Kids and Families

More children have access to quality, affordable early childhood education.

In order for our community to prosper and our people to thrive, we must lay out an infrastructure that ensures that such thriving can happen and dismantles those systemic obstacles in our path. No obstacle is greater than that of early education, which predicts success in the long term for both the student and the parent.

With quality early childhood education in place, our kids can see educational parity, our schools can reduce the burden placed on them by early achievement gaps, and our families can thrive economically by finding adequate solutions to allow for a dual-income household. Creating access to early education is akin to creating access to long term wealth, academic achievement, and an improved community economic system.

Enhance the community’s technology infrastructure.

Rural life is not without its challenges. None is more acute today than a technological infrastructure that lags well behind that of our more population-dense neighbors and peers. Our counties rank among the lowest 10% in all of Indiana for connectivity, and that number only worsens when connectivity is measured by a more realistic internet bandwidth requirement.

Improving this infrastructure is definitely not an easy task, but it isn’t the same challenge it was just a few years ago. As technology advances, we see that wireless connectivity can and will compete with wired, and our need for investment in infrastructure is significantly declining as technology improves.

With the technological infrastructure in place, we resolve many challenges beset upon our community, ranging from healthcare to mental health to education to joblessness. Just a handful of improvements can resolve a host of problems.

Residents feel connected to their town and to one another.

As our community has evolved over time, so too the way we create community. Local church events and front-porch conversations aren’t gone, but they don’t drive our community as much as they did in the past. Participation in civic groups and organizations is lower than it has been historically. It’s time we reinvest our community in our community.

We’ll focus on building on-ramps to community participation, encouraging civic-mindedness, and making more transparent and regular communications about the goings-on here in Jasper and Newton counties.

With a real focus on communication and coordination, we will tighten the knit of the fabric of these communities and rebuild a sense of home.