Muncie Taking Care of Itself

 Reading The Muncie Journal's Muncie Action Plan Task Force 1 Links Learning, Health and Prosperity, I was impressed by how the city is taking control of its fate. I do not believe Anderson ever fid anything of its like. An example:

Cultivate opportunities for upward mobility

What does this mean?

As in most communities with a similar economic background, decades of deindustrialization have made it harder for individuals with low or outdated skills to climb the economic ladder in Muncie and Delaware County and created concentrations of high poverty that are difficult to escape from. Cultivating opportunities for upward mobility is about expanding the chances that individuals and families have to advance their economic position and contribute meaningfully to community goals.

This ‘Big Thing’ ties into a number of spheres, such as the quality of educational and training infrastructure, access to work opportunities to build skills and experience, and improvements to household stability. But it also ties into matters of housing policy (does it alleviate or exacerbate concentrated poverty?) and the degree to which community decision-making is intentional about creating a sense of agency and ownership in areas of high need.

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 Muncie’s Web of Support: Everybody Succeeds is a program initiated by the Muncie Action Plan in 2019 and administered by Zyra Zylstra and the Future of Work. Described as “a local mentoring initiative that uses a relational approach to help youth and adults identify, expand, and strengthen their own support systems.” The Web of Support aims to develop youth through every aspect of their lives.  TF1 has the ultimate goal of creating a rich web of caring adults to guide youth in making healthy lifestyle choices and to create connections through mentoring that will keep youth and adults engaged in learning and community.

 That article then led to Delaware-Muncie’s Key Issues and Top Priorities. I thought its discussion of Muncie's assets and debits clear-eyed.

I have to say Muncie looks better than I remember it from my last visit in March of 2010 while not wanting to mislead the city having work still to do. It looks like coming here was not such a bad idea.

sch

12/29/21