NANCY COTTERILL TO SPEAK:
Hesburgh Lecture Presents Fighting Poverty Through Education, Connection, and Empowerment
On Thursday, October 27th, UNITE INDY's Nancy Cotterill will join Notre Dame's Dr. Connie Snyder Mick at Immaculate Heart of Mary Catholic Church to discuss issues of poverty as part of the Hesburgh Lecture Series. The speakers will focus on generational poverty issues as well as the problem of recidivism and poverty generated when those with criminal records are released from incarceration. There is no registration or fee. Please join us at 5692 Central Ave., Indianapolis, at 7pm.
BIG PLANS AFOOT:
Excitement Builds As Details for New Reentry Room Are Forged
The new jail, correctly called the Indianapolis-Marion County Adult Detention Center, has a reentry room that UNITE INDY will man along with the reenetry staff of the Office of Public Health and Safety, (OPHS). Making plans recently in a virtual meeting were Winta Gerbremichael (lower right above), Reentry Director, OPHS, City of Indianapolis, along with Josiah Johnson (not pictured), Reentry Employee Liaison, OPHS, Doug Evans, UNITE INDY's Jail Site Leader (lower left above), Scott Whiting, UNITE INDY Vice President (upper left above), Sherry Jackson, UNITE INDY Director of Administration (upper right above), and UNITE INDY President Jim Cotterill (not pictured).
Reentrants who need a job will be directed to the Reentry Room where UNITE INDY’s Customer Service Representative (now conducting interviews) will help them search for jobs on SecondChanceIndy.com and encourage them to apply online before they even leave the facility. Doug Evans, who, after 40 years with Indiana Department of Corrections has been tapped to lead our efforts in the Reentry Room, will facilitate Jobs for LIfe classes inside the jail for those preparing for release within the next 90 days.
FSSA PROMOTES HANDS ON WORK:
Issues Of Addiction And Imprisonment
The Indiana Annual Recovery Month Symposium (IN ARMS) invited UNITE INDY’s Jim Cotterill and Rapha Road’s Kevin Magnin (right) to talk about their work to restore lives in Indiana. Rapha Road is a six-month program that helps men recover from the devastating effects of addiction and provides an employment opportunity called Hope Grows after the program.
Since half of all U.S. prisoners suffer from addiction and others have mental issues, Jim Cotterill addressed the need for help in these areas for those reentering society from incarceration.
To prepare reentrants for a successful life after serving a prison or jail sentence, UNITE INDY provides job preparation training with a course called Jobs for Life. We mentor students and connect them with jobs that pay a living wage to those with a criminal record through our website, SecondChanceIndy.com.
UNITE INDY's Reentry Transportation Program is then available to take many of them to and from work at no charge, because the lack of affordable, reliable transportation is the biggest barrier for reentrants to get and keep a good job.
Our thanks go to Rebecca Buhner (pictured third from right above), Deputy Director, Addiction and Forensic Treatment, Indiana Family and Social Services Administration (FFSA) Division of Mental Health and Addiction (DMHA), and her team for their caring support of this work. The event was hosted by FSSA's DMHA, in partnership with Overdose Lifeline, Inc. Learn more about DMHA's work here!
LADIES FIRST:
Jobs For Life Folks Pretty Happy About Their New Animated Program
Monica Hays (top left) and Margaret Jones (top right) from Jobs for Life met with UNITE INDY's Jim Cotterill, Scott Whiting, and Sherry Jackson to review our efforts to produce a new video version of Jobs for Life curriculum, which features animation developed by Brad Garner, PhD, of Indiana Wesleyan University's Criminal Justice Department. The new curriculum was tested with great success in our recent job training class of reentering women. Stay tuned for our graduation celebration coming soon!
UNITE INDY EMPLOYER PARTNER:
Volumod Builds Homes, Changes Lives 
The folks at Volumod are serious about second chances, believing that each of us was created on purpose, for a purpose. Matt Crouch, Mark Young, and Ethan Fernhaber converged to bring this effort into fruition. The company manufactures "efficient, attainable and sustainable homes." With goals to hire reentrants for up to about a third of their workforce, Volumod has created a place where each employee is celebrated and healing and dignity are part of the product. The company is located at 3049 N. Post Road in Indianapolis—providing good jobs in an area that needs them. We are so proud to be associated with Volumod and the great work they do!
GRACE RELATIONS:
Dr. Charles Ware, "Racism Is A Sin Issue, Not A Skin Issue"
More than 500 attended the Indianapolis Prayer Breakfast this month to pray for our city and its leadership. Featured speaker was UNITE INDY friend and encourager, Dr. Charles Ware, Founder and Executive Director of Grace Relations, and the Special Assistant to the President of the College of Biblical Studies here. He is an author, an international speaker, and a man whose passion for racial reconciliation is second to none. His book, One Race One Blood, is a bridge between cultural divides and a light that extinguishes bias and hate. Racism, he says, is a sin issue, not a skin issue. The Indianapolis Prayer Breakfast is produced every year by The Christian Business Men's Connection of Indiana.
Our hearty congratulations to Charles!
Who Gets A Second Chance?
Truth be told, second chances are only for those who are willing to do the work. The transition from inside to outside is not easy, but most incarcerated people are not ‘lifers.’ Most are men and women who want a normal life that is beyond their grasp without some serious help. That's were where UNITE INDY comes in. For a person who never saw anyone hold down a regular job, a work ethic must be taught. For someone who has gotten through life with their fists, they must be loved. For a person who never had a chance, they need an opportunity. With 12,000 people being released from incarceration every year into Marion County, this is a job we have to do to save lives, to save families, to change neighborhoods, and to uphold the words in Hebrews 13:3: "Remember those in prison as if you were bound with them." Read Nancy's blog post here!
Why Support UNITE INDY?
UNITE INDY fights the root cause of poverty, which impacts some of the most pressing problems we face in our city, such as hunger, homelessness, and interrupted educational opportunities for children.
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. 
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.
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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