Our Purpose
Today, more than 244,000 families in our community are living in, or one emergency away from, poverty, and that figure continues to grow in our seven-county region.
During the last year and a half as we’ve been building a new strategic plan, United Way has conducted research, facilitated discussions and collected input from community partners, funders, academic experts, community-based organizations, neighbors with lived experience, grantees and other peer organizations to determine how we can best support individuals and families moving out of poverty.
United Way is a unique player in our community who brings the resources of philanthropy, government, corporations, the social sector and neighborhoods together to confront intergenerational poverty head on, and ensure a better future for our neighbors in need.
FROM PURPOSE TO IMPACT
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.”
United Way's Parent Advisory Council
Your gift to Family Opportunity means more parents with family-supporting jobs, healthy children meeting developmental milestones, and
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.
Propel
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.
