VIDEO TRANSCRIPTION

Jay Height:
Hi, I’m Jay Height, and I’m here at a new location for Shepherd Community and a very exciting chapter for our future. And so amidst all of the challenges of these days, there is some great news. In August, just blocks away from our current location, at Vermont and Sherman Drive will be the Minnie Hartman Early Childhood Center. We’re excited about this new venture that has been over two years in the making. Why are we excited? Because we know that this is the greatest investment a community can make is to invest in their children.

Jay Height:
A little over a year and a half ago, United Way and Lilly Endowment teamed up together to do a study in the east side to determine what the need was. And we knew going into it what the community has been sharing, but they validated that there is great need for more early childhood. It’s hard for a mother or parents who want to work if they don’t have adequate and safe childcare. And so after validating, the United Way Lilly Endowment going together to do the study, they validated there were over 370 unused vouchers in this neighborhood. And guess what? Today, we are soon days away from opening here at Minnie Hartman.

Jay Height:
It is a wonderful partnership between Near, CVC and Shepherd Community where they own the space, where in the back of this old IPS school building is several units of senior housing. You’ll hear more about that, but Near has made this possible for us to renovate this space with many great financial partners making it possible, investing in the lives of many children from birth until four.

Jay Height:
Our future plans is that we will have slots for 140 children. But yes, we lived during COVID. So mid August, we will be opening for 70 children and we are already signing folks up for that and we are really excited for them to have a place where we can help serve more children and their families. Jane and I are also really excited that our good friend, Diana Reed, who has been with Shepherd over 20 years, first as a parent who put her kids in our program and then one who came one day and said, “I’d like to help in the school,” and she went and got her Associate’s, and then she went and got her Bachelor’s, and then went and got her Master’s. And Diana is going to lead the effort here at Minnie Hartman for us.

Jay Height:
We’re excited about the families and neighbors who we’re in training now and partnership with Ivy Tech to get their CDA to help staff that. A good friend at IU university, he is the Associate Dean of the School of Business, Phil Powell, and Phil says the greatest investment a city can make is in early childhood. As a trained economist, I think he speaks truth to us today. We want to expand our capacity to go deeper and to serve more of the Near Eastside of Indianapolis.

Jay Height:
Stay tuned for more exciting news as Shepherd continues with the partnership that you provide to invest in the lives of so many here on the Near Eastside of Indianapolis.

Andrew Green:
Hi, I’m Andrew Green. I’m the Assistant Executive Director at Shepherd Community Center and we are really excited today to be standing in a two-year-old classroom, a future two-year-old classroom at Minnie Hartman neighborhood childcare. We are here today in an especially unique position because we are partnered with Near, and on the other side of this facility there are 72 seniors living. So we have a unique setting where we’re combining a childcare and a low-income senior living facility. And it’s really exciting to be thinking about the intergenerational learning opportunities that will be happening here at Minnie Hartman.

Andrew Green:
And this is one of a few places across the country and the first place in the state of Indiana to be onsite together, combining the senior population with childcare population. And we’re excited to be able to think about the opportunities for learning. So we’ll be inviting seniors to come and be a part of daily activities with the kids, and we’ll be inviting some of them to possibly work onsite in the facility as well. So lots of opportunities to engage, and we know the benefits that it brings the kids, but also the benefits that it brings the seniors. And so we’re thrilled to be able to do that together and offer these opportunities for neighbors and kids on the Near Eastside.