Highlights
What's new ?
This year, United Way of Central Indiana has advocated for legislation at the statehouse, launched an interactive data dashboard, grown a summer learning program and brought new voices to the table to share their experiences and expertise. Here are a few highlights:
Advocacy and Public Policy
During the 2023 legislative session, the Indiana General Assembly passed several bills supported and promoted by United Way of Central Indiana and its community partners and advocates.
Education
- House Bill 1001: House Budget. The budget bill includes a $5 million funding increase for On My Way Pre-K and expands the number of qualified families by increasing income eligibility from 127% to 150% of the Federal Poverty Level. The bill also includes funding for the Learning Recovery Grant program, expanding mental health access and increased funding for local public health departments to address core public health challenges.
- House Bill 1449: 21st Century Scholars program. This policy will automatically enroll eligible Hoosier students in the program, which provides up to 100% tuition for public state colleges in Indiana for low-income students.
- Senate Bill 100: Education Matters. This renews the Learning Recovery Grants and Indy Summer Learning Labs, a five-week summer program for Marion County students.
Mental Health
- Senate Bill 1: Behavioral Health Matters. This new initiative will expand our state’s mental health care system, including the establishment of an Indiana behavioral health commission and funding the 988 crisis hotline.
- House Bill 1006: Mental Health Program. This policy will improve access to mental health by admitting people from local jails into mental health treatment facilities.
Basic Needs
- Senate Bill 265: TANF Eligibility. This policy expands eligibility to qualify for the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) program – which had not been updated since 1988 – from 15% to 50% of the Federal Poverty Level in the next four years.
- Senate Bill 334: Simplified Application for SNAP Benefits. This policy simplifies the application and recertification process for Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits for the elderly and those with disabilities and their families.
United Way’s efforts at the statehouse were led by Sam Snideman, vice president of government relations.
Data and Research
In October 2022, United Way of Central Indiana launched a new interactive data tool – the Impact United Dashboard – that highlights the needs of the community and how United Way’s partners are working to address those challenges.
United Way has long collected and analyzed data to understand poverty in Central Indiana and inform its decisions and strategies. Now, United Way has made the data available to the public for the first time.
“It’s our way of making sure that we are showing how we have been accountable to the community, to donors, to funders – to ensure we are lifting their impact but also (showing) how we’re trying to invest in communities where there are gaps in services,” said Denise Luster, United Way’s chief strategic intelligence officer.
The Impact United Dashboard provides snapshots of United Way and its partners’ work in key focus areas, including economic mobility, educational success, access to healthy food, quality healthcare, safe housing and reliable transportation. Users can explore the data by focus area, dig into the demographics of those served and filter the data by county, including Boone, Hamilton, Hancock, Hendricks, Marion, Morgan and Putnam counties.
Initiatives and Programs
United Way partnered with The Mind Trust in summer 2023 for a third year of Indy Summer Learning Labs, an enrichment program that prepares Marion County students entering first through ninth grade for the new school year.
New this year: Bloomberg Philanthropies provided financial support for charter school students enrolled in the Learning Labs. Bloomberg Philanthropies was inspired by Indy Summer Learning Labs to launch a similar program, Summer Boost, in 2022 in New York City, and the program expanded to seven additional cities, including Indianapolis, in 2023.
United Way and The Mind Trust created Indy Summer Learning Labs in 2021 to address pandemic learning loss. The program has grown since, with summer 2023 labs designed to reach 5,500 students at more than 40 schools and community centers across Marion County.
A study from the Indiana Department of Education in late 2022 found that students who participated in the Learning Labs saw significant gains above their pre-pandemic rates of learning and did better than their peers who did not participate in the program.
Thought Leadership and Convening
This year, United Way of Central Indiana brought two bestselling authors to Indianapolis to speak and share their experiences and expertise.
In August 2022, Stephanie Land spoke to a crowd of about 200 at the Indiana Historical Society about the importance of listening to our neighbors – lifting up the stories of people with lived experiences – to create change.
Land’s 2019 memoir, “Maid: Hard Work, Low Pay, and a Mother’s Will to Survive,” explores poverty, surviving domestic violence and Land’s experiences cleaning houses as a single mother. It was adapted as a Netflix miniseries, “Maid,” in 2021.
Leading up to Land’s appearance, United Way hosted a three-part summer educational series on topics covered in the memoir and show: the “benefits cliff,” early childhood education and domestic violence survivorship. The panel discussions featured the voices of local experts, United Way’s partner agencies and members of the community with lived experiences.
In April 2023, United Way hosted Matthew Desmond, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of “Evicted.”
Desmond’s appearance coincided with the release of his newest book, “Poverty, by America,” which addresses why poverty persists in the U.S. Desmond is a sociology professor at Princeton University and the principal investigator of The Eviction Lab.
Speaking to nearly 500 people at the Indiana State Museum, Desmond offered several explanations for why poverty endures: much government aid earmarked for the poor never gets to them; the poor are exploited in the labor, housing and financial markets; the U.S. does more to the subsidize affluence than to fight poverty; affluent Americans create poverty by using local zoning ordinances to keep affordable housing out of their communities.
Desmond said ending poverty is “something to stand for,” and to do it, we need to address exploitation by empowering the poor and create public policies that disrupt poverty.
Desmond’s appearance was presented alongside Glick Philanthropies, Indianapolis Neighborhood Housing Partnership and The Mind Trust.
Community Impact Report
United Way of Central Indiana
2955 North Meridian Street, Suite 300 Indianapolis, IN 46208 317-923-1466 Hours of Operation: 8:30 a.m. - 5:00 p.m. Monday through Friday United Way of Central Indiana is a 501(c)3 U.S. nonprofit organization.