Awards

IU Indianapolis Spirit of Philanthropy Award - 2011

About Near West Collaborative

Near West Collaborative is a community partnership within its boundaries of White River, Tibbs Avenue, 16th Street and as far south as I-70 in Indianapolis. The Collaborative includes four neighborhoods (Hawthorne, Haughville, We Care, and Stringtown), institutions, community centers, and businesses working together to improve and revitalize the Near West area through monitoring the economic climate of the community, ensuring a better quality of life for residents, stakeholders, partners, and building relationships and collaborations to make Near West an even better place to live, work, and play.

In 1996 the IUPUI campus administration began conversations with community leaders from the Near Westside community to mend fences and begin discussions about the development of a long-term partnership between the campus and the community. Over the years, this partnership has developed into a strong link to this neighborhood and has been successful in helping community members to begin to see the university as an asset and as a part of the community rather than an adversary. This partnership continues to be strengthened and yields benefits for all of the partners involved.

In 1997 and 2003 the partnership received a Community Outreach Partnership Center (COPC) grant from the HUD Office of University Partnerships, which helped to diversify the variety of collaborative programs and initiatives. These have included: educational policy and programming, organizational development, economic development, health education and promotion, financial literacy, and predatory lending education. In 2007 the partnerships with Near West partners continued to evolve as the neighborhood participated in the Great Indy Neighborhoods Initiative (GINI) Quality of Life Planning work and subsequently the Sustainable Communities Initiative of LISC–Local Initiative Support Corporation Indianapolis.