STRENGTHENING FAMILIES:
YOU YES YOU! Connects Children With Their Incarcerated Dads
UNITE INDY is so proud to support the work of the You Yes You! Project which helps incarcerated fathers build and maintain relationships with their children through understanding, coaching, and contact.
Through their unique program model, the organization affirms the importance of fatherhood and assists incarcerated men in becoming the fathers they aspire to be.
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Founder and Executive Director Ericka Sanders (pictured) knows that children need to have a relationship with their incarcerated parent to begin recovering from any trauma they may have experienced. According to research, positive father-child involvement enhances children’s and families’ results, leading to healthier communities. Kids with involved fathers are 80 percent less likely to spend time in incarceration, 75 percent less likely to have a teen birth, and two times more likely to go to college. It's all about connections. Ones that were broken, and ones that are healed. Check out You Yes You Project, here! |
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This is what we all need to understand about reentry: Freedom is both a blessing and a curse. We make roughly 30,000 decisions a day on the outside, but for a person who has been incarcerated for a long time, the freedom of decision making can be overwhelming. For all those working with reentrants, or related to someone who is incarcerated, Nancy Cotterill ended 2022 year with her post on some of the important lessons we've learned about the pitfalls that sidetrack even the most success-oriented returnees. So check out this honest look at what to avoid and what to hold on to for a successful reentry experience. Read her thought-provoking blog post here! |
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HELLO MOLLY!
New Marion County Transportation Manager Has "Done All This Before!"
When you have up to 20 vans going in all directions full of reentrants who have been picked up in various locations, you could easily have a mess on your hands, not to mention, missed shifts and unhappy employers.
Enter Molly Oliver, whose experience includes working with Commuter Connect, a program that organizes ride sharing. Once Again: We are blessed to have found the perfect person for the job of helping employers to offer reentrants a second chance to a pathway to success! Molly will be in charge of UNITE INDY's adherence to our City of Indianapolis grant requirements as well as helping employers as they schedule routes, pick-ups and drop-offs of employed reentrants using our Reentry Transportation Program vans. We are proud to introduce Molly, who is now working with UNITE INDY in this strategic position!
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Rev. Dr. Charles Ware To Teach "Grace Relations" To UNITE INDY / Stop the Violence Prayer Group
For more than two years our prayer group has been gathering on Zoom at 8:00 AM every Wednesday morning to pray for our city, a reduction in violent crime, and a decrease in criminal homicides here. Although progress has been made, 2022 still had 26% more homicides than pre-pandemic levels.
To develop a greater understanding of the impact of racism and poverty that are often at the root of violence, we are doing a deep dive with the help of the Reverend Dr. Charles Ware. Ware is not only the former president of Crossroads Bible College (merged with the College of Biblical Studies, Houston, TX), he is a co-author of One Race One Blood, a book that addresses racial issues, and is the developer of " Grace Relations," a Biblically-based course that applies the Word of God to conversations that involve race and ethnicity. We are blessed to have Charles as a friend, and thankful that he is willing to share his wisdom on this subject with us. Join us on Wednesdays at 8am here!
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REENTRY EMPLOYMENT PARTNER:
Ken's Foods Does More Than Make (Arguably) The Best BBQ Sauce Around...
The Lebanon, IN maker of Sweet Baby Ray's BBQ Sauce and all kinds of salad dressings and sauces is not just about producing great food products. They are very very interested in building strong communities and helping those who need a hand up as they reenter society after incarceration by listing their job openings to reentrants on UNITE INDY's SecondChanceIndy.com jobs site. Ken's is now working with the Boone County Economic Development Corp. to establish a UNITE INDY Transportation Program that will help reentrants get and keep the good jobs Ken's Foods supplies, helping these employees put down a firm economic base on which to build a future. We look forward to working with Ken's and so appreciate this management team that cares so much for their community. |
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FEBRUARY 2, 2023:
You're Invited to Prosperity Indiana's Statehouse Day
UNITE INDY has been proud to work with Prosperity Indiana as it leads the charge against payday loans and other predatory lending practices which target the poor in Indiana. On February 2nd, Prosperity Indiana will hold its Statehouse Day event which is an opportunity to demonstrate support for the organization's 2023 Policy Agenda. Your participation and voice is crucial to encourage the Indiana General Assembly to invest in affordable housing, community development resources, and consumer protections. Take a tour, join their letter-writing campaign, and attend legislative committee meetings! Find out more and register here! Pictured: Jessica Love, Executive Director, Prosperity Indiana.
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Why Support UNITE INDY?
Our major focus is to assist the 12,000 inmates returning to Central Indiana after long-term jail sentences. UNITE INDY provides mentored job training inside the jail, and a website for those with a criminal record, SecondChanceIndy.com, filled with job openings offered by our Second Chance employer partners.
These jobs are powerful weapons with which to fight poverty in our neighborhoods.
How You Can Support Jobs for Justice- Involved Individuals
3. Become a Member - Your tax deductible gift will buy either 5 Student Workbooks for a class or 10 meals for students, their mentors, and instructors to gather around a table before each class, sharing food, transforming the moment into something more unique by creating a sense of community, which strengthens the relationship building process.
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Support of Ministries and Charities:
Since 2017 UNITE INDY has provided a free web-based system at UNITEINDY.org that connects churches, ministries, and other charities to share their volunteer needs or needed items. UNITE INDY also provides the manpower necessary to assist smaller organizations—that have no one to upload needed items—the help they require to access this service. Through this portal, UNITE INDY has brought hundreds of volunteers and thousands of dollars worth of needed goods into the hands of those who assist the poor.
Serving the Servants:
UNITE INDY comes behind urban pastors and ministry leaders by addressing personal and professional needs with free services for those who work tirelessly in their neighborhoods to care for the needy and bereft.
Remember, almost 1 out of every 3 children in Indianapolis lives below the poverty level, yet even in the aftermath of the COVID shut down, as our economy comes back to life and employment is returning, all this good news stops at the lines surrounding many of our inner city neighborhoods. In some neighborhoods of Marion County unemployment is now 21%, and poverty remains the overwhelming divider of people.
Please donate to UNITE INDY now. There are a number of choices that are all secure and safe. By sending your fully tax deductible gift* now we can have a greater impact meeting needs in our community in 2021.
Many, many thanks!
*UNITE INDY, Inc. is approved under Internal Revenue Code (IRC) Section 501(c)(3) as a Public Charity, donors can deduct contributions they make under IRC Section 170.
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Corporate Partners
A big Thank YOU to our Corporate Partners for their unwavering support which makes it possible for us to provide our services at no charge to job applicants and employers!
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