Community Impact Report

Understanding Our Community

GIFT VII planning grants supported a comprehensive planning process. This allowed the Community Foundation Alliance to utilize these grant dollars to contract with Chmura to collect and compile data, and Thomas P. Miller & Associates (TPMA) to lead the planning process.


For this process, the nine-county affiliates were grouped based on geographic proximity, as well as factors such as the overlap of industry and services, common time zones, and work travel patterns. Learn more about Region A which includes, Daviess, Knox, and Pike counties.

Key Development Indicators

For each subregion, Chmura identified 46 meaningful development indicators, conforming to four primary categories.

Demographics

Economics

Human Capital

Quality of Place

Determining Top Priorities

TPMA reviewed all data collected by Chmura, analyzed additional data, and explored basic demographic trends for each county using information from the U.S. Census Bureau.


TPMA then identified five potential priority areas of need and opportunity for each subregion, to be further prioritized through a series of Community Forums that helped identify the county specific issues and opportunities

Increased Economic Opportunity

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    Plans looked to increase economic opportunity. To accomplish this, plans suggest the subregion focus on:

    • Retaining business
    • Strengthening regional collaboration and assets
    • Strengthening partnerships with economic development organizations, local elected officials, and business and community leaders

Workforce Development

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    Plans looked to increase workforce development opportunities. Subregions focused on:

    • Agribusiness Food Processing
    • Advanced Materials
    • Transportation Equipment Manufacturing

Infrastructure

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    Subregions focused on:

    • Housing
    • Drainage
    • Broadband

Obesity

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    • Currently, there are programs to motivate residents to become more physically active
    • There are programs to educate residents about nutrition to help motivate change in nutritional behavior
    • Things to consider: food environment and access to exercise opportunities

Mental Health & Substance Abuse

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    These two topics can be interconnected, but not always

    • Struggle to access care
    • Cost for treatment is a barrier
    • Shortage of Mental Health providers
    • Alcohol, opiod, and meth abuse or dependency
    • Drug addicts have unmet healthcare needs because mental health issues are not addressed
    • Mental Health Care providers are strained
    • Need for more addiction counselors
    • Good employment opportunities play a role in helping people with substance use disorders seek the help they need
    • There is also a need for Primary Care Physicians

Community Forums

Structure

The Community Leader Forums began the process of narrowing to a single topic area that would be addressed in the Lilly Endowment GIFT VII Implementation Grant proposal. Forum participants included local leaders of nonprofit organizations, municipal and elected officials, business and industry leaders, and active community philanthropists. Forums were conducted with an initial overview of the background research and an explanation of how the top five topics were chosen. In addition, participants added the following topics: 


  • Transportation
  • Education


Participants prioritized topics and held active discussions about what they have observed about the specific topic. Upon completion, TPMA facilitated Regional Board Forums for each subregion to further narrow the topics. These forums followed a similar process to ensure consistency.

Forum Findings

Infrastructure

Increased Economic Opportunity

Mental Health & Substance Abuse

During the forums, several areas of improvement were documented. With regards to Infrastructure, a few key concerns were discussed: housing availability and affordability, access to broadband, and availability of transportation. With regards to Increased Economic Opportunity, concerns highlighted were: difficulty attracting businesses, workforce development/attraction, and a lack of quality of place amenities.

Leading Change

Overview

The Daviess County Community Foundation has chosen to address Increased Economic Opportunity by supporting ongoing efforts to improve Quality of Place in Daviess County.


This grant will support the construction of The Commons of Daviess County, a public community space along Main Street in Washington, IN.


The Commons will provide a centralized gathering space for community events and will revitalize a portion of downtown Main Street by attracting community members, visitors, and new businesses. The space will offer entertainment and amenities, as well as create a desirable and active downtown for new places of business.


The Commons project was identified as a priority through the Daviess County Quality of Place and Workforce Attraction Plan, which was developed as part of the Ready Communities Initiative to address economic prosperity and workforce development in the area.

Implementation Grant Recipient


Daviess County Economic Development

Foundation

Collaborating Organizations


City of Washington, Daviess County, Knights of Columbus Council 630, Regional Opportunities Initiative

Activity Update

  • March 2023

    During the previous six-month reporting period, construction for the Daviess County Commons project commenced after completing necessary preparations, such as finalizing financing and contracting. A groundbreaking ceremony took place on March 23, 2023, and the project is set to be finished by year-end. In addition, there is growing investment in downtown Washington, with Discover Downtown Washington designated as an Indiana Main Street organization and a new sandwich shop opening soon.

  • September 2022

    Over the last six months, the Daviess County Commons project has progressed to 90% design stage and final stages of preparing construction documents for bid. The Daviess County Economic Development Corporation (DCEDC) continues to work on the appropriate financing mechanism for delivering the project. Due to the multiple numbers of partners from both a funding and technical support standpoint, the design process has taken longer than expected to ensure each organization’s viewpoints and needs are known and taken into consideration. DCEDC hopes to begin construction in the fall of 2022, with a construction timeline of twelve months and the fall 2023 grand opening.

  • March 2022

    The Daviess County Commons design process is advancing, now at the 60% mark in producing construction documents. At the last planning meeting, several changes were suggested, driving up the cost of the project to approximately $4.2 million. They are talks with the city and county about increasing their contributions to the project, and they have secured a private donation. DCEDC and project partners have some decisions to make, 1) decide on target budget and whether the project needs to be done in phases or scaled back, and 2) decide exact funding strategy for taking the project into construction. The current target bidding timeframe is June/July of this year.

  • September 2021

    When the initial grant application was made, there were two properties in play that DCEDC had not officially acquired. DCEDC has now secured both properties and added an additional property as well. With the acquisition of the full space, it has been determined that it is best to implement the project in phases. As progress has been made, there have been additional changes in specific costs for the project, as well as increases in funding commitments from various sources. The site will be demolished in the coming weeks and begin to show the transformation of the space. What was a few abandoned buildings and vacant parking lots will become a vibrant park and gathering space in the community.

  • March 2021

    The Daviess County Community Foundation awarded GIFT VII Implementation Grant funds to Daviess County Economic Development Foundation in December 2020. Planning of the project continues to move forward and funders continue to meet regularly.