Nonprofits Launch $500K Learning Initiative

The Mind Trust is helping to fund Community Learning Sites in Marion County. (photo provided)

The Mind Trust and United Way of Central Indiana are investing a total of $500,000 to launch a learning initiative for Marion County students this summer. The initiative will support the highest-need neighborhoods in Indianapolis and build on The Mind Trust’s Community Learning Sites to provide summer learning programming to students at no cost.

The organizations say they are planning to hire a full-time summer learning initiative director, who will work to establish a framework, manage program execution, and measure program outcomes.

“United Way of Central Indiana has long promoted quality education for children today as a critical foundation for economic opportunity tomorrow,” said Ann Murtlow, president of UWCI. “We are delighted to work alongside The Mind Trust to launch this effort as part of our Family Opportunity strategy and to partner with community-based organizations and education leaders to address pandemic-related learning loss that threatens to derail the near-term educational progress of kids in the most challenged and diverse parts of our city.”

The organizations say the director will work with TMT and UWCI to identify the best method to evaluate the program’s effectiveness, and a report will be released to share the results.

The initiative will complement work already happening in Indianapolis schools and will provide additional capacity and resources to schools and educators.

UWCI and TMT are each planning to contribute $250,000 to launch the planning phase of the initiative.