La Porte County has not held a county-wide planning and engagement process since 1992. So local government and community members were eager to see a plan start to unfold as the La Porte County Convention and Visitors Bureau and the Unity Foundation worked together with local funders to hire Planning NEXT to lead the Vibrant Communities initiative.
The Vibrant Communities Initiative is a county-wide attempt at forming an action agenda for the county. At the end of the process, La Porte County will have a road map of where its residents want to see it in the coming years.
“The concept is that if everyone is going in different directions nothing is getting accomplished,” said Marketing Coordinator for Unity Foundation, Lisa Stojanovich. “Planning NEXT has compiled everything that communities have said they would like to see happen and have analyzed it, which will take us into the next step of creating an action plan that keeps us all on the same page.”
Vibrant Communities has already done work in downtown Valparaiso, Elkhart County, and many others throughout Indiana as part of their initiative. Visit Michigan City La Porte Executive Director Jack Arnett was so impressed with what was done in Elkhart, he couldn’t wait to bring Vibrant Communities to La Porte County.
“We have 16 communities in the county, and a lot of people don’t understand that 14 of those communities are small and hardly ever get brought into the discussion. This opportunity is something new where we’ve gone out and spoken to all of those communities and more,” Arnett said. “I couldn’t wait to get the ball rolling on this. They’ve done great work and I can’t wait to see what they do in La Porte.”
President of the Unity Foundation of La Porte County Maggi Spartz has been working closely with Arnett and the tourism bureau since 2012 to get the community involved in creating a better La Porte County. The two businesses had never worked together in this capacity before, so when the opportunity arose for them to partner in hiring Vibrant Communities, the offer couldn’t be refused.
“It’s like getting in your car and putting La Porte into your GPS. What do we put in there? Where do we want to go?” Spartz said. “We needed to take a few months and reflect on our wonderful county and where it is that we want to go going forward. That’s never one person’s decision.”
It turns out that folks enjoy being asked about their community and what they want the future to hold.
“When they sit around the tables and talk to people they may not know, it’s really fun to think about your community, and everyone starts to get invested,” Spartz said. “And then we convene the people who don’t normally get asked, like the Hispanic, African-American, LGBTQ, or youth communities because they have good information and input that they don’t usually get to give.”
It appears that the majority of people are optimistic about their community and enjoy living in La Porte County. That will be something that will take the newfound action plan to fruition. Steering committee member and retired elementary principal Peggy Thomas knows the potential that La Porte County holds, and is passionate about helping the community strive for greatness.
“Our communities need to hear from all of our people in order to make it something that we all want,” Thomas said. “I believe in our community. I’ve lived and worked in Michigan City for over 30 years, so I’ve seen the great things that have come out of plans like this. I know we’re going to continue to strive for greatness.”
President of the La Porte County Council, Fire Chief of Michigan City, and Century 21 Realtor Randy Novak is another official excited to see what Vibrant Communities can do. As an elected official, it’s plans and gatherings like this that help him gauge what the communities want.
“What Vibrant Communities has been able to do is give a voice to the entire county, which is hard to do because Michigan City and La Porte get a lot of attention most of the time,” Novak said. “This is the kind of stuff that helps us steer the ship and drive the boat. These are the kind of things that help us a lot so that we can understand what they want and their visions.”