October 8, 2020 at 5:14 p.m.
Grant will be used to develop strategy
Foundation will target county’s key issues
Grant will be used to develop strategy
The Portland Foundation has received a GIFT. It will be used to help the community develop a strategy to address some of its most challenging problems.
Doug Inman, executive director of the foundation, announced this week that the organization has received a $100,000 Community Leadership Grant as part of the seventh phase of Lilly Endowment’s Giving Indiana Funds for Tomorrow (GIFT VII) initiative.
The grant will be used to develop a strategy to “combat the interrelated issues of the opioid epidemic, high child poverty, low post-secondary educational attainment and low workforce development skills.”
“GIFT VII awards The Portland Foundation the opportunity to lead the community in discussion about how to combat serious issues in the community,” said Inman. “It is our hope that a strategy is developed to combat the interrelated issues of drug abuse, child poverty, educational attainment, and workforce skills.”
That process will begin with a community meeting planned for January. It will include members of law enforcement, education, health care, drug prevention and recovery, local government, local business and industry, non-profit organizations and others.
The Portland Foundation is working with Dave Bennett of Community Foundation Research Institute in Grabill to help lead the effort.
Peirce Consulting’s John Peirce will help guide the group using the collective impact model, a structured form of collaboration designed to bring a group of participants together to solve a specified social problem.
Participants in that first meeting in January will help decide on the path toward a solution.
The Community Leadership Grant stemmed from a $50,000 planning grant the foundation received in 2019 to identify challenges in Jay County.
“The planning phase allowed us to look at the issues facing Jay County through the lens of data gathering and interviews with residents,” said Inman. “The results are sobering and the challenge ahead is daunting, but I believe Jay County is up to the challenge.”
Chief among those sobering results were that certain payments, including Medicaid, welfare, food assistance and others in Jay County increased by 77.5% between 2001 and 2017. The county also has an average median disposable income that is $8,000 below the state average. Less than 11% of Jay County residents 25 and older have a bachelor’s degree. And the county has a high rate of child poverty, including coming in at No. 1 in the state in that area in 2016.
Jay County is one of 84 foundations in Indiana that received a grant in this round of the GIFT VII initiative. The goal is to use that funding to develop a “best path forward” by the end of 2021 to collectively address the county’s biggest challenges.
“Finished, to us, would be a strategy developed … to figure out how we can go about combatting this,” said Inman. “Because these are systemic issues. These are not issues that popped up this year.”
Doug Inman, executive director of the foundation, announced this week that the organization has received a $100,000 Community Leadership Grant as part of the seventh phase of Lilly Endowment’s Giving Indiana Funds for Tomorrow (GIFT VII) initiative.
The grant will be used to develop a strategy to “combat the interrelated issues of the opioid epidemic, high child poverty, low post-secondary educational attainment and low workforce development skills.”
“GIFT VII awards The Portland Foundation the opportunity to lead the community in discussion about how to combat serious issues in the community,” said Inman. “It is our hope that a strategy is developed to combat the interrelated issues of drug abuse, child poverty, educational attainment, and workforce skills.”
That process will begin with a community meeting planned for January. It will include members of law enforcement, education, health care, drug prevention and recovery, local government, local business and industry, non-profit organizations and others.
The Portland Foundation is working with Dave Bennett of Community Foundation Research Institute in Grabill to help lead the effort.
Peirce Consulting’s John Peirce will help guide the group using the collective impact model, a structured form of collaboration designed to bring a group of participants together to solve a specified social problem.
Participants in that first meeting in January will help decide on the path toward a solution.
The Community Leadership Grant stemmed from a $50,000 planning grant the foundation received in 2019 to identify challenges in Jay County.
“The planning phase allowed us to look at the issues facing Jay County through the lens of data gathering and interviews with residents,” said Inman. “The results are sobering and the challenge ahead is daunting, but I believe Jay County is up to the challenge.”
Chief among those sobering results were that certain payments, including Medicaid, welfare, food assistance and others in Jay County increased by 77.5% between 2001 and 2017. The county also has an average median disposable income that is $8,000 below the state average. Less than 11% of Jay County residents 25 and older have a bachelor’s degree. And the county has a high rate of child poverty, including coming in at No. 1 in the state in that area in 2016.
Jay County is one of 84 foundations in Indiana that received a grant in this round of the GIFT VII initiative. The goal is to use that funding to develop a “best path forward” by the end of 2021 to collectively address the county’s biggest challenges.
“Finished, to us, would be a strategy developed … to figure out how we can go about combatting this,” said Inman. “Because these are systemic issues. These are not issues that popped up this year.”
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