May­or’s Youth Assis­tance Program

The May­or’s Youth Assis­tance Pro­gram is devel­op­ing through city lead­er­ship and local advocates.

“We are in the tree-plant­i­ng phase to invest in our next gen­er­a­tion of lead­ers through the May­or’s Youth Assis­tance Pro­gram. Five, ten, fif­teen years from now, if the city is real­ly locked in and focused on edu­ca­tion, Mar­i­on will become a city with a stronger work­force, lead­ing to less crime, and will become one of the best places to live, work, and play in the state of Indi­ana. It is by far the great­est thing we can do for our city.” — May­or Ronald Mor­rell, Jr.

In Feb­ru­ary of 2024, the City launched its first phase, Mar­i­on Reads.

Mar­i­on Reads

This cam­paign aims to improve Marion’s lit­er­a­cy rate through part­ner­ing with Mar­i­on Com­mu­ni­ty Schools and oth­er orga­ni­za­tions. The pro­gram serves to encour­age cit­i­zens to vol­un­teer their time to read to chil­dren through as many avenues as pos­si­ble. City of Mar­i­on lead­ers reg­u­lar­ly take time to read to stu­dents through­out the community.

Below are some cap­tured moments from May­or Mor­rel­l’s tour around local ele­men­tary schools, read­ing to chil­dren, Ron’s Big Mis­sion, an inspi­ra­tional book about an African Amer­i­can boy with big dreams to become a pilot, and the break­through he made when tak­ing a stand at his local library to obtain a library card dur­ing the late 1950s — a time of racial seg­re­ga­tion. The book, launched by the City of Mar­i­on in coor­di­na­tion with Black His­to­ry Month in 2024, was based on true events lead­ing the suc­cess of Ron McNair who lat­er became a sci­en­tist and famous astronaut.

Stay tuned for more Mar­i­on Reads ini­tia­tives, and be sure to post, tag us at @CityofMarionIN, and use the hash­tag #Mar­i­on­Reads in any ini­tia­tive you begin or are already doing to read to our youth.

May­or’s Youth Council

In March 2025, the May­or’s Youth Coun­cil was estab­lished. May­or Mor­rell works with Mar­i­on Com­mu­ni­ty Schools and Rev. Lar­ry Batch­e­lor to lead and empow­er these select­ed inter­me­di­ate through high school stu­dents through gov­ern­ment expo­sure and inter­ac­tion includ­ing a trip to the Indi­ana Statehouse.

Sto­ry­walk

Col­lab­o­ra­tion with Mar­i­on Pub­lic Library, Indi­ana Wes­leyan Uni­ver­si­ty, and the City of Mar­i­on Parks & Recre­ation Depart­ment result­ed in a literacy/​education and health-advo­cat­ing attrac­tion along the Mis­sissinewa River­walk. Dif­fer­ent sto­ries are told every six to eight weeks. Any­one may stop at var­i­ous points along the River­walk and read a cou­ple pages under pro­tect­ed stands as they go.

A rib­bon cut­ting for the launch of Sto­ry­walk was held at the Earth Day Cel­e­bra­tion on April 24^th, 2025.