The South Central Indiana Talent Region, which includes Jackson County, has been awarded a $30 million READI grant by the Indiana Economic Development Corporation (IEDC).
On Tuesday, Dec. 14, the IEDC board of directors and Indiana Governor Eric Holcomb announced the award during a meeting at Butler University in Indianapolis.
READI (Regional Economic Acceleration and Development Initiative) was introduced earlier this year and funded with $500 million in state appropriations to promote strategic investments that will make Indiana a magnet for talent and economic growth.
On Dec. 3rd, the South Central Indiana Talent Region, which also includes Jennings and Bartholomew counties as well as the Town of Edinburgh, made its presentation in Speedway.
The South Central group had applied for $49.5 million from the READI program which would ultimately total $378.6 million when public and private dollars were added. Of that, Jackson County’s projects totaled $7.4 million and included workforce development/training, infrastructure, housing, medical and destination projects. In addition, there are five tri-county projects that are designed for possible use by developers and other entities in all counties.
With the announcement from the IEDC, the region steering committee will begin meeting in January to bring the projects within the $30 million limit.
READI hopes to attract at least $2 billion of local public, private and philanthropic match funding that will propel investment in Indiana’s quality of place, quality of life and quality of opportunity.
Source: Jackson County Industrial Dev. Corp.