Brooke’s Place for Grieving Young People, Inc. has received a grant of $675,436 from Lilly Endowment Inc. to help significantly expand programs and services to support youth living with grief in central Indiana.
The program is being funded through Lilly Endowment’s initiative, Strengthening Youth Programs in Indiana. The aim of the competitive initiative is to help youth-serving organizations working throughout Indiana improve their abilities to promote the academic, physical, and social well-being of young people, ages 5 through 18.
Brooke’s Place is central Indiana’s only organization addressing the need for ongoing and comprehensive support services for children and families living with grief. This grant will support the nonprofit’s plan to greatly extend the reach of its services to additional grieving youth in central Indiana, proactively serving diverse populations and young people who have fewer resources and options to address their grief.
The funding will facilitate the expansion of ongoing grief support groups, Camp Healing Tree, family grief expression days, and the provision of care packages to the recently bereaved. Additionally, it will enable the organization to increase marketing efforts to create greater understanding about childhood grief in the community.
“This grant represents an incredible opportunity for Brooke’s Place, and we are poised and committed to expanding our support programs and increasing our capacity to serve more grieving children and families in Central Indiana,” said Theresa Brun, Executive Director of Brooke’s Place. “The support of Lilly Endowment will enable Brooke’s Place to recruit additional volunteers, create additional community awareness about the ramifications of unresolved childhood grief, and help more children, teens, and young adults and their families to thrive in the midst of grief.”
Brooke’s Place is one of 187 organizations receiving grants through Strengthening Youth Programs in Indiana.
“Indiana’s youth-serving organizations are crucial to the healthy development of children and youth across the state,” said Ted Maple, Lilly Endowment’s vice president for education. “The challenges these organizations have faced in meeting the needs of young people in recent years have made their work increasingly difficult. Lilly Endowment is pleased to support their efforts to strengthen programs and serve more youth more effectively.”
Lilly Endowment launched Strengthening Youth Programs in Indiana Initiative in 2022 with an invitational round of grants to nine national youth-serving organizations to help them expand and enhance the work of their Indiana affiliates or chapters.
About Brooke’s Place for Grieving Young People, Inc.
Established in 1999, Brooke’s Place provides ongoing grief support groups, therapy services, and community education to empower children, teens, young adults, and their families to thrive in the midst of grief. For the last 24 years, Brooke’s Place has served more than 27,000 individuals. With an estimated 73,000 children expected to go through the death of a loved one in central Indiana before the age of 20, there will always be an ongoing need in our community for the programs provided at Brooke’s Place. To learn more, please visit BrookesPlace.org.
About Lilly Endowment Inc.
Lilly Endowment Inc. is a private foundation created in 1937 by J.K. Lilly Sr. and his sons Eli and J.K. Jr. through gifts of stock in their pharmaceutical business, Eli Lilly and Company. While those gifts remain the financial bedrock of the Endowment, it is a separate entity from the company, with a distinct governing board, staff, and location. Although the Endowment funds programs throughout the United States, especially in the field of religion, it maintains a special commitment to its hometown, Indianapolis, and home state, Indiana.