ELEVATE INDIANAPOLIS INC
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Mission Statement
Building long-term, life-changing relationships with Indianapolis urban youth, equipping them to thrive and contribute to their communities.
About This Cause
Description of the Agency Elevate Indianapolis, an education non-profit focused on teaching and mentoring urban youth, serves 500+ students on five campuses in Indianapolis Public Schools [IPS] with this mission: Building long-term, life-changing relationships with Indianapolis urban youth, equipping them to thrive and contribute to their community. Grounded in Elevate USA’s nearly 40-year relational model, we draw out and build on students’ inherent strengths and potential by investing early, consistently, and long-term in youths’ lives with our year-round, holistic approach. Elevate connects students to a comprehensive pipeline of support beginning in elementary school and flowing into post-secondary pursuits. We launched our Eastside Pipeline that links Arsenal Tech High School, H.L. Harshman Middle School, and Theodore Potter Elementary School #74 in 2016 and established our Westside Pipeline that engages George Washington High School and Matchbook Learning at Wendell Phillips School #63, kindergarten to Grade 8, in 2019. Future plans involve replicating our model in other Marion County public schools. Through our program’s five components – state-accredited in-school classes, out-of-school mentoring, post-secondary preparation, adventure experiences, and relief assistance – we create trusting relationships between students and Teacher-Mentors who encourage, guide, and advocate for them both inside and outside the classroom, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year as they navigate life’s difficulties. Currently, our team includes 11 full-time employees, one full-time volunteer, and one part-time contractor. Please see attached organizational chart. Description of Program Services With our holistic approach to well-being that incorporates the facets of physical, emotional, occupational, spiritual, intellectual, environmental, and social, Elevate students integrate character qualities – vision, courage, respect, caring, responsibility, positive work ethic, and integrity – and life skills – career mindedness, communication, leadership, problem solving, decision making, and goal setting – into their everyday lives. Taught and modeled by Teacher-Mentors and practiced in relationship with them, this foundational framework equips students for a healthy and productive life. Since relationships with our students undergird all that we do, we place multiple Teacher-Mentors in each classroom for high impact and prioritize hiring staff who are overcoming socioeconomic, systemic, and cultural barriers similar to our youth. Shared life experiences solidify rapport and provide real-life examples of opportunities our students can seize, instilling belief in their worth and motivating them to embrace growth. Extensive training equips our Teacher-Mentors to succeed in their roles. Recognizing the significant trauma our students endured and continuously face, we certified our Teacher-Mentors as social-emotional first responders through Youth Mental Health First Aid. Ongoing staff professional development in social-emotional learning [SEL] as well as trauma-informed care, classroom management, and adventure/sports enhances their effectiveness. With mandated virtual learning due to COVID-19, we shifted to home visits as our primary mode of face-to-face contact with students. Checking on their well-being and providing relief assistance in the midst of the pandemic deepened trust in Teacher-Mentors for both students and their parents. The marked benefits that resulted from family engagement led us to incorporate parent involvement as a key component in our model permanently. We will continue to develop this aspect of our program, shaping it with our students and their families. Similar to Friends for Youth 1 to 1 Mentoring, an organization given a "3" on the scientific rating scale by the California Evidence-Based Clearinghouse for Child Welfare, we create and sustain long-term mentoring relationships that expose youth to new opportunities for learning and growth with an emphasis on positive development, academic achievement, health and wellness, and critical skills for future self-sufficiency. We share the goal to increase positive behaviors, reduce risk factors, and improve self-concept so that they make healthy choices and reach their full potential. We both aim to improve academic engagement and achievement for youth while helping them set goals for their future by providing effective, educational, and enriching out-of-school support services and activities. We also strive to build a 'community of caring' that provides support for our youth via networks, collaborations, and coalitions. Like Friends for Youth, we also engage and maintain consistent contact with students' parents/guardians, connect them with vital resources, and collaborate with them and other community agencies to meet their needs. [Information obtained from the California Evidence-Based Clearinghouse for Child Welfare (CEBC) at www.cebc4cw.org.] As a local affiliate, we also replicate Elevate USA’s [EUSA] proven model that serves 8,000+ students in 13 cities across 65 low-performing public schools in high-poverty neighborhoods within densely-populated metropolitan areas. EUSA is actively cultivating new affiliates in additional cities and plans to expand to 25 cities with 25,000 students by 2025. Most recently, 98% of its students were on track to graduate with 86% of graduates enrolled in college or trade school or enlisted in the military [2021]. Drawing from this model’s well-established success and searching for innovative solutions to the challenges of our shared mission, affiliates collaborate to identify best practices that bring systemic, lasting change. Our expansion locally provides evidence of the model’s effectiveness as well. Elevate Indianapolis established our initial pipeline at Arsenal Technical High School in 2016 and then expanded to George Washington High School in 2019. With a focus on scalability, we plan to replicate our model at additional public schools in the coming years. In 2020, we maintained our 90%+ graduation rate amongst our seniors, a consistent achievement since our inception, versus 59% and 67% of their peers at our two partner high schools [IDOE]. We also reached a 96% on-track-to graduate rate compared to the national average of 78% among students who are economically-disadvantaged [National Center for Education Statistics, 2020]. Most recently, 80% of seniors enrolled in college or trade school or enlisted in the military following graduation in comparison to the school district’s 46% rate [Sagamore Institute, 2019]. Elevate serves 500+ Grade 4 through 12 students within IPS district boundaries in Marion County. All 4th, 5th, and 6th grade students in our partner schools take part in our program during the school day. When these students reach middle school and then high school, they enroll in our series of state-accredited electives offered during the academic day. Guidance counselors also refer new middle school and high school students to these classes as they assist them with course selection for each semester.