Roosevelt High School Repurpose Proposal

Roosevelt Gary Museum and Cultural Restoratory Center 10.20.2020

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Dr. Div. Telethia Barrett Telethia Barrett Ministries, S.P. Kingdom LIFE Assemblies 1312 Bigger Street Gary, IN 40404 (219) 200-4045 (919) 285-9654 telethiabarrett@gmail.com

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Summary Roosevelt High School, a prized historic possession of Gary Indiana. Located in the historic district of Midtown, once relegated for 97% of Garyś Black population. It was the only school for African Americans in the city, yet it stands closed, deserving new life, revitalization, and new purpose.

The city of Gary, on the brink of its re-emergence, will re-emerge with the best economic engine infrastructure of the tri-state area. We see Roosevelt as a museum housing the beautiful and rich history of Gary Indiana, as well as a business incubator, to train entrepreneurs and grow businesses. The building is large enough to house a fresh food grocery store, indoor gardening also known as hydroponics, a shared kitchen for multiple restaurant start-ups, with cafeteria-style seating, retail shops, a food, and natural product-based manufacturing, warehouse, and distribution center, as well as transitional housing to grow our population with our low wage worker homeownership program.

Self-empowerment through learning history can be a powerful healing balm for our youth and families negatively affected by trauma and poverty. We now understand intergenerational trauma and its impact is connected to the after-effects of slavery, segregation, and redlining. Learning our history can give our youth back their identity and dignity, it can be the first step to our collective healing. So let the museum tours and healing empowerment begin.

Potential Use Concept

Gary Historic Museum Shared Office Space Shared Retail Space Shared Media Space Shared Restaurant Space Hydroponics/Aquaponics Indoor Farming ● Fresh Food Grocery/Farmers Market ● Food/Beverage Manufacturing ● Dry Food Packaging ● ● ● ● ● ●

Wholesale Distribution Warehousing Entrepreneur Training Construction Training Business Incubator Transitional Housing Gary Relocation and Home Buying Streamlining Office ● Area Public Facility Rental Use of the Football and Baseball Field ● ● ● ● ● ● ●

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Respondent Information • In what capacity would you want to participate (e.g. owner/operator, tenant, developer, etc.)?

Consultant, Director, Business Developer, Community Developer • Describe your organization or firm with an emphasis on your qualifications to undertake such a venture, including resumes of the leaders/principals who would be involved with this project.

I am a writer, consultant, and business developer. I have written plans for or consulted, corporations, non-profits, churches, cities, schools, federal, state, and local officials. These plans have made businesses profitable and communities stronger. My resume follows this proposal and a link to my published short proposals. I have been in construction, real estate, and sales for over 20 years. I have been a regional sales director, wrote training manuals, rehabbed homes/businesses, helped homeowners rehab, and decorate their homes. I have been a communications chair, GOTV chair, civic engagement chair, religious affairs co-chair, housing neighborhood development & historic preservation committee, chair. I've helped set up daycares, started, and ran a private religious school. I arranged a curriculum, gave countless ministries advice, networked, counseled, and brought together community outreach efforts. IN SBA NW office is considering converting Purdue’s manufacturing facility into a shared manufacturing facility, based on a zoom meeting with myself and three decision-makers. The current plan is for the facility to be used for students only. Gary, IN’s Business Streamline office was based on a proposal sent into the Freeman-Wilson Administration. There are multiple proposals of mine, though, in part, that can be seen implemented throughout the city of Gary, IN. I am a strategist gifted with insight/foresight, innovationalist, and hope enthusiast. I was born and raised in Gary, Midtown, and attended Roosevelt! I am proud to be GARY STRONG! • Please provide three to five references for rehabilitation and/or redevelopment projects of historic properties and or historic schools you have completed.

I am currently rehabbing a historic home in Kalamazoo, MI. I do know the importance of original work and how it has to be preserved to maintain its value.

The last contractor with Roosevelt had intentions to rehab the building by proposing to gut the school. I strongly opposed the idea by reiterating that action would absolutely destroy its value and take away one of Gary’s greatest assets. Roosevelt would be a great asset not only to the city of Gary, IN, but the state and the nation.

I then pushed an effort to turn the building into a museum and to preserve the building's historic value. I also helped to persuade locals by expressing the importance of preserving it and not gutting it. Being in construction for over 20 years, you come to understand the gems in historic buildings and the value they bring to the local area. I have been pushing to preserve our historic sites since

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2016. Through the Freeman-Wilson administration, I was allowed to be part of the Gary Historic Preservation Commission as a potential commissioner. I was then appointed by the Prince administration and sworn in as a Commissioner by the Honorable Mayor Jerome A. Prince. It is my passion to see the building become Garyś greatest historic asset.

• Please indicate any legal judgments or settlements in the past ten years.

None • Please list the location of offices providing services.

1312 Bigger Street, Gary, IN 46404 • How many years have you been in business or providing applicable services?

20 years • Please indicate if your firm is a minority-owned business, a small business, and/or a women-owned business.

African American Female owned • Please address the applicable questions below in your response. If you are a… o Developer – describe your experience with the rehabilitation and/or redevelopment of similar historic properties. Do you have experience partnering with nonprofits or other community-focused organizations? How many rehabilitation and/or redevelopment projects have you successfully completed?

I have worked with churches to start housing ministries. I have spearheaded fresh food box distributions through Gary, IN churches. I have spoken at meetings giving ideas of housing to the churches of Gary, which were well received and led them to have a strong desire to learn more, even speaking about wanting to partner. My pastor has assigned me to Kingdom Networks, bringing together a list of churches and their services offered. I have been doing business to business sales, C-Level sales, marketing, and account management for some time. I have a background in business development, as a real estate investor, and landlord. My goal here is to become a community developer through the building and networking of all sectors, private and non-profit, churches, to build a solid Gary, IN by growing our population and businesses.

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o Broker – describe what type of tenant(s) you envision for the property and your experience with similar projects. How many rehabilitation and/or redevelopment projects have you successfully completed?

I have been a mortgage broker and real estate agent, I understand the art of the deal and I have a very good sales and negotiations record. I have made history in a brokering company for ADT as the first female to rank number 1. I was ranked top 5 at tigerdirect.com, a tech distribution company. Both these companies had at least 2100 agents nationwide.

I see small startups. Gary growing business owners through entrepreneurial classes for teens and adults. There are small retail shops, Gary manufactured products, distribution, sit down restaurants, fresh food markets, rentals events in the gym, transitional housing with tenants that are streamlined into Gary home buyers, and shared office spaces, all housed and surrounded by sounds, visuals, and walls of the rich Black History of Gary, IN. The football and baseball field can become community shared spaces for regional outdoor sporting events. When I lived in NC they had shared manufacturing and shared warehousing. They helped you get your products on local shelves. I saw how you could rent office space in a business incubator where you could use the phone, printer, and meeting rooms for affordable rates. I also went to self-help financial institutions. With this level of infrastructure or economic engine, I was able to take a $1000 welfare to work grant and turn that into a $7000 a month small manufacturing company. Soon after I got started my oldest daughter, 9 years old at the time, was attacked by a racist white teacher who did not want to accept my dark-skinned Black child into a highly divided academically gifted program. She physically attacked my child, leaving me to care for my child 24/7 who suffered crushed nerves in her neck, back and shoulder area. Like many others who have suffered at the hands of a hate crime, we were never given justice. My childś arm was paralytic for 6 months and she still suffers nerve pain today. I soon came back home to Gary but found I could not continue my business for multiple reasons. So I began writing to the Mayor. This type of infrastructure is needed in this region. It would help Gary but would be a great asset and economic engine to the tristate area. o Consultant – describe your experience with other projects of this type and complexity, and what role you or your firm played. How many rehabilitation and/or redevelopment projects have you successfully completed?

With various employers over the last 20 years from lighting sales, security system installs, to roofing, and system upgrades at least 100 completed projects. I have a few roofing jobs here in Gary. Unfortunately, Gary seems to run short of tradesmen or construction companies and no matter how hard I've tried it's been hard trying to get construction companies to see the value in doing business in Gary. So with that information, I highly suggest that we grow our own Gary based construction companies and tradesmen who have a heart for Gary.

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For any of the above roles, please also describe: • Your experience with rehabilitation of complex historic structures I have worked for construction companies and as a sales contractor where each project would differ. I worked in the Kalamazoo, MI area where historic homes and buildings were major assets to the city. I learned how important it is to keep the original makeup of the home or the building from flooring, walls, trim, fixtures, and furniture. The more untouched the more it was valued. I was a security system installer for ADT. We had to find ways to install while respecting the integrity of the infrastructure. I sold lighting for a lighting company 20 years ago. I would have to work to match fixtures to mimic the age of existing lighting. I touched on understanding plaster versus drywall, and ways to leave intact valuable historic cosmetic work or leave with the least disturbance.

• Your management and financial capacity to successfully pursue a financially sustainable project, including experiences that demonstrate this capability I have written plans and I have been asked to write plans, however, I would need to partner with a grant writer who has more info on available grants and someone who specializes in corporate sponsorships. I would like to build corporate partnerships with those who want to have more community engagement.

• Your Potential Use Concept (outlined below) o Potential Tenant – describe whether your concept or programming would occupy all or a portion of the property; if there are other organizations or entities you would seek to bring in as partners or fellow tenants; potential funding sources that would sustain rent and ongoing operational costs; and relevant details from the Potential Use Concept section.

The intention is to occupy the entire building with community and business partners. Tenants can be potential businesses such as a small daycare, transitional housing guests, a home building company, construction companies, retail shops, wholesale distribution, manufacturing, packaging, book printing companies, entrepreneurial training classes, restaurant owners, shared business spaces they would all pay for time and space used. I will open rooms as funding comes in and for tenants. Each room that is open will already have funding accounted for. I will look at expenses based upon sqft used and charge rent for time and space.

Noninvasive decorative partitions can be used to divide up the room. Income will come from these tenants or partners, shared space renters, museum funding, education funding, all broken down by time and space used. We estimate space can be rented by square feet, all utilities included depending on space and time at rates like $0.65-$1.00 per Sqft of the room. Let's say the room is 1000 sqft. That room would be $650-$1,000 a month. 4 small retail shops with 250 sqft each would pay $162.5-$250 each month. These figures are based on monthly overhead expenses

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of $48,000-$75,000 and a guesstimation of 75,000 sqft. Business sponsorship can divide hallways. Attorney Junifer Hall, Ragan Hatcher, Former Mayor Karen Freeman-Wilson, or and Mayor Jerom A. Prince can greet visitors on an interactive screen or projected image. We could seek in-kind donations o Community Stakeholder – please describe owners, operators, or partners that would be necessary to realize your concept; potential sustainable funding sources that would support your proposed use(s); and relevant details from the Potential Use Concept section. Potential Use Concept We will need a construction company that can handle rehabbing without taking away what is original. We would like to work with multiple corporations asking for donations and sponsorships. We will work with fundraisers. We would like to partner with various local businesses that come in and rent space for blocks of time, short or even long term leases. The goal is to grow businesses to then move into free-standing buildings in Gary, IN by either rehabbing an existing building or building one from the ground up. We look to work with farmers. We hope that these businesses will train students in trades and other business models. One area will be the museum hosting specialty businesses. Another area of the school can be for a small child care center and small entrepreneur school for teenagers. Other sections can be relocation and transitional housing for potential home buyers of Gary homes through the streamlined home buying process. We hope to have a lending agency there backed by SBA and or FHA. A potential lender is Horizon Bank. o, Describe your scenario(s) for potential rehabilitation and reuse of Roosevelt High School. Your responses may address only part of the property or may combine full use of the facility by one or more entities. If your concept uses less than the full property, describe which portions of the building your concept would occupy. Please be specific and include examples or images of similar concepts. o Describe how your concept Shared Spaces We have multiple business owners who share space, by buying blocks of time and space. That time and space can be hours, days, months, or years. This allows space to be affordable and give small businesses the chance to upscale at a rate that is affordable and adjustable for their time and budgets. To secure set times and spaces, leases will be drawn up. Deposits will be taken depending on time and space. Time and space rates will be determined by overall expenses. We can look at retail leases based on 20% of sales with a minimum. These will be unique boutiques. Where people can pay for rack and shelf space or sell items or products on consignment. Daycare, pre-k startups are an option as well.

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Museum The front of the building is the museum. Each room is made up of different historic segments of Garyś Black History. The story of Roosevelt is played like a documentary, as pictures line the walls displaying the history of the school. In each classroom will be a display of history showing a film, government, business, sports, and great music. We want to cover every segment of Black History within each room and in every class a different display of Black history. We will look to host historic African American events to display monumental histories such as the life of King Tut, the times of the dinosaurs, art events, and other historic, or ancient societies for educational and community engagement events. Events will have entry fees. We will focus on keeping the walls as original as possible. The walls will be filled with memorabilia in each class that will reflect selected history. That same class will host a unique boutique or shared space business.

Restaurant/Fresh Food Market We need a sit-down restaurant in Gary. We would like to target healthy foods to help curve the health issues of Gary. Startups that may only have a budget for breakfast only or lunch only or dinner only can take advantage of shared space and shared a kitchen. These businesses can grow into multiple days. Fees will be charged based on time.

We hope to have hydroponics classes. Growing fruits and vegetables inside.

Those same products can be sold to restaurant owners and set up as a fresh food market to the community.

Entrepreneurial Classes for Gary area Teens Gary teens will learn about construction trades, hydrophobics, the benefits of plants, and how to create natural products. They will learn manufacturing, packaging, warehouse, distribution, and freight. We will also ask our business owners to give jobs and internships as to how to run various businesses already located in the building. We hope to acquire educational funds for a public school.

We have heard of training program grants that could also be attained.

Gary Transitional Housing, Relocation, and Home Buying Services In another section of the building, we can use classes for transitional housing. We can acquire shelter funds or and charge rental fees per bed. There is a guideline: must have income and be able to purchase a 60K home. That would be a mortgage payment of $460 with an IR of 3.92 over 30 years. They would need to earn $8hr/full-time. We could use the habitat for humanity concept or find homes on the Gary Tax roll that can be fully rehabbed with 30-40K leaving 10-20K for cosmetic options. $10K for over-budget expenses or yard work. We hope to partner with banks, home builders, and home decor suppliers to give buyers color and cosmetic options for rehab or new construction options as well.

The entire building would be used in this format as well as both rentable fields.

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o Addresses the core principles outlined in the Three Ss Yes o Is appropriate in the context of the Midtown neighborhood and the wider demographics, trends, and needs of the City of Gary Yes o Given the major investment needed, o How will the physical rehabilitation, maintenance, and ongoing operation of the property be financed and sustained over time?

We need funding from an outside source such as grants and donations. There are income-generating concepts proposed. We will call for supply donations. o What do you see as the most pressing challenges, and how do you anticipate these, and other potential challenges might be mitigated? Provide references and examples of similar successful projects, where available.

We understand gaining partners and tenants will be the pressing challenge.

Then there is attaining a construction company for the rehab. Lastly, there is the overall needed initial investment. We open the building in phases. Phases will be determined by funding and partnerships. We will seek funding and partnership on an ongoing basis. o How will you measure your project’s success? 12 If we can get tenants, students, community partners, and funding partners.

If we can book events and gain publicity. By the number of students, the number of leases, produces businesses, homeowners, tour attendees, production of healthy fresh foods. Zipcode of residents served. o, Describe the type of community and public outreach you would pursue for your project concept.

We would hold monthly engagement meetings in various communities updating the community of options to get involved. We would invite possible partners to pitch why they should be able to gain a spot in the building as well as allow sponsors to participate and make plans and strategies for partnered community outreach. We are currently working on Dinner with Live Jazz and R & B. It will inform and take applications for various services offered.

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Link to Low Wage Workers Sample Mortgages Payments Here is a link to a plan showing $8 workers can stop being renters and become homeowners. https://issuu.com/fatzappnzingerdenisebarrett/docs/restorationplan

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OVERVIEW Gary needs to grow from within. We need to grow teachers, civil servants, business owners, construction workers, real estate investors, farmers, manufacturers, distribution centers, warehouses with truck level docks, and workers to run all of these self-sustaining vital industries. Creating a pathway to success will take reimagining our education, training, and work systems. Gary was once an example of an innovative education system. We can be a great example again for the future.

Our goal will be to create an Entrepreneurial curriculum that students can elect to take from 6th-grade 12th grade. We see product development classes. Where they learn about plant life and the health benefits of plant-based products and foods to help solve our health disparities. They can learn how to manufacture, warehouse, and distribute new products. We need civil servant classes to learn how to govern.

We need to grow trade businesses that can service our seniors and disabled citizens as well as home and business owners. Right now there is a shortage of trade workers in Gary. We know the current education curriculum has failed to educate and prepare our children for a promising future. We also know it is now more than ever necessary that we create and implement a curriculum that will not only benefit our students but will grow our city.

GOALS Our goals are to grow businesses by teaching/training, seeding/planting first with business incubators, fertilizing with micro business loans, and cultivate with ongoing classes, opportunities to expand in Gary, and building networks for distribution or/and franchising.

Grow our population by offering a transitional housing program that transitions into a home buying program. Gary can offer a safe city free from most natural disasters and safe for minorities in dealing with the current social unrest. Our home buying program will include the rehabilitation of properties or building new homes. We would first offer incoming in need citizens shelter, home, and family care classes, down payment assistance, and a mortgage program that will allow homeownership to flourish with mortgages starting at $50,000. This would allow us to keep potential homebuyers in a mortgage payment range that is affordable and sustainable and allow us to help the city take properties that are a liability and turn them into tax-generating assets.

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1. Grow Gary based businesses so the city and citizens have quick and easy access to local-based businesses 2. Grow students with targeted curriculum and hands-on training programs to fill vital positions within the city by working with the GCSC 3. Grow business incubators programs, such as shared manufacturing, warehouse distribution, retail stores, daycare centers, restaurants, indoor farming, textiles, pottery, or home goods such as dishes.

4. Grow a hands-on work program for students learning manufacturing warehousing, distribution, logistics, construction, civics, publishing, and business.

5. Setup a Gary-based SBA lending center that hosts ongoing business classes, info of steps to be licensed, and operational in the city, streamlined. Info as to how to, what to do, and where to go to start a business in Gary should be accessible by phone voice recording or online landing page with links to other business-building city-wide efforts by organizations or individuals Roosevelt could be a mixed-use location. The first floor could be shops selling locally produced or student-produced products or services. The second floor can be rented business cubicles, the third floor can be the Innovation Tech Center that centers on entrepreneurial development of our children during the day and adults at night. Roosevelt can host a small training center for students to learn and for local business development. It could host a fully functional manufacturing filling center, warehouse, distribution center, hydroponics, and farmers’ markets. Another section can be used for transitional housing. The school can gain historic funds to restore and businesses funds to use as an incubator to make Gary not only a transportation hub but a distribution and manufacturing hub. The students should be allowed to learn how to fully execute a business and be able to go down the hall to the SBA lending office and get a small microloan to start their business that should be grown and maintained right here in Gary, IN.

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What fields need growth There are many jobs that need growth from within the city. Here are a few I think can really help the city with self-sustainment.

1. Teachers a. 10 or 20 graduating seniors get certified to teach and streamlined through a teaching program for CE. 2. Real Estate/Construction/Contractor/Builder License, Low Voltage Wiring Smart Home Automation program while in high school 3. Shared Office, Manufacturing Space that generates rental revenue starting at $50. My plan can generate 1M a year with 16 allotted spaces a. Develop cubicles for phone and computer access b. Develop small private office spaces for private use c. Develop a manufacturing filling shared space d. Develop shared storage space 4. Local News and TV Shows use of the TV equipment at career center kids learn journalism, sound and set preparation a. Local Business Reviews b. Kid TV Hosted Shows c. Local Music and Art Shows d. New Screenplay and Movies Produced in Gary 5. Publications Online and Hardcopy a. Creating Gary History Books b. Create Black History Books c. Publish student poets, artists, writers d. Create Curriculum 6. Organic Grocery Stores from Black Farmers a. Organic Indoor Gardening with the unused school building b. Gardening and Farming Classes 7. Civil Servants a. Public safety b. Policy and Law c. Neighborhood Development

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Public Engagement Announcements Social Media Videos of Calls for small businesses to move to Gary and Grow. Start Small Grow Big In the Transportation Hub of the US!! Manufacturing and distribution centers wanted!! Airport Transport Centers.

Build your life in Gary, we offer affordable homes and home buying programs like no other nationwide.

Gary schools have done a complete overhaul of its curriculum and now offers Entrepreneurial classes for students!! Gary Indiana sees the need for minority business ownership and wants to help you grow your dream!!

Virtual Classes To make sure there is never any wasted time and motivation is never hindered allow classes offered to be recorded and accessed by registered participants only.

Participants can be added and removed. The classes can be free or have a fee.

Many with a dream work really hard to make their dreams come to pass and will not have time to participate in scheduled classes. Virtual classes will allow 24/7 growth opportunities and an appreciation for citywide dedication to business growth.

CULTURAL RESTORATOY CENTER OVERVIEW MentorME is a concept mentoring program envisioned by Gary, IN native Dr. Telethia Denise Barrett to help solve the many problems facing troubled youth and a crippled public school system that is struggling to be efficient in education and family counseling simultaneously. We hope to provide insight and guidance for parents, students, administration, and Community Partners.

A day at the museum, touring black history with a tour guide that can help students connect generational trauma to present-day outcomes. While offering families the ability to choose one on one sessions with licensed clinicians, and practitioners.

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GOALS 1. Help students self identify issues and self-correct 2. Help parents and families identify issues and heal 3. Help administrators identify issues, manage and direct 4. Help School academic officers develop curriculum and testing 5. Help School District go from low-performing to achieving 6. Secure more federal and state funding 7. Create a better quality of life through the education system

SPECIFICATIONS ●

We would like to work with the Gary area students who are showing signs of learning difficulties. We believe that behavioral issues, PTSD, PTSS, mental health, and substance use disorders are underlying issues for learning difficulties and low test scores. Students and the community will learn coping mechanisms, as well as ways to self-correct. We believe our program will provide learning and teaching breakthroughs that can be replicated in similar school systems nationwide.

MILESTONES ● ● ● ● ●

Work with Geminus Program to attain funding Collaborate with an Intergenerational Trauma Specialist Arrange tour dates with schools dealing with trouble children and teen Arrange tour dates with Children and Family Services to bring in foster children and troubled families Arrange tour dates with public housing communities families

Formulating the program We would like to work with the ●

The Gary School System

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The Mental Health Department

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Children and Family Services

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Gary Housing Authority

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WorkOne

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To revive Gary, we need to be honest with the education and mental health epidemic that our community is facing. No one likes to talk about it, but we are all living to see our children struggle, so we must take dramatic steps as a collective, and community to solve these problems. We hope to create a program that will keep the family intact without prejudice, so that the community can heal, ReVive.

Implementing the program ●

Creating a curriculum for self-awareness

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Create a self-empowerment curriculum

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Create small Talk it out sessions.

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Create apprenticeship and work programs

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Identifying housing issues

Executing the program We would like the program to be implemented in every school throughout Gary, Indiana. Continue to reach as many citizens throughout the city with similar programs with the Gary Housing Authority and Children and Family Services. The program can be open to all surrounding areas who arrange tour dates.

This would mean a tour would need to be taught at multiple age groups.

The program will have mental health experts to help develop the curriculum.

Identifying mental health issues in students https://www.mentalhealth.gov/what-to-look-for This link is a very good description of Emotional Disturbance https://arksped.k12.ar.us/rules_regs_08/3.%20SPED%20ELIGIBILITY%20CRITERI A%20AND%20PROGRAM%20GUIDELINES%20FOR%20CHILDREN/PART%20I%20E LIGIBILITY%20CRITERIA%20AGES%205-21/D.%20EMOTIONAL%20DISTURBANCE .pdf

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REVIVE Gary Restoring Our Neighborhoods and Communities for a Better Quality of LIFE

─ Overview Revive​ - to restore to life and strength. The ​ReVive Gary​ plan is a real estate, relocation, marketing and civic engagement plan that seeks to revive Gary's housing, population, community amenities and honor our past so that we can see a clearer future.

Self-sufficiency should be the goal of both Gary and its growing population. One of the greatest ways to become self-sufficient is homeownership. Homeownership generates revenue for the city through taxes, fees and fines. Our goal is to develop a streamlined real estate home buying, home building, and rehab program based on low wage workers with viable income, disadvantaged-displaced populations, and citizens of Gary in need of housing. Homeownership will increase sales taxes, real estate taxes, entrepreneurship, the quality of education, and community development. Homeowners gain assets that can be accessed for capital and local small business development.

Transitional Housing, multi-dwelling and shared housing rentals will be the entry point for incoming populations. Having a job and getting through the Healthy Homes, Healthy Communities Home Buying program, will be essential. Participants will learn about the benefits of credit, well-kept homes, equity and how to use equity for small business startups. We will then streamline them into our ReVive Gary home buying process we hope with our very own Gary based credit union or funds designated for those with income but little credit. Millions of low wage workers and people with fixed incomes have been locked out of buying homes, but we believe ​they​ can stimulate the economy if a way is made for them to get a piece of the pie with affordable homes, condos, senior living condos, all tax-generating units. We hope to develop and institute Gary Citizens Rights and Protections to ensure the accountability of businesses and landlords.

We will need community partners such as churches, construction workers, realtors, apprenticeship programs, investors, community development, and the use of facilities to host application and home buying events. We plan to use social media to market to those outside of Gary to come to ​Gary for a​ ​better quality of life.​ We will market our homes, land, historic districts, our partners, employers, jobs, and all the city-based programs to help ​Grow Gary​! Gary will control its narrative

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and dominate in positive opportunities and coverage.

Housing and Neighborhood Development Goals We hope to create: ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ●

A database of categorized houses and land for sale A database to establish land use, and rezoning requests A database of potential buyers, investors A database of construction workers A relocation program and housing matching service Train up Housing and Construction Specialists Laws to protect our population (safety) Policies that require criteria and milestones to be met to grow with the investor program Develop organic and natural food grocery stores by partnering with farming initiatives Develop Gary Indiana Credit Union, Credit Criteria for home buying loans and credit repair programs Develop transitional housing program, Housing Network

The Team Telethia Barrett, Community Developer, Program Director, Civic Engagement, Home Loan Specialist Telethia Barrett, Community Engagement Specialist Vacant, Grant Writer John Allen, Rehab and Home Investment Specialist Vacant, Teacher, Healthy Homes, Healthy Communities Team Lead Vacant, Realtor, home, land bank management Vacant, Tour Guide, Trauma, Family Guidance Specialist, 1 Vacant, Tour Guide, Trauma, Family Guidance Specialist, 2

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