INDIANAPOLIS — Communities across Marion County are taking action to reduce crime and positively intervene in the lives of the city’s most vulnerable residents. Forty-two not-for-profits engaged in this important work received support recently when The Indianapolis Foundation, an affiliate of Central Indiana Community Foundation, awarded $1.86 million in grants through the Community Crime Prevention Grant Program. The Indianapolis Foundation has managed the grant program, on behalf of the City of Indianapolis, since 2013.
DPS found that six neighborhoods representing just 4.7 percent of the Indianapolis population accounted for 27 percent of the city’s homicides and 30 percent of non-fatal shootings. The neighborhoods include: 16th and Tibbs; 29th and Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Street; 34th and Illinois Street; 38th and Sherman Drive; 42nd and Post Road; and New York and Sherman Drive. Emphasis is also given to applicants that serve African American males, age 14 to 24, in high-crime areas or people who have had interaction with the justice system.
• Brookside Community Church of Indianapolis. Brookside received funds to expand its Re-entry Hub program that works to prevent recidivism. Funds will allow the church to double the reach of the program in the Brookside neighborhood.
• Fathers and Families Resource/Research Center. The Strong Fathers/Strong Families program provides fathers and fathers-to-be with parenting classes, education and employment services to reduce interaction with the criminal justice system and encourage healthy family involvement.
• Flanner House of Indianapolis. The organization’s crime prevention program offers education, employment and skills-building for ex-offenders to reduce recidivism.
• Southside Youth Council/Reach For Youth. The grant to Southside Youth Council/Reach for Youth program provides counseling to absent or truant middle-school students in danger of suspension or expulsion.
Other recipients include Big Brothers Big Sisters of Central Indiana, Boys & Girls Clubs of Indianapolis, Community Alliance of the Far Eastside, Inc., Concord Center Association, Inc., Dove Recovery House for Women, Inc., Eskenazi Health Foundation, Forest Manor Multi-Service Center, Horizon House, Inc., John Boner Neighborhood Center,s Paws and Think, Inc., Peace Learning Center, Second Helpings, Southeast Community Services, Inc., Workforce, Inc., and YMCA of Greater Indianapolis