The CHARM Grant Launches in Grant County, Indiana Share

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Thanks to Indi­ana Michi­gan Pow­er leas­ing a space at the for­mer Thom­son Con­sumer Elec­tron­ics facil­i­ty, funds have become avail­able for the Grant Coun­ty Eco­nom­ic Growth Coun­cil to launch The CHARM Grant.

The CHARM Grant’s pur­pose is to make Grant County’s down­town spaces more ​“charm­ing.” Projects may include awning replace­ments, façade improve­ments, occu­py­ing vacant store fronts, side­walk repairs, paint jobs, etc.

The CHARM Grant will tar­get projects that are small yet potent. The Eco­nom­ic Growth Coun­cil believes that each project (no mat­ter how small) has the poten­tial to sig­nif­i­cant­ly impact the busi­ness and the com­mu­ni­ty at large. Just the sight of vis­i­ble improve­ment — fresh paint col­or, more light, repaired awnings or side­walks — can bring new life to a com­mu­ni­ty and give com­mu­ni­ty mem­bers some­thing to believe in.

Steve Sapp, direc­tor of Mar­i­on Hous­ing Author­i­ty, attests to the sig­nif­i­cant impact that ​“small” improve­ments can have on a com­mu­ni­ty: Mar­i­on Hous­ing Author­i­ty recent­ly took pos­ses­sion of a build­ing in down­town Mar­i­on, and upon pos­ses­sion, they dec­o­rat­ed the build­ing for Christ­mas, string­ing bright lights beneath the awning and plac­ing col­or­ful Christ­mas trees in the win­dow. With­in just one day, Steve says, he received three new offers on this build­ing — a build­ing that had sat vacant for the past three years! ​“It’s amaz­ing what hap­pens when you just put lights on a build­ing!” Steve exclaims.

The CHARM Grant, thus, will make it pos­si­ble for busi­ness­es to ​“put lights on their build­ings” — i.e. they will be able to make sim­i­lar vis­i­ble improve­ments that can have the same sub­stan­tial impact.

Pres­i­dent of the Growth Coun­cil, Brett Carey, cel­e­brates the poten­tial impact of The CHARM Grant on the local busi­ness com­mu­ni­ty: ​“We think The CHARM Grant is an excel­lent oppor­tu­ni­ty for the Growth Coun­cil to assist the growth of local busi­ness­es,” Brett says.

May­or Bob McNutt of Jones­boro is excit­ed about The CHARM Grant: ​“I think The CHARM Grant is a good oppor­tu­ni­ty to help peo­ple have a pos­i­tive impact,” he says.

The CHARM Grant is a $1000 match­ing grant that will roll on a quar­ter­ly sched­ule: March, June, Sep­tem­ber, and Decem­ber. All local Grant Coun­ty busi­ness­es are encour­aged to apply, though busi­ness­es locat­ed in down­town areas as well as projects with high­er vis­i­bil­i­ty and com­mu­ni­ty impact will be giv­en priority.

Appli­ca­tions for The CHARM Grant can be found at: http://​grant​coun​ty​.com/​b​u​s​i​n​e​s​s​/​t​h​e​-​c​h​a​r​m​g​rant/. The first cycle of The CHARM Grant will close on Feb­ru­ary 23^rd, 2018, and the win­ner will be announced on Wednes­day, March 7^th, 2018, at BYOC², a month­ly net­work­ing event held the first Wednes­day of every month at the Abbey Cof­fee Co.

The Eco­nom­ic Growth Coun­cil seeks to be a cham­pi­on of local busi­ness­es and believes that The CHARM Grant will spur on new ini­tia­tives in the Grant Coun­ty busi­ness community.

Media Con­tact:

Mikay­la Marazzi
Grant Coun­ty Eco­nom­ic Growth Coun­cil
(765) 618‑2786
mmarazzi@​grantcounty.​com