By Mike Martin—
MUNCIE, IN—The Impact X Community Class is a FREE class open to everyone in the community. The class is hosted in the Tri-Phase Entrepreneur Lab, located in room 210 in the Whitinger Building on the Campus of Ball State University. The class is designed to empower community residents to create their own solutions for their community. It is a 12 week intensive course designed to help Muncie residents bring their community focused innovations to life.
Whether these innovations are businesses or non-profit, the goal is to walk residents from concept to launch. The class is free to eliminate any barriers to entry that have traditionally kept the most marginalized segments of the community from participating in the creation of the solutions for their neighborhoods.
“When I first took the class at The College of Charleston, one of the things the founder taught was that the best people to solve the problems facing our communities are those who live them daily,” said Mike Martin, one of the instructors for the class at Ball State.
Founder Stuart Williams, who still teaches the community class at The College of Charleston, said, “The problem isn’t that the people don’t know how to fix the problems facing their community, they have just never been invited to participate in the capital, resources, and planning stages of the process. This class was specifically designed to be free to the public to invite them to participate in the process, and have the educational and financial resources needed to bring their solutions to fruition.”
“This class has been the most community-minded and giving group of people I have ever had the pleasure of being a part of. Thank you to all of your for your time learning, teaching, and giving back,” said class participant Tania Said who had launched her business one month before taking the class last year. https://www.taniasaidconsulting.com/.
This will be the second class Impact X that has been offered at Ball State’s College of Business. The inaugural class commenced last year in December of 2022. This twelve week course ends on April 11th, and is followed by Impact Day April 17th where residents will present their ideas to the City, impact investors, and community leaders. Anyone interested in taking the class the can email munciecommonmarket@gmail.com to register, or just show up Tuesday Jan 17th in room 210 in the Whitinger Building at Ball State University.
