Sparking Change:

Grant Gives Opportunities for Whitely Community Council

WHITELY COMMUNITY COUNCIL serves and is a voice for the residents of the Whitely community on Muncie’s northeast side. Today Whitely Community Council is working in three main areas to support its residents: education, community safety, and health and wellness.

Recognizing the importance of the work of this organization, The Community Foundation awarded Whitely Community Council $26,500 through the Community Grants Program to support core mission work and education initiatives.

Through Community Grants, The Community Foundation awarded more than $1.5 million in competitive grant funding to support vital programs and projects in arts and culture, community betterment, economic development, education, and human services.

To make progress toward its mission and goals, Whitely Community Council relies on the expertise of committees in each of these areas to provide guidance and develop action plans. In 2023, the education committee landed on the idea of organizing a summer college visit to Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) for students who live in Whitely. Unlike other college visits, the committee specifically wanted to take middle school-aged students who might not be thinking about college as an option. This education program was funded in part through the 2023 grant from The Community Foundation.

“High school students may have already made their mind up,” shared Ken Hudson, executive director of the Whitely Community Council, “So it was important to provide experiences for these students before they decided they weren’t ‘college material’.”

Ken and the education committee worked with middle school staff members, who had strong relationships with their students already, to identify students who they thought would benefit from the trip. The hope was that they could inspire students early to consider what they would need to do to prepare for college.

In June of 2023, 16 middle school students, one high school student, and five chaperones traveled by charter bus to Washington, D.C. By the end of the trip, the students had visited museums and national monuments, with their tour guide even pointing out the names of some Muncie residents inscribed on Vietnam Veteran Memorial Walls. Students were engaged in educational sessions on mental health, connecting with adult mentors, and fulfilling their potential. And, they visited two HBCUs, Howard University and the University of the District of Columbia. Throughout the trip, they were inspired by the possibilities in their own futures. When they returned to Muncie, a few of the students shared about their trip with the Muncie Community Schools Board of Directors. One student specifically shared that, after going on these college visits, she had decided that she wanted to go to college.

“They might not go to an HBCU, but even right here, there’s Ball State, there’s Ivy Tech, there are opportunities for college that they will now consider as an option,” explained Ken.

The college tour was not the only programming by Whitely Community Council in the summer of 2023. The education committee developed a summer reading and writing contest, offering prizes to students who read books and then wrote essays about what they had read. They partnered with Classroom Connections to provide books for the students. Parents encouraged reading and writing over summer break. The contest is set to continue in 2024. The education committee hopes to encourage more parents to get involved, with plans to shift the announcement of winners to the schools’ family nights. Building relationships between parents and teachers is a major goal of the program in 2024.

Whitely Community Council’s grant was supportive beyond education initiatives. The grant provided core mission support to ensure that the organization has flexible resources to work toward its goals. The Community Grants Program, which operated under a new model in 2023, invites applicants to apply through one wide open door. Foundation staff listen to the needs of the nonprofit organization to understand their complete need. The organization submits one application and is matched with the appropriate grants committees whose collective awards result in one comprehensive grant.

Whitely Community Council’s grant request was reviewed by The Community Foundation’s Grants Committee of the Board, as well as by the Kitselman Committee, and Mutual Legacy Committee. The Board of Directors then approved a grant to Whitely Community Council made up of contributions from The Unrestricted Fund of The Community Foundation, Harry and Janet Kitselman Fund.

Whitely Community Council was able to use its grant to support its organization’s goal of education and work toward another goal, health and wellness.

The Whitely Community Council food pantry saw huge growth in the number of clients they served in 2023, which Ken attributes to Whitely Community Council’s efforts to get the word out in the community. The food pantry is also an example of how work expands outside of the geographic constraints of the Whitely neighborhood – just over 60% of clients are residential, but the rest come from the surrounding neighborhoods.

The Whitely Community Council uses the food pantry as an opportunity to partner with other agencies to provide additional services. In 2023, they offered flu and COVID-19 vaccinations, blood pressure screenings, and voter registration. Clients can learn about community partners like Open Door Health Services, Pathstone Corporation, and neighborhood churches. Sometimes, the connection can be as simple as handing out a flyer for a neighborhood program that could benefit residents.

“The goal is to get people to a place where they no longer need the pantry,” Ken explained. As the Whitely Community Council continues to grow and work toward their mission, they hope to bring in partners to provide even more services to not only food pantry clients, but any community members who need them.

While the programming undertaken by the Whitely Community Council has had a major impact on the community, as Ken notes, the council’s most important accomplishment is the relationships that they have built with Whitely residents – getting to know the community members, listening to their input and feedback, providing the programs and resources that they want to see, and developing trust in each other.

“We don’t want to wait on someone else. We want to see the entire east side transform, starting with the Whitely Community,” said Ken.

Everlasting

This story was featured in Everlasting, the Foundation’s 2023 Annual Report. Read the full report to hear about how we’ve built upon the work of the leaders before us to be representative, responsive, and relevant today. We tell stories of impactful grantmaking, generous donors, and more.

Community Grants

Each year, The Community Foundation partners with nonprofit organizations by providing funding in the form of community grants.