At roughly 3:15 pm on February 16, 2024, the NEI team, on behalf of the Northeast Indiana Regional Development Authority, applied to the Indiana Economic Development Corporation (IEDC) for $75,000,000 through the READI 2.0 program.
Based on dozens of listening sessions with countless stakeholders, the team assembled an aggressive series of investment strategies, leveraging matching grants as well as revolving investment instruments, aimed at accelerating wage growth, population growth and credential attainment.
To achieve these goals, Northeast Indiana’s READI 2.0 program will invest in five funding areas:
- Infrastructure for Jobs
- Housing
- Childcare
- Education Innovation
- Quality of Life
On April 11, 2024, the IEDC will hold a special board meeting to announce regional awards. See above for a timeline of events pertinent to the READI 2.0 program. In the meantime, the team is conducting workshops in partnership with each of the county’s Local Economic Development Organizations throughout the region to help stakeholders, community leaders and prospective project owners understand how best to assemble the most competitive READI 2.0 requests possible.
If you have a project you think may be a good fit for READI 2.0 funding, we’ve partnered with the Northeast Indiana Strategic Development Commission to launch a project intake portal available as a required first step to be considered for funding. If you’d like to participate in a workshop in your county, please reach out to your Local Economic Development Organization to find out more.
For more information on the statewide READI 2.0 program, please visit https://indianareadi.com.
For background on Northeast Indiana’s READI program please check out Sherry Slater’s article in the Journal Gazette or the Op-Ed authored by Mayor Dan Rickord of Decatur on behalf of the Mayors and Commissioners Caucus speaking for the 11 counties and 16 cities and towns that comprise the Northeast Indiana Regional Development Authority.
