Though the community of Indianola, Iowa did not recieve a MIRA community project grant, the original MIRA team members and other members of the community used the skills they learned through MIRA for the betterment of their community.

Project CITA (Community Information Technology Access) is composed of a variety of individuals and organizations. Working together, the members intend to develop local capacity to allows citizens to utilize computer and telecommunications resources.

Taken from the CITA web site:

The history of our organization can be traced back to late 1997. In August 1997 the W.K. Kellogg Foundation announced the MIRA initiative. Community clusters from 10 community groups across central and southwestern Iowa applied for, and received, funding under the MIRA initiative.

As recipients of the MIRA funds, members planned, conducted, and participated in a series of themed workshops. These workshops included members from each cluster group (sometimes including more than 120 participants). Groups such as Simpson College and Warren County Economic Development Corporation worked with us to make these events a major success.

Topics for these workshops were meant to provide the participants with knowledge and skills needed to move their communities forward in the area of information technology. Even though the original MIRA participants did not qualify for additional funding for a community project, the group persisted. After the completing the MIRA grant in mid-1999, the group began to look at the technology needs of the Indianola area. The knowledge and skills provided by the MIRA workshops have proven to be tremendous assets to the groups on-going efforts.