“Our responsibility, our obligation to holding to the integrity of where we invest and how we invest is grounded in the people. And so these neighborhoods have people who have already built assets within their neighborhoods, but we have to now dig deeper to figure out where those relationships are.”
—Pamela Ross, vice president of opportunity, equity and inclusion at CICF

In this special episode of For Good, Pamela Ross talks about neighborhood empowerment and placemaking—one of five of CICF’s leadership initiatives for Marion County—and how it is impacting our community. This episode is part of a special series introducing CICF’s strategic plan for Marion County. Listen to the other four episodes to learn more about how CICF is working to help create a more equitable Central Indiana.
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Transcription of episode available below.

WHO YOU’RE LISTENING TO

* Pamela Ross –vice president of opportunity, equity and inclusion at CICF

DISCOVER MORE

* CICF’s community ambassadors
* CICF’s strategic plan for Marion County
* Family Stabilization – a For Good episode with Diane Schussel, CICF senior community leadership officer
* Economic Mobility – a For Good episode with Andrew Black, CICF community leadership director
* Criminal Justice Reform – a For Good episode with Alicia Collins, CICF community leadership director
* Dismantling Systemic Racism – a For Good episode with Brian Payne, CICF president and CEO

You’re listening to For Good, Central Indiana Community Foundation’s podcast highlighting stories about passion, purpose, and progress in Central Indiana.
At CICF, we believe in creating a community where everyone can reach their full potential, no matter place, race, or identity.
In this episode, you’ll learn about one of the initiatives included in CICF’s five year strategic plan for Marion County from experts on our staff.
This is our community. And these are your stories.
PAMELA: Hi. I’m Pamela Ross, vice president of opportunity, equity and inclusion at Central Indiana Community Foundation. CICF has a mission to mobilize people, ideas and investment to make this a community where everyone has equitable opportunity to reach their full potential, no matter place, race, or identity. And we have five initiatives that will help us execute that mission in Marion County.
One initiative is empowering neighborhoods and placemaking. For CICF, empowering neighborhoods and placemaking means investing more in some of the blight, some of the disinvestment that we see in several communities throughout Marion County. We have looked at research. We have had conversations. We have elevated voices that have helped us to be more informed about what the neighborhood residents would like to see in their neighborhoods. So as a community foundation, it’s really important for us to make sure that neighborhoods all across Marion County have an opportunity to have sidewalks, to have safety, to have beautification in their neighborhoods that really represent the faces and the people in those neighborhoods.