CULTIVATING LEADERS TO FEAR LESS, LOVE MORE AND DREAM BIGGER (Spring 2026). Tree Street Youth (TSY) is a Lewiston, Maine-based community of youth and adults who use their diverse lived experiences and collective empowerment to co-create youth-centered programs and partnerships that encourage leadership, learning, exploration and growth. TSY is grounded in radical accessibility and relationships rooted in equity and care. Founded in 2011 as a grassroots afterschool organization, TSY has grown into a robust ecosystem offering accessible, year-round programming for Lewiston area youth ages 4–24. Located in the heart of downtown Lewiston, TSY serves over 1,200 youth annually, with more than 25 languages spoken in the center.

BUILDING AUTONOMY, INSPIRING GROWTH AND CREATING JOY (Spring 2026). The mission of the Hawthorne Community Center is to enhance the quality of life and empower the Hawthorne community by investing in multi-generational and holistic opportunities to build autonomy, inspire growth and create joy. A trusted community asset for 100 years, Hawthorne provides programs and services for early childhood, school age youth, adults and families living in the Near Westside and greater Indianapolis communities. Hawthorne believes that to address inter-generational poverty, it must integrate services into a comprehensive package focusing on the root causes of poverty and therefore implements the Center for Working Families (CWF) and two-generation (2Gen) models. Hawthorne’s focus is on long-term, relationship-based case management rather than transactional efforts.

EMPOWERING PORTUGUESE-SPEAKING IMMIGRANTS ON THE PATH TO SUCCESS (Fall 2025). The Massachusetts Alliance of Portuguese Speakers (MAPS) is a nonprofit organization that has provided essential health and social services to Portuguese-speaking communities and others in Massachusetts since 1970.  MAPS works with and for the Brazilian, Cabo Verdean, Portuguese and other Portuguese-speaking communities to remove barriers to health, education and social services through direct assistance, advocacy, leadership and community development.  Among MAPS’ many free programs and services is mental health assistance—a service the organization implemented in February 2021 amid the COVID-19 pandemic, when MAPS social workers identified many community members feeling overwhelmed by stress and trauma due to illness, deaths of loved ones, loss of jobs and income, or a lack of support due to immigration status.

BUILDING A HEALTHIER FUTURE FOR YOUTH (Fall 2025).  Reach For Youth provides mental health services for young people ages 7-18 in Indianapolis and surrounding communities. With offices in Indianapolis and Greenwood, the organization helps children and teenagers work through emotional challenges, trauma, and mental health struggles.  Many young people today face serious mental health issues like anxiety, depression and the effects of trauma.  Reach For Youth understands that every child deserves access to quality mental health care, regardless of their family's background or language.  Their trained therapists work with youth to build coping skills, process difficult experiences, and develop emotional strength.  The organization serves all youth in the community, but they have become especially trusted by Hispanic and Latino families.

BUILDING BRIDGES FOR SKILLED IMMIGRANTS TO THRIVE (Winter 2025). The African Bridge Network (ABN) envisions a world where skilled immigrant professionals in the United States can support their families, build successful careers and make meaningful contributions—without starting over.

Massachusetts has 240,000 residents who have a college degree from another country, according to census data. About half of this population has only bachelor’s degrees and faces the most barriers as they seek to rebuild their careers in the Commonwealth. Many of them are either underemployed or unemployed, with their expertise remaining untapped—part of a national crisis affecting 2.3 million people.

CREATING A DIVERSE PIPELINE OF SKILLED WELDERS (Winter 2025). The welding industry is experiencing a significant workforce shortage, with a notable lack of diversity. Nationally, only 5.3% of welders are women. In Indiana, the demand for skilled welders is projected to grow by 9% from 2020 to 2030, with an anticipated 1,920 job openings annually. Despite these opportunities, the field remains predominantly male, highlighting the need for initiatives that promote diversity and inclusion.

Latinas Welding Guild (LWG) is addressing this disparity by providing accessible welding education and workforce development programs tailored for women and underserved communities in Indiana. LWG’s efforts aim to bridge the gap between the growing demand for skilled welders and the underrepresentation of women in the industry.

ADVANCING SOCIAL EQUITY THROUGH EDUCATION (Fall 2024). For more than 40 years, Indy Reads has been working towards its vision of 100% literacy for all. Each program year, Indy Reads serves more than 400 adult learners in its tuition-free High School Equivalency (HSE), English Language Learning (ELL), Literacy Foundations, and workforce certifications Community Classrooms. Indy Reads also operates a community bookstore in Fountain Square that hosts more than 250 events annually and makes the joy of reading accessible to all.

ENSURING A REALISTIC PATHWAY FOR IMMIGRANTS (Fall 2024). English for New Bostonians (ENB) ensures access to high-quality English classes so that immigrants across race, education and migratory backgrounds can pursue their aspirations and contribute to a Commonwealth that fully values their talents and voices.

BELONGING, COMMUNITY AND EMPOWERMENT THROUGH PHOTOGRAPHY (Winter 2024). In-Sight Photography Project's vision is to be a place where youth (ages 11 to 18) are welcomed to create through the photographic arts, digitally or in the darkroom. To achieve their vision, In-Sight’s mission is to create opportunities where youth can learn photography as an expressive medium and technical skill in a classroom setting that respects the diversity of each student. In all programs at their facility or in partnership with others, In-Sight values using photography to generate belonging, community and empowerment.

CHANGING LIVES THROUGH IMMIGRANT LEGAL SERVICES (Summer 2023). The mission of the Indianapolis Immigrant Legal Services Fund is to provide equitable access to legal support and representation to immigrant Hoosiers in Marion County. In May 2021, the City-County Council of Indianapolis established the Indianapolis Immigrant Legal Services Fund in partnership with The Indianapolis Foundation, which administers and fundraises for the program that has amassed nearly $660,000 since its inception.

ADVANCING DUE PROCESS FOR A FAIRER IMMIGRATION SYSTEM (Summer 2023). Around the time the Trump administration launched its attacks on the country’s immigrant communities, an 18-year-old teenager fled her home in El Salvador and journeyed to the U.S. southern border. She was seeking safety and asylum because local authorities in her town were unresponsive to her allegations of domestic physical abuse. She entered the United States only to be deported back to her native country by an immigration judge who, by not providing her with a list of pro bono attorneys, deprived her of the opportunity to assert her claims of physical violence.

Two years later in 2019, she left home again and traveled to the southern border, but an immigration judge denied her claim for asylum. After she appealed the judge’s ruling, ACLU of New Hampshire’s senior staff attorney SangYeob Kim took on her case and represented her subsequent appeal before the Board of Immigration Appeals.

TRANSFORMING LIVES THROUGH CULINARY JOB TRAINING PROGRAM (Winter 2023). For 25 years, Second Helpings in downtown Indianapolis has offered a Culinary Job Training program as part of its mission to transform lives through the power of food. This free, 7-week program is available to unemployed and underemployed adults in central Indiana. Each step in the program’s curriculum is designed to secure employment upon graduation. More than 975 students have graduated from this program since 1998.

EMPOWERMENT THROUGH CULTURAL CONTEXT (Winter 2023). Founded by immigrants in 2009, ProsperityME is dedicated to providing financial empowerment resources and assistance to the New Mainer community. Its mission is to empower, through education and counseling, members of refugee and immigrant communities to invest in themselves to build financial stability, careers, businesses and wealth. ProsperityME provides direct support to the community and offers no-cost educational classroom programs that teach essential financial skills, build confidence and prepare new immigrants to successfully enter the workforce.

CREATING CONDITIONS FOR STRONG COMMUNITIES (Fall 2022). Founded in 1991, Hyde Square Task Force (HSTF) began as a coalition of neighbors and community leaders that felt an urgent need to address the growing violence, economic inequality and social unrest facing the residents of the Hyde/Jackson Square neighborhood in Jamaica Plain. Although the livability of what is now recognized as Boston’s Latin Quarter has improved since that time, HSTF’s community continues to be adversely impacted by high poverty levels, community violence and lower educational attainment. HSTF believes communities are strongest when they create the conditions youth need to succeed and thrive. HSTF’s mission is to amplify the power, creativity and voices of youth, connecting them to Afro-Latin culture and heritage so they can create a diverse, vibrant Latin Quarter and build a just, equitable Boston.

BUILDING FOUNDATIONS TO END HOMELESSNESS (Fall 2022). Horizon House is building the foundations to end homelessness by connecting individuals and families experiencing homelessness with an effective continuum of integrated, comprehensive services that help neighbors secure and sustain income and permanent housing. Services include: Basic Necessities like access to showers, laundry facilities and a place to receive mail; Case Management, including support geared to help those returning to the community from incarceration; Peer Support Services for people coping with mental health and/or substance abuse issues; Street Outreach to engage people who are unsheltered and connect them to housing services; Assessments for rental assistance and housing support services; Supportive Housing Services; and Job Readiness Training. R.I.S.E., Horizon House’s employment services program, helps neighbors Reach for Independence & Self-sufficiency through Employment by assessing employment skills, developing interview and job search skills, providing job leads, transportation assistance and job retention services.

A WELCOMING AND AFFIRMING MAINE (Winter 2022). OUT Maine builds welcoming and affirming communities that support LGBTQ+ youth in all of their intersectional identities. As the only Maine organization that has focused exclusively on queer youth since 1996, it has built a strong expertise in supporting, educating and empowering queer youth. It also is committed to changing the very systems that are failing these youth: schools, health/mental health care, foster care, law enforcement and faith communities.

SAFER SPACES (Winter 2022). Creating safer spaces since 1987, the Indiana Youth Group (IYG) is the longest continually operating LGBTQ+ youth center in the nation. The organization currently serves LGBTQ+ young people ages 12-24, as well as their ally peers. General programming focuses on building self-confidence, self-expression and self-sufficiency while developing relationships within the community.

BUILDING AN INDIANA THAT WELCOMES EVERYONE (Fall 2021). People with the courage and tenacity to move far from home to make a better life for their family are the ones who make our country the land of the free and the home of the brave. So when immigrants became the target of racist rhetoric, hate crimes and policies aimed at tearing families apart, Faith in Indiana sprang into action.

IN PURSUIT OF FULL RIGHTS AND PROTECTION (Fall 2021). The Vermont Immigrant Assistance project (VIA) at Vermont Law School represents immigrants and refugees from around the globe (88 countries to date) and helps people seeking legal status and safety—people fleeing persecution, torture, abuse, war, natural disasters and other unstable or life-threatening situations.

JUSTICE, HOPE AND SAFETY (Winter 2021). The immigrant community in Massachusetts is vibrant, full of courageous individuals who have fled torture and abuse with the hope of a fresh start. However, navigating the complex immigration system often requires support and assistance, especially as immigration laws and policy changes have made it more difficult for asylum seekers to win their cases. For asylum seekers who face the risk of deportation, legal representation in their immigration case can mean the difference between a safe new home and a return to persecution. Study after study shows that asylum seekers are five times more likely to win their asylum case if they have an attorney. This is where the Political Asylum Immigration Representation (PAIR) Project makes a difference.

REDUCING BARRIERS AND EXPANDING ACCESS (Winter 2021). The Immigrants’ and Language Rights Center (ILRC) is a department within Indiana Legal Services (ILS), created to reach vulnerable and underserved immigrant and limited English proficient populations within Indiana.

COMMUNITY TRUST IS MORE IMPORTANT THAN EVER (Summer 2020). In the early 1980s, several hundred refugees from Cambodia settled in Lowell, Massachusetts, after escaping from war and genocide in Cambodia. Today, the city is home to the country’s second largest Cambodian population, making up more than a quarter of Lowell’s population. As the Cambodian population put down roots in Lowell, so did the Cambodian Mutual Assistance Association (CMAA).

RESOURCEFULNESS & RESILIENCE – HALLMARKS OF IMMIGRANTS AND THE IWC (Summer 2020). In 2005, then First Lady of Indianapolis, Amy Minnick Peterson, founded the Immigrant Welcome Center (IWC). Since then, the IWC has been on a mission to connect Indy's immigrant community to the people, places and resources they need to thrive.

PROGRESS FED BY DATA AND INNOVATION (Winter 2020). For nearly 120 years, the Flanner House of Indianapolis has sought to support, advocate for and empower individuals, children and families on the northwest side and beyond by applying educational, social and economic resources that move members of the community towards stabilization, and self-sufficiency.

NET PROGRESS TO THE AMERICAN DREAM (Winter 2020). A college degree is a classic element of the American Dream, but for young people in poor communities, the path to a college degree is fraught with risk. Far too many first-generation college students are eager to enroll in a two- or four-year college but find themselves unprepared for credit-bearing coursework.

BLESSINGS OF VOICES AND CULTURES (Fall 2019). By the numbers, Maine is one of the “whitest” states in the country, but that story misses the long history of Maine’s indigenous and African American communities and the richness of its growing community of immigrants from across the globe.

HELPING HANDS (Fall 2019). The Neighborhood Christian Legal Clinic is a well-known and trusted organization based in Indianapolis that seeks justice for socioeconomically disadvantaged people.

WORKING TOWARD POSITIVE OUTCOMES (Fall 2019). Teenagers can benefit from adult mentors and an opportunity to explore options for college and career, but these experiences may be in short supply in rural communities. Trekkers is an outdoor-based mentoring program in Rockland, Maine, that is squarely aligned with the Fund’s youth development goal of helping to prevent students from dropping out of school and staying on a path to self-sufficiency in adulthood.

EXEMPLARY FATHERHOOD PRACTITIONERS (Fall 2019). For 25 years, the Fathers and Families Center has delivered exceptional programs and services that dovetail with the Fund’s workforce development funding priority.