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Near Eastside neighborhood gathered to discuss innovation in local school

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On Jan. 30, 250 Near Eastside neighbors and local leaders gathered at an Education Summit at School 15 to brainstorm ideas on how they could better serve their students and community. The neighborhood has created a steering committee to work on school issues that includes members from the John Boner Neighborhood Centers, Englewood Community Development Corporation, Near East Area Renewal, Local Initiatives Support Corporation and Englewood Christian Church. Click here to read about this issue on Chalkbeat Indiana.

ACE PREPARATORY ACADEMY CHARTER SCHOOL ADDS VIABLE EDUCATION OPTION TO NORTHEAST CORRIDOR

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BES-Indy LLC, a special purpose entity of Charter School Support Services, a national nonprofit developer, recently closed on construction financing from LISC and IFF to finance the development of a facility located at 5326 Hillside Avenue which will be leased to a new K-5 charter elementary school, ACE Preparatory Academy (“ACE Prep”). The start-up school is founded by Anna Shults. ACE Prep is scheduled to open in the fall of 2016 and will serve a total of 432 students at full enrollment. Read more here.

City Celebrates Dedication of Central State Greens NFL Field

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Central State Greens, a redevelopment project encompassing over 9 acres at the heart of the former Central State Hospital site, is made possible by a unique partnership between LISC Indianapolis, the City of Indianapolis, and Reverie Estates. Central State Hospital, created in 1827, once cared for nearly 3,000 patients on its 140 acre grounds. Funding cuts led to the hospital’s closure in 1994 and the site has been vacant and in deteriorating condition ever since. Its revitalization has been a centerpiece of the Near West neighborhood Quality of Life plan.   The development connects the Near West neighborhood and residents with students at IUPUI, an … Continued

Neighborhood Visionary: Diane Arnold

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For Diane Arnold, executive director of Hawthorne Community Center, the Hawthorne neighborhood on Indianapolis’s Near Westside isn’t just where she works—it’s where she lives. It’s where her family lives. And it’s a community she’s been working to improve for more than 40 years. Diane’s roots at the Hawthorne Community Center began with her mother accepting the position as executive director more than four decades ago. At the time, the Hawthorne Community Center was little more than an informal rec center, providing kids and families a safe place to play and congregate. Since then, Hawthorne Community Center has taken tremendous strides … Continued

Cities are Great Places to Raise Kids

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I recently participated in a planning session for downtown Indianapolis that included cultural and civic leaders who I would generally consider very pro-urban Indianapolis. As the conversation turned toward the urgent need to recruit more taxpayers into city neighborhoods, one of my colleagues stated that it really wasn’t practical to raise a middle-class family in the city, and many others agreed. Well, as a father of three young adults raised in urban Indy, this strong sentiment shocked me. I mistakenly thought that city living had become popular enough that young parents would now consider an urban lifestyle a viable alternative … Continued

Will Education Reform Strengthen Neighborhoods? A Public Conversation

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On Tuesday, May 7, 2013 at 5:30pm, please join us at The Platform, 202 East Market Street, to hear and participate as PNC and LISC present a panel of local education leaders to discuss how their work is affecting Indy’s neighborhoods. In the past decade, Indianapolis has become a hotbed of reform efforts aimed at radically improving public education. At the same time, our urban neighborhoods often suffer from poor reputations and declining populations due in large part to the public perception of their schools. A recent analysis shows that some of Indy’s neighborhoods are well-served by their schools while others are terribly underserved. … Continued

Neighborhood Visionary Project: The Charles A. Tindley Accelerated School

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It was an idea as risky as it was bold: to open Indiana’s first accelerated school—using a rigorous accelerated education model that treats all students as gifted—in an abandoned grocery store in one of Indianapolis’s most economically-depressed areas. But LISC saw promise in the vision of the Charles A. Tindley Accelerated School’s founders, and provided a charter school loan to help it get off the ground. “LISC saw what we saw,” Tindley co-founder Siri Loescher said. “An opportunity to help kids get a better education in an area where it’s needed most.” Today, the Tindley School is a model of … Continued

Neighborhood Visionary Project: Chase Near Eastside Legacy Center

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Vibrant neighborhoods. Impassioned community leadership. Engaged residents. They’re all components of a successful city. And ambitious projects like the Chase Near Eastside Legacy Center show that Indianapolis is rich in all three. It hasn’t always been that way—especially not on the city’s Near Eastside. For decades, the area was characterized by vacant homes and storefronts, rising crime rates, and the collapse of key neighborhood institutions. But five years ago, a group of dedicated residents came together under the auspices of the Great Indy Neighborhoods Initiatives (GINI) and the Local Initiatives Support Corporation (LISC) to improve their community through a bold … Continued

Neighborhood Visionary: Terri Garcia

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Education. Jobs. Affordable housing. These are just some of the things Southeast Community Services and Executive Director Terri Garcia bring to the Near Southeast side of Indianapolis. And for Terri it’s not just a job: it’s a labor of love. “I truly enjoy bringing positive change to Indianapolis’s Near Southeast side. And positive change in this community starts with education. But even though educating people is the foundation of our success stories, we don’t force it on people. We give our residents the tools they need to get educated; they have to take it upon themselves to use them.” A … Continued