Southwest communities level up within Indiana Main Street program
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Some southwest Indiana communities are celebrating new designations within the Indiana Main Street program, a statewide initiative that encourages community-driven revitalization of downtown areas led by the Indiana Office of Community and Rural Affairs in partnership with Main Street America.
The three levels of IMS include OCRA’s Downtown Affiliate Network, Aspiring Accredited Main Street and Accredited Main Street. This year, Framing Ferdinand (Dubois County) achieved ODAN status, while Association for a Better Rockport (Spencer County) reached the Aspiring IAMS distinction.
“It has taken so much work, dedication and time to get where we are. And there are times when you feel defeated,” said Lori Klem of Framing Ferdinand. “But what I think has helped us most is the little quick wins that have kept us going.”
Boonville Now (Warrick County), which received the Aspiring IAMS rank last year, applied for IAMS in 2025 but was not successful.
“It’s not uncommon for a town that’s ‘Aspiring’ to have to go two years before they get their Main Street status,” said Jim Miller, executive director of Boonville Now. “We are sitting down as a board, and we’re coming up with a plan to try and address those standards that we were lacking.”
Framing Ferdinand
According to OCRA, candidates for ODAN communities must be building capacity to execute the Main Street Four Point Approach: organization, promotion, design and economic vitality. The designation is also for groups who prefer to specialize in event-related activities only.
Framing Ferdinand, which was just incorporated in May 2024, wasted no time applying for the first IMS level.
“We want to continue to grow the town. How do we engage the community and provide activities, events and infrastructure for people? And potential homebuyers that say, ‘Hey, let’s take a look at Ferdinand. It’s got a great school community. It’s got a great park system. It’s got a nice business district,’” said Klem.
Klem credits the state’s Main Street Ready program for helping the organization identify the community’s needs and achieve ODAN status.
“That was a big, positive experience for us. We felt sometimes we didn’t necessarily know the direction we wanted to go. That helped us understand where we were headed, and it helped clarify some things for us,” said Klem.
While Framing Ferdinand is enjoying its ODAN success, the group is also examining requirements to reach the Aspiring IAMS level in 2026.
“The [IMS] and OCRA affiliation gives us a playbook to help us understand how we can make our Main Street in our town even better than what it is,” said Klem. “Each subcommittee [for organization, promotion, design and economic vitality] has to have work plans of what we’re going to do in the next 12 months to help Ferdinand and follow our mission statement.”
Association For A Better Rockport
Candidates for Aspiring IAMS communities are current ODAN members building capacity to accomplish the Main Street Four Point Approach, Baseline Requirements and IAMS standards.
Tanna Small with Association for a Better Rockport said the organization had to meet several conditions regarding volunteers, initiatives and partnerships to rise to the next IMS position.
“It can’t just be one person or one group. We had to show collaboration with the city, different boards and other civic groups. Once we were able to compile all of that information and prove that we have a group rally behind us, we were able to move forward,” said Small.
Small noted that the Aspiring IAMS designation offers a network of resources for ABR to use for community development.
“If we can use these resources to help get things going and get our buildings revitalized and bring some more businesses downtown, that’s the first step. And then once we hit the Indiana Main Street status, which would hopefully be next year, then we are eligible for some more grants through the OCRA program,” said Small.
The next steps for ABR, which was established more than 20 years ago, are to strengthen the entity and prepare for the IAMS application in 2026.
“Work on the infrastructure of the organization itself and add more members to our board and volunteer base. We’re also working on fundraising. That’s a huge goal for this year. We have to show that we have a dedicated budget for the revitalization programming,” Small said.
Boonville Now
IAMS candidates are Aspiring IAMS members with established capacity to fulfill the Main Street Four Point Approach, Baseline Requirements and IAMS standards. At this level, communities are eligible to apply for grants, including the PreservINg Main Street program.
Miller said Boonville Now, which was created in 2011, didn’t achieve IAMS this year because of low scores in a few areas. However, the entity scored high on collaboration.
“Our government involvement and partnerships, we scored pretty good. That’s the real positive thing that’s coming out of this is that as a result of trying to get our Main Street status, we’ve tackled partnerships, and we’re trying to build some new ones,” said Miller.
Miller believes the group’s infrastructure needs to be reinforced with more volunteers to share the responsibilities.
“We have too few people doing too much work. And that’s typical of any volunteer organization, 20% of the people do 80% of the work. [IMS wants] to see a little bit more action there,” said Miller. “We’re asking for around four to five hours a month. That’s it. And if [volunteers] can give us one or two, I’m good with it.”
Miller is also looking for a variety of people to be on the board in terms of age and occupation, as the organization plans to take another shot at the IAMS distinction next year.
“[IMS wants] to see us draw more of the community in, as diverse as possible,” said Miller. “They want to see measurable outcomes, that what we are doing is affecting small towns.”
OCRA hosts Main Street 101 training sessions for communities interested in joining the initiative. The next event is July 23 from 11 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. ET at Indiana Government Center South in Indianapolis.