Indy Allies & Community Resources

Social Change Organizations & Grassroots Resources

A directory of groups that empower the community and service providers who offer solidarity.

Collaborators

Those with whom we actively share values and work, and those who have iTooLL memberships.

• Kheprw Institute – Community empowerment center developing youth through self-mastery in environmental, educational, and entrepreneurship. Contains several connected ventures:
  • KiNuMedia – LLC run by the youth of Kheprw that offers web design, graphic design, social media management, and video production
  • Community Controlled Food Initiative – Multi-producer Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) program that enables members to get fresh produce from local producers once per month
• Earth Charter Indiana – Organizational hub for many innovative ecological groups,
  • including Youth Power Indiana.
• NOPAL Cultural Center – Building bridges that unite Latinos and non-Latinos in visual art, music and literacy
• Indy Worker Justice Center – Supports low-wage workers in their pursuit for better wages, benefits & workplace dignity.
• Know No Stranger – Collective of artists who do pop-up shows, performances at charitable events, distributable video commercials, crowd interaction, and online short films

Asset Sharing

• Trade School Indy – Classes available for barter, great resource for teaching and learning
• Time Bank Indy – Facilitating the sharing of skills through an alternative economy & platform to build community and share assets.

Civic

• American Friends Service Committee – Active Quakers for social justice, Indianapolis chapter.
• Black Lives Matter Indy10 – An organized front against injustices through promoting and participating in active and peaceable engagement between our citizens, police, and government
• Indivisible – National movement that’s produced an awesome best-practices-guide for making Congress listen
• Masarachia Scholars Program – Community organizing scholarship program at IUPUI
• Pro(Act) – Youth service learning organization that brings together many young volunteers for service projects
• Sacred Path Universalist Unitarian Church – UU congregation that supports LGBTQ issues and more, associated with the Spirit & Place Fest, a creative city-wide fest
• The Church Within – Active, Fountain Square church with a social vision

Co-operative

• Indiana Co-operative Development Center – Promotes cooperatives as a vibrant model to address the economic and social needs of Indiana?s communities
• Pogue’s Run Food Co-op & Grocery – Food co-op in near Eastside; organics, bulk, & health food items abound

Culture/Arts

• Central Indiana Filmmakers Meetup – A forum to actively engage, support, produce videos, films and other multi media for emerging, amateur and professional filmmakers, videographers, photographers, musicians and others who want to become filmmakers or just interested in the film industry
• Deck’d Out – Indy’s Event DJs for social good
• Evoke Arts & Media – Arts & media focused group in Broad Ripple

Education

• Indianapolis Marion County Public Library – We love our Public Library system
• SE Congress Education Task Force – is a great place to start, John Harris Loflin & Angie Calvert are two of the primary organizers
• School for Community Learning– Independent school that puts family input first and focuses on project-based learning, formerly called Project Libertas
• SENSE – SE grassroots charter school was started and is run by neighbors in the area.
• Students for Fair Wages – Student activism hub

Veterans

• Guide to Veteran Education Benefits (2016) – Comprehensive, user-friendly guide that includes features like our GI Bill calculator, grants and scholarship directories, and interviews with the top universities that have programs designed specifically to support veteran higher education

Economic Sustainability

• Center for Working Families – Educators and advocates for low-income families. Job coaching and more
• Central Indiana Jobs With Justice – Amazing activist coalition working for you and economic sustainability
• Central Indiana Labor Council – Amazing activist coalition working for you and economic sustainability
• Community, Faith, & Labor Coalition – Seeks social & economic justice for working families
• Indiana Moral Mondays – Statewide coalition for workers’, womens’, education, civil and voting rights
• IWW, IN Charter – Rank & file, worker-run union, the Industrial Workers of the World

Housing, Home Repair

To find the applicable Community Development Corporation for your area, visit the member’s page for the Indianapolis Coalition for Neighborhood Development

• Catholic Worker Community – Indy – Intentional community that provides food, clothing, shelter and welcome from unpaid volunteers to those in need according to the ability of each household
• Englewood CDC – Helpful, strong community on near Eastside; run housing for marginalized communities.
• Hearts & Hands of Indianapolis – Will help you own a home on the near Westside, very helpful
• Rebuilding Together Indianapolis – Helps with home repair and preservation
• Riley Area Development Corporation – Omnipresent Community Development Corp., present in Mass Ave. & supporting Westside development efforts in partnership with Westside CDC
• SEND CDC – South Eastside CDC with programs in addition to typical Community Development Corp. model
• Westside CDC – Strong Near West advocate with goals of independent, local development for its neighborhood

Environment & Deep Ecology

• THE CAN LADY
• Center For Interfaith Cooperation
• Citizens Climate Lobby
• Hoosier Environmental Council – Statewide action for environment
• Hoosier Interfaith Power & Light – An interfaith environmental group focused on climate change
• IN Urban Forest Council
• Indiana Youth Institute
• Indy Food Council
• Kid Fishin’ Mission
• Reconnecting to Our Waterways – Grassroots initiative to save our ecosystem by connecting community and waterways
• Rivers of the Anthropocene
• Sustain Indiana 2016 – Climate Solutions as a Bicentennial Project

Recycling

• Asset Recycling – Recycling program on Near Westside
• Recycle Force – Offers recycling programs and acts as a reentry program, employing the previously incarcerated

Food Justice | Urban Gardens

• Felege Hiywot Center – Ethiopian Center that empowers youth by teaching them to grow food and distribute it
• Food Not Bombs – Indianapolis – Free vegan food for the public, without restriction, Sundays at 3:30pm outside Central Library
• Growing Places Indy – “Cultivating Wellness”; well-connected sustainable food advocates
• Garden on the Go – Mobile farmer’s market in partnership with Green Bean Delivery
• Gleaner’s Food Bank – One of the largest food banks in the region
• Green Bean Delivery – Sustainable food advocates and delivery
• Indy Hunger Network – Food justice coalition, doubles SNAP benefits at farmers’ markets
• Seven Steeples – Westside Urban Farm
• South Circle Farm – Southside Urban Farm

Food Services, Free or Reduced-price

• Fresh Bucks Program – Doubles SNAP benefits for fresh produce
• IN Public Library Seed Lending – Open and free to the public, the Glendale Public Library let’s you check out up to 5 bags of seeds at a time, many organic or heirloom, to plant in your home garden

Health Resources

Holistic or Alternative Health

• Indy Holistic Hub – a network to connect, grow, and expand the local holistic community through our online directory of resources and greater community efforts.

Free / Reduced Price Clinics

• Genesarret Clinic – Great free resource
• Dental Clinics – Free through Genesarret, reduced-cost through IUPUI
• IUPUI Eye Clinics

LGBT*Q+

• Indiana Youth Group – Incredibly fiscally responsible LGBT*Q+ support group for youth and teens

Legal Resources

• Health & Human Rights Clinic, IU Law School – Lawyers for justice, run by Fran Quigley
• Neighborhood Christian Legal Clinic – Run many free clinics at various community centers like Mary Rigg
• Wage Theft Clinic – Indy Worker Justice Center supports workers in reclaiming their wages from their bosses

Free Services

• Low Assets Will Preparation – provided by Indy Bar

Recreation

• Indy Parks – They list many free events that are held in the many beautiful parks of Indianapolis

Rehabilitation & Addiction

• Dove Recovery House for Women – Provides transitional housing for women in recovery; AA based
• Pathway to Recovery – Services for homeless to overcome addiction; transitional housing. AA based?
• Directories of Treatment Centers:
  • DrugAbuse.com
  • Treatment4Addiction.com

Womyn

• Indiana National Organization for Women – Strong grassroots activists/advocates for women of Indiana
• Planned Parenthood, Indiana Kentucky – Sexual health advocate and provider

Neighborhood Centers

• Indianapolis Neighborhood Resource Center – INRC provides training, support and programming to help grassroots neighborhood organizations and neighbors address issues that affect the quality of life in their neighborhoods

South Eastside

• Concorde Center– Oldest & longest running neighborhood center association
• Fletcher Place Community Center-Born out of the United Methodist Church; offers preschool, free clothes & food pantry services
• Southeast Community Services (SECS)-“Workingtogether to serve, strengthen and support financial stability in our neighbors”

Near Westside

• Christamore House – GED programs, English as Second Language (ESL) programs, Women’s & Community Enrichment Series
• Hawthorne Center – Hawthorne Neighborhood’s Community Hub with food pantry, classes, daycare and more

Mid-town / Near North

• Martin Luther King Community Center – Located at 40th and Illinois, MLKCC provides services for youth, seniors and families

Newcomers

• Exodus Refugee – Dedicated to the protection of human rights by serving the resettlement needs of refugees and other displaced people fleeing persecution, injustice, and war by welcoming them to Indiana

Other Directories & Local Guides

• Indy Local Food Guide – Your tasty guide to the best eats in town #BuyLocal

Near Westside

• Near West Collaborative – Resource guide, calendar and more for Haughville, Stringtown, We Care and Hawthorne neighborhoods

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This list is by no means comprehensive, but with your help we can focus more resources and access! Please comment/suggest any additions (or even removals). We would love to hear about and link to other resource lists or directories. Thanks!