Purpose to Impact
BASIC NEEDS
Food. Shelter. Health. Transportation. Most of us take these essentials for granted, but for many people these basic needs are in critically short supply or non-existent. Our Basic Needs work provides support to our most vulnerable neighbors and lifesaving assistance to those in crisis situations – helping those in immediate need survive today so they can thrive tomorrow.
individuals received services allowing them to access or retain affordable housing.
people accessed healthy food and nutrition programs.
people accessed physical, mental and behavioral health services.
individuals accessed transportation services.
$800,000
granted to 15 organizations to support capacity and increase access to mental health services.
126 individuals sought utility bill assistance.
4,025 tax returns were filed.
927 people received essential services.
Basic Needs Fund Grantees
Click below to see more information on total grant amounts and focus areas for each organization.
Stability First
Jami walked out of jail with nothing but a bag of clothes and hygiene items and made a call to Magdalene House.
It had been a long road to get there: A military veteran, Jami had struggled with drugs, lost custody of her two sons, went to jail, then rehab, then jail again – although this time sober. She’d tried Magdalene House, a women’s shelter in Martinsville, before but left because she wasn’t ready.
Now in June 2020, though, she was.
Another nonprofit put her in a hotel for the night, and she fell asleep praying Magdalene House had an open bed. The next morning, she got the news: There was a spot for her.
For nine months, Magdalene House became her home, the place where she’d find stable footing, start to heal and grow.
“I felt God’s presence the moment I walked in,” Jami said. “I felt like some of the women are going through the same thing that I'm going through, and this is where we lean on each other. … It was like nothing else I have ever experienced. I felt like I belonged there.”
Founded in 2015, the nonprofit Stability First aims to address poverty, homelessness and addiction in Martinsville and Morgan County. Its Magdalene House, a 16-bed facility for women, opened six years ago and takes a holistic approach to helping women build a stable foundation and the skills they need to thrive – based on their individual needs. It provides a safe, calm, structured and loving environment to help people get on their feet and rebuild, “one step at a time,” said Rick Miller, founder and executive director.
“We want to do more than just feed them or give them a place to stay,” he said. “We want to look at every aspect of their life and help them.”
Several years ago, Stability First worked with United Way of Central Indiana on capacity building and in early 2022 became an accredited community organization. Accreditation allows nonprofits to apply for United Way grants and access training, assistance and programs to grow their organizations.
“That’s been a great blessing because (United Way has) been right there for us on several occasions,” Miller said.
Stability First has received United Way technology funds for a security system and staff laptops, and a $40,000 grant from the Basic Needs Fund in June 2022 has helped support Magdalene House.
Stability First also partnered with Home Bank to establish the Better Communities Coalition, a group of nonprofits – including United Way – that works to address a lack of affordable housing, mental health services and transportation in the county.
A minister in the community for 28 years, Miller decided to start Stability First after noticing a need. He led a weekly Bible study at a men’s shelter and realized that without an exit strategy – without staffing, programming and a plan – it was impossible for the men to reach stability. It became a “burden in my heart” to do something, Miller said.
Miller and his team opened Magdalene House for women first. There were shelters for families and domestic violence survivors in the community – but nothing for individual, single women.
Since opening, Magdalene House has helped around 600 women. And a 16-bed men’s shelter – called Foundations House – is currently in the works. Miller hopes it’ll open by mid-2024.
At Magdalene House, women stay for 90 days up to two years. The program isn’t cookie-cutter – individualized plans are created for each person – and focuses on five areas: spiritual strength, sobriety, finances, life skills and relationships.
Every woman comes through the door looking for a bed, but they also carry with them invisible luggage: PTSD, trauma, substance use. Magdalene House helps them unpack that and start to heal, giving them the tools they need, said Robin Wonnell, Stability First’s operations director.
The women are assigned chores, eat dinners together and pay a fee once they’ve landed jobs as a way of preparing them for rental payments outside Magdalene House. Residents also are invited to assemble and sew canvas handbags – called Maggie Bags – alongside community volunteers. Stability First sells the purses, with proceeds going to support Magdalene House.
Several women who once lived there now work on staff, just one example of the ministry’s impact, Miller said.
For Jami, Magdalene House provided a structure she craved from the military. Sher served nearly a decade in the Ohio Army National Guard as a mechanic, including a 13-month deployment in Afghanistan.
At Magdalene House, she completed Bible study, therapy, finance coaching, the DETOUR substance abuse recovery program and an Intensive Outpatient Treatment program. She got a new job and worked with the other women on learning mindfulness and coping skills.
“I was lost when I came in,” Jami said. Slowly, working through all the steps, “I found my self-worth and was able to grow and find who Jami was and be a better mom.”
She finished at Magdalene House in February 2021. Today, she’s been sober over three years. She got promoted at work – the longest job she’s had besides the Army. She lives on her own and manages her finances, an independence she’s never known before. And she’s gaining back trust with her two sons.
“This place helped me find me – and save my life.” Jami said. “I know I wouldn’t be sitting right here if it wasn’t for coming through those doors.”
On Thursday nights, Jami returns to the jail where she once served time to help lead a recovery support group. She shows the women there’s life on the other side of addiction and “shines light that there’s hope.” And she often visits Magdalene House to share her story and talk with the residents and staff, whom she calls her “house moms.”
“Every time I walk in there,” she said, “I know it’s my home.”
Family Opportunity
Intergenerational economic mobility lies at the heart of the American Dream.
Our Family Opportunity work supports integrated programs that improve the education, financial stability and overall health of the whole family. By intentionally working with parents, caregivers and children together, we create pathways for success and give families the tools needed to secure long-term stability and a brighter future.
families served by Family Opportunity.
Since 2019, the number of people served through Family Opportunity increased by 81% and the number of services provided increased by 240%.
45% of families continuously served between 2019-2021 saw an increase in household income year over year.
70% of parents/caregivers continuously served between 2019-2021 obtained full-time employment.
Centers for Working Families
people served through the Centers for Working Families.
people received financial counseling.
people received employment counseling.
Family Opportunity Fund Grantees
Click below to see more information on total grant amounts and focus areas for each organization.
Centers for Working Families and PACE
Moving to a new city and starting a career can be hard. This is especially true for people whose lives have been affected by the criminal justice system.
D. Frank Adams knows the importance of finding community support during times of transition. When he moved to Indianapolis in 2018, he quickly found Public Advocates in Community Re-Entry (PACE). It was a springboard to a new career, job success and financial stability.
PACE helps people who are impacted by the criminal justice system lead productive and responsible lives by ensuring they have tools and resources when re-entering the community. PACE is one of 12 accredited partners with United Way of Central Indiana to use the Center for Working Families model, which helps people and families get on a path to financial stability. These sites use a research-based model developed by the Annie E. Casey Foundation to coordinate support at a single location, which makes accessing resources more convenient and effective.
Since 2015, United Way of Central Indiana has served as lead investor into the Center for Working Families network. In July 2022, United Way distributed over $1.4 million in funding to 12 Center for Working Families sites, including PACE.
These investments support staff, programming and people in their communities. Supporting Centers for Working Families like PACE is one of United Way’s key strategies for helping Hoosiers get ahead.
“We aim to decrease the number of individuals and families who are living in or near poverty. One way we do that is by investing in and creating pathways of opportunity for Center for Working Families participants to obtain sustaining-wage jobs,” said Shannon Jenkins, United Way’s impact senior director.
At PACE, Adams’s goal was to find a job that could support his family. He worked with PACE coaches to plan his career and attended a workshop to strengthen his resume and practice interviewing for jobs.
Team members at PACE also prepared Adams to talk with employers about his incarceration, training that was important to him.
“Being able to know how to talk about any offenses that have occurred, being able to fill in the gaps in time, and being honest about what happened. Honesty is the cornerstone of all this. If you’re not truthful about what has occurred … chances are, you are not going anywhere,” Adams said.
His hard work at PACE paid off. Adams is now a certified peer recovery coach at a local hospital, where he supports people struggling with substance use. He has earned recognition and won awards for his work.
Center for Working Families sites go beyond helping people find employment. These community anchors provide multiple types of support “bundled” together at the same time, including income support, employment coaching and financial coaching. This combination helps people on the path to financial stability.
“If you add employment plus financial coaching, and if the individual needs support such as bus passes to get to work for the first 30 days ... you have just increased that person’s likelihood of success exponentially,” said Tawnya McCrary, a youth employment services/financial coaching consultant at PACE.
Annually, Centers for Working Families serve over 3,500 people in Central Indiana. People who participate in Center for Working Families programs report an average annual increase in net income of $972.39 and an average increase in net worth of $11,708.33.
United Way also supports coaches and staff like those at PACE who make a difference in their clients’ lives. United Way brings together these coaches and frontline staff from across the region in Community of Practice Convenings to enhance their skills and share best practices. These convenings help to maintain consistent, high-quality Center for Working Families service across Central Indiana.
Yvonne Smith, director of employment services at PACE, said the nonprofit benefits from being part of a network with other Center for Working Families sites: “When financial coaches get together, they share best practices, what’s working and what’s not working.”
For those like Adams whose lives have been affected by the criminal justice system, there can be many barriers in the way of reaching financial stability.
But with the help of places like PACE, Adams said: “We take out the wall, and you start to build something new … and that thing is a pathway to your freedom.”
Social Innovation
To better support and empower those in our community who are struggling to make ends meet, Social Innovation invests in testing of new ideas, approaches, programs and projects with the potential to deliver measurable and scalable impact on our community.
United Way looks to accelerate the cycle of innovation in our sector through the testing of promising practices that can improve the efficiency and effectiveness of our service delivery and outcomes. Social Innovation establishes an opportunity to capture the best, brightest and most innovative approaches to combat poverty in our community, especially those that support equity and community collaborations.
parents/caregivers/adults were served through Social Innovation.
youth were served through Social Innovation.
of adults who received workforce and economic success services reported being fully employed.
Social Innovation Fund Grantees
Click below to see more information on total grant amounts and focus areas for each organization.
Propel
'It’s opened up so many doors’: How a United Way pitch contest helped organizations launch new projects, make connections.
United Way of Central Indiana has held two Propel events, in June 2022 and April 2023.
One day last spring, three leaders of Martindale Brightwood Community Development Corporation walked the sidewalks of the neighborhood and pressed record on a video.
In the five-minute recording, they explained the vision for their project.
With Jumpstart Martindale Brightwood, they hoped to launch a program to train and mentor emerging minority real estate developers interested in improving and investing in the neighborhood. Among the goals: Create opportunity for people of color who have been underrepresented in the real estate development industry and ultimately create affordable housing options so families can stay in the neighborhood and build wealth through homeownership.
The video was all for a submission to Propel, a United Way of Central Indiana pitch contest for human services organizations.
Nearly 30 nonprofits applied by video, and the pool was narrowed to five finalists invited to pitch their ideas live for a chance to win $30,000 in funding.
On June 14, 2022, Dr. JoAnna Brown and Joi Harmon took the stage at The AMP at 16 Tech to make their pitch for Martindale Brightwood.
They were nervous. They’d never pitched at a competition before.
Before them sat a panel of judges and a series of three lightbulbs – green, yellow, red – indicating how much time was left in their five-minute pitch.
After all the finalists had gone, the judges announced their winner: Martindale Brightwood Community Development Corporation.
Brown and Harmon leapt in the air, arms above their heads. “I think I didn’t even go to sleep that night,” Brown said.
“To have staff, board members – and even our family – to be a part of the experience in the audience, to look out and say, ‘We did it, we’re bringing this opportunity back to the community that’s going to have a lasting impact’ – that's immeasurable, really,” said Harmon, the organization’s deputy director.
Much has happened since.
Both Martindale Brightwood Community Development Corporation and Gennesaret Free Clinics, a Propel finalist, received funding from United Way’s Social Innovation fund in November 2022. And Propel itself has grown: A second iteration of the event, sponsored by Audiochuck, was held in April 2023, with more than $100,000 awarded to nonprofits.
“Since pitching on stage at Propel, these organizations have not only been able to impact community, but … the community has also wrapped around these organizations and their initiatives to increase the amount of impact that they’ve been able to have with our neighbors,” said Jonathan Jones, United Way’s social innovation senior director.
For Gennesaret Free Clinics, a connection made through Propel led to the organization receiving its single largest donation to date.
And for Martindale Brightwood, winning Propel meant bringing to life a longtime vision for the community: “This has been our passion project for the last couple years, to see more people who look like me at the table when it comes to real estate development in our communities,” said Brown, housing and development officer.
“... I've been thankful for this whole process since we won – and beyond – because I feel like it’s opened up so many doors I didn’t even realize it was going to open up for us.”
A ‘life-changing’ connection
Theresa Patterson felt like she’d flubbed.
The executive director of Gennesaret Free Clinics pitched at Propel, holding a microphone, a clicker for her PowerPoint presentation and a prepared speech in her hands.
The speech fell on the ground. Gennesaret didn’t win.
Patterson felt like she’d let down the people she was trying to serve. She slunk away and licked her wounds, she said, but there was important work to get back to.
A couple months later, Jones from United Way connected her with Propel sponsor and media company Audiochuck, whose team wanted to learn more about Gennesaret.
The nonprofit works to ensure all who live in Indianapolis have access to high-quality, respectful and barrier-free health care. They do that by operating free medical clinics, a dental clinic, a women’s health services clinic and three health respite homes to provide a safe place for those experiencing homelessness to stay when they’re coming out of the hospital.
Gennesaret focuses on three zip codes in particular – 46218, 46201, 46225 – where residents have a life expectancy 15 years shorter than those who live outside those zip codes, according to data from IUPUI’s Richard M. Fairbanks School of Public Health.
Patterson met with Audiochuck’s top leaders and outlined Gennesaret’s vision: to launch a hub-and-spoke clinical model. The goal was to keep the hub clinic – located at St. Vincent de Paul Food Pantry in Indianapolis – open more days a week so people could have greater access to care and expand the “spoke” part of the model, taking the mobile medical unit out into the community on a more regular schedule.
Then, Ashley Flowers, Audiochuck’s founder and chief creative officer, told Patterson something she wasn’t expecting.
“She told us that she was going to give us $1 million to support our work,” Patterson said. “I went from dropping my speech at Propel to her supporting us with an amazing million-dollar grant.”
It was the single largest gift Gennesaret has received, one Patterson called “life-changing.”
The funding has allowed Gennesaret to remodel and open its hub clinic Monday through Saturday, run its women’s health services clinic weekly instead of every three weeks and purchase a new mobile medical clinic. The funding also has allowed Gennesaret to think about how to right-size its respite program to serve more people.
“What an incredible gift,” Patterson said. “And it started because of Propel.”
Building community ‘from the inside out’
When leaders at Martindale Brightwood Community Development Corporation heard about Propel, stars aligned, their executive director said.
The organization already had a program they wanted to launch – Jumpstart. And Propel was looking for innovative projects, ones that would reduce barriers for those from under-resourced communities and asset-limited backgrounds.
“It just fit perfectly,” said Executive Director Amina Pierson.
For 30 years, the nonprofit has worked to be a catalyst for sustainable growth in Martindale Brightwood and the surrounding areas, Pierson said. It does that through education, housing, empowerment and community development, which includes developing small businesses and people in the neighborhood.
Keith Broadnax, senior vice president of business development for the nonprofit Cinnaire, brought the idea for Jumpstart to Martindale Brightwood.
This is the need: Black developers have been historically underrepresented in the real estate development industry, making up less than a quarter of the developers in the country, according to figures Brown has cited in research and proposals. Women make up even less than that.
“There’s a huge deficit when we talk about minorities in real estate development space,” said Brown, who started her career in urban planning and moved into housing market analysis. “I got tired of being the only minority in the room, the only woman in the room. And so I said, ‘We have to do something about this."
Pierson explained in the initial Propel pitch video that she sees a lot of housing going up in the neighborhood, which is composed of 95% people of color, but it’s not coming from local developers. It’s outside investors and larger companies building market-rate housing, despite the desire from residents for affordable housing for families.
Jumpstart is a way to build the community “from the inside out,” she said: “There’s never been money put into a neighborhood like Martindale Brightwood to say, ‘Let’s find talent. Let’s see who has the aptitude to do this.’”
Over six weeks, the program introduces participants to different disciplines within real estate development and provides training in the development process, from acquiring and sourcing property to financing to property management. It’s modeled after Jumpstart programs in Wilmington, Delaware, and Philadelphia’s Germantown neighborhood.
When it came to Propel, Harmon said the video application and pitching live on stage provided a creative, fun way to share their story and vision for Jumpstart – and be their authentic selves.
“This application process allowed us to show our passion for the project, show our commitment to the community in a different way that doesn’t come across on paper,” added Brown.
After winning Propel, Martindale Brightwood Community Development Corporation launched Jumpstart and put out a call for applications, hoping to get a couple dozen.
More than 140 people applied.
They graduated their first cohort of 25 participants in November. Less than two months later, at least four of the graduates had already landed jobs with developers.
Pierson said launching Jumpstart has turned a spotlight on the nonprofit. It’s led to partnerships with other agencies and is already having regional impact, with graduates taking their new knowledge and skillset into other communities. Westside Community Development Corporation also participated in the program.
Jumpstart will start its second cohort in August, with applications opening in May.
Cinnaire, which partnered with Martindale Brightwood to bring the program to the neighborhood, is now setting up a pre-development fund for all Jumpstart graduates, Broadnax said. Funding and access to capital can be significant barriers for developers, and this will provide them with affordable, below-market-rate financing, he said.
Perhaps one of the most significant outcomes: The relationships participants have built with each other and their mentors will likely last throughout their career – and lead them to new opportunities, Brown said.
Broadnax said that, as one of the few African Americans in real estate finance, emerging developers will come to him with their struggles, feeling unprepared and unsure about why they got turned down by the bank. With 30 years of experience, Broadnax knows what it takes to get approved.
Jumpstart is a way for him to teach what he’s learned in his career, to give opportunities to those who haven’t had access, he said: “I wanted to be able to show … them the right way to do real estate development.”
June 2022 Propel
Winner: Martindale Brightwood Community Development Corporation - $30,000
People’s Choice, presented by audiochuck: South Central Community Action Program - $7,500
Finalists: Gennesaret Free Clinics; Gleaners Food Bank of Indiana; You Yes You! Project - Each awarded $2,500
April 2023 Propel
Award, presented by United Way: Ivy Tech Foundation - $35,000
Award, presented by audiochuck: Family Support Services of West Central Indiana - $50,000
Heritage Group People’s Choice Award: Project WILL, Inc. - $18,271
Finalists: Circle City Village; Fathers and Families Center; Fight for Life Foundation; Indianapolis Legal Aid Society - Each awarded $2,500
Sector Support
A stronger human service sector makes for sustained long-term impact and improved quality of life across our community.
United Way is grateful for support from Lilly Endowment Inc. and others for supporting the sector with grants for capacity building, infrastructure, leadership development and technology for community organizations tackling the most complex issues facing Central Indiana.
United Way’s Technology Fund
Hardware and software upgrades. Cybersecurity improvements.
Cutting down response times. Building better websites to interact with users differently. Bringing in hybrid and remote services to reach people where they are.
Since relaunching in 2020, United Way of Central Indiana’s Technology Fund has awarded over $2.2 million to more than 80 organizations to fund 105 projects across the region. Supported by funding from Lilly Endowment Inc., it’s one of three United Way funds – Technology, Facilities Maintenance and Capital Projects – designed to help organizations with infrastructure needs.
It’s often difficult for nonprofits to get dedicated funding to invest in technology.
“The nonprofit sector deserves to have state-of-the-art, up-to-date technology to assist them in the work they’re doing,” said Gary Woodworth, United Way’s director of infrastructure. “Unfortunately, it’s an area that often gets put down the priority list of an organization.”
The Technology Fund aims to fill that gap. But it’s about more than getting dollars into the hands of nonprofits. The workgroup that reviews applications and approves grants is composed of local technology experts who provide coaching, guidance and high-level consulting feedback to the nonprofits – without the high-level price tag.
And rather than one-time fixes and upgrades, the workgroup helps nonprofits look at their technology needs comprehensively and build a roadmap for the future – to transform the way they serve the community.
“I’m a firm believer that United Way of Central Indiana is our community’s best bet at solving for the biggest issues that our community faces," said Lauren James, former chair of the Technology Fund workgroup and a member of United Way’s Board of Directors.
“What makes United Way so unique as a convener and as a collaborator is that we are able to bring in experts from the community, bring in leaders that can help coach and guide and serve as thought partners to our nonprofit organizations to ensure that they are proactively and strategically and innovatively thinking about serving their constituents in present day and also ensuring that they are well-equipped to continue to do their great work well into the future.”
United Way first started a Technology Fund in 2000 as part of a partnership with Lilly Endowment Inc. In the first decade, the fund awarded about $5 to $6 million in grants, Woodworth said.
After a hiatus, plans were made to relaunch once funding was available in early 2020.
Woodworth and James met in late 2019 to build their dream team, a workgroup of volunteers from the local technology industry: data scientists, tech founders, chief technology officers and chief innovation officers with backgrounds in services, product, hardware, networking, security and marketing.
The fund was ready for its comeback. And then the coronavirus pandemic hit.
Because the right people were already in place, Woodworth said, the workgroup was able to pivot and act fast. With money approved by United Way’s board, the Technology Fund was able to meet nonprofits’ immediate pandemic-related technology needs and awarded more than $525,000 in grants to 48 organizations within about two months of the pandemic’s onset.
Without the funding, many organizations would have needed to shift their budgets, taking funding away from other areas to get the technology they needed, Woodworth said.
In the early days of the pandemic, the fund helped nonprofits get technology that allowed for remote work – laptops, mobile devices, access to Wi-Fi – and helped them continue to serve the community virtually with programming and services.
The fund has expanded in the three years since, with some nonprofits receiving funding multiple times.
At Brightlane Learning, technology funds have helped the nonprofit through a period of rapid growth.
For nearly 22 years, Brightlane has helped students affected by homelessness and housing instability with tutoring and academic support while advocating for their families as they navigate the educational system. Since the start of the pandemic, the number of students Brightlane serves has nearly doubled: from about 400 annually to more than 740 this year.
The technology grant gave Brightlane the tools needed to build a new website and e-newsletters as they underwent a major rebranding. The new site is easier for staff to update and more user-friendly, with streamlined content that better directs people to volunteer and donate, said Claire Brosman, Brightlane’s vice president of grants and communications.
Funds also allowed Brightlane to roll out a volunteer module in its Salesforce database. The tool tracks volunteer availability and shifts for specific days and times, among other things, freeing up staff time to focus on volunteer training and support instead of manual data entry.
Nonprofits want to put the money they receive directly back into their programs, so it can be difficult to justify the expense of technology upgrades, Brosman said. The Technology Fund allowed Brightlane to improve its technology without worrying about taking away money from its programs, she said.
“We can just focus on ways to streamline, improve our technology capacity and do our programs better and stronger – which will ultimately improve our programs and our ability to ask for additional program funding from other funders in the future,” Brosman said.
Today, the Technology Fund’s workgroup meets quarterly to award grants, and community organizations accredited with United Way can receive up to $35,000 annually. United Way will fund up to 75% of qualifying projects.
Nonprofits are encouraged to first apply for up to $3,000 for an assessment grant to better understand what their technology needs are and help build a plan for digital transformation down the road.
Members of the workgroup act as extensions of the nonprofits applying for grants, said James, who spent a decade in the technology industry, including at Salesforce and TechPoint. They think through requests just as they would for their own businesses, evaluate quotes and plans, ask questions and ensure organizations are getting the best deals and terms from vendors.
They also bring their personal experiences to the table, too. Workgroup member Diana Nolting’s daughter receives physical therapy services through one of the nonprofits, and Nolting is able to provide a parent’s perspective.
“Because we all live and work here, we’re able to provide the community context in addition to the technology expertise and have a really constructive conversation about how we’re serving and impacting the community,” said Nolting, who works as the vice president of product for Linnworks.
“... It's not just serving one organization and volunteering. It’s allowing us to scale our resources and really bring collaborative knowledge together and see that impact across the whole of the community.”
The Technoloy Fund has helped nonprofits make measurable change over the last three years, she said, and continued funding is critical.
Said Nolting: “... We need to make sure (community organizations) have the opportunity to continue those plans so they can continue to really scale out in an exponential way who they’re able to serve and how they’re able to serve at the pace of technology, which is not slowing down at all.”
Equity Action
With the addition of our Equity Action Initiative, United Way is expanding the breadth and inclusion of our grant making, building on the existing capacity of our community’s grassroots, grass tops and faith-based organizations, strengthening our pipeline of leaders of color in human services, and rooting equity across our entire portfolio of work.
United Way’s Parent Advisory Council
For Adea Gumm, joining the Parent Advisory Council was a way to put her passion into action, advocating for parents and children.
For Hannah Wagner, it has provided a place for parents and caregivers to share their experiences and inform United Way’s decisions based on what’s most important to them.
And for Kisha Walker, it has been a way to give back: “I love getting my hands into the soil of the community.”
Since early 2022, 14 parents and caregivers have been meeting as the inaugural cohort of the Parent Advisory Council, a new initiative from United Way of Central Indiana. The council brings parents to the table – with the goals of strengthening parent leaders and also tapping into community voice to inform and influence United Way’s work.
The result: The parents created a first for United Way, a grant fund developed by them. In April 2023, they awarded $200,000 in grants to seven organizations, focusing on four areas the parents identified as having a high need in the community: financial stability, mentorship, mental health and well-being, and social and emotional learning.
“With this united effort, we’re going to help somebody. We're going to be able to make a difference for someone. That's the best thing,” said Walker, who also serves as a parent leader with the nonprofit EmpowerED Families.
The parents and caregivers represent 10 different zip codes in United Way’s seven-county service area and meet monthly at the nonprofit, where they learn about United Way’s work and the grantmaking process and share what they are seeing, hearing and experiencing in their communities. They also dig into United Way data to understand what the numbers show about community need.
Funds were set aside for the council, but it was up to the members to decide what to do with it – whether to put it toward designing programs, supporting existing ones or awarding grants. Drawing on the data and their own experiences, they created the Power to the Parent Fund. The parents developed a request for proposals, reviewed applications and selected grant recipients.
For a long time, United Way has invested in other organizations that uplift parents’ voices, said Shannon Jenkins, Family Opportunity senior director. But there was still room to do that within United Way. It was something the nonprofit hadn’t done before.
To drive equitable outcomes in the community, decisions shouldn’t be made solely by United Way’s team and its supporters, Jenkins said. Outside voices must be brought in to inform and influence those decisions.
“We know how critical it is to be making investment decisions that pull in external voices – and in this case, especially voices of parents who represent neighborhoods and represent residents in the decision making,” she said.
Added Dionna El, Family Opportunity project specialist: “It’s important because it brings the community – it brings parents and caregivers – to the table, which is not something that United Way has traditionally done.”
To build the Parent Advisory Council, United Way learned from similar programs at United Way of Greater Austin and Ascend at the Aspen Institute. The Aspen Institute developed the concept of 2Gen – short for two-generation – programming, which focuses on supporting the whole family to break the cycle of intergenerational poverty. The practice serves as a model for United Way’s Family Opportunity work.
“When we think about whole-family, 2Gen work, we know that centering parent voice and community voice is key – in a way that leads to outcomes that support households and families throughout Central Indiana,” Jenkins said.
United Way worked with local organizations EmpowerED Families and Social Legends to aid with parent recruitment, training and meeting facilitation.
While United Way serves as the backbone and fiscal support for the council, it’s the parents who are in the driver’s seat when it comes to decision-making, Jenkins said.
Child care, transportation, food and stipends are provided to eliminate any barriers that could stand in the way of a parent participating.
Since council members began meeting, their work has grown to influence other aspects of United Way’s work. Parents have served on workgroups that award grants from United Way’s other funds and have shared their voices on community panel discussions.
Jenkins said she hopes that community influence in United Way’s work continues to grow. And she hopes the parents feel they can be community leaders: “I have a hope that council members are applying (their skills) in other spaces and that they feel empowered to use their voice in spaces outside of PAC as well.”
Many parents have told El, who facilitates the meetings, that the council is the highlight of their week. She’s seen their relationships with one another deepen – an immeasurable benefit of the program.
Since finishing their round of grant funding, the parents have been asking her: What happens with the next year of the council?
But like everything else with the council, it’s not for United Way to decide.
Said El: “They are eager to know what’s next, and I enjoy smiling and saying, ‘I don’t know, because you all are going to create the next cohort and what this looks like.’”
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.