The Vibrant Communities of La Porte County initiative will hold a series of community conversations starting in late October to begin gathering community input and ideas on the future of La Porte County’s communities. This meaningful process is being coordinated by the Unity Foundation of La Porte County and the La Porte County Convention and Visitors Bureau. With the help of local partnerships, La Porte County and its communities will embark on a robust community-engagement effort to develop an action agenda for the communities of La Porte County. The Vibrant Initiative is seeking widespread community input throughout the upcoming months, beginning with five community conversations in various locations throughout the county. Everyone is invited to participate.
“This process is about all of our communities joining together to determine what we want for our future, whether it’s encouraging change or maintaining what we have, and that’s a process that is important for all of us,” said Justin Kiel, LaCrosse Town Council President and Co-Owner of The Regional News and Westville Indicator.
The goal of the Vibrant Initiative is to develop an action agenda that will guide the future of all the communities of La Porte County based on its residents’ vision and shared goals. Citizen involvement in the action agenda is critical to developing a vision for the county’s future and a plan to make that vision a reality.
“It’s been almost thirty years since the communities of La Porte County have come together to talk about our preferred future,” said Maggi Spartz, President of the Unity Foundation of La Porte County. “This is the perfect opportunity for all of our communities to look at what’s been accomplished since the last process and begin laying the foundation for the next thirty years.”
The Vibrant Initiative public engagement will kick off with five, large-format, community conversation sessions held throughout the county. During these sessions, a brief presentation will introduce the process, with most of the time dedicated to small group discussions and activities to generate input on the future of each community in La Porte County. Registration for these events is available, but not required, at: www.VibrantLPCounty.com. These five community conversations will be identical and will be on/at the following dates and locations:
South County
Monday, October 21, 2019
The Center of LaCrosse
100 S. Washington Street, LaCrosse, IN 46348
City of La Porte
Tuesday, October 22, 2019
La Porte Civic Auditorium
1001 Ridge Street, La Porte, IN 46350
West County
Wednesday, October 23, 2019
Dworkin Center at PNW Westville
1401 US-421, Westville, IN 46350
Michigan City
Monday, October 28, 2019
Blue Chip Casino Hotel
777 Blue Chip Drive, Michigan City, IN 46360
East/Northeast County
Tuesday, October 29, 2019
New Prairie High School
5333 N. Cougar Road, New Carlisle, IN 46552
*All meetings will be held from 6:00PM – 8:00PM CST
The community conversations will lay the foundation for the action agenda by collecting input from residents, business owners and other stakeholders. Their intuition coupled with extensive technical research and analysis will reveal the communities most pressing challenges and opportunities. The Vibrant Communities Initiative will regroup the communities at a Summit on the Future to review and refine the action items identified through public engagement. The results of the Summit will define the strategies supported by the community that will form the action agenda.
“We want to see everyone in our communities get involved in this process,” said Jack Arnett, Executive Director of the La Porte County Convention and Visitors Bureau. “This plan will include opportunities for everyone to participate and it’s critical that they do to define the future of our proud communities.”
To register for the upcoming community conversations, please click HERE.
