IU Health grants more than $900,000 to community organizations

Twenty-four local organizations are benefiting from grants awarded by IU Health. In 2019, IU Health Community Outreach and Engagement awarded more than $900,000 to community organizations and institutions which—like IU Health—are addressing the health needs of the community. These needs include access to affordable healthcare, behavioral health and substance abuse, healthy weight and nutrition and social determinants of health.

“We are honored to support so many amazing organizations throughout our community that are working to make Indiana a healthier state,” says Kevin Armstrong, executive vice president and chief of staff at IU Health. “It takes reaching outside of our hospital walls to make a difference in the overall health of our Hoosiers and we are grateful for the opportunity to do so.”

Here are several organizations that are using grant dollars to improve the health of our communities:

Access to Affordable Healthcare:

  • Covering Kids and Families received $25,000 to assist in increasing health insurance enrollment and retention.
  • LifeSmart Youth received $50,000 toward a new initiative called Tween Education & Access to Community Health (TEACH), which aims to help advance racial health equity and access to care by providing culturally-relevant, medically-accurate reproductive health education to 4,000 Black and Latina youth ages 8 – 12 (grades 4 – 7) in Marion County schools and summer camps.

Behavioral Health and Substance Abuse:

  • Volunteers of America Ohio & Indiana’s (VOAOHIN) Fresh Start Recovery Center received a $75,000 grant to provide residential addiction treatment to pregnant women and mothers. It also allows up to two children ages 5 and under to live with their mother while they receive services.
  • Goodwill Foundation of Central and Southern Indiana
    received $75,000 to help Goodwill Education Initiatives (GEI) Resilience Initiative support resilience work across 15 Excel Center locations by leveraging groundbreaking research on neuroplasticity—the ability of the brain to reorganize itself—and to train staff and students on enhancing their resilience and mitigating the effects of trauma.
  • Additional grant winners:
    • Reach for Youth
    • Lutheran Foundation
    • Indy Public Safety Foundation

Healthy Weight and Nutrition:

  • United Way of Central Indiana, Inc.’s initiative Jump IN for Healthy Kids received a $50,000 grant to address the epidemic of childhood obesity with a specific focus on implementing strategies that create healthy places, healthy neighborhoods, and healthy communities in Marion County.
  • Playworks, a national non-profit organization that partners with Indianapolis schools and youth organizations to help them leverage play for positive outcomes, received a $22,500 grant.
  • Additional grant winners:
    • Indianapolis Parks Foundation

Social Determinants of Health:

  • A $100,000 grant was awarded to Gleaners Food Bank’s Hope Initiative to help increase the volume of fresh produce distributed in Gleaner’s service areas.
  • Indiana Legal Services, Inc. received a $75,000 grant for its Medical Legal Partnership that provides civil legal aid to patients and families who need legal assistance for health-related matters at Riley Hospital for Children at IU Health.
  • Additional grant winners include:
    • Brandywine Creek Farms
    • Lawrence Community Gardens
    • Greater Indy Habitat for Humanity
    • 500 Festival
    • Groundwork Indy
    • Marion County Public Health Department
    • Junior Achievement of Central Indiana
    • Girls on the Run Central Indiana

In 2018, IU Health provided over $711 million in total community benefit and served more than one million Hoosiers. Nearly 4,000 team members devoted thousands of volunteer hours to community projects through employee volunteer programs to help enhance the well-being of all Hoosiers.

If you’re interested in learning more about how these organizations impact the communities IU Health serves, keep an eye on the team portal for a more in-depth look at some of the winning organizations.

Questions? Contact communitybenefit@iuhealth.org.