INDIANAPOLIS, IN – EmployIndy was awarded the Community Crime Prevention Phase II grant from the Indianapolis Foundation, a Central Indiana Community Foundation (CICF) affiliate. The purpose of this grant is to provide intentional and immediate programming focused on community safety and preventing crimes committed by youth and young adults.

One of EmployIndy’s strategic goals focuses on impacting young adults in Marion County, funding initiatives through city partners and provide programming to serve at least 50% of the 30,000 opportunity youth population within the next five years. To assist in implementing this strategic plan, EmployIndy received another grant from the Indianapolis Foundation on August 11, 2017.

Since receiving the Community Crime Prevention Phase II grant, EmployIndy has been spearheading an E^7 Essentials Model in partnership with several community and neighborhood organizations on the Far Eastside.

This location for the initial re-engagement center was chosen because it is both in one of EmployIndy’s strategic target impact areas and it is deemed an Indianapolis “hot spot” by Mayor Joe Hogsett. A “hot spot” is defined as a Marion County area experiencing the most poverty and unemployment attributed to crime.

The E^7 Essentials Model is designed to engage opportunity youth, ages 16-24, in target neighborhoods by co-locating participant services and activities that support seven essential employment elements: Exposure, Empowerment, Engagement, Exploration, Experience, Education, Employment. The elements develop work, life, and leadership skills that ultimately empower meaningful pathways to jobs and position a young person for workforce success.

The establishment of the E^7 Essentials Model is different from the opportunity youth programs EmployIndy is currently funding because it will replicate a neighborhood or community center-based access point for re-engagement services with a focus directed specifically towards disconnected youth and young adults.

Rodney Francis, EmployIndy Senior Director of Opportunity Youth Services, describes EmployIndy’s drive by stating that “our strategy will be to catalyze re-engagement centers in a way that holistically integrates best practices and promising approaches for serving youth and young adults who are disconnected from either education or employment due to significant barriers precluding labor force participation.”

EmployIndy’s goal is to reduce barriers for youth so they may enter the workforce as they reach adulthood, feeling both empowered and aware of the career pathways and opportunities available in order to reach their dreams.

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