Project submission portal open through Nov. 12

TIFFIN, OHIO – Sept. 10, 2020 – On behalf of the City of Tiffin, Tiffin-Seneca Economic Partnership is launching a new, innovative community development initiative. For the next two months, Tiffin area residents can submit new ideas or detailed proposals for facilities and services to improve Tiffin’s education, health and wellness, and quality of life. Community organizations, community leaders and elected officials will also be directly solicited. Projects can be submitted at www.dreambigtiffin.com until November 12. The page includes details on submission and frequently asked questions.

After project solicitation closes, TSEP will make all detailed project proposals available for review online and ask for the entire community’s feedback on the project proposals submitted for the next few weeks. The public can provide input online and/or at public hearings.

Following the public feedback period, three specialty committees or “panels” in the areas of Quality of Life, Education & Training and Health & Human Services will evaluate and classify each of the project proposals as “priority,” “recommended,” or “reviewed” based on a number of factors, including the public input.

The panel's recommendations for prioritization will then be taken to a larger Tiffin Community Development Committee, which will finalize the classifications and the overall project list and then share those recommendations with local and state elected officials, as well as foundations and other sources of grant funding. TSEP will provide support by assisting high priority projects in obtaining funding as well as further developing project ideas into project proposals.

Tiffin-Seneca Economic Partnership, formerly SIEDC, has been involved with community development inside the city of Tiffin since 1990, originally with housing programs and over the last couple of years as the administrator of the Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) program and manager of the downtown Main Street program. The new “Dream Big Tiffin” program seeks to increase community engagement, identify and develop more and better project proposals, secure more funding, and thereby improve the quality of life in Tiffin.

Tiffin Mayor Aaron Montz said, “I appreciate TSEP’s commitment to improving public participation to better identify and facilitate more high-impact community development projects in the City of Tiffin. This will be an exciting new step in that direction.”

About the Tiffin-Seneca Economic Partnership

Started in 1983 as the Seneca Industrial and Economic Development Corp. (SIEDC), the Tiffin-Seneca Economic Partnership is a private, non-profit corporation dedicated to driving positive economic, downtown, and community development in Tiffin and Seneca County, Ohio, which consistently ranks among the top communities nationally for economic development. Learn more about the great things going on in Tiffin and Seneca County at www.tiffinseneca.org.