Regional Trails Master Plan

Produced by Align Southern Indiana

To download a copy of the full Regional Trails Master Plan, please click here.

The purpose of this plan is to layout a regional trail system within six southeastern Indiana counties – Clark, Floyd, Harrison, Jefferson, Scott, and Washington – that can be implemented over time through local and regional leadership using a variety of funding mechanisms.

The regional trail system will connect twenty-two communities within the six counties to popular destinations, cultural and historical sites, local, regional and state parks, and neighboring regions. Objectives include an emphasis on regional connections–longer in length, making connections between communities or connections between communities and destinations–rather than local connections–shorter in length connecting destinations within communities. Providing greater safety, connectivity, and awareness system-wide is another priority, which will ultimately promote more active, healthy living throughout the region.

The end goal is to identify projects within each county that can be implemented over time as funding becomes available. More trail miles built within the region in the coming years will ultimately determine the success of this plan.

How CFSI is Involved…

The Community Foundation of Southern Indiana has played an integral role in the initial planning of Align Southern Indiana and has provided more than $600,000 in grant funds and in-kind support to the organization since 2015.

History of Align Southern Indiana

In 2015, the Metro United Way (MUW) in Louisville received a grant to focus on grassroots capacity building in Southern Indiana. The focus of the grant was to share important data and understand how all three sectors – public, private, social/nonprofit – within the community are interconnected.

At that same time, the Community Foundation of Southern Indiana engaged the Indiana University Southeast’s Applied Research and Education Center to produce the 2015 Assessment of Needs and Priorities in Clark and Floyd Counties – the area’s first-ever Community Needs Assessment (CNA) – which reported on potential gaps and overlaps in services and funding throughout the two counties.

The timing couldn’t have been better. With a common goal of understanding and improving Southern Indiana communities, both Metro United Way and CFSI began engaging key community stakeholders and leaders about the possibility of creating a collaborative organization to drive systemic change for the issues that hold us back as a region from being the best place to live, work and play. Education, Quality of Life, Quality of Place, Regional Leadership and Economic and Talent Development were selected as the foundational areas of focus for the organization, using the CNA as a guide. Other area funders and community foundations have been involved in the process since the beginning.

Alignment USA was selected as the model to approach the issues, as it focuses on cross-sector collaboration, community convening, and community engagement. With the principles and structure of the nonprofit in place, Align Southern Indiana was born in 2018. Since that time, strides have been made in Kindergarten Readiness and Early Childhood Care and Education across the region, regional youth leadership summits have been held annually, multiple projects and programs in the addiction prevention space have moved forward and county leaders have participated in several bus trips to other areas where collaboration is having regional success. In addition, the team working on Quality of Place has produced this regional trails plan.

For more information about this regional collaborative, please visit the Align Southern Indiana website: https://www.alignsi.com/