The planned elements include:
- Element I - Identifying Market Opportunities
- Element II - Enhancing the Anchor Facilities: Physical Development
- Element III - Neighborhood Development
- Element IV - Strengthening and Connecting the Collaborative
- Element V - Education and Research Initiatives to Advance and Promote Rural Health
Element I -- Identifying Market Opportunities
A central goal of the Collaborative is to foster economic development opportunities in Terre Haute by expanding existing companies located in the region and attracting emerging companies. The anchor institutions play a key role in educating, training, and advancing an important pool of students. They also serve a vital role in attracting and retaining key talent.
The Collaborative will attract a wide spectrum of health care companies and start-ups, with a particular focus on those that are developing products and services needed to support the decentralized health care system emerging in rural communities. It is anticipated that the Collaborative will work in coordination with the Terre Haute Innovation Alliance-a successful community partnership that provides low-cost technical and business assistance services for emerging technology companies located in the region. The Innovation Alliance is a proven job creator, and has already resulted in three successful start-up companies, including a promising medical software engineering company whose products could have application in rural settings.
Initial Strategy
The Terre Haute Economic Development Corporation plans to pursue funding through the Economic Development Administration's Local Technology Assistance Grant (LTAG) program. LTAGs support innovative economic development projects and finance feasibility studies that lead to local economic development.
Element II -- Enhancing the Anchor Facilities: Physical Development
This element focuses on developing the anchor facilities. Located in the midst of the community, Indiana State University and Union Hospital - along with the Indiana University School of Medicine - serve as leadership institutions. They each have considerable resources that have an important role in the community's current and future economic vitality. The specific facilities goals are outlined below.
Indiana State University
Acting on the recommendations of a campus-community task force and the University's chief academic officer, the Board of Trustees approved the College of Nursing, Health and Human Services, a new comprehensive college to serve the needs of health-related professions. The new college will incorporate programs currently housed in the College of Health and Human Performance and the College of Nursing. The creation of the new college has been viewed as the best way to provide the health professions with the resources, visibility, identity, and leadership opportunities needed to be successful. ISU is currently in the process of defining the perimeters of the physical home for the College.
Indiana University School of Medicine
IUSM-TH has begun an expansion of the medical school at the Terre Haute site. In the fall of 2007, the class of first year medical students was increased from 16 to 24. Beginning with the expanded 2008 class, students accepted to the newly designed rural-focused curriculum will remain in Terre Haute for years three and four for their medical training rather than move to the hub medical school site in Indianapolis. Over time, the number of medical students being educated in Terre Haute at any one time would at least double, from the current 32 to at least 64, and possibly higher. As a result of this expansion, future physical development may include a facility that would combine the first and the second year classes as well as space for the third and fourth year medical students.
Union Hospital
Union Hospital is in the midst of a major expansion. When completed, the new hospital will have 362 private rooms, which is 85 beds more than the current facility. Presently, the on-site Family Medicine Center provides facilities for primary care medicine training. Attached to the Family Medicine Center is the Landsbaum Center for Health Education, which houses Union Hospital's Lugar Center for Rural Health, the West Central Indiana Area Health Education Center, and portions of the Indiana University School of Medicine - Terre Haute, and Indiana State University's College of Nursing, Health and Human Services. In order to bring trainees together and to accommodate the planned expansions of all of the Founding Partners member programs, the Landsbaum Center needs to be expanded and the dated Family Medicine Center needs to be replaced.
Initial Strategy
To advance the development of the Collaborative, the partners will advance an integrated strategy to pursue funding to develop their anchor facilities during the next Indiana General Assembly budget session. This will be in addition to pursuing federal and private funding opportunities.
Element III -- Neighborhood Development
Locust and Lafayette Revitalization
The first component of Element III is the revitalization of the area surrounding Locust and Lafayette Streets, a significantly blighted neighborhood in the heart of the Collaborative. Currently, much of the property, housing stock, and commercial interests in this area are in a state of long-term underutilization. In order to ensure that the Collaborative has the capacity to attract the investment and talent that the initiative requires to be successful, the neighborhood will be redeveloped and revitalized through multiple strategies.
The Founding Partners will work with redevelopment and design experts to identify appropriate locations for commercial property, housing, "green" spaces, and learning centers based on comprehensive utility mapping and optimal vehicle and pedestrian traffic flow. This activity will include the dissemination of information to key stakeholders in order to begin the process of recruiting businesses and industry to the Collaborative. The Founding Partners also will invest in educating the local community about the Collaborative and its impact to the region in terms of job creation and economic vitality.
Housing Development
With the development of the Collaborative and expansion of the IUSM, ISU, and Union Hospital, there will exist a need for additional student and resident housing. Housing is a key component to attracting students and residents to the anchor institutions. Further, development of an Active Adult Community and other senior housing is another opportunity to both attract and retain doctors, nurses, and faculty after retirement.
Currently, a vast majority of property and housing stock throughout the planned Collaborative are in a state of disrepair and underutilization. As the community partners continue expansion efforts, new housing stock will be needed to meet the growing demands. The development of student and resident housing will provide benefits for the community, bringing more individuals to a revitalized and energetic downtown atmosphere. Furthermore, active retirement housing will help attract and retain older generation residents.
Mixed Use Development
Mixed-use development and redevelopment is a key component of the community's revitalization. The appeal of the "Live-Work-Play" lifestyle is vast, causing community planners to infuse cities with excitement and vitality - self-contained neighborhoods with live-work residences, offices, convenient transportation, entertainment and restaurants and retail centers. It is envisioned that the Collaborative will create an active new streetscape and connection to the main arteries of Terre Haute. Retail space along the Collaborative will expand to include new restaurants, entertainment venues, and other stores. Intertwined with these new retail stores will be new businesses, focused on research, device manufacturing, and other health-related professions.
With convenient access, the Collaborative's mixed-use development of housing and retail will create a vibrant new atmosphere for residents.
Initial Strategy
The Terre Haute Economic Development Corporation has submitted to the congressional delegation a Fiscal Year (FY) 2009 appropriations request for $600,000 through the Economic Development Initiatives (EDI) account within the Department of Housing and Urban Development.
Working in coordination with the City of Terre Haute, the Founding Partners will pursue - among other funding opportunities - the use of a Section 108 loan, which is a source of financing allotted for economic development, housing rehabilitation, and construction for the benefit of low- to moderate-income persons.
Element IV -- Strengthening and Connecting the Collaborative
Element IV is focused on enhancing and sustaining the Collaborative, including new venture and urban redevelopment throughout the area.
The Terre Haute community has several areas - such as the Arts Corridor - and pathways that connect people, neighborhoods and activity centers. The community also has several naturally occurring - yet underdeveloped and underutilized - corridors, such as the Wabash River, that could provide for placid trails and outdoor recreation centers for local residents and tourists seeking a break from daily life. Unfortunately, it has yet to realize its fullest potential. Canoeing, rafting, kayaking, fishing, and other outdoor activities serve as key factors that will attract students, residents, visitors, tourists, and businesses to the Wabash Valley.
Strengthening the connectivity of the Collaborative through innovative approaches to transportation will make the city a more livable community and help shape its future development. The Collaborative will include urban pathways that connect students at IUSM and the new ISU College of Nursing, Health and Human Services with the "living classrooms" at Union Hospital. A mix of urban landscaping, greenways, and parks will provide attractive and safe pathways for students, doctors, residents and visitors.
Initial Strategy
The Founding Partners will work in coordination with the City of Terre Haute, Terre Haute Tomorrow, and the Terre Haute Chamber of Commerce, among other government- and community-based organizations to enhance and strengthen the Collaborative, making the neighborhood a more attractive and desirable place to live and work.
Element V -- Education and Research Initiatives to Advance and Promote Rural Health
ISU, IUSM, and the Lugar Center are in the process of conducting an integrated assessment of the rural health education programs that are part of the College of Nursing, Health and Human Services, the medical school at Terre Haute, and the Family Medicine Residency program. This process will seek to catalogue existing programs, identify where there are gaps in training, and also provide an opportunity to develop interdisciplinary cross-campus opportunities for students. The goal of this effort is to identify opportunities to collocate educational programs in order to maximize resources.
In addition, IUSM is a component of one of the nation's leading biomedical research enterprises. With the rising emphasis on clinical research, particularly through the National Institutes of Health, there are emerging opportunities to couple the bench research strength in Indianapolis with the clinical strengths in Terre Haute. A good example is the existing collaboration to provide a rural health component for the IUSM proposal to develop an NIH-funded Clinical and Translational Science Institute.
The Lugar Center has also developed into a nationally-recognized "think tank" and "innovation center" by continuously tracking, developing, and implementing strategies to ensure optimal health care delivery in rural areas across the state, nation and beyond. These efforts include best practices for the recruitment and retention of physicians for rural practice using new tools such as evidence-based chronic disease management programs and health information technology systems.
Initial Strategy
The Founding Partners plan to identify and collectively advance projects that promote rural health education and research initiatives through federal research agencies and private foundations.