Thriving Grant County

Thriving Grant County, Thriving mill township has undergone numerous changes within the past year. We partnered with the Grant County rescue mission for the third path cohort, which has allowed us to move into an old church in gas city and renovate it into a resource center for the Community. This space has allowed us to expand our team by adding an intern and an americorps volunteer, host the early childhood education and basic needs working group meetings, and host several Community events like our back2school bash. We have also hosted local government officials to create key relationships within the mill township area. Our team has raised over $60,000, including the rural food access Grant that we were awarded. Our key partners in these endeavors are the Community Foundation of Grant County, strengthening families, mississinewa Community schools, taylor university and Indiana wesleyan university, ivy tech Community college, college wesleyan church, the well food pantry, gas city area chamber of commerce, gas city-mill township public library, and afena federal credit union.data focusing on mill township has shown that the area is a food and childcare desert, meaning Community members do not have access to fresh, nutritious foods or quality childcare. Based on this information, the Thriving Grant County team and working group members have started the childcare voucher program, re-launched the Grant County passport program, brought parent cafe trainings to the area, and created and distributed a food insecurity data survey.