Press Release

Herbert Simon Family Foundation Awards ProAct Indy Capacity Building Grant

Indianapolis-Based Service-learning organization, ProAct Indy, receives capacity building grant from the Herbert Simon Family Foundation.

Indianapolis, IN – September 20, 2017:  FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

“I struggled with poverty myself and joining ProAct gave me the opportunity to give back to other people and really show compassion to people who experience what I experienced.” This is the testimony given by LeAsia Williams, a 17-year old high school senior, as she reflected on her service learning experience from the past year. ProAct was founded in 2010 and became a 501(c)(3) organization in 2012 in order to make a difference in how youth and communities experienced one another. ProAct is a critical service-learning organization that seeks to serve through youth rather than to them. The innovative agency leverages the social capital of the community to inspire and engage disadvantaged boys and girls by engaging them in service to the community.

Since its inception, ProAct has engaged over 6,000 boys and girls in service to Indianapolis through its innovative programs with a goal to engage 20,000 youth in service by 2020. Its mission is to engage youth in public service that educates, delights, and inspires the youth and those they serve. And its critical approach to service learning has a deliberate focus on social justice because its program participants have a social change orientation, work to redistribute power, and build authentic relationships with their community.

Last year, ProAct, in partnership with 24 community organizations, engaged over 2,000 economically disadvantaged boys and girls in public service to Indianapolis. These youths logged in over 10,000 hours of community service in 126 projects. But the agency is not looking back—because young people don’t stop growing up and the need for positive supports for their growth keeps expanding as well. As it pushes forward into a new year, demand for ProAct’s programs and services continue to grow as more schools and communities want to see the organization’s innovative service-learning programs teach these children that they can make a difference – no matter their situation. Through their programs, students will have the opportunity to learn important perspectives, skills, and values.

At a time when every smart donor is looking to make the greatest impact, supporting ProAct is a way to reach that objective, and the Herbert Simon Family Foundation has made a significant commitment to ensure that more youth are engaged in ProAct’s service-learning programs. The foundation believes in ProAct’s mission and seeks to work in partnership with ProAct to spread the joy of serving as ProAct pursues its goal that every young person in our community has available to them all the things every good parent would provide—access to positive activities, opportunities to learn and develop skills, and lots of supportive and caring relationships.

For more information about this grant and ProAct, please contact: Derrin Slack, Executive Director, ProAct Indy, 317.457.6799, derrin@Proactcp.org.