Community Link: The Alliance for Northeast Unification
INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) — On this week’s Community Link, we were joined by Reverend Roderick Reed to discuss a new organization on the northeast side that’s aiming to create opportunities for the community to access resources and make neighborhoods more inviting.
What is the organization that you represent?
First of all thank you for having me. I’m always happy to talk about the wonderful things that are happening in the northeast quarter of Indianapolis. The Alliance for Northeast Unification, for short is ANU, it is the merger and the partnership between two different organizations that have been operating for a number of years in the Avondale Meadows area. You have the United Northeast Community Development Corporation which takes care of the community development which I like to think of the flesh and blood, but then you have the Meadows Community Foundation that does all the economic development I think of the brick and mortar. and so they decided to come together to partner and they put together an executive committee called the Alliance for Northeast Unification which I am honored to be the president and CEO of.
The community that you represent is diverse. Tell us more about that diversity and what services are available to minorities of the northeast.
It is a very diverse community and becoming even more diverse every single year. It is predominantly African-American but we do see a growing Hispanic-Latino population in the area. We do a number of things to cater to a number of things to cater to all people, all religions, all cultures that come from different levels, low income, moderate income, whatsoever. We have programs now through our quality of life plan that really caters to health and education to housing which is one of my key initiatives to be able to revitalize and develop housing for low income and moderate people in the area as well as we have the Avondale Meadow schools in the area that cater to our young people in the area which are top performing schools.
What can we do as a community to continue to help the northeast side develop?
As a community, well, first of all, we’ve placed about $70 to $75 million in revitalization int he area so money is always and funding is always a good thing for the community but to be able to frequent the area, to see all the wonderful things that are going out there, to help change the narrative if you remember years ago Avondale Meadows was the happening place in Indianapolis. That’s where everyone went, you had the movie theaters and the bowling alleys so everyone hung out there. But through the process of years it became blinded and crime infested, but now with the revitalization it’s resurfacing as a very strong and a safe community. We really need people to come and just frequent the area to be able to change the narrative to understand that it’s not what the years have made it out to be and perception-wise.