Priority efforts focused on early education, economic mobility, housing security & basic needs
United Way of Central Indiana announced on Tuesday a new five-year strategic plan: Partners in Purpose. This plan will concentrate the organization’s resources toward areas necessary to supporting central Indiana families experiencing financial instability: early childhood education, economic mobility, safe and affordable housing, and providing essential services to neighbors in need.
According to the 2023 United for ALICE report, more than 240,000 central Indiana families live in or near poverty. This number has increased by 11 percent since 2018.
Payne
“Poverty is one of the greatest challenges facing central Indiana,” said Fred Payne, president and CEO of United Way. “To measurably reduce the number of financially unstable households, we must focus our efforts and concentrate our resources on the top predictors of poverty: early care and learning, safe housing access for families and youth, earnings and employment pathways, and basic needs for those most vulnerable in our communities. Partners in Purpose continues United Way’s 100-plus-year-old evolution from community chest to community impact partner and paves the way to make a measurable impact in our seven-county service area.”
To help United Way best determine how to support individuals and families moving out of poverty, the organization spent the past 18 months conducting research, facilitating discussions, and collecting input from community partners, funders, experts, community-based organizations, grantees and peer organizations.
From that effort and to make the strongest impact, United Way will work with partners in the areas that provide the most promise to help our neighbors rise above poverty, including:
- Basic Needs: Basic needs services have been a foundation of United Way’s work for more than a century. Basic needs funding gives community organizations the ability to respond to Hoosiers in crisis and to those who count on life-saving assistance and the essentials to survive.
- Early childhood education: Childcare is expensive – more than the annual cost of in-state tuition at Indiana’s flagship universities. Whole families benefit from access to quality, affordable early care, and education. For parents and caregivers, access to affordable childcare is crucial to finding and maintaining employment or postsecondary education. For children, high-quality pre-K reaches them at a critical development stage and sets them up for school success – and eventually literacy and graduation success – at an early age.
- Economic Mobility: In central Indiana, poverty is close to inevitable for low-wage workers, especially those with children. Earnings have not kept pace with the cost of living, and many people face systemic inequities. Hard work alone is not enough to lift a family out of poverty. By building on the successes of its family opportunity initiatives, United Way will invest in partners working alongside 10,000 households to increase earnings and enhance well-being.
- Safe and affordable housing: Housing is one of the largest monthly expenses for families, and these costs have rapidly risen in recent years. Since the beginning of the pandemic in 2020, rents in Marion County have, on average, increased by more than 20 percent while wages have grown only by 4 to 5 percent. Over 160,000 households in central Indiana are “housing cost-burdened,” meaning that they spend greater than 30 percent of their family budget on housing-related expenses. Evictions pose a risk to families, with loss of housing correlating to job loss, lower academic scores for children and long-term challenges of securing future housing.
United Way extended its Basic Needs, Family Opportunity, and Social Innovation grantmaking structure through Dec. 31, 2024. After that time, United Way will implement a streamlined process where applications and distribution of grants will occur within the same timeline. Reporting requirements are also being shifted from the current quarterly schedule to a biannual schedule. Extending the current grantmaking structure during this time provides community-based organizations that are receiving funding from United Way more than a year to engage and prepare for any changes.
“Our goal is to create positive, substantial change in central Indiana for individuals and families who need it most,” Payne said. “Poverty is not determined by a singular issue, and it can impact families for generations. But we know many of the ways to combat poverty, and we’re leaning into data and the ongoing work of our donors and community-based organizations to help us in our new approach.”
To learn more about the Partners in Purpose plan, visit uwci.org/partners-in-purpose.
About United Way of Central Indiana
United Way is powered by donors, advocates, volunteers, and partners who envision a community where children, individuals and families thrive; neighbors care for each other; and we are proud of all our residents’ quality of life. Our mission is to accelerate financial stability and upward mobility for individuals and families living in or near poverty. Learn more at uwci.org.