Neighborhood Porch Parties Celebrate Community's Quality of Life Plan

Martindale Brightwood residents celebrated a plan to improve their community's quality of life, gathering on Thursday at over a dozen locations to connect and learn how they can get involved.

"This is a 20-year dream come true. There are so many good things happening. Now we're ready to show it," said resident Aster Bekele. "Like a flower, we are starting to bloom."

Restoration, resilience, and revitalization are how residents describe Martindale Brightwood and its 5-year Quality of Life plan, the first certified by the city.

The plan focuses on ten areas:

1. Youth engagement
2. Workforce development
3. Public safety
4. Neighborhood engagement
5. Housing & infrastructure
6. Health & wellness
7. Environmental justice
8. Education
9. Economic development
10. Arts & culture

Thursday's celebration kicked off with porch parties at 13 locations representing the plan's pillars.

"This isn't our first Quality of Life plan. We just updated it for 2025 through 2030. We can see new paved roads, a new library, a new Frederick Douglass Park family center, but a lot of stuff we don't see or hear about," said Immanuel Ivey of Edna Martin Christian Center.

"This is a great opportunity to shed light on the movement around the goals and strategies that we would like to accomplish, but also so individuals can really see or hear the story, but also feel the impact that this plan has for the community of Martindale Brightwood," Ivey continued.

Residents learned about the plan's focus on their health, with a major goal being to reduce chronic illnesses such as diabetes and high blood pressure.

"Specifically, Martindale Brightwood, that 46218 area. We know this is the area where we have high diabetes, high blood pressure, all those things that's causing these chronic illnesses. I want us to start focusing on those," said State Representative Robin Shackleford.

Reginald Wesley, with IU Health, visits barbershops and pantries in the neighborhood to gain trust while screening for high blood pressure, which is known as a silent killer.

"There are a number of reasons why people may not be coming to IU Health. Either they don't have insurance, they're under insured, or maybe you're like me you have good insurance, but your deductible is so high you feel like you don't have insurance. And just historically, there have been a lot of wrongs that the medical industry has committed against people that look like me," Wesley said.

"Instead of waiting on people to come to IU Health, we wanna get out into the community and meet people where they are, another thing that we know is," he said.