Previous Community Empowerment Grant Recipients
2024 – Indiana Legal Services, Inc. and their Tangled Title Project focuses on keeping wealth in our low-income communities by facilitating real property transfers through education, collaboration, and direct service to clients. Learn more about this project through this brief video.
2023 – You. Yes, You! – Continuing work to encourage relationships between incarcerated fathers and their children, connecting them with the resources they need to be successful parents both inside and outside of prison. Outreach funded by the Indianapolis Bar Foundation includes the active participation of Indianapolis Bar Association members. To learn more about YouYesYou!, go here.
2022 – Indiana Disability Rights: Created an accessible Advanced Directives (AD) Toolkit for people with intellectual or developmental disabilities (I/DD) that includes plain language information about AD options and sample legal forms with step-by-step guides on how to complete and use them. Following development of the toolkit, workshops throughout central Indiana were held to help individuals with I/DD get assistance with understanding and completing the forms, along with having forms notarized.
2021 – Reach for Youth - Developed the Restorative Justice Circles pilot program to replace punitive forms of discipline for school violations with facilitator led discussions bringing those affected by a violation together to address the root causes of the incident, hold the student accountable, to promote healing for impacted community member and ultimately, after a period of absence related to suspension or expulsion, welcoming the student back by offering the opportunity to repair relationships, creating an accountability/safety plan and creating supports for the student to ensure their academic success.
2020 – Redirected the $35,000 funding in response to the COVID-19 pandemic to cover the hourly expenses of IndyBar solo and small law firm practitioners of $100 per hour, up to five hours per client, devoted to assisting referred clients in the areas of family law, landlord/tenant and employment law from indigent service provider agencies.
2019 – Center for Victim and Human Rights - Launched the Pro Bono Attorney Project for Marion County-area attorneys to provide limited-scope advice and counsel to pro se victims filing a petition for a protective order.
2018 – Indiana Legal Services, Inc.’s Eviction Avoidance Project - Employed a "right to counsel" approach, meaning that all eligible applicants received legal representation. As 2018 was the 50th anniversary of the Bar Foundation, this Impact Fund Grant was $50,000.
2017 – Kids’ Voice of Indiana - Launched a Community Mobile Law Program that provided training, resources and technical assistance to Marion County attorneys and free legal advice on family law issues to both youth and adults at local community centers.
2016 – Indy Reads - Developed a program to address adult literacy issues, and specifically those facing individuals in our criminal justice system, through a year-long joint project that delivered legal literacy workshops to student inmates.
2015 – Peace Learning Center - Launched innovative programs to encourage happier and safer environments while reducing suspensions, expulsions and instructional time lost for Indianapolis Public School elementary students.
2014 - The Joseph Maley Foundation Parent Education and Pro Bono Legal Assistance Program - Created a project that raised awareness and provided pro bono legal assistance to those in our community facing legal issues associated with caring for a loved one with a disability. To volunteer, go here.
2013 - Indiana Legal Services, Inc.’s Military Assistance Project - Developed a Military Cultural Competency Manual being utilized as a resource by pro bono attorneys in implementing workshops, clinics and training sessions and/or offering direct legal services addressing common legal issues encountered by Hoosier veterans on a regular basis.
2012 - Reach for Youth’s Teen Court to fund the expansion of their successful program, which diverts approximately 600 juvenile offenders a year from the traditional juvenile justice system, and boasts a 16% recidivism rate, compared to 39% in the traditional system.
2011 - IU McKinney School of Law’s Health and Human Rights Clinic - Trained pro bono volunteers who then provided direct legal representation to low income clients on the near-west side.