Lake County's Legacy Foundation intends to extend its community-building efforts throughout the county with creation of a nonprofit community development corporation.
The Lake County CDC would follow on Legacy's Neighborhood Spotlight and Choice Neighborhood programs of recent years. Those helped develop plans and initiate projects in three Gary neighborhoods, in Griffith and in northwest Hobart.
"We see this as an opportunity to provide much-needed community development support to area neighborhoods,” Legacy Foundation President Carolyn Saxton said of the CDC.
The foundation, with support from the JPMorgan Chase Foundation, will hire an acting director for the CDC and work with that person to create an organization that can apply for independent non-profit status after the first year.
“The short term goal of this project is to create a sustainable CDC that will be able to focus on the transformation of vulnerable, undervalued and transitional neighborhoods into healthier places where people invest their time, energy and resources and where residents are engaged in community problem solving,” said Kelly Anoe, Legacy Foundation vice president.
“In the long term, we believe this will increase access to economic opportunity and mobility for residents across Lake County,” Anoe said.
JPMorgan Chase also provided grants for the Neighborhood Spotlight program, which included creation of detailed "quality of life" plans for the Miller and Emerson areas in Gary, northwest Hobart and the town of Griffith. Faith Farms urban garden in Gary's Emerson neighborhood and a bike-sharing program in Miller are among the projects that have emerged.
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