Grant Funds available from the City of Indianapolis

Earlier in August an RFP for funding of activities and programs related to Crime Prevention was released, and the due date is September 8th at 12:00 noon.  You must have attended one of the two information sessions offered today by City officials in order to be eligible to apply.

Acceptable activities range from mentoring to financial literacy to substance abuse treatment.  Those organizations who can show three years of program outcomes will score higher in the application evaluation process, but organizations are encouraged to collaborate and be innovative as well.

An holistic approach to re-entry is encouraged, so hopefully some comprehensive programming can get funded for up to $300,000 each!

Get the RFP on the upper left hand corner of the City’s website at www.indygov.org.  Click on “Crime Prevention Request for Proposals”.

Next Meeting Date

The group will meet again at 4:00 p.m. on Thursday, August 28th at the Unleavened Bread Cafe.  Check back here for meeting details. 

Before the meeting, we decided to come up with some suggestions for a Purpose Statement.  We bantered around a lot of ideas at the last meeting, and kept getting stuck on who we are, rather than what we’re trying to do.

We agreed on “increasing the success of the re-entry system”.  We also agreed that this could be done in part through “increased collaboration and networking” because there is room for improvement in that area.  Post your suggestions here for the Purpose Statement.

Useless flyer provided at Mayor’s Employment Fair

If you were at the Mayor’s Employment Fair on August 5th, and picked up a flyer with a lot of web-sites on it, throw it in the trash IMMEDIATELY.  Somehow, this page of Ex-Offenders Resources and Employment has been distributed to the general public and people think it is a list of places that can provide employment referrals.  NO!

It is a list of websites that was handed out at a training for service providers last summer by trainer, Larry Robbin.  Please do not waste anymore time than you already have. 

See a copy of the flyer here:
resources-for-ex1

The Mayor’s office says it was not supposed to be handed out, and they don’t know who or how it was given out – but nonetheless, it is on the street and should be in the trash!

A Revolution

A small group of individuals in the Indianapoils area have come together to forge a revolution.  We’re still working on a purpose statement, but one thing we do know, is that this will be a forum to “get the real deal” on re-entry stuff.  Stuff like – where should someone go who has a felony conviction and can’t find employment?  Post your ideas, opinions, resources, etc.  We seek:

• more accountability to people with felonies
• greater success in the re-entry system
• better networking and communication among service providers
• Service with integrity

These are a lot of great things going on in our community and we think they could be better – especially with millions of tax dollars coming into our community.  Check back – and post, post, post.  Thanks!