READI 1.0 Plan
The North Central Region, composed of Cass, Clinton, Fulton, Howard and Tipton Counties, submitted a $50 million grant proposal and region development plan to the State of Indiana that will support more than $530 million in projects and programs. The regional development plan was submitted as a part of the Indiana Regional Economic Acceleration and Development Initiative or READI. The plan will spur population growth through projects and programs designed to drastically improve the region's quality of life, housing options, talent development programs, and economic opportunity.
The innovative regional plan was developed over the course of four months of collaboration among the region's communities, private sector partners, anchor institutions, non-profit and educational institutions. The region's leaders expect the strategic investments in the plan to lead to population growth, increased educational attainment, better job opportunities and a more inviting region.
Extensive and broad stakeholder engagement resulted in the development of projects and programs that strive to achieve four goals: improve the region’s quality of life, develop the region’s talent through innovative 21st century educational programs, increase and diversify the region’s housing availability and improve the quality of economic opportunity by attracting good, high paying jobs to the region