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The Jacksonville Regional Chamber of Commerce will travel to Indianapolis for its 30th Annual Leadership Trip Oct. 12-14 to learn about the city’s leadership, civic structure, education reform and downtown revitalization.
Jacksonville’s business and civic leaders, who also visited the city on the 1988 Leadership Trip, will see firsthand how leaders in Indianapolis transformed the city by focusing on several key initiatives.
“I am extremely enthusiastic about Indianapolis,” said Hugh Greene, Chamber Chair-elect and Baptist Health President and CEO. Greene was responsible for selecting the destination city as the Chamber’s 2010 Chair-elect.
“It is a very comparable city to Jacksonville and one where leadership has accomplished impressive results during the last 30 years. I am pleased that city leaders are already committed to meeting with us.”
Trip attendees will meet with Indianapolis leaders, including the Central Indiana Corporate Partnership, which is similar to the Jacksonville Civic Council. The partnership consists of five independent organizations, four of which are industry-based and one of which is the Indy Partnership. The Indy Partnership serves functions similar to those of the Cornerstone Regional Development Partnership and the Jacksonville Economic Development Commission.
Education is another focus and leaders will learn about the city’s support of the Talent Dividend program. The program theorizes that for every 1 percent increase in the number of college graduates, there is a $1.3 billion economic impact on the region. Indianapolis has success with charter schools, many of which were founded by business leaders. Jacksonville leaders will meet with The Mind Trust, an Indianapolis organization that has improved public education for underserved students by empowering education entrepreneurs to develop transformative education initiatives.
Leadership Trip attendees will learn about “holistic” community development, which focuses on redeveloping neighborhoods by creating charter schools with mixed-use, mixed-income housing and retail and cultural recreational venues.