IEPZ (Indy East Promise Zone) by Ray Wyatt

IEPZ

Listen HERE.

Ray Wyatt's latest place-based song, IEPZ, is about the hopes and dreams of residents on the Near Eastside of Indianapolis in an area that was recently designated as a Promise Zone.

Selected through a competitive grant application process, Promize Zones are high poverty areas that the federal government works with, assisting community leaders to achieve neighborhood created goals and priorities. The Indy East Promise Zone application identified five goals:

• Live IndyEast: We promise to create an economically diverse community by promoting housing redevelopment that embraces existing and new residents. We aim to accomplish this by recapturing vacant housing and developing new and affordable options.
• Work IndyEast: We promise to develop vibrant neighborhood zones of business activity, industries, and commerce in which residents are employed in living wage jobs. We aim to accomplish this through entrepreneurship, industrial reuse, and job training.
• Buy IndyEast: We promise to create healthy commercial corridors that provide desirable neighborhood goods, services and amenities that serve our residents and become a regional destination for shopping, dining, and recreation.
• Safe IndyEast: We promise to create a welcoming environment in which all families and visitors feel safe and secure. We aim to accomplish this by focused efforts on crime prevention, youth intervention programming, and supportive reentry services.
• Learn IndyEast: We promise all children will receive exceptional education from birth to adulthood including developmentally appropriate early childhood services, high quality and innovative schools and access to post-secondary education and training.

We look forward to seeing what the coming years have in store for the Near Eastside.