Unique partnership with IU creating framework for Dubois County improvement projects

ByMatthew Crane Reading Time: 4 minutes

Dubois County is benefitting from a partnership with IU’s Center for Rural Engagement program, Sustaining Hoosier Communities. Through the partnership, students at the university take on projects chosen from among the many ideas submitted by Dubois County residents. The class then creates a comprehensive plan which includes identifying funding mechanisms and connecting to available resources to bring those ideas to reality

At a special launch celebration held last Thursday at VUJ, Jane Rogan, director of Sustaining Hoosier Communities, revealed the ten projects the current semester of students will be taking on. These project ideas were collected through a series of forums held earlier this year in Jasper, Huntingburg, and Ferdinand. While more than 90 projects were submitted, the projects that get picked up are those that the university professors feel fit their class’s goals best and can be accomplished within the parameters of the Sustaining Hoosier Communities program.

You can find out more about those projects and become involved through this website — scroll to the bottom of the page to view the current projects being taken on by students this semester. The ALASI project was completed over the summer.

Jane Rogan, director of Sustaining Hoosier Communities, made it clear that the students are there to help the county accomplish its vision but they are not going to complete it for them.

“We are not here in Dubois County to do things for you. We’re here in Dubois county to partner with you,” she pointed out. “It does us no good to come to the community with lots of shiny bells and whistles and show you all of this wonderful stuff and then hightail it away and leave you without the ability to continue.”

While the county does have the ability to do many of the things proposed, the bottleneck sometimes occurs in the foundational work necessary to get things moving. Rogan explained that through the program, Dubois County can tap into 1,700 students and more than 100,000 combined hours of their work to meet the needs to begin a project. It also gives students real-world experience.

In the case of the ALASI (Association of Latin Americans in Southern Indiana) Resource Center project, students from IU O’Neill School for Public and Rural Affairs partnered with local community leaders to develop a plan to create a physical resource center in Dubois County for Latinos. The plan includes an overview of the informational needs the center would meet as well as identifies partners and funding mechanisms to bring it to fruition. To accomplish this students spent time in Dubois County over the summer learning about Latino residents’ needs as well as the area’s resource gaps.

To be chosen, a project needs to be connected to already existing assets within the community. Rogan stated that sometimes we can overlook the assets we already have in our community but by working within the program, those assets can be brought to the forefront to accomplish the project and meet the need.

To use the ALASI Resource Center as an example again, the plan connects the dots between the idea (Latinos need to know where to go to know how to live and prosper in Dubois County), the measured need (studies and interviews conducted by students identified specific areas that need addressed), and the available resources (VUJ, employers, nonprofit organizations like ALASI) in the community that already exists to help make it happen.

While the other nine projects listed on the site are being studied by students this semester, the community can still propose projects and become involved in the process. Contacts are included in the website established to track the projects, and a story map further outlines proposals around the county.

Those projects fall within the following focus areas: Education; Employers and employment; Food systems; Health and wellness; Housing; Leadership; Natural resources; Public services; Recreation, arts, and culture; and Social networks.

The nine projects being worked on this semester are:

  • An update to the City of Huntingburg’s website to better serve residents and visitors.
  • Digital Welcome Packet for Dubois County to be used by employers, businesses, tourism and other entities to help visitors or newcomers to the community.
  • Dubois County Park Board Fund Development to meet the financial needs of the park board’s master plan for the 136-acre park.
  • Funds of Knowledge is a project to identify the multicultural needs of the county to assist the school corporation in meeting those needs educationally.
  • Increase tourism at League Stadium
  • Complete a retail analysis of the geographic downtown area in Jasper.
  • Create a display at the Dubois County Museum covering Hispanic heritage and Latino history.
  • Address informational needs to help increase mammogram screenings.
  • Help develop a Youth Health Coalition designed to engage youth in the development and initiation of the coalition and facilitate goal-setting by youth for the first year of activity. 
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