Logansport Re-Imagined was developed when a group of volunteers participated in the Hometown Collaboration Initiative offered through the Indiana Office of Community and Rural Affairs, Purdue University and Ball State University.
Logansport Re-Imagined encourages a community-wide movement of reimagining Logansport’s future and working together to create a uniquely better community.
Logansport was selected to participate in the Hometown Collaboration Initiative (HCI) in 2016. A team of local stakeholders worked with coaches from Purdue University and Ball State University to learn more about the community’s assets, data and existing plans. They conducted a community survey and a community forum and spent time learning about the HCI themes of leadership, economy and placemaking. The team developed the Logansport Re-Imagined initiative as their capstone project and worked to champion a community-wide process of listening, learning, engaging and doing.
Throughout the process, one of the common themes has been the desire to better communicate a shared vision for Logansport’s future and to begin working together toward achieving that vision.
A kickoff and speaker series were held in 2018 and neighborhood teams based on the five city council wards conducted engagement and outreach efforts at the Cass County 4-H Fair to learn more about what people love about Logansport.
Logansport Re-Imagined Week, held Sept. 22-29, 2018, encouraged people to explore the community by visiting local businesses and participating in special events. Working together to make the community safer, a group of volunteers organized a campaign to install smoke detectors for residents following a tragic house fire.
In 2019, having completed the HCI program, Logansport Re-Imagined held community meetings to provide updates on projects underway around the community, conducted more outreach and engagement at the fair and partnered with several local groups to collect bottle caps to create benches to be placed throughout the community. The team participated in a ripple mapping study coordinated by Purdue Extension and Logansport Re-Imagined participants attended several webinars and conferences on placemaking.
In 2020, Logansport Re-Imagined helped to coordinate communication regarding the 2020 Census, convening representatives from various organizations and towns and creating and distributing materials to help them understand the importance of the Census and to encourage their constituents to participate in the Census.
Since 2021, with funding through the Logansport Planning Department, Logansport Re-Imagined has engaged the services of Existential Media LLC for project management. Logansport Re-Imagined was approached to participate as a pilot community in the Digital Ready Communities program offered through Purdue Extension and the Purdue Center for Regional Development. The Digital Ready Steering Committee developed a digital engagement plan focused on community vision and communication. Logansport Re-Imagined also assists the Community Priorities group that began meeting in early 2021 as they convene bi-weekly meetings to discuss the progress of major projects underway in the community.
Through all of the work above, Logansport Re-Imagined has listened as residents have expressed the desire for “more and better” community cohesion, pride, communication, promotion and civic education, as well as “more and better” activities, shopping, restaurants, jobs, care for properties and housing. Participants have focused heavily on cooperation, community pride and changing perceptions.
Participants in the Digital Ready program emphasized the need for coordinated communication of information that is accurate, reliable, consistent and accessible and the need for community education and awareness.
This website offers an opportunity to share information, to share stories of what’s happening in Logansport, to showcase community assets and to articulate the opportunities and advantages of living in Logansport.
Whether you’re a current, past or prospective resident or visitor, we invite you to spend some time exploring Logansport – a diverse little city that people from all over the world choose to call home — as we work together to reimagine its future.