Citizens Promote Neighborhoods November 10, 2009

WORKSHOP HELPS CITIZENS PROMOTE NEIGHBORHOODS
Residents learn how to create awareness
Indianapolis – Creating and maintaining a vibrant and active community is the key to every neighborhood’s survival and well-being and SAVI is giving citizens the opportunity to learn to do just that. SAVI will host a “Neighborhood Place-Making Workshop” at this year’s 14th Annual Spirit & Place Festival. The interactive workshop is scheduled for Tuesday, November 10 from 6-8 PM at the Roberts Park United Methodist Church. Attendees will learn alternative ways to promote news and data about their neighborhoods, and how to leverage this data to produce tangible results.
SAVI will show residents how to tell the whole story of their neighborhoods by pairing the statistical data of their communities with the personal stories, videos and photographs of their residents. They will learn how to use SAVI as an on-line resource to obtain, store and share information about their neighborhoods.
“Spirit and Place is such a collaborative and innovative festival – it is the perfect venue to launch SAVI’s new direction to provide tools that allow organizations and neighborhoods to collaborate and share their stories and experiences while enhancing and explaining the wealth of statistical data available in SAVI about the neighborhoods’ past and present,” said Director of Community Informatics Sharon Kandris. “This will allow neighborhoods to demonstrate how they are truly inspiring places.”
Kandris hopes new audiences will be exposed to SAVI and the many ways it can help their communities and organizations improve their planning, promotion and quality of life. SAVI users can find information on the social, economic and physical conditions of neighborhoods, which can be used in decision-making, policies, programs and grant writing.
“The Neighborhood Place-Making Workshop encompasses the theme of this year’s festival,” said Pam Blevins Hinkle, Director of Spirit & Place. “It will provide a forum for neighborhood residents to collaborate, share and generate ideas about their inspiring places.”
The workshop is presented by the SAVI Community Information System, The Polis Center, IUPUI; Community Heights Neighborhood Organization; Department of Anthropology, IUPUI; Indianapolis Neighborhood Resource Center; and Department of Communication, College of Liberal Arts, Purdue University.