From Community Vision to Statewide Recognition: Our Hoosier Planning Awards Journey

Senior NSI consultants Gretchen Sipp and Jessica Renslow had a fabulous time participating in the American Planning Association Indiana Chapter’s spring conference as exhibitors, connecting with planners, students, and community leaders from across Indiana.

(ID: BSU Alumni Center, a brick building on a sunny day.)

For a boutique firm like Nexus Strategy & Implementation, opportunities like the APA Indiana conference are especially meaningful. They allow us to share our work directly with peers in the planning profession, build relationships with communities and collaborators, and demonstrate how specialized, mission-driven teams can contribute innovative ideas and storytelling to the broader field.

(ID: Jessica Renslow and Gretchen Sipp exhibiting for NSI at the APA IN conference.)

Both the APA IN conference and the Hoosier Planning Awards were held this year at Ball State University in Muncie, Indiana. Being present not only as award recipients but also as exhibitors was a wonderful opportunity to engage with the planning community and amplifying the impact of projects we advocate.

(ID: Launching the Lagoon is announced as the winner of the Outstanding Outreach & Communication Category at the Hoosier Planning Awards)

For Nexus Strategy & Implementation, the day marked an important milestone. For the first time, our work was recognized in two categories at the Hoosier Planning Awards:

• Outstanding Grassroots Initiative

• Outstanding Outreach & Communication

(ID: Jessica Renslow and Gretchen Sipp accept the plaques at the Hoosier Planning Awards.)

The Hoosier Planning Awards celebrate professional excellence and innovation in planning throughout Indiana. They recognize projects that embody creativity, collaboration, and measurable impact on community quality of life. Being acknowledged alongside so many inspiring initiatives was deeply meaningful to our team and the many partners who helped make this work possible.

(ID: APA IN logo with tag "creating Communities for all.")

Why the Hoosier Planning Awards Matter

The Hoosier Planning Awards program was created to highlight projects that represent the forefront of planning practice. Organized by the American Planning Association Indiana Chapter, the awards recognize individuals, organizations, and initiatives that demonstrate how thoughtful planning can strengthen communities and improve people’s everyday lives.

(ID: It was a full house at the Hoosier Planning Awards, a crowd of planners sit at the awards ceremony.)

Projects are evaluated by an independent awards committee, with members recusing themselves from any project in which they were previously involved. Nominated work must also have been completed within the last three years, ensuring the awards reflect current innovation and real-world impact.

For us, receiving recognition in Outstanding Outreach & Communication and Outstanding Grassroots Initiative reflects two values that guide our work, meaningful community engagement and accessible storytelling about planning.

The Story Behind Launching the Lagoon

Our award for Outstanding Outreach & Communication recognized the documentary Launching the Lagoon, directed by filmmaker and senior NSI consultant, Jessica Renslow.

(ID: Jessica Renslow discuses Launching the Lagoon with a group of student planners at the APA IN Spring 20206 conference.)

Jessica approached the project with a unique lens shaped by more than two decades in film and television production. When she encountered the story behind the Lagoon Outlook Garden and Indiana’s first universally designed kayak launch, she recognized an opportunity to document something rarely made visible, the long, collaborative process through which community ideas become built realities.

(ID: Jessica Renslow discuss greenspace equity at the 2024 Heartland Indy Short Festival, the Oscar-qualifying film festival where Launching the Lagoon premiered.)

Rather than focusing solely on the final project, Launching the Lagoon explores the planning journey itself, how citizens, nonprofits, planners, and public agencies worked together over the course of a decade to transform a vision into a place that welcomes everyone.

The documentary translates a complex planning process into an accessible narrative. Through storytelling, it demonstrates how inclusive design, public–private partnership, and sustained civic engagement can shape equitable public spaces.

Expanding Public Understanding of Planning

The film has reached audiences far beyond Northwest Indiana.

Launching the Lagoon was selected for the Indiana Humanities Unearthed Film Project Tour, accepted into fifteen film festivals to date, and screened internationally on nearly every continent. Through these screenings, viewers who might otherwise have little exposure to planning have encountered the profession in a new way.

Instead of seeing planning as a technical or regulatory function, audiences see it as a human-centered process that improves community quality of life.

(ID: Gretchen Sipp and Jessica Renslow discuss greenspace equity at the APA IN Spring 20206 conference.)

This broader engagement is what the Outstanding Outreach & Communication award is designed to recognize, initiatives that help the public understand the value of planning and the role planners play in shaping resilient, inclusive communities.

Honoring a Grassroots Effort

Our second recognition, the Outstanding Grassroots Initiative award, acknowledged the collaborative effort that made the Lagoon project possible in the first place.

From its earliest stages, the initiative was driven by a coalition of residents, nonprofits, and institutional partners who shared a vision for expanding equitable access to greenspace and water recreation. Together, they envisioned a place that would welcome families, paddlers, individuals with disabilities, and anyone seeking a connection with nature.

(ID: Gretchen Sipp and Jessica Renslow discuss greenspace equity with Causes for Change International president, Zully JF Alvarado, in 2020 during a planning session at the project site.)

The project’s path was anything but straightforward.

Over the course of ten years, the initiative experienced significant transitions. Multiple city administrations came and went. Leadership changed across parks departments and partner agencies. State and federal offices turned over as well.

Yet the project continued to move forward.

What sustained the effort was the strength of the partnerships behind it. Because responsibility and vision were shared among many stakeholders, the initiative remained resilient through shifting political and institutional landscapes.

The Hoosier Planning Awards’ Outstanding Grassroots Initiative category celebrates this type of effort, projects that demonstrate how communities can use the planning process creatively to address local needs and create lasting change.

Storytelling, Inclusion, and Planning

A key reason this project resonates so strongly is the way it connects planning with lived experience.

(ID: Gretchen Sipp and Jessica Renslow display both Hoosier Awards at the APA IN Spring 20206 conference.)

Jessica’s background spans film production, education, and community engagement. Her undergraduate studies at Ball State University were in Japanese Language and Culture and Telecommunications (an unconventional path into the planning world). Later, her graduate work in instructional design and new media and leadership deepened her interest in how storytelling and education can empower civic participation.

Her personal experiences also shaped the film’s emphasis on inclusive design. Living with a nonvisible physical disability, raising a child with autism, and advocating for accessibility within the disability community have given her firsthand insight into how public spaces can either enable participation or quietly exclude people.

The universally designed kayak launch and sensory garden highlighted in the film reflect a powerful principle, accessibility should not be treated as an afterthought or accommodation, but as a fundamental element of how public spaces are conceived.

Looking Forward

Receiving two Hoosier Planning Awards at Ball State University this spring was an incredible honor for all of us at Nexus Strategy & Implementation. More importantly, it was a moment to celebrate the many community members, organizations, and collaborators who contributed their time, ideas, and dedication to this initiative.

Planning succeeds when it brings people together around a shared vision and sustains that vision over time.

(ID: Gretchen Sipp discuss greenspace equity at the APA IN Spring 20206 conference.)

Equally important to this recognition are the community partners who helped bring the vision behind Launching the Lagoon to life. We are especially grateful to NWIIPA, the Indiana Dunes National Park, the Friends of Marquette Park, Gary Public Transportation Corporation (GPTC), Gary Parks Department, the Miller Garden Club, the Miller Beach Arts and Creative District, VOCART and the backbone organization for the initiative, Causes for Change International. Their leadership, collaboration, and sustained commitment to equitable access, creative placemaking, and community-driven development were essential to both the project itself and the story the film tells. The Hoosier Planning Awards recognition reflects not just a single project or organization, but the collective effort of partners who believed in the vision and worked together over many years to make it real.

(ID: Jessica Renslow and Zully JF Alvarado at the UD kayak launch ribbon cutting.)

Launching the Lagoon reminds us that meaningful change rarely happens quickly. It grows through patience, collaboration, and sustained commitment. But when communities remain engaged and work together, the results can be transformative.

We are grateful to the American Planning Association Indiana Chapter for recognizing this work and proud to be part of a profession that continues to demonstrate the power of thoughtful, inclusive planning.

(ID: Gretchen Sipp and Jessica Renslow discuss at the opening ceremonies for the GBIFF.)

And we look forward to continuing that work in the years ahead