VIDEO TRANSCRIPTION

Andrew Green:
Hi friends. It’s good to be with you today. And I know Jay has been sharing with you about our road to recovery, and I wanted to continue that message and be able to share a little bit more about one of the important steps on that road to recovery as we journey with families. We know that families are going to be experiencing not only the physical effects of the pandemic as we all are, but we also know that beyond the physical effects that hopefully we’ll have under control as a state and as a country fairly soon, we know that the economic impact to families will continue long beyond that. And so we’re looking at how we can continue the journey with families through that time and be a support for them. And Jay’s shared in previous messages about some of our efforts around employment, and we are excited to be able to continue that thanks to a lot of great support and a lot of great partnerships. And one of the things that I wanted to highlight today was how we are looking at that from an even earlier age.

Andrew Green:
When we think about employment and we think about long-term success and breaking the cycle of poverty and upward stability, we’re thinking about that from an early age. We had a special opportunity this summer to partner with Elevate Indy and Dream Alive and offer some of our programming together to highlight career exploration and financial literacy and preparation for employment. And we did that together, which was really exciting. Some great partners we love being able to partner and we shared staff and resources, and we did it virtually. We did it different than we’ve ever done it this summer, but it was really exciting. And we’re looking to continue those efforts with those age groups and identifying what passions and skills kids have at that age level and what that looks like for careers, what that looks like for their first job, maybe, and how that all fits together and moves towards this road to recovery.

Andrew Green:
And one of the really important and incredible steps in that is that a lot of these students will have an opportunity to go to college. And that can be such a critical step in that upward stability. And one of the ways that we’re able to do that is through a program called ActSix. And this last year we had over a thousand applications come in for ActSix and ActSix is an opportunity for an urban leadership scholarship where we’re able to help send kids on a full ride, full tuition, full need scholarship for four years to a couple of our partner schools. And so with over a thousand applications, we were able to select… And the colleges actually do the final selection part. And we have 17 students that went to college this fall on full ride scholarships.

Andrew Green:
And these are urban, minority, first-generation college students. That’s who the program targets. We had nearly 50% who were African-American in that application process and nearly 30% who were Hispanic. And so this is such an incredible opportunity for taking that next step in their education, that higher education step and what an important role that can play in longterm upward stability for a student.

Andrew Green:
We’re really excited to be a part of that program with ActSix across this city and this opportunity for the kids that are coming through our middle school and high school program and from some of our partner organizations as well. What a great opportunity. We thank you for being a part of this journey, this road to recovery, and we appreciate your support and your partnership.