As Reconnecting to Our Waterways (ROW) winds down 2019, we can look back at so much accomplished by the collective over the year. A collective is a unique initiative that convenes many partners and efforts to the table for focus and value of our waterways across the city. This year brought many ways to connect our community to its waterways on an unprecedented scale.
ROW’s funding partners, Nina Mason Pulliam Charitable Trust, Central Indiana Community Foundation, Herbert Simon Family Foundation, and Indianapolis Neighborhood Housing Partnership made possible many projects and programs. Waterways used those important contributions to bring exceptional, grassroots efforts forward. From new placemaking destinations along Pleasant Run in Prospect Falls and Spruce Bridge, to the exciting A Rising Tide performance series on and opening up viewsheds along White River. We got closer to reaching a 25-year-old dream of a trail along Pogue’s Run, while undertaking tree plantings with Cummins. We helped advance a new effort to update the Fall Creek Watershed Management Plan with partners like the Children’s Museum of Indianapolis, Indiana State Fair, Axia Urban and Citizens Energy Group, and organized a successful rain barrel workshop as part of the community The City League basketball tournament. The support also helped initiate a Community Fishing Initiative and continue the Perceptions Doors project along Central Canal. We also seeded a business outreach effort and assisted with litter cleanups on Little Eagle Creek.
Along each of ROW’s six waterways, there are too many great efforts to mention, as each month volunteers conceive ideas and then work together to make those ideas a reality. But, it is not by funding alone that the collective accomplishes so much. The volunteer time and contribution of expertise and resources is critical in our efforts.
This year, ROW developed educational toolkits, like the Residential Invasive Species Guide webpage, cards and video with our Ecology Committee members. We explored “Watershed Wonder” through video and outreach that launched at our annual ROWPort event. We also established a new education partnership with the Clear Choices Clean Water campaign.
Also in 2019, ROW’s Economics Committee connected with the six waterway committees on brownfields and redevelopment opportunities; and ROW’s Connectivity and Education Committees worked with our waterways to establish signage at destinations that highlight history, nature and green infrastructure. Look for installation of the signs to occur early in the coming year, and get out and explore these spaces!
ROW’s Aesthetic Committee changed its name to Arts & Culture and is working with Arts Council of Indianapolis to launch a new way to find arts events near our waterways in early 2020. ROW’s Wellbeing Element found new leadership and energy and hosted the Pedal & Paddle event to highlight points in Riverside Park with Jump In for Healthy Kids, Indianapolis Parks Foundation, Nine13Sports and Friends of the White River.
ROW was pleased to engage in lifting up our waterway voices through initiatives like the White River Vision Plan with ROW partners, City of Indianapolis Department of Metropolitan Development and Visit Indy; and our city’s first climate resilience plan, Thrive Indianapolis with the Indy Office of Sustainability. The backbone support that ROW provides the Partners for the White River also allowed us to align efforts with 14 other waterway-minded, local groups.
ROW launched the In the Know with ROW series and called on the expertise of Keep Indianapolis Beautiful, White River Alliance, Indiana Wildlife Federation and the Marion County Public Health Department, to educate and inform about native plants and water quality. We started Quarterly Waterway Socials to bring people together around fun events like Waterway Trivia and Day of the Deadheading. We intend to find more ways to broaden our watershed messages and build a waterway movement in the new year through these types of events and more.
We also say goodbye and a heartfelt thanks to founding Steering Committee member, Mark Kesling with The diVinci Pursuit (who promises to stay involved at the waterway level), while welcoming new leadership from Indy Chamber / Develop Indy and Jump In for Healthy Kids. We also thank Jill Hoffman of White River Alliance, who served ROW as its Steering Committee Co-Chair for the past two years and led us through strategic planning and capacity building, and will remain a member. We thank Central Indiana Community Foundation’s Alphons Van Adrichem, who has stepped in as Co-Chair and will serve the coming year with IUPUI’s Gabe Fillippeli to lead ROW in 2020.
It takes so many dedicated and talented people to make the ROW collective a success. Whether it’s events or projects, programming or leadership, we are grateful that so many see the value in coming to ROW’s table, engaging, informing, debating and getting hard and important work done. Thank you!
And, of course, the collective benefits from the excellent ROW staff I work alongside every day: our Program & Metrics Manager, Kelly Brown; and Waterways & Communications Coordinator, Brianna Dines. We know that 2020 will bring some changes in resources and capacity and also exciting, new opportunities that we will all work together on. We look forward to continuing to work with you all in the new year.
Happy Holidays,
Julie L Rhodes, Collective Impact Director