1B: #LoveIndy Community Ambassador Program

Develop a program that cultivates local residents who exhibit pride and serve as cheerleaders for the Indy community and their neighborhoods. This program can embrace these residents by engaging them with special communications from Visit Indy, networking events and promotional opportunities that would support low-cost neighborhood engagement activities. Such activities could include things like neighborhood placement of the “NDY” statues or photo competitions that culminate in neighborhood identity posters or public art projects. Beyond civic boosterism, this program should increase the depth and breadth of civic leadership across the city, leading to a more engaged and inclusive community that can rally together in times of opportunity and challenge.

Value to the Community

Neighborhood and community challenges often dominate the narrative of the nightly news and neighborhood meetings. While such topics are important to address, they neglect the positive things going on in neighborhoods across Indy. Cultivating neighbors who celebrate and amplify the good things going on and give us fun and positive reasons to come together improves the livability of our neighborhoods and broadens the umbrella for hyper-local activism to be more inclusive and representative.

Value to the Hospitality Industry

By supporting neighborhood and community champions we’re building stronger advocates for destination development. Unique neighborhoods that are welcoming of visitors require residents that understand how neighborhoods evolve, are informed of broader community goals, and represent the qualities of their people and places. The places they champion improve Indy's brand and are, or may one day be, drivers of visitation. These voices also provide critical feedback on how visitation is impacting neighborhoods and what types of support would be welcome.

Updates

March 2021. Indy Advocates for March Madness. As part of March Madness, Visit Indy trained 100 civic and business leaders to be present downtown and engage with media outlets covering the tournament. They were provided with PR training and Indy swag and the program could be viewed as a pilot ambassador program.

Key Partners

Confirmed Partners

Visit Indy (Lead)
Partnerships Under Development

Recommended Partners

Priority + Progress

Monitoring

Monitoring priorities are the middle 60% or so of actions that TTI is keeping its eye on and supporting as needed.

TTI Role

Encourage

Support

Primary

Encourage

The primary role means TTI is taking a significant leadership role in this action. This is the most-involved type of role and typically applicable when Visit Indy is leading or significantly contributing to an action implementation.