UPDATE: Gary READI project lands additional funding
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Gov. Eric Holcomb joined officials in Gary on Tuesday to announce additional funding for a project made possible through the state’s $500 million Regional Economic Acceleration and Development Initiative, or READI.
The Tolleston Opportunity Campus is receiving a total of $20 million from the city of Gary and the Dean and Barbara White Family Foundation.
The project was approved for $9.4 million in READI funding in January.
The campus will be built at the Gary branch of the Boys & Girls Club in the former Tolleston Middle School. The project, which includes a new 50,000-square-foot space and an upgrade to the Boys & Girls Club, aims to provide spaces and programming focused on youth development, healthy families, healthy communities and economic and workforce development.
The space will include a fitness center, learning opportunities for families and specifically for children, as well as a health care clinic and extracurricular classes.
The partners say the goal of the project is to “empower families to obtain the means necessary to break the cycle of poverty and actively contribute to a thriving economy.”
“Our community is excited about the Tolleston Hub project, including the new YMCA,” Gary Mayor Jerome Prince said in written remarks. “It’s proof Gary and our friends and neighbors can reimagine what’s possible when we all work together. We welcome all of our partners to Gary, and we look forward, with you, to accomplishing great things for northwest Indiana.”
Gary is part of the Northwest Indiana Forum region, which was one of five regions to receive the full $50 million allocation of READI funds in December 2021.
The Northwest Indiana Forum says, to date, more than $31 million in READI grants have been approved, and that funding has leveraged nearly $100 million in additional investment in the region.
The region represents Lake, Porter, LaPorte, Newton, Jasper, Starke and Pulaski counties.