ABOUT
NEWALLEN ALLIANCE
FOUNDED:
1991
7:1
SEVEN COMMUNITIES
ONE VISION
COMBINED POP.
56,491
Mission
The mission of the New Allen Alliance is to create a unified voice for the communities in East Allen County to foster a coordinated effort in community and economic development, resulting in new investment, job creation, and improved quality of life.
Vision
East Allen's Rural Revival is a bold vision to improve Quality of Place in all seven East Allen County communities. Proposed projects will help connect people in our areas (think downtowns, parks, trails, and housing developments). Our vision is to grow our population by enhancing the livability of our rural areas, which will attract and retain a talented workforce that benefits all of Allen County and Northeast Indiana.
Core Values
Core values provide a platform to support the mission of the NewAllen Alliance, shape the culture of the organization, and clarify its identity. They provide a foundation for collaborative decision-making and can be an important tool to set the terms of engagement between communities, stakeholders and the public.
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Collaboration: Cooperation based on relationships among communities in areas that go beyond set jurisdictional boundaries, recognizing both local and regional perspectives.
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Economic Diversity: Support of a wide variety of business and industry.
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Empowerment: Enabling communities to take action to achieve their goals.
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Individualism: Each community is unique and provides value.
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Leadership: Cultivated individuals and groups that have the tools and resources in addition to the authority or influence to make good decisions and positive action for a community.
NewAllen Alliance Priorities
NewAllen Alliance supports the development of communities in a way that is effective, responsible and strategic. This will be accomplished through the proactive management of growth in addition to advancing a community and economic development approach relevant for rural and suburban communities.
NewAllen Alliance communities identify themselves as being small, rural, friendly and family-oriented. Future growth and development should allow for the retention of these characteristics while creating healthy, thriving communities. Quality of place investment strategies include preserving and capitalizing upon authentic heritage, revitalizing downtowns, and improving the quality of and access to parks.
Healthy, thriving communities must also provide a foundation built upon having a range of quality housing options at a variety of price points, as well as adequate built and civic infrastructure to support both existing and future development.
Regional
Context
NewAllen Alliance communities are situated in the eastern portion of Allen County, the area is next to the City of Fort Wayne, Indiana's second-largest city. Allen County is in the northeastern corner of the State of Indiana, a region with a population of approximately 700,000 that is within a two-to-three hour drive from major Midwest cities such as Chicago, Detroit, and Indianapolis.
The population of the area served by the New Allen Alliance is 56,491 which is approximately 16% of Allen County's population of 360,259 according to ESRI Community Analyst data for 2013 provided by the IPFW Community Research Institute. This population is also larger than that of 65 of Indiana's 92 counties. The NewAllen area has 20,124 households and 21,496 housing units with a 6.4% vacancy rate. Top industries by employee are Manufacturing, Wholesale and Retail, and Education & Health Services.
Board of Directors
NewAllen Rural Liason
Kristi Sturtz
NewAllen Rural Liaison
Kristi Sturtz, AICP has twenty-five years of experience as a Community and Economic Developer. As the owner of Sturtz Public Management Group, she has worked with several organizations and communities throughout the State of Indiana on a range of types of projects including Collaboration, Quality of Life, Neighborhood Livability, Downtown Revitalization, Comprehensive Planning, Annexation, Infrastructure Development, Sustainability Planning, and Strategic Fund Development.
Kristi is a Master of Liberal Arts Degree Candidate for Development Practice at Harvard Extension School. She also has a Bachelor of Science degree in Public Affairs with a concentration in Public Management from the School of Public and Environmental Affairs at Indiana University. Kristi is a member of the American Institute of Certified Planners, a Qualified History Professional with the Indiana Department of Natural Resources, and an accredited Grant Administrator for the Indiana Office of Community and Rural Affairs.
Community
Collaborators
Nelson Peters, Allen County Commissioners
Marilyn Hissong, East Allen County Schools
Adam Welch, Greater Fort Wayne, Inc.
Tracey Davis, Ivy Tech Community College
Dana Berkes, NIPSCO
Nick Darrah, Northeast Indiana Regional Partnership
Matt Vondran, Northeastern Indiana Regional Coordinating Council
AEP
CITY OF NEW HAVEN
CITY OF WOODBURN
FIRST MERCHANTS BANK
GRABILL CHAMBER OF COMMERCE
HARLAN COMMUNITY ASSOCIATION
HOAGLAND CHAMBER OF COMMERCE
INDIANA-MICHIGAN POWER
JEFFERSON TOWNSHIP TRUSTEE
LEO-CEDARVILLE FOUNDATION
MAUMEE TOWNSHIP TRUSTEE
MILAN CENTER FEED & GRAIN INC
MONROEVILLE CHAMBER OF COMMERCE
NEW HAVEN CHAMBER OF COMMERCE
PAULDING-PUTNAM ELEC CO-OP
SDI LAFARGA, LLC
THREE RIVERS FEDERAL CREDIT UNION
TOWN OF GRABILL
TOWN OF LEO-CEDARVILLE
TOWN OF MONROEVILLE
UPSTATE ALLIANCE REALTORS
NewAllen Alliance History
Founded in 1991, the NewAllen Alliance is an all-volunteer organization that works to bring people to the table who have a passion to see the communities in East Allen County thrive and excel. Member communities who have representative board seats include Grabill, Harlan, Hoagland, Monroeville, New Haven, Leo-Cedarville, and Woodburn.
The organization was started with a $150,000 revolving loan grant from the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) to offer low interest loans to the businesses in the area being served, for equipment or infrastructure improvement needed to expand the business helping create jobs and added commerce. Through the interest earned on this program, New Allen was able to launch a façade grant program that offers a rebate back to business owners who do work on the outside façade. This grant allows for a 1/3 match up to $1,000 back. These programs continue today as a part of the organization.
Community collaborations have always been important to the NewAllen Alliance and the regular monthly meetings have included representatives from the following organizations:
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Allen County Commissioners
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Allen County Council
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East Allen County Schools
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Greater Fort Wayne, Inc.
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Northeast Indiana Regional Chamber
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NIPSCO
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Indiana Michigan Power
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Paulding Putnam Electrical Co-Op
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UPSTAR - Upstate Alliance of Realtors
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Ivy Tech Community College
In 2014, the organization went through a strategic planning process where a new strategy was defined to
improve growth, economic stability and to help give the organization a stronger voice in Allen County. Most of the goals were organizational capacity building goals with outreach opportunities to build more collaboration and communication with elected officials within each community and Allen County; and to better improve relationships with Allen County and Regional economic development agencies. Through this strategic planning, the following goals were created and met through the fall of 2015:
Goal 1: Clearly define the unified agenda for NewAllen Alliance
Goal 2: Establish a communications and stakeholder engagement plan
Goal 3: Become an active partner in regional economic development
Goal 4: Determine appropriate technical assistance opportunities for NewAllen Alliance communities
Goal 5: Align organizational bylaws and meeting structure around goal achievement
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Full Organizational Action Plan - June 2014:
In 2014, NewAllen Alliance petitioned the new board of directors of Greater Fort Wayne, Inc. to have a seat on the board. That invitation was extended and a seat was created and solidified by the GFW policy manual to include the president as a standing board member. The NewAllen's involvement in GFW is needed to ensure the voices of the residents in East Allen are heard and considered when discussing major decisions for Allen County's economic future.
In the fall of 2015, the organization received a grant from the Allen County Capital Improvement Board. This grant was to be used to create a Strategic Investment Plan that outlined the needs of the community and how they are planning for future viability and growth. The goal of the planning was to identify capital needs of each community and to understand what commonalities might exist between the communities to encourage collaboration and efficiency. Through this process we defined our priorities as they relate to the priorities of the county and the region.