Ball State Institute Assists ‘Stellar’ Finalists

The Stellar Communities program began in 2011.

The six Indiana regions vying to earn this year’s Stellar Communities designations are moving forward with their plans. The Indiana Office of Community and Rural Affairs says the finalists have completed meetings with the Indiana Communities Institute at Ball State University.

OCRA says the meetings were built on three areas of focus, including providing regional data on education, population and economic indicators, project prioritization based on community survey responses, and value added asset mapping discussions. OCRA Executive Director Jodi Golden says each region can use the information to make better decisions on how to move forward with their projects.

"We enhanced the regional perspective of the Stellar Communities Program by creating a partnership with Ball State University," said Golden. "The Indiana Communities Institute provided essential data and guided the regions through exercises to assist with aligning their projects, further advancing their regional development plans."

OCRA unveiled the new regional model for the Stellar Communities program in January. The six finalist regions were announced in April.

Each finalist will receive a planning grant to continue work on their final regional development plans. Those plans are due in late September. The Stellar Communities winner will be announced at the end of the year.