Jay County Strategic Investment Plan

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The Hoosier Enduring Legacy Program, or HELP, is a 52 week process of community engagement and planning resulting in a plan for how Jay County will use federal American Rescue Plan funds.  The plan will be rooted in four pathways:

1. Advancing e-connectivity
2. Promoting Community Wellness
3. Enhancing Quality of Place
4. Strengthening Local Economies

There are many benefits to HELP:

• The Office of Community and Rural Affairs, OCRA, will match up to $1 million in funds towards our plan.
• We build community capacity by working through the planning process as a community with the help of many state-level partners.
• Strengthened relationships with our peer communities of Auburn and Kosciusko County as well as many state partners like OCRA, Indiana Arts Commission, Indiana Housing & Community Development Authority, Indiana Department of Health, Indiana Department of Transportation and consultants like CivicLab.  As we go through this process together we will learn from each other and make many important and long lasting connections.
• Increasing community involvement through the outreach and engagement efforts that are facilitated with assistance from experts across the state.

Local coordination will be spearheaded by the Jay County Development Corporation with a six person core team leading the process.  Additionally, Pathway Committees will be formed for each of the four pathways mentioned above.

These are federal funds received by Jay County from the US Treasury as part of the COVID relief legislation in 2020.  These funds go by many names but are most commonly called:

• American Rescue Plan Act 
  • ARPA or ARP
• Coronavirus Local Fiscal Recovery Funds 
  • CLFRF

Jay County has already identified our Community Coordinator, Christy Shauver, and the core team, Christy Shauver, Chad Aker, Jeanne Houchins, Doug Inman, Trent Paxson, and Travis Richards.  The next step is developing the pathway committees.  Training with CivicLab is scheduled for May and a community forum will be held in June.

There are many ways to be a part of the process.

• Join a pathway team
• Complete surveys that we send out
• Share social media posts about HELP
• Sign up for updates from our site to stay informed