Citizen education: a community information network serving nonprofit organizations, completion and Web publication of neighborhood studies in Muncie’s core, and revision of the Academy for Community Leadership curriculum.

First submitted last year, the grant proposal evolved from a three-year effort to develop a Community Outreach Partnership Center program. It builds on several other community studies, forums and the priorities of the city’s Consolidated Plan.

(EDITORS: For more information about this project, contact urban planning professor Eric Kelly, project manager, at (765) 285-1909 or e-mail: ekelly@bsu.edu.)