Acknowledgements
ECHO Housing Corporation
Stephanie TenBarge, Executive Director
Jennifer Mason Evans, Jacobsville Community Builder
Leeanne Pease, Program Assistant
Jacobsville Join In Planning Committee
Rick Barter
Emily Baxter
Sarah Brown
Dr. Cathlin Gray
Kathy Guntel
Andrea Hays
Gail Knight Williams
Lori Madison
Jennifer Mason Evans
Austin Maxheimer
Mark Merrill
Heather Ottilie
Leeanne Pease
Lori Reed
Amanda Schmitt
Steve Smith
Todd Slagle
Nathan Steele
Stephanie TenBarge
Business Corridors Work Group
Amanda Schmitt, Chair
Bix Branson
Emily Brinkmeyer
Karen Builtman
Kristine Cordts
Darla Daily Smith
Joe Easley
Jeff Ellison
Barbara Harrison
Barbara Hubbard
Jennifer Mason Evans
Leeanne Pease
Skyler York
Employment Work Group
Amanda Schmitt, Chair
Emily Baxter
Gail Knight Williams
Stephanie TenBarge
Housing Work Group
Stephanie TenBarge, Chair
Leota Brigham
Karen Carter
Tom Coe
Josh DeYoung
Cindy Dreshfield
Joe Easley
Kathy Guntel
Pam Jennings
Ken Kreke
Lynn Martin
Jonathan Miller
Brian Murphy
Lori Reed
Jamison Scott
Infrastructure & Parks Work Group
Heather Ottilie, Chair
Stephanie Brinkerhoff Riley
William Bussing
Nettie Cardwell
Dane Hancock
Andrea Hays
Stacy Jensen
Austin Maxheimer
Jim Morgan
Jamison Scott
Stephanie TenBarge
Safety & Cleanliness Work Group
Melissa Tines, Chair
Jessica Brooks
Sarah Brown
Amanda Cushing
Eric Dreshfield
Paul Elderbrook
Kathy Guntel
Jim Morgan
Leeanne Pease
Susan Outlaw
Jamison Scott
Kate Stevens
Amber Waddell
Youth & Education Work Group
Leeanne Pease, Co-Chair
Lori Madison, Co-Chair
Daniele Albrecht
Karen Carter
Brittney Drone
Gail Knight Williams
Trey McClain
Dave Schuttee
Jamison Scott
Emily Searl
John Skinner
Todd Slagle
Nathan Steele
Kate Stevens
Melissa Tines
The City of Evansville granted funds to ECHO Housing Corporation for a resident-led collaborative process to develop a Quality of Life Plan with the Jacobsville neighborhood. The initiative is known as Jacobsville Join In!
The Jacobsville neighborhood is north of downtown Evansville, and is a core urban neighborhood. It is bounded by the Lloyd Expressway to the south, First Avenue to the west, Diamond Avenue to the north, and Governor/Garvin to the east.
Kleymeyer Park, Garvin Park, and Bosse Field are city parks nested in the neighborhood, north of Morgan and the railroad tracks. Jacobsville Park, a pocket park is located along Baker Avenue and Maryland.
There is a Tax Increment Finance (TIF) District called the Jacobsville Redevelopment Area at the south end of the neighborhood. This area has recently been expanded through a planning process and expansion of the redevelopment area was proposed. The newly expanded TIF district boundary includes key areas such as the Main Street area from the expressway to Bosse Field at the north end. Its boundaries include Lloyd Expressway to the South, Maryland Street and Main Street to Bosse Field to the North, 2nd Avenue to the West and Heidelbach Avenue to the East.
Jacobsville is centrally located within the City of Evansville. It is next to downtown Evansville, and has convenient access to Lloyd Expressway. The neighborhood is well populated with nearly 7,000 residents that call Jacobsville home.
There are numerous existing resources within Jacobsville including: parks, churches, community organizations, school systems, libraries, public spaces, associations, events, and programs. St. Lucas United Church of Christ, St. Paul’s Lutheran Church and School, Central United Methodist Church and pre-school, and Gethsemane Church are some of the neighborhood’s longstanding churches. Delaware School is a neighborhood anchor institution. ECHO Housing Corporation, Dream Center, Vanderburgh Humane Society, St. Vincent’s Daycare & Pre-school, SWIRCA & More are among many community organizations that provide services and programs to the community. The Jacobsville Neighborhood Improvement Association, Jacobsville Area Community Corporation and Northside Business Association are the neighborhood mainstays offering support to residents and stakeholders. The historic Willard Library sits in the southwest corner of Jacobsville, and Stringtown Public Library lies near the neighborhood border. The Jacobsville neighborhood hosts annual events at its parks and along North Main Street, including the Ritzy’s Fantasy of Lights, Evansville’s Christmas on North Main Parade, and Flower Power, with new events coming to the area such as Bosse Field Classic Car Show and Evansville Streets Alive. The historic Bosse Field rests south of Garvin Park and is the home field for the Evansville Otters.
Jacobsville has a wide array of local businesses mixed within the neighborhood. Business has a long history in the neighborhood, and many of these local businesses have been around for generations, such as Hickory Pit Stop – in its 52nd year of business and Comaier – family owned since 1964, serving neighborhood residents and others living and working in Evansville. Jacobsville has a wide array of industries including: manufacturing, healthcare, retail and restaurants. Major industries in Jacobsville include AmeriQual Group LLC., Berry Plastics Corporation, Deaconess Health System and Vectren Corporation. Most businesses, schools and public spaces are within a short walking distance for residents.
What is a Quality of Life Plan?
A Quality of Life plan is a way for a neighborhood – a defined place where people, businesses, and organizations are connected – to define and document a vision for the future rooted in the assets of the neighborhood, the resources (time, talent, and treasure) available, and the passion of the local residents and stakeholders. Developed by people from the neighborhood, residents and stakeholders have “skin in the game” and are likely to engage in doing the work of implementing the plan and improving the quality of life in the neighborhood. The plan establishes a way for residents and stakeholders to hold each other accountable through action plans with performance measures. Coordinating across topical areas for a specific neighborhood, the plan ensures that projects are rooted in a common vision, rather than individual endeavors that don’t build toward success for the neighborhood. It can also be used to leverage external resources, primarily power (political) and capital (money).
A quality of life plan is holistic in approach – it does not consider physical elements apart from the social aspects of community, or away from the need for the economics of place to work. It includes physical, social, and economic elements of the neighborhood rooted in civic leadership. We identify twelve principles of healthy neighborhoods:
Principles of Healthy Neighborhoods
Process
The Quality of Life process is built around three key stages: organize, decide, and act. “Organize” is the work of organizing the neighborhood and empowering residents. It involves developing relationships and learning about people’s concerns and passions through a series of one-on-one interviews. People who were interested in conducting the interviews were trained in the process, including intentionally listening. These interviews were not to solve problems, identify needs, or share information – they were to listen to what people who live in the neighborhood and who are stakeholders in the neighborhood think about the neighborhood and learn what they are passionate about. The people to be interviewed included formal leaders – those with a following because of position or resources, and informal leadership – those with a following because people listen to them and they live in the neighborhood.
The second stage, “decide,” is where the neighborhood vision was developed in a neighborhood workshop held at Delaware School on a Saturday morning. From the vision, working groups were established to develop goals and action plans. The work group chairs attended a training to learn how to develop specific, measureable, aggressive yet achievable, relevant, time-bound (SMART) goals. They also learned how to develop action plans to support the goals that included actions, responsible parties, timelines, and performance measures. The outcome of their work formed the work plan for the Quality of Life plan.
“Act” is the final stage of the process. It includes developing the Quality of Life plan, going public through a rollout celebration, and doing the hard work of implementing the plan. It also involves monitoring the progress of the plan on a regular basis and evaluating whether the situation has changed or changes are needed to be successful.
Programs and Activities
Jacobsville Join In Office
Throughout the Quality of Life process, Jacobsville Join In (JJI) has maintained a project office where people can come to meet, share ideas, and learn about the initiative. The office has also served as “home base” for the JJI staff. Established at 621 North Main Street, the office is conveniently located for residents and stakeholders to gather.
Join In with Your Two Cents
While the Quality of Life plan was being developed, we established a neighborhood-driven fund to show potential funders that residents and stakeholders are 100% vested in the neighborhood vision. Residents and stakeholders provide their thoughts and ideas (TWO Cents) to develop their own vision and goals for the Jacobsville neighborhood, as well as two cents (pennies) to demonstrate their financial commitment
Our goal was to collect $304.66; the idea was not to have the MOST money, but to have the MOST vested community! We collected TWO Cents for every resident and stakeholder in the neighborhood...that’s about 30,466 pennies! The funds collected will be used toward a community project and as leverage to attract additional funding to implement the quality of life plan.
How did we come up with the numbers? Here is the math…
6,973 Residents +
8,000 Jobs +
260 Commercial Properties
= 15, 233 Individuals
15,233 Individuals x $0.02 = $304.66 (30,466 pennies)
Early Action Grants
The purpose of the early action grants was to build on the quality of life process taking place in Jacobsville and show early “wins.” Grant projects included many activities: community gardens or greenscapes; organized events, such as litter cleanups or block parties; or forming organized groups like a neighborhood crime watch.
Jacobsville residents and stakeholders were eligible to apply for early action grants beginning March 21, 2013. Grants were awarded for a minimum $250 up to $1,000 total for projects. Projects needed to engage and bring together residents and stakeholders throughout the Jacobsville neighborhood.
Organization / Project / AmountJacobsville Area Community Corp.
JACC –North Main Christmas Parade / Banners for Evansville’s Christmas on North Main Parade / $1,000.00
Community One, Inc. / Exterior home repair and/rehab / $500.00
Throw Your Worries Away / Flower beautification neighborhood event / $757.00
Jacobsville Neighborhood Improvement Association / Neighborhood association awareness campaign / $500.00
Jacobsville Join IN / Neighborhood litter cleanup / $713.00
Lucas Place Shining Stars / Art show benefit / $250.00
One Life West – Bauer Group / Neighborhood block party / $313.00
Deaconess Family Medicine / Mom’s group summer program / $325.00
Jacobsville Area Community Corp. / Jacobsville good neighbor recognition program / $463.00
Evansville’s Christmas on North Main Parade
JACC/Evansville’s Christmas on North Main Street Committee applied and received an Early Action Grant in the amount of $1,000 from ECHO Housing Corporation’s Jacobsville Join In, to help cover the cost of banners and brackets for the Evansville Christmas on North Main Street Parade. The grant was used, in full, to purchase reusable banners to help advertise the parade and new parade route from November to Christmas Day. The total cost of the parade was roughly $20,000 – the banners alone were estimated at $4,000. The JACC Christmas on North Main Committee secured the remaining costs by partnering with Vectren and various other organizations (over 200 stakeholders/organizations); to not only secure funding, but to install banners on several light poles along North Main Street from Division St. to Garvin Park.
The parade was a huge success with over 130 individual unit parade entries and thousands of spectators from all over Evansville came to Jacobsville for the parade. The change in the route was an economic benefit for businesses on North Main Street as they were encouraged to stay open during parade hours, showcasing what Jacobsville North Main Street has to offer. JACC Christmas on North Main Committee continues to secure funding, volunteers and participants for the annual parade. JACC also announced the banners will be used again in 2014 with intent to have more banners made and hung along N. Main St.
Jacobsville Neighborhood Improvement Association
Jacobsville Neighborhood Improvement Association applied and received an Early Action Grant in the amount of $500 from ECHO Housing Corporation’s Jacobsville Join In, to help cover the cost of revitalizing the neighborhood association by means of community engagement. At the time the grant was written, the association had lost many if not all of the members and no elected chairs were in office; however, Jacobsville residents and stakeholders expressed their need and want for the association to be revitalized. They came together, proposed, and began work on revitalizing JNIA June 2013. Though the awarded funds were to be used before Dec. 31, 2013, JNIA was unable to hold elections until the beginning of 2014. Due to this circumstance, ECHO agreed to “hold” the grant funds until JNIA could establish chair leaders.
In February 2014, JNIA chairs were elected and the revitalization is in full swing. During the beginning stages, community engagement and memberships are needed in order to sustain future funding. The funds awarded to JNIA will be used to engage more residents and stakeholders in the community to take ownership of the Jacobsville neighborhood.
Engagement will take form in several ways:
• yard signs indicating “this Tuesday” for the meetings so they can be placed monthly in the yards of members in accordance with city ordinances
• postage costs for JNIA mailings
• printing costs for flyers, newsletters, announcements, agendas, etc.
A JNIA Community Engagement Committee will be requesting volunteers to continually engage residents, businesses and friends.
Jacobsville Neighborhood Clean Up
JJI applied and received an Early Action Grant in the amount of $713 to help cover the cost for the Jacobsville Neighborhood Clean Up. JJI used the grant, in full, to organize and host the Jacobsville 2013 Litter Clean Up, which took place on August 3, 2013. Total estimated cost of the project was $2730.
JJI was able to secure sponsor support and man power from several local businesses: Coca-Cola, Keep Evansville Beautiful, DiLegge’s, Advanced Disposal, American Sanitary, Paula Winstead Haller – ERA, and Hay Now Graphics, but most important was the residential engagement. Residents and stakeholders took to the street and posted flyers for advertisement. “Jacobsville Join In” t-shirts were distributed to participants to showcase JJI and community efforts and events. Litter clean-up tips were provided, as well as, gloves, trash bags and disposal. Residents were also given “trash grabbers” for home to encourage clean-up of their yard and block. Teams were formed to clean specific areas throughout Jacobsville and over 130 participated in the day’s events. The team’s total trash collected? Nearly 2 tons of litter and debris!!!