We will go ahead and get started this evening, everybody. So good evening, everybody. And I would like
to call to order of the Sophia Travis Services Grant Committee meeting. Today is Tuesday, October 7.
Wow. Yeah, October 7, 2025. And we have a quorum here, so we will go ahead and get started. So I'd like
to say for the record that we have here present in the Nattie Hill Room to do our tonight
or to do tonight's business. We have committee member Julie Robertson, vice chair Liz Pytel and myself
Jennifer Crossley as chair. So I think it's always fun and Cheryl Munson used to do this where she would
give a committee member an opportunity to say something about themselves and what they're looking forward
to. So I think I'm gonna do that and I'll start with our newest member. So go ahead.
Thank you. Hi, everybody. My name is Julie Robertson. I am the newest appointed community member to
the Sophia Travis Grant Committee. I'm very active in the community when it comes to volunteering. My
husband and I, we
donate a lot of our time and money and our cooking skills to various fundraising things in the in the
in the city so some of you may have seen me see me on Facebook but I look forward to the opportunity
to sit on this committee and hopefully make some really good decisions on how we allocate funds so thank
you. So I'm Liz Fiddle I'm new to the county council I'm pleased to serve on the Sophia Travis grant
committee I knew Sophia pretty well
and I'm honored in serving on this committee to honor her in the work that she did and what we can continue
to do as a community to help nonprofits. So I've read all the applications, so I'm up to sniff on that.
I'm looking forward to hearing your presentations and looking forward to having discussions about what
we can help do for each one of you. Thank you for being here.
I'm gonna, it looks like we have committee member Jenny Olm-Stevens online. So I'm gonna ask her to
unmute and just say a brief introduction of herself and then that'll give an opportunity for committee
member Trent Deckert to get himself ready before he introduces himself. So Ms. Stevens, go ahead, please.
Hello, this is Jenny. I am actually in downtown Cincinnati and I'll be watching you from Zoom.
There was a wreck and a traffic jam and I got diverted, so that's why I'm a little late joining. Anyway,
I'm a long-term volunteer in the community. I have done grant and program work for Indiana University
and University of Cincinnati, and I've been an ardent supporter of our MCCSE schools.
and a longtime volunteer there. I'm eager to hear your applications and your discussions. And I thank
you very much for the work you do in our community. You really help in so many ways. Thank you very
much. Hi, everybody. I'm sorry I'm late. I'm Trent Decker, an at-large member of the Monroe County Council
and a member of this committee. I'm glad to be back. Sorry I'm late getting in here, but I'm so excited
to see so many people
graciously given from their time now that the rain has stopped. So it's good to be with you tonight.
I'm Jennifer Crossley, also on Memorial County Council. And I've been gracious, humbled, and honored
to be a part of the current committee for the four years that I've served on County Council. And I've
got big shoes to fill with our dearly departed friend Cheryl Munson, who this was her baby. So again,
I just appreciate all the work that she put into, but lastly, appreciate all the work and dedication
that you all are doing in our community.
Each and every day, as you see, there is instability or unstableness, rather, in federal government,
state government, and sometimes here locally. But you all are doing the work in the community to provide
folks that you serve some type of stability. And for that, we are forever grateful for you. So first
things first.
everybody was supposed to sign in. So if you have not had a chance and opportunity to sign in this evening,
please go ahead and come up to the table here. You'll see a pin and you'll just need to sign in. And
then the next thing that I'll do is go ahead and kick this back over to our vice chair Liz Pytel to
kick us off on how we are going to proceed with tonight's meeting. Thank you.
So the list I have says agencies must be a registered 501c3 nonprofit organization, grants primary areas
eligible for support are food, nutrition, security, shelter, and health, transportation assistance,
climate change, emergency shortages, first responder, veterans assistance, excellence in government,
youth enrichment opportunities,
And then the evaluation criteria of the application is completion of all required reports from previous
Sophia Travis Grant cycle awards. Projects must primarily serve Monroe County residents. Extent to which
dollar amount sought will accomplish the stated goals of the project. Extent to which the funds sought
will leverage additional funds or assistance.
for basic operational expenses will be considered but not given the highest priority.
And once again, as a reminder, agencies this evening, as you are giving your presentation, you will
have up to three minutes to speak regarding your application and project. The timer will be displayed
in all of the screens here in the NatU Hill room. And you will be given a 30-second sound when you are
close to being up. So again, you have three minutes, 30 seconds before your time is up, you will hear
and then after that your time is up and so we ask you just for the sake of trying to get tonight's meeting
rolling and to be respectful of everybody's time that you wrap up and then we proceed to the next person.
Again presentations are not required and not
that's considered to be an official part of the award process. So I know we have some people that could
not be here due to illness and other kind of conflicts here. However, if there is an agency that will
watch this later, you are not penalized for not being here. You turned in the application. You did a
really good job in doing that. So we will proceed accordingly. And lastly, this evening's presentations
from the agencies. Again, we will have no questions from the committee.
public comment during the meeting. The presentation order has been amended to allow a single application
and collaborative application from the same agency to follow each other in an effort to be considerate
of everyone's time and everybody should have received the order of how you are going to proceed
And so if you have, in order to kind of move a little expeditiously, I will ask, it looks like we have
first up the Catholic Charities. And so if you have the order of your list, I'm just going to say the
next person, just go ahead and start sitting up right here. So when you're done, you can just pop up
to the podium here and so forth. So again, the next person after that is Girls Inc. If you are here,
just go ahead and come up and sit in the seat. And then after that,
We'll just, it's the gift that keeps on giving. So we'll just keep going until we are all done with
tonight's presentation. So first up again, we have Catholic Charities. And then next up is Girls, Inc.
after that. Are you with Catholic Charities?
All right. Okay. So we'll proceed. And again, if you already have the list in front of you, as you see
the next presenter, let's just keep it rolling here and come up. So because Catholic Charities is not
here, we'll have Girls Inking after that writing for a change. All right. My name is Olivia Sullivan
and I'm the Director of Operations at Girls Inking of Monroe County.
At Girls Inca Monroe County, we serve girls of our community and are on a mission to inspire all girls
to be strong, smart, and bold. We use evidence-based practices to create and deliver curriculum that
meets our participants where they are and give them opportunities to grow academically, develop leadership
skills, and overcome challenges. Our well-rounded programs range in content from SEL development to
arts exploration to growing in sports and teamwork and so much more.
so that every girl in Monroe County can find something to connect with at Girls Inc. We are experts
at setting the safe and welcoming environment needed to help girls realize their true potential, whether
we are at the center or meeting them in their classrooms. Over the last couple of years, Girls Inc.
in Monroe County has served hundreds of girls in elementary and middle schools across Monroe County
and surrounding areas. And we're growing.
Our list of eight partnering schools is reaching 20 schools in the 2025-2026 school year. And we are
seeking additional resources to support our foundational program, Mind and Body, during this expansion
of our outreach programs in schools. Mind and Body is a comprehensive health and wellness program that
is adaptable for all ages. There are four main content areas in this curriculum, including nutrition,
physical activity,
body image, and stress management, areas of life that affect girls on a daily basis. This program is
truly a staple of the Girls Inc. experience, as it empowers participants to meet their needs, increase
their confidence, care for their health, and equip them with lifelong skills.
Girls who participate in the Mind and Body program show a growth in their knowledge of nutritional food
groups, exercise, and coping strategies to help manage their stress. And they also develop an understanding
of varying standards that allow them to appreciate beauty and the differences they see in themselves
and others.
The girls in national organization prepares a report on the status of girls from across the country
by comparing data collected from girls and the girls in programming to their peers who do not participate.
The most recent 25 findings are 73% of participants exercise at least 60 minutes for at least three
days per week.
They also found that 67% are happy with their bodies and 85% believe they can make a difference in their
community. 93% agree with the statement, girls like me can be leaders. With the support of the Sophia
Travis grant, Girls League of Monroe County is hoping to expand our reach and continue the positive
growth of our mind body program. This grant will help
help broaden our initiative lending to success of our school outreach partnerships and our response
to the needs of the communities we serve. Girls Inc is committed to ensuring that every girl has the
tools. Thank you. Thank you.
And then next up, we'll have, after writing for a change, New Hope for Families. And again, it looks
like we've seen a couple of people that have walked in and haven't signed in. If you haven't signed
in, please go ahead and see Ms. Kim Schell at the front desk here, and please sign in. Thank you. Welcome.
Hi. Hi. My name is Amy Cornell, and I'm with the Ready for Change Foundation of Bloomington. We are
here to request $3,000 from the Sophia Travis Grant Fund.
Over the past two years, after COVID, we've resurrected our girls writing programs. We've had some very
successful Sunday afternoon programs called Girls Write. They were successful, a lot of, the reason
that they were successful is because we partnered with the Girl Scouts who provided a lot of funding
for us so that we could offer these programs free. So girls and teens would come to our center, which
is called New Wings. It's over next to Middleway House on Washington Street. And we would have afternoon programs
snacks, and a safe space for girls to write their stories, to write their poetry, and to express themselves.
And we felt that they were wildly successful. We had over 30 girls on our mailing list, sometimes up
to 18 girls in our center at the same time.
writing stories and poems. At the end of this year, we were evaluating, and most of those girls who
came to our Sunday programs were young girls, ages eight to about 12. So we are really seeing a need
to expand our programming for teens. And what we envision is something called Friday Night Rites, where
we have open our space on Friday evenings from seven to nine. We have facilitators there who are trained
in our ways of holding safe space for girls and young women.
And we hope to establish a series of bi-monthly programs for teens where they can write, we can have
some snacks, and they can have an alternative to traditional Friday evening activities. Maybe they're
not as interested in sports as some people, and I'd like to do something that's more along the lines
of reading or writing and being with other girls and young women who like to read and write.
The Girl Scouts are no longer participating with us, so we find ourselves in need for more funding,
especially because we'd like to offer these programs free of charge to any girl that would
like to participate. So we've asked for $3,000 to help us pay facilitators, pay for craft and hospitality
expenses. Also, we do provide background checks on all of our facilitators, and those cost a little
money. So anything you could give us would help to create these amazing programs for girls.
and young women. Thank you. Thank you. All right. So I'm just going to do this. So the next three people
that we have are New Hope for Families, St. Vincent de Paul, and Community Kitchen. So that is the order.
So if those folks are here, you can sit in the seats here, and then you can proceed. Welcome.
Ready? All right. My name's Chase Tekinton. I work at New Hope for Families. I want to thank you all
for your dedication to our community, giving your time to consider how to best leverage Sophia Travis
funds. We took a hard look at New Hope for Families activities, see which ones overlap best with the
stated goals of Sophia Travis. Food, nutrition, security, shelter, health. We developed a request around
an area we think touches most are all those issues, and that's our Early Learning Center's food program.
As you're all aware, our community has a lack of affordable housing, the lack of affordable childcare.
And put together, those two shortages mean that families, especially families with children birth to
five, struggle to find decent, affordable childcare that would enable them to work enough hours to pay
their rent and meet their basic needs. Today in Monroe County, anywhere between 30 and 40% of the individuals
who are experiencing homelessness, 30 to 40% of the people who are in shelter or sleeping outside are
members of a family with children.
and you're most likely to experience homelessness, you're most vulnerable to it in your first year of
age. I think those statistics really speak to the way the two issues of
Child care and housing are intertwined. Families need child care so they can work, keep their homes.
When child care is missing, we see people lose the other two downstream. They lose their income and
they lose their housing. So as many of you are also aware, recent state funding cuts to the CCDF voucher
program. That used to be the KC voucher. It helps working low income families afford child care. They
lowered the weekly reimbursement rate.
which exposes low-income families to much higher co-pays for childcare. Early Learning Indiana did a
survey last month. They said 19% of childcare providers have already closed at least one classroom.
12% said they're at serious risk of closing their doors altogether, mainly because low-income families
who were using the voucher are simply disenrolling because they can't afford the extra co-pays.
Conversely, at New Oprah families, we're keeping families enrolled who need it. I can think of one family
in a classroom whose parents are two years sober, thriving in employment. Another one in the same classroom
who was experiencing homelessness but in the last two years has since left her abuser. Another family
finished her CNA in the last two years. That's just one classroom, just a couple kids who were experiencing
homelessness now. Their parents are thriving in their careers. Their children are meeting or experiencing
exceeding developmental milestones at a time in their lives when they, by all rights, might have been
falling behind, having losses in social and emotional skills that are much harder to correct for later
in life. So our communities always come around homelessness and child care with generosity and vision.
Today, families affected by homelessness can enroll in the ELC for just $10 a week while they're in
shelter. And as a result, the shelter moves 80% of families to affordable leases compared to an average
of just 32% across the state. And more of our children can remain enrolled.
after they leave the shelter. So the grant funds we're requesting will in particular support our food
program that serves 70 children, more than 30,000 meals per year, the majority of whom come, so more
than 70% come from our county's most vulnerable families, those experiencing homelessness. Thanks for
your consideration. Thank you.
My name is Bob Zur and I'm president of the Bloomington St. Vincent DePaul Society serving Monroe County.
Our mission is to provide safety net services for families and individuals in our community who are
often suffering, forgotten or deprived. The working poor, the homeless, those who have been incarcerated
and all people living on the margins of society.
We have no paid staff and last year 70 plus volunteers donated over 20,000 hours of service to assist
2,422 households or 4,846 community members, many of which were children. We provided over $200,000
in financial assistance and collected and distributed over 6,000 pieces of furniture
and 336 appliances. The furniture and appliances we collect and distribute not only benefit those in
the community, but we also benefit the community at large by keeping those items out of the landfills.
This year we are requesting a total grant of $11,560 to purchase 40 twin, 40 full,
and 40 queen size platform bed frames and 50 adjustable standard bed frames. Platform bed frames do
not require box springs, which will also help to alleviate a chronic box spring shortage. Besides getting
the bed off the floor, a bread frame helps provide support for better sleep and prevents mold, insects,
and dirt from getting in or on the mattress.
In the last 12 months, St. Vincent de Paul distributed 713 mattresses, but only 623 bed frames, meaning
there was a shortage of 90 bed frames. Without last year's Sophia's Traverse grant, which allowed us
to purchase 80 bed frames, we would have been short 170 bed frames. Anticipating a similar
170 bed frame shortage in the next 12 month period without grant funding, the St. Vincent de Paul has
structured this year's request to meet that need. By providing beds with frames, St. Vincent de Paul
helps to restore normality and dignity to the lives of its clients. Because queen beds and some full
beds will be used to be
by more than one person, 170 bed frames will help an estimated 200 to 250 individuals in Monroe County.
Thank you for considering this request and for supporting many causes in Monroe County.
I'm Kimberly going I'm development manager for a community kitchen of Monroe County Community kitchen
is the largest free meal provider in this area in 2024 we provided three hundred and two three hundred
two thousand meals to community members in need this year in 2025 we're already over two hundred and
ten thousand
meals and snacks served, not only to adults but to children. Our mini programs include our dinner meal
service, which is Monday through Saturday, 4 to 6 p.m., open to anyone who's in need of a meal. We have
our Main Street location on South Rogers, our express location that's located in the Crestmont community,
and then our food truck. Our food truck goes
on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, has a Bloomington-based route, which, by the way, just added two new
stops to make it five stops based strictly on community need and hearing from community members that
those in the area needed additional food. Our food truck also travels to Alexville and focuses on senior
low-income
facilities, and that's on Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturdays. We also have our children's programs, our
summer food service program that set a new record high this summer. That's where we go into 10 low income
communities in the county and provide a free lunch. This year in the 11 week time period of the program,
we distributed almost 8,000 lunches.
Our backpack buddies program is our other child-based program, and we average on that between 550 and
560 backpacks a week. Just that program alone takes two and a half tons of food every week. We depend
on community members, we depend on volunteers, and our staff, of course, play a huge role in all of
these programs.
We work with the area 10 agency on aging for our senior links to provide meals to homebound seniors
in our area and then we work with IU health and their positive links program to provide Homebound to
provide meals to homebound residents that are HIV positive We're asking for food support As you can
can understand we go through a lot of food every week
We make in our kitchen every day 800 meals. That all gets out in the community. So we appreciate this
opportunity, but also the consideration for this funding. So we also have a collaborative grant. To
speak to that is Adelina. Hey, everyone. How are you today?
So, Vicki Pierce asked me to come in and talk about the collaborative grant as I've been helping manage
sort of all 14 agencies getting together and talking about how we're going to do this together. I will
be coming back later as the director of community engagement for stone belt but in this specific instance
I'm talking as CPR B town.
So I've been teaching first aid and CPR through the American Heart Association for the last 15 years,
and I opened my operation about a year and a half ago. Last year, the county council helped us run a
program with 14 nonprofits to train 198 nonprofit staff and volunteers in our community in first aid
CPR. Based on the sheer number of individuals trained,
at least two lifesaving incidents that I was told about. This program was a resounding success. So for
last year's funding, I just want to say thank you for all of that funding and making sure that our community
is a safer place. I'm proud to collaborate with a new group of local nonprofits this year to make CPR
and first aid training more accessible to the people who need it most. So through my work, I've trained
literal thousands of people across Montenegro County, from nurses and teachers to childcare workers
and volunteers.
One thing I've learned in just knowing, working in the nonprofit field for so long is that most nonprofit
organizations can't afford to have their own CPR trainer on staff. And training one up, as soon as you
do, they end up leaving for other opportunities. And calling someone in to train your staff regularly
is also very expensive. And the people who need these programs are also the same people who
can't afford them. So the clients these agencies serve, people with disabilities, survivors of violence,
seniors, individuals experiencing homelessness, are often those with the most significant and complex
health needs. These are the very people who benefit most from having trained staff around them. So this
project, working with these nonprofits, is about closing that gap.
working together with 14 local nonprofits this year. We'll share training space and create courses that
no single agency can accommodate on its own. This program moves costs as a barrier and ensures that
teams are ready to respond when an emergency happens. Community Kitchen is acting as the lead agency,
and I, as CPRB town, will be providing the training itself. The organizations involved in this collaborative
grant are the Community Kitchen of Monroe County, All-Star Imagination, Bloomington Bicycle Club, Bloomington Center
for Global Children, Bloomington Refugee Support Network, Bloomington Symphony Orchestra, Monroe County
CASA, Down Syndrome Family Connection, Harmony School, Hoosier Hills Food Bank, Jewish Theater
of Bloomington, Monroe County Humane Association, Sojourn House, Wild Care. Collectively reaching about
18,000 people in Monroe County of who they work with. These agencies together are requesting about $11,050
to train 170 staff members and volunteers.
with your support through the Sophia Travis Community Service Grant, we can ensure that every organization
has access to life-saving education that no nonprofit in Monroe County has to choose between funding
its mission and keeping its people safe. Thank you. Thank you. Hello. Stop. I'm sorry. I just really
want to introduce our people before. We got New Leaf, New Life, Community Culture, Inc., and Grace Center.
Please proceed. I am Heather from New Leaf New Life. Hello. New Leaf New Life supports individuals impacted
by involvement in the justice system. Our values are transformative justice, collaboration and advocacy.
We work inside the Monroe County Correctional Center and at our transitional support center.
At our transitional support center, we provide folks with reentry services, peer recovery coaching,
employment referrals, work shoes, clothing, housing lists, referrals to other social service agencies
and birth certificates. We're continuing to see a great need in our community with folks having difficulty
accessing different forms of transportation.
As reported by the Policy Research Associates, people reentering the community from jail or prison often
face specific challenges related to transportation, described as the four A's, affordability, accessibility,
applicability, availability, and awareness. Many individuals do not have the financial means to own
a car or regularly use
public transportation. Returning citizens may lack appropriate identification to get a driver's license
or may have an infraction such as a DUI that keeps them from using a car even if they have one. Long-term
stability access to reliable transportation are essential for employment and social service appointments,
but lack of funds, proper identification, and awareness of available services creates significant barriers.
Our clients experience some of these difficulties in being able to travel to job interviews,
12-step meetings, work for social service agencies, the BMV and other resources needed to be successful.
We are requesting funding in the following areas. Bus tickets. So far in 2025, we've given out 2,463
bus tickets to our clients who've recently been released. So they're able to travel within Monroe County
to find employment, attend meetings, obtain personal documentation, and a myriad of other tasks that
we all need to do in our everyday lives. We expect these requests to continue to increase in the coming
months, given the cost of gas, cost of maintaining a vehicle, and issues with securing employment.
Gas cards. The request for gas cards comes from our clients has increased this year. They have very
few resources and folks who may not or may have a car or have someone to drive them to appointments
but don't have the means to buy gas. We've seen this need increase in our community and we've been asked
by other social service agencies if this is something that we can provide.
According to the prison policy initiative, gas cards are a short-term solution that help cover immediate
expenses, giving a person time to secure employment and build financial independence. We're also seeking
funding for Greyhound bus tickets to assist people who are wanting to go to treatment for substance
use or mental health barriers outside of the county so they can get there in a quick time and have a
better chance of recovery.
So we are seeking $5,350. This will impact at least 1,100 of our participants. Transportation is an
important part of our community. Thank you so much for the opportunity. Thank you. Hi, my name is Gavin
Everett. I'm the founder and CEO of Community Culture, Inc.
It's a non-profit started here in Monroe County for the members of Monroe County. Community Culture
respectfully submits this proposal to the Sophia Travis Community Service Grants Program in support
of our project, Bob's Garden, a food oasis for Monroe County. Located on a donated 7,500 square foot
parcel in Bloomington, this garden will serve as a centralized grow site dedicated to producing and
distributing fresh, locally grown produce to local food pantries and kitchens serving Monroe County
residents in need.
Community culture believes food is a basic human right, and yet many in our community struggle to access
healthy, affordable options. In fact, Monroe County outperforms the state average and national average
in food insecurity rates, which I find shocking for us. With rising grocery prices, gaps in
public transportation, and longstanding
Disinvestment in food systems. Thousands of Monroe County residents rely on organizations like Community
Kitchen of Monroe County, Pantry 279, and Mother Hubbard's Cupboard to meet their nutritional needs.
Community Kitchen alone, we just heard, serves so many meals, more like 2,000 meals a week.
These organizations do life-saving work, but their budgets are strained, and they often depend on expensive
or unpredictable produce donations. Community culture was formed to meet this gap head on.
Our mission is to grow food where it's needed most and build systems of care that are rooted in community,
collaboration, and culture. We do this by turning donated land into productive garden spaces we call
Food Oasis. These are vibrant, community-built sites designed to produce nutrient-rich vegetables while
educating and empowering local residents. We work alongside volunteers, partner nonprofits, landowners,
and neighborhood leaders to co-create spaces that reflect the values and needs of the people they serve.
Bob's Garden is our flagship site and at the heart of this new model. It honors the memory of Bob, a
former Vietnam vet who just recently passed after losing his battle to cancer from Agent Orange
complications. He believed deeply in giving back and donated food from his own garden to all of his
friends. With this space, we aim to grow more than just food. We want to cultivate connection, dignity,
and resilience.
We are requesting funding to expand and improve the infrastructure at Bob's Garden so we can increase
production and improve access for the upcoming growing season. Specifically, we will use these funds
to purchase raised beds, soils, seeds, and tarps. These improvements will help us overcome the site's
existing challenges of, namely, poor soil quality and ground pests. And it will help us create a more
inclusive, efficient growing environment. Thank you. Thank you.
I'm Vicki Sorensen and I'm president of the Gray Center Inc. Board of Trustees. Gray Center Inc. is
a 501c3 food pantry serving the townships of Clear Creek, Indian Creek, and Polk in Monroe County. Our
pantry is located at the Clear Creek Trustee's office in Harrettsburg and we're open on Thursdays from 3 p.m.
to 6 p.m. It's the goal of the Gray Center Inc. to provide food that is nutritious as well as promote
social interaction with our shoppers.
We receive food donations from individuals, organizations, and the Hoosier Hills Food Bank. Additionally,
we rely on grants and charitable monetary contributions to purchase perishable food, staples like milk,
eggs, and bread, as well as non-perishable items like canned goods. We strive to provide fresh produce
and a meat item each week. Our volunteers purchase these items as needed
Currently, we are serving 25 to 33 families each week. And as a small pantry, it doesn't take long for
our shelves to go bare. So on behalf of the Gray Center Board of Trustees, we want to thank the Sophia
Travis Grant Committee for your time in the process of working toward helping many different organizations
like us in the community. Thank you. Next up, we will have Seven Oaks.
Hands Full of Hope, and the Kansas Support Community Center of South Central Indiana. Good evening.
My name's Hannah Hirsch, and I serve as the Director of Development for Seven Oaks Classical School.
Thanks for having me tonight. I'd like to imagine 10 years from now, Monroe County is home to dozens
of young adults who once sat in our Ellitsville classroom. They're engineers, nurses, small business
owners, nonprofit leaders, but more than that,
There are citizens who are thinking deeply, acting with virtue, and care for their neighbors. What if
every local child, regardless of their financial circumstances, had access not only to rigorous academics,
but also that mentorship, moral formation, and basic stability they need to flourish? That isn't a fantasy
to us. It's a vision at the heart of our Seven Oaks mission. And in just 10 years, we've grown from
about 160 students
to nearly 600 serving kindergarten through high school graduation. Though we receive roughly 40 percent
less per pupil funding than nearby district schools. We open our doors to all families in Monroe County
as a tuition free open enrollment public charter school. Yet we are often misunderstood and in fact
I'm guilty myself of assuming Seven Oaks represented in a particular ideology when in truth we exist
for something far simpler.
to give every child from every background the support, challenge, and community that allows them to
not just be educated, but to become whole. Tonight, I'm requesting $5,500 for two initiatives that extend
that mission.
Firstly, $500 to cover AP chemistry exam fees. This support is for students with limited means who were
caught off guard when the state recently reduced its assistance for AP testing. These students have
poured their time, effort, and intellect into mastering college-level science and should not have to
choose between financial strain and the chance to prove themselves and earn that college credit.
And $5,000 to expand our backpack blessing program
Because our school does not yet have a cafeteria, families pack lunches from home, and some face real
food insecurity. In fact, over 15% of our students qualify for free and reduced lunches. This program
discreetly fills that gap by providing free healthy lunches, weekend and holiday meals that are nutritious,
balanced, and dignified. While these two areas may seem very distinct, they are deeply connected. When
a child grows up well nourished with both mind and character cultivated,
The ripple effects reach far beyond our school walls. With a foundation and good nutrition, we see healthier
children and fewer chronic conditions later in life. And when barriers like testing fees are removed,
students feel their community standing behind them, and they grow into adults who give back, who vote
thoughtfully, who volunteer locally, mentor others, and strengthen the civic life of Monroe County.
Thank you for your consideration.
Yes. We do not have a sign in for the cancer support community. Okay, so if there's anybody here for
Cancer Support Center, again, please see Ms. Kimschel and sign in and we'll proceed. Thank you. Hello,
my name is Raheem McMillan.
We are founders of Hands Full of Hope, a local nonprofit started in 2003. Our mission is to bridge the
gap between people and resources with our programs and services, as well as being a connection to local
resources. Our current initiative, we are asking for $5,000 for our mobile boutique. By buying a box
truck, we will outfit it for the storage of the many donations we collect in exchange for tax deductions.
In turn, we give these clothes and shoes away, free of charge to low-income families and the homeless.
This grant will transform this service of Hands Full of Hope from a local effort where we use our personal
vehicles with drop-offs and pickups to a reliable and scalable service. This mobile boutique will immediately
triple our capacity to deliver clean and quality clothing directly to those who need it most. We are
ready to drive this vision forward, and we just need
the last moving piece for this next step. We have served about 350 people as of date. And yeah, we're
ready to take the next steps. Thank you. Thank you. Nobody. OK. All right. Next up we will have SCAP,
Writers Guild, and Middle Way House.
I'm the Director of Programming for SCAP, and I am here to talk with you all about the Winter Resource
Fair. Thank you for having us here to talk about the Winter Resource Fair. We're both pretty short,
so it's probably a good idea. Can I start my three minutes over?
I'm the Director of Programming for SCAP. Thank you for having us here to talk about the Winter Resource
Fair. I'm gonna give a very brief introduction to the agency, and then my colleague Kaylee Smith is
gonna talk more about the event. So SCAP has been providing services to low-income families since 1965.
Our programming is designed to help families attain personal and economic independence, and never to
just be a directionless handout.
We offer robust, multifaceted family development and financial wellness planning, a program called Growing
Opportunities, home weatherization, housing choice voucher rental assistance, and the low income energy
assistance program that helps with winter utility bills. We also have early childhood education through
Head Start for ages three to five, and early Head Start from birth to three. So the program we're here
to talk about is covering kids and families, health insurance navigation,
So I'm going to hand this over to Kaylee Smith. She is the program director for covering kids and families.
All of our services are critical for families who are struggling and can serve as a lifeline. But in
the case of the Winter Resource Fair, that lifetime can be literal. So with that segue. Hi.
Covering Kids and Families, or CKF for short, is a statewide program that runs health insurance assistance
out of local organizations. CKF of SCAP covers Monroe, Brown, and Owen counties. CKF provides assistance
with applying, understanding, and maintaining health insurance. We can assist with Medicaid, Marketplace,
or work insurances, and we work with the client until they have a resolution to their case, whatever
it may be.
CKF of scap can help anyone but we have prioritized our unhoused population as we believe it is an essential
step in becoming stable without health care. It is extraordinarily difficult to build a productive fulfilling
life. We've organized the recent
The Winter Resource Fair for anyone who is unhoused or at the risk of becoming unhoused for the last
two years. Beyond the normal advertising, the day before the event, we go out on foot to different camps
and shelters to invite people to the event, in which we have gotten over 100 attendees the last two years.
The day of the event, attendees will be able to walk through all the tablers and get resources. They
then have a meal ticket to get some hot soup, water, and bakery items. In the past, we've also been
able to supply take-home snacks for attendees as well. We have free tables, stocked with blankets, stretch
pants, warm clothes, socks, hats, gloves, and more. And while they are going through tables, they are
going to get stamps on their passports that they can then use
to put into raffle items such as hard shell suitcases, bikes, mummy sleeping bags, survival kits, hiking
backpacks, and other items to help survive the winter while living outdoors. The Winter Resource Fair
allows our unhoused community to really grasp all the resources that are available to them in Monroe
County. Thank you. Thank you.
My name is Molly Gleason. I'm a volunteer with the Writers Guild at Bloomington. I've been a volunteer
for over two years. The Writers Guild at Bloomington was created in 2010 by a group of local writers
wanting to support other writers by offering readings, open mics, and other literary opportunities.
What began as a small 501c3 nonprofit grew into a still small 501c3 nonprofit that does a lot with very little.
We have a three-member board and a group of dedicated volunteers who run our social media, website,
scholarship program, an ongoing writing workshop, and other programming, including three reading series
each month. First Sunday prose, second Thursday spoken word, and last Sunday poetry. Each event has
at least two featured readers and wraps up with an open mic where anyone who has something to read in
front of an audience may.
The Writers Guild has also hosted many other events, including a local author book fair last year at
the Monroe County History Center, Poetry on Demand and Spoken Word Stage at the 4th Street Festival
every year, along with other places, and countless collaborations with musicians and other artists.
This November, we're hosting award-winning author Aminata Forna for a talk, The Power of Storytelling
at the Monroe County Library. And all of our programs are free and open to the public.
This application is specifically for the first Sunday prose reading series held at the first of the
month at the Juniper Art Gallery. We would be thrilled to receive this grant. We're asking for $1,500
as a way to offer some compensation for our venue and to offer honoraria for our featured readers. The
Writers Guild greatly values our collaborations of all sorts, but in particular those with local businesses
like the Juniper Art Gallery. We know local
businesses are hurting, and if we could help for something to help out with that, we would be grateful.
The First Sunday Pros reading series has often worked with other organizations and featured readers
from many, including Vital at the library, which is volunteers and teaching adult learners, Women Writing
for a Change, Stone Belt, and the Monroe County History Center, to name a few. Our themes for this series
have featured writers for Voices of the Incarcerated, Developmental Disability Awareness Month,
Teachers and Students National Literacy Month, Pride Month, and more. In the near future, we'll feature
Farm Memoir, Indiana History, and Asian and Asian American and Pacific Islander Month. The Writers Guild
is always looking for ways to collaborate with other organizations and to build community. And the Sophia
Travis Grant would help us continue this part of our mission. Thank you.
Next up is Ivy Tech Community College Eclipse Productions Company and Restore Habitat for Humanity of
Monroe County. No, you didn't sign in. You're with Middlwell. Oh, I was just asking. I didn't see Middlwell.
I was making sure. I'm just making sure I didn't jump somebody. No, you're good. OK. Sorry.
Hi, my name is Sam Udak. I'm the Director of Grant Development at Ivy Tech Bloomington. And I just wanted
to add some additional context for you guys and hopefully give you some a few seconds back tonight for
our application. The expansion of the food pantry at Ivy Tech is part of a continued effort to maintain
a pretty robust series of wraparound services for students on campus. And we finally started seeing
on-campus enrollment grow again in the post-COVID era. It was a lot of online students for a long time,
but we're seeing a pretty significant surge.
and folks taking classes on campus. There are other food pantries, there are other food banks in the
area, but for a lot of our students that are in need of these services, a lot of times the choice is
gas in your car gets you to campus or it gets you somewhere else. It's a significant percentage. It's
hard to tell because it's hard to get the reporting together, but we're fairly certain the majority
of our students that are on campus are in the lower three AMI brackets.
So food insecurity is sort of skyrocketing. Food cost is obviously skyrocketing as a driver of that.
And we've started placing a greater emphasis on stocking, using, and promoting the food pantry. So just
this semester alone, we've had 42 households of three or more people serve to date. And so we're talking
like two months. That means it's not just students. It's students and their spouses and their children.
We've had 64. And these are all self-reported. That's part of the problem. We don't require any kind
of disclosure of information to get folks.
the food they need, but we have at least 64 Monroe County households. At least 80 students have voluntarily
signed in. But based on the amount of food being taken and our general expectation, we think it's a
lot closer to 125 students just this semester. So we're talking mid-August to right now. So our initial
estimate was about 500 students served in a year, and it's looking like that'll be a lot closer to 650.
The original food pantry was basically a set of two shelves and it was like a granola bar if you forgot
your lunch to campus and we're expanding from a little bit of shelving to a full 10 by 20 room.
The financial request in this application is straight food purchasing, and that's to allow us the leeway
to be able to purchase the freezers and the refrigeration necessary to continue to stock additional
fresh produce, eggs, protein, yogurt, cheese, that kind of thing. Those are the things that students
consistently are in the highest demand for. We're also trying to add gluten-free items and vegan items
to respect.
widest range possible of dietary restrictions and needs. We consistently get glowing feedback with the
selection available in the food pantry from students. We had a nursing student recently tell us that
the food pantry on campus fed her for two years. And she didn't say anything to us about it until she
was a week away from graduation.
We've had people tell us the food pantry has allowed them to feed their entire family. And so we know
for a fact we have students relying on that. And that is the driving motivation for this. Right now
it's open two full days a week. We have ongoing plans to expand it hopefully to five days a week between
new employees coming in and exploring different volunteer efforts. And I think that's it. Thank you
for your time. Thank you for your consideration. It's good to see you guys. Great. Thank you.
OK. Hello. My name is Shana Serval, and I serve as the development director for Eclipse Productions
Company. We are an all-volunteer local nonprofit theater company. Eclipse was founded on a simple but
radical idea that high quality theater should belong to everyone, not just those who can afford it and
not just those who have already made it in the industry. It is our mission to empower local talent through
economic and professional development,
and to break down traditional barriers with affordable theater for all.
Eclipse is proud to be the only theater company in town that offers pay-what-you-will ticketing for
every performance, ensuring that cost is never a barrier to accessing live theater. In just two years,
Eclipse has grown from an idea shared by a few passionate artists into a professional company employing
over 70 local artists, paying out more than 10,000 in artist stipends, and reaching over 900 audience
members in Bloomington and Monroe County.
We serve our community in two key ways. The first is by empowering artists. Every actor, every designer,
and every technician we hire is local. We offer professional training, real-world work experience, and
resume building credits that help emerging artists take the next step in their careers without having
to leave Bloomington to do it. Second, we enrich the community.
Our productions go beyond the stage, from family game nights, to live music in the lobby, to talk backs
with health professionals and local leaders. Every event is designed to connect people, to
spark conversations, belonging, and joy. We are not just putting on plays. We are building a community
through storytelling. We're requesting $10,250 in funding, which will go directly towards artist stipends,
AKA the heart of what we do.
Paying our artists fairly is not just an expense. It's an investment in the people that bring art to
life. These stipends currently account for 30% of our total budget. We can continue offering meaningful
paid opportunities for local talent while keeping our productions affordable for all with your support.
At Eclipse, we believe that when artists thrive, communities thrive.
I want to thank you for considering our work and for helping us keep the lights on, both on stage and
in the hearts of the people that we serve. Thank you. Great. Next up, we have Restore. And then the
next three after that is some Sobresma Foundation? Sobremesa. Sobremesa, sorry.
So promissive foundation, courage to change, and then beacon. Evening. Thanks a lot for all the work
you guys do. I know it's really a hard thing to get through this. Restore, what we do is we sell gently
used goods, household goods, and the money goes to Habitat, and they build houses with the money.
So we keep looking for things to do more and to be better. So this year, with that in mind, we're requesting
$8,750 to help create a program to feed our volunteers, and about $180 to make some t-shirts for them.
The Feeding Our Volunteer program will provide nutritional food to our volunteers. You can describe
it as a small lunch. You can describe it as some supplemental food.
Each week, we have about 47 shifts, 47 opportunities with the people that are volunteering at our store
to give them some of this food and to feed them kind of lunch. So that ends up being about
2,300 opportunities for a year to feed them. Volunteers at our store come from, they are income eligible.
There's only one that I can think of that
is not an income eligible individual. And what they are doing, what we're doing is getting them their
future homeowners, their persons who are completing community service, their refugees who are in our
program to work at our store. We're a fundraising organization.
entity for Monroe County. We're a 5013C and we try to generate the money to go to Habitat. Every time
we do anything that helps us not spend our money for the program, it helps allow more unrestricted funds
go to building houses in Monroe County right here in our community. I'm doing really good. You are.
So the Feeding Our Volunteers program will not only help people directly by giving them some food in
our store when they're there, but it'll also help get more money to Habitat. I really thank you for
consideration.
If there's any questions you have later, you can email me. If you want to come volunteer at Restore,
you can come down to Restore and volunteer, give us a call, and we'll put you to work. And thanks a
lot for what you do. Thank you.
Hi, good afternoon. Thank you to the Sophia Travis Grant Committee for the opportunity to share our
vision. I'm Robert Frew, along with my partner, Juan Carlos Arango. We operate Sober Mesa Farm in Bloomington
on the east side. In 2024, we founded the Sober Mesa Foundation, Inc. It's a 501C3.
nonprofit to address something we saw missing in our local food system. That was a bridge for newcomers
and marginalized farmers to find belonging, purpose, and opportunity through the soil and learn about
environmental stewardship. Our project, Growing New Farmers and New Lands, is an incubator-style program
designed to support refugees and immigrants who have agricultural experience that face barriers to restarting
their livelihoods here in Indiana.
Over the last two years, we've worked closely with Exodus Refugee Immigration, volunteers, and local
partners to help refugees find work and healing and farming. After training and employing four newly
resettled individuals at Sobremesa Farm, we realized the power of this connection and the need to build
something lasting. Through the incubator, we'll offer a 10-week paid internship in regenerative agriculture,
They learn practical hands-on skills, soil preparation, crop planting, composting, business development,
and how to market culturally relevant crops. Training will take place at Sober Mesa Farm and nearby
leased land on the east side of Bloomington. We'll partner with local churches whose congregations include
many recent arrivals and the Center for Rural Engagement in Indiana University.
These relationships ensure that participants are supported not just as trainees, but as members of a
growing community network.
Our goals are clear, grow new farmers by offering paid supported training to refugees and limited resource
individuals, build food sovereignty by helping them grow crops that reflect their culture and traditions,
create economic opportunity through market sales, CSA programs, and future employment, and ultimately
establish land access pathways through partnerships with land trust and USDA programs, ensuring that
today's trainees can become
tomorrow's farm owners.
Sober Mesa Farm was honored to be featured in Farm Aid 2023, and that partnership helped us secure seed
funding to begin developing this program. With support from the Sophia Travis Grant, we can take that
to the next step, launching our first cohort in 2026 and creating a lasting model for inclusive, regenerative
farming right here in Monroe County. At its heart, the Sober Mesa Foundation believes that farming is
more than food production, it's a path toward
healing, and empowerment. With your support, we can grow not just crops, but new roots of community
and opportunity for families rebuilding their lives in Indiana. Thank you.
My name's Marilyn Grimes. I'm the executive director, co-founder of Courage to Change. We're a local
nonprofit. We're sober living. We have five houses here in Bloomington. We have 41 clients, three of
our houses for males only, and two of our houses are female only. We take most of our clients that come
to us are coming out of jail or the county jail or the state penitentiary.
Correctional facilities many times when they come to us
They do not have anything. They don't have any rent money. We don't charge for them to come to us. We
don't have a deposit or that sort of thing. We charge 580 a month for them to live there. But they have
two weeks to get a job. But within that first two weeks, they just don't have any income. So with the
grant that we are asking, it will cover
two weeks of their rental until they're employed and get a paycheck. And that kind of relieves them
from the pressure of feeling like they're going to get in trouble. But we don't kick people out for
not having money. We just try and work with them. So we're asking for $4,035 for the rental assistance.
Our clients are allowed to stay for one year. We ask them to sign a 90-day contract. We do want them
to stay for at least three months because we're basically trying to help them get into new habits and
get on with their life. But if they do and then they want to move out, it's really difficult.
and Bloomington's got high rent, high deposits, and then you have utilities and all these things. So
we are asking for $3,000, and this is a move out fund. So it would give six clients $500 each. That
would go against utilities or if they need it for the deposit. It does not go to the client, it goes
straight to the
rental property or the utility company. And then that will help them find a place of their own and be
successful. That's our goal. Thank you so much for your time and thank you for listening. Bye.
I'm Amy Kendall. I'm the development director at beacon Beacon's mission is to aid and empower people
experiencing extreme poverty especially hunger and homelessness We are respectfully requesting six thousand
seven hundred and twenty dollars for ten mattresses and four bunk beds that is for our overnight shelter
friends place so
Friends Place is a really important part of our mission. It's got 40 beds. It's the largest women's
emergency shelter in the area. Primarily the 40 beds are for women, although we do have male and gender
non-binary guests as well.
And in 2024, Friends Place sheltered 269 people for over 14,000 bed nights. And we also offer casework.
We believe in permanent solutions also, not just being a shelter, not just being a place for people
to stay, but also casework to help people find housing and get stability in the longterm.
So the need is important here with the mattresses and bunk beds because
A lot of the bunk beds and mattresses are not in great shape right now. And in fact, some of the bunk
beds were actually having to put boards down to stabilize them. And we did have one guest fall through
the bunk. Luckily, it was on the bottom bunk, so they were not hurt. But they're in that bad of shape.
The mattresses have tears, holes. They're not comfortable. And when you think, you know, I
wouldn't want to sleep on a mattress with holes and tears. So we don't want our guests to either. And
we feel that our guests deserve dignity, a safe and comfortable place to stay. For a lot of these folks,
it could be one of the scariest moments of their lives. If they weren't at friend's place, they could
be sleeping on the streets.
very important to us to have this kind of dignity and kind of comfort that we can give people who are
in that situation. And 96% of our clients experience extreme poverty. And so Friends Place is a place
to go when they have nowhere else to go. So I appreciate your consideration. And thank you for your
past support. Have a good night. Thank you.
All right. Next up, we have the Bloomington Food Policy Council Pathways. I know we got to know about
the project school not being able to attend due to illness. And so we'll have Bloomington Food Policy
Council Pathways and then Stone Belt.
Hi, all. My name is Jada B. The Bloomington Food Policy Council is the fiscal sponsor and 501C3 for
People's Cooperative Market, which is a 501C12, a co-op nonprofit. This is my friend Rivka here, who's
a part of the Bloomington
Food Policy Council. In 2024, we constructed a 30 by 90 greenhouse with 10 spaces for community members
to rent, and the rest of it dedicated to the People's Market growing space for the market to give away
free food. Our ask for you is $6,300 for the People's United Garden located at
First United Church. Here's an overview of part of our garden plans for this space. Right here is already
the greenhouse. This is the section that we're talking about, expanding and getting raised beds and
mulch and things like that that are needed to create a further growing space that half of the spaces
raised beds would go to community members to farm in and the rest would go to people's market to farm
in so that we can continue to grow food for the market and give it out to people in our community.
Since 2020, People's Market has distributed over 9,000 free CSAs, community-supported agriculture, bags
filled with veggies, eggs, and sometimes meat. We received over and administered 22 grants, fulfilled
grants, and completed sales for more than $972,000. By the end of this year, it will be at a million.
Paid over 41 different local farmers, including one of the farmers who is speaking here,
In the past two years, we've been primarily working with BIPOC farmers, small farmers of all races under
100 acres, and LGBTQ farmers. We were also featured in Farm Aid and continue to partner with Farm Aid
to raise awareness about farmers.
We've hosted three conferences, our Spring Sprout Food System Series twice, and our Midwest Cohort Gathering.
We've hosted over 2,600 volunteer hours from non-committee members. We couldn't calculate our committee
members' hours, because we worked nonstop for the past five years. We have over 13 community partners,
including some of the folks that have spoken tonight and are asking for grants, and so we help also
sort of make your dollars stretch
further. Some of the community members like the Mother Hubbard's Cupboard, La Casa Food Pantry, and
Beale and Boomington. We facilitated 19 workshops and trainings, distributed over 100 free books, hosted
four internships with IU students,
and so on. This greenhouse space in particular is how we move from surviving to thriving. We teach people
how to garden and farm, and we give them the space to do it, and we show them what it is to be a community
on a different level. And we hope to turn the area we're at at First United Church into a further place
to help feed our community and create a community space, as well as having pollinator gardens that will
help anyone in the area who is
farming and gardening in Bloomington. Thank you so much. Talk to you later. Thank you. Good evening.
My name is Katie Broadfoot, and I am here representing Pathways, which is formerly Monroe County United
Ministries.
Since 1939, Pathways has been a part of Monroe County's fabric, helping families to build stability
through high quality early learning and wraparound support that truly meets their needs. The most important
thing that you need to know about Pathways now is that we are a full family multi-year program, where
our goal is for children to leave us ready for their first day of kindergarten and for their caregivers
or their custodial parents to be able to sustainably meet their family's
basic needs without the help of us or other social service agencies. We've seen a lot of people requesting
food, so we're trying to reduce social service duplication.
And then our other goals for the families are for the caregivers to have an emergency savings and then
also to have an asset in their name by the time they leave us. So at our Compass Early Learning Center,
94 children every single day receive full-day affordable accredited care. We remain the only program
of our kind in the county and we're committed to staying a program that can offer our own sliding fee
scale in spite of the federal funding cuts.
These are working families who earn too much in most cases for subsidies, but too little to stay stable.
Through our Family Resource Center, we walk alongside those families with mentoring, financial coaching,
and a food pantry designed to promote both immediate relief and long-term resilience.
Every week, about 45 of our families rely on our food pantry, which saves them an average of $75 per
week. And this is money that they are guided to save or invest towards building an emergency safety
net or planning to purchase an asset over the next couple of years.
One of the other things that makes our food pantry unique is our new focus on perishable and culturally
preferred foods. Items like milk, eggs, dairy alternatives, and frozen meats that most food pantries
can't regularly offer. These foods are rich in nutrients essential for children's growth and health.
They also allow families from diverse cultural backgrounds to prepare traditional meals, foods that
feel familiar, dignified, and comforting. Meeting families' nutritional and cultural needs is not just
a matter of kindness. It's a matter of effectiveness. It's what helps families truly thrive. We're requesting
$5,000 to continue stocking these vital perishable items over the next year.
At a time when budgets are tightening across the board, this modest investment will help us to keep
food on tables, build financial security, and strengthen the very foundation of economic mobility for
families right here in Monroe County. Your support ensures families that are working hard to get ahead
have what they need to keep going, nourishment, dignity, and a real path forward. Thank you for your
time, your service, and your commitment to helping all families in our community thrive.
OK, this time I am going to be talking about Stone Belt. So my name is Adam Hamill. I'm the director
of community engagement at Stone Belt, a nonprofit serving people with developmental disabilities throughout
South Central Indiana since 1959. Stone Belt was founded by nine families who believed in creating
opportunities for their children with disabilities, opportunities that didn't exist at that time.
Today, we support over 1,200 individuals with a wide range of developmental disabilities, helping them
live independently, gain employment, and fully participate in our community. In 2000, Stone Belt established
Milestones, a mental health clinic that not only provides nursing, behavioral, and mental health support,
but also provides therapy services to individuals with disabilities and children suffering from depression,
anxiety, and anxiety disorders.
Among the therapies offered is play therapy. Play therapy is an evidence-based approach where toys,
art, sand trays, and role play become the language of healing. A child who has experienced trauma might
use figures in a sand tray to act out fear or anger. A young person with autism might use sensory items
like kinetic sand to regulate emotions. Dolls and pretend play props allow children to practice empathy,
communication, and family roles. These tools help clients build resilience, self-regulation, and social
understanding.
To strengthen and expand our work, the Milestones Division of Stone Belt is requesting $3,000 from the
Sophia Travis grant. These funds will allow us to purchase items that will enrich the therapeutic
environment, sand tracing figures, diverse dolls that represent children of all backgrounds, dramatic
play props, sensory tools, and organizational materials that make the space safe and welcoming.
With these resources, we expect to see greater engagement and therapy, improved emotional regulation,
stronger social and family skills, and most importantly, children feeling seen, supported, and empowered.
These items will directly support hundreds of therapy sessions every year and will serve clients for
years to come. I appreciate your consideration. Thank you. Next up, we have tandem.
Big Brothers Big Sisters and Mills on Wheels.
Hi. Tandem is a hub for perinatal and reproductive services in our community. From our postpartum house,
which is the first of its kind in the country, to the Hoosier diaper program, postpartum doula services,
and support groups and educational programming, Tandem services are accessible for all, regardless of
ability to pay. The need for Tandem is evidenced by our rapid growth and the stories of our clients.
As a five and a half year old nonprofit with the unfortunate timing of launching alongside a global
pandemic, we have grown
from an idea to serving hundreds of clients every month and at least 500 unique families per year. In
a county with just over a thousand births per year, we are filling a critical gap and impacting the
lives of many. We want to ensure that no one feels alone, that no one has to choose between food and
diapers, that families can thrive and not just survive. Through partnerships and careful strategic planning,
Tandem is determined to create a sustainable model of care, and we are getting closer to that every month.
a young nonprofit, we have no cushion to fall back on. A single month without adequate donations and
grants coming in can mean unpaid rent and the potential closure of tandem. Again and again, I write
grants to request funding only to find that they will not pay rent, will not pay salaries, and will
not pay utilities. But these are not overhead. These are essentials. Paying these essentials makes everything
we do possible. Without them, the vital programs we run that other funders love to fund will cease to exist.
I want to give you an example of the kind of impact tandem can have. We had a mother who came to tandem
regularly for groups, resources, and support. Her baby experienced a medical crisis of the worst kind
you can imagine, and this mother knew she could come to tandem for help. Not only did she come to tandem
and to our staff,
But she came for the community that we had built for her, that she had built for herself, and she wouldn't
have had otherwise. And so the family she met through Tandem stepped up to provide meals, emotional
support, and love through the hardest parenting journey of her life. This level of community building
is one of the things we cherish most at Tandem. We hope that the Sophia Travis Committee will help us
fund our essentials so we can keep serving our community. We know that serving new parents helps break
cycles of adversity, reducing adverse childhood
experiences and yielding positive health repercussions for those parents and their children for decades
to come. And we're so grateful for your support. And I wanted to say, last year, you funded our mental
health support groups, which received very minimal funding for last year. But that funding allowed us
to keep it going. And this year, we're partnering with the Earth State Institute at IU and have fully
funded our mental health groups for the entire next year. But it doesn't cover rent. Thank you.
Thank you.
My name is Darby, and I am here representing Big Brothers Big Sisters of South Central Indiana. I am
our program director. I am super excited to talk to you guys tonight about our initiative that we're
hoping to fund with funding from Sophia Travis. The initiative is called One to One Plus Digital Initiative
Advancing Mentoring with Technology in Monroe County at Big Brothers
Big Sisters, our mission is simple, to create and support one-to-one mentoring relationships that ignite
the power and promise of youth. But as the world changes, so do the ways that we connect. Most of our
littles face challenges in finding consistent engagement or opportunities. And we knew that technology
could help us bridge that gap.
The other great thing is all of our programs for our families are 100% free. Through this grant,
will equip our mentoring programs with modern interactive tools, including a portable LG Stand By Me
monitor, student response clickers, a digital projector, curriculum building software, and remarkable
two tablets that will allow our staff to go completely paperless. These resources will be used across
our schools, as well as our office, to make sure that our mentoring is not only more interactive, but
also sustainable and accessible.
By integrating these tools, we are not only improving how our mentors and youth connect, but we're modeling
an environmentally responsible and equitable way of working. Research shows that interactive technology
increases motivation, learning, and confidence, and this initiative will help our mentors and littles
experience this firsthand.
We're deeply grateful for this opportunity and for all of you for believing in our mission and vision.
And your support will help us to ensure that every child in our program here in Monroe County has the
chance to see, learn, and dream a little bigger with technology and mentorship working hand in hand.
Now, as always, I always like to do a plug for our volunteer need. We are making lots of matches right
now, which is very exciting.
but our need for mentors always continues to grow as we continue to expand our program and explore new
opportunities. So if you or anyone else watching this tonight is interested in knowing more about becoming
a big or new ways to support our programs, please visit our brand new updated website at bigsindiana.org
and you can either connect with our team or start the process to become a big. So thank you.
So next up, looks like Bloomington Mills on wheels. Is there anybody here? Nope, gone once, gone twice.
Nope. Okay, so all right. We have Wheeler Mission, Steinsville Community Library, and Hoosier Hills
Food Bank. And Wheeler, Steinsville, and Hoosier Hills, if you all are here,
We just need for you all to, um, sign in at the front desk where Ms. Kim show is. Okay. Okay. Next up
on deck here, we have the boys and girls club of Wilmington constellation stage and screen, and then
the wonder lab museum.
Good afternoon. Thank you for having me here today. My name is Wendy Druckmiller, and I'm the Grants
and Impact Director for the Boys and Girls Clubs of Bloomington. This year, the club is humbly requesting
$10,000 in funding to support the purchase of new security cameras for the Ellisville Club location.
These cameras will replace Hike Vision brand cameras that are now banned in many state and local government
buildings in accordance with the National Defense Authorization Act due to national security concerns.
As the Ellitsville Club operates out of a building that is owned by the Richard Bean Blossom Community
School Corporation, this ban is also applicable to our cameras. The safety of our members is our top
priority, and cameras help to ensure this in several ways. They are crucial tools for club leaders to
be able to monitor and track everyone who is in the building, ensure transitions between activities
and programs are structured with adherence to safety,
verify that club staff are actively monitoring and supervising youth, and respond quickly to facility
hazards, medical emergencies, major behavioral incidents, and other concerns. Most importantly, though,
cameras are vital to the prevention of child abuse by providing the ability to confirm that club staff
and volunteers maintain appropriate physical and verbal interactions with youth and are not engaged
in any red flag activities, as well as to closely observe high risk areas and activities.
Systems for monitoring and supervision are essential in managing the risk of abuse as it has lasting
negative consequences, including depression, substance abuse, relationship problems, increased future
risk of heart disease and obesity, and suicidal ideation. The Alexville club fills a significant gap
for local youth and families that are in the greatest need of our service.
It is a place of belonging, connection, and hope. For only $20 per year, members receive transportation
from their school location to the club, a healthy snack, access to a multitude of high quality programs,
and guidance from caring adults, all in a safe environment. This club location has nearly 400 registered
members, and average daily attendance approaching 240 youths, and has over 30 staff, student interns,
and volunteers in this building each day.
Support from the Sophia Travis Community Service Grant will allow us to purchase the security cameras
necessary to ensure the continued safety of our buildings by controlling access, assuring safe practices
are being followed by staff, volunteers, and members, identifying structural hazards, decreasing response
time to emergency situations, and mitigating the risk of abuse. In addition to keeping them physically
safer, it is a signal to our members that they matter to us. Their safety is important to us, not just
physically, but emotionally, mentally and relationally.
Youths who are physically and emotionally safe have greater capacity to learn, grow, and thrive. For
many of the kids that we serve, the club may be one of the few places, if not the only place, that they
feel safe. Therefore, we work continuously to enhance safety policies, practices, and training to ensure
that they are centered on youth's needs. Even still, the most effective way to prevent abuse is to remain
vigilant about supervising the activities of staff, volunteers, and youth.
Thank you for investing in our local youth through your support of the Boys and Girls Clubs of Bloomington
over the years and for your consideration of our request today.
Good evening, and thank you for the opportunity to share our work. I'm Erin Parks, development director
of Constellation Stage and Screen, Bloomington's professional theater and film organization. And today
I'd like to talk about Constellation for Schools, our student matinee and arts education program that
provides access to live professional theater for students and educators throughout Monroe County. In
the past three years, we've seen
considerable growth and demand from local schools. Teachers consistently tell us their students talk
about these shows for weeks. And because for many, it's their first time experiencing live theater,
we really want to help even more children. Last season, we served nearly 4,000 students and educators
through 23 student matinees. And this year, we're already sold out.
with over 800 students on a wait list hoping to attend. Our true cost per student is around $15 to $20,
but we keep tickets at $7.50 per student to make the experience affordable for all schools. Funding
from this grant helps us maintain that accessibility and expand capacity to meet growing interest. With
this Sophia Travis
grant support will be able to add eight additional student matinees, reaching up to 800 more students
this season. Our lineup includes You're a Good Man Charlie Brown, celebrating 75 years of peanuts, A
Christmas Story, The Musical, A Beloved Tale, A Family Nostalgia,
based in Indiana, and Finn, a brand new children's musical from the creator of Doc McStuffins and Vampirina,
exploring courage, identity, and self-expression. Each show includes curriculum-aligned study guides
that help teachers tie their performance to subjects like reading, music, and social emotional learning.
Live theater is a powerful teaching tool. It nurtures empathy, creativity, communication, and
perspective-taking, skills that are essential not just for learning,
but for life. When students watch a story unfold on stage, they see people collaborating, problem solving,
and expressing emotion, all things that can't be replicated on a screen. It's an experience that connects
art and education in a deeply human way.
With your support, $4,000 will serve over 4,500 students from 30 schools and 10 homeschool organizations
this year, keeping arts accessible, equitable, and inspiring for the next generation of creative thinkers.
You are helping students experience something truly formative, the shared power of storytelling, imagination,
and community. Thank you.
shorter. Hello, my name is Leslie Kosenko. I'm the director of philanthropy from Wonder Lab. Wonder
Lab is honored to be considered for the support of Sophia Travis and deeply grateful for the opportunity
to share our story and our vision for ideas that we have today. For more than 28 years, Wonder Lab has
been a vital community resource for families across South Central Indiana, offering transformative science,
technology, engineering, math, STEM experiences to over 1.8 million visitors since we opened.
Our mission is clear. Every child, regardless of background, deserves joyful hands-on learning that
sparks curiosity and opens new pathways for learning. Our core belief is that equitable access to science
education creates a more and just creative future for everyone.
Yet, youth enrichment barriers remain for thousands of children and families. In Monroe County alone,
14% of children under the age of 18 live in poverty, with numbers even higher under those of five. More
than 40% of local school children that visit Wonder Lab are on the free or reduced lunch program, a
powerful indicator of the economic hardship that we are surrounded by. But these barriers don't just
limit access to museums. They limit children's opportunities to grow with social
learning and see themselves as something different and hopeful. Through our Connecting to the Community
Fund, Wunder Lab breaks down these barriers and we empower social service agencies in our regions, like
the Boys and Girls Club, New Hope, Middle Way, Big Brothers, Girls Inc, CASA, Family Services,
Head Start, Youth Services, and more, as long as Title I schools, to bring groups to Wunder Lab for free.
Danny from Family Solutions states he brings kids to Wonder Lab to not only have fun and be outside
of the home, but to learn vital life and social skills like waiting in line or collaborating, like building
a beehive. It may be the first time that these children may touch a snake, may see a skink, or can look
through our aquarium and wonder about the ocean.
Many of these visitors have traumatic experiences and need a safe space for their families to learn
together. A CASA volunteer that brings children says individual visits help potentially remove them
from stressful situations that they face at home. And coming to Wonder Lab has that much more impact.
Wonder Lab also has many staff and volunteers that are trained and helped to teach parents learning
behaviors to continue outside of the museum. And we offer those services for anyone that asks.
Wonder Lab is a phenomenal example of many different ways to overcome the stigma of failure, keep trying,
get to an end result, and all the way have fun. We need help for social services because our demand
has skyrocketed.
Unfortunately, I'm here today to ask for $16,000 to catch up for what we're funding for social service
agencies. I would love to come to you next year and offer it to Cancer Support Community, My Sister's
Closet, and Beacon. And in order to do that, we need to fund the social service agencies that we fund
today. With your help and consideration, we appreciate it. Thank you. Thank you.
Is there anybody from Planned Parenthood that's here? No? Okay. Next up we have Pantry 279, Protect
Our People and Limestone Media.
Hello, my name is Tracy. I'm the assistant director with Pantry 279. I want to thank you guys for your
time tonight and for your support in the past. It has helped us grow to what we are today. Pantry 279
began with a Girl Scout troop who was concerned about classmates who were saving their leftovers from
school lunches to have something to eat on the weekends when school was not in session.
We have been serving Monroe and surrounding counties for nearly 10 years. Our 10th birthday is just
around the corner, November 3rd. Pantry 279 is committed to meeting the growing food insecurity needs
of Monroe County residents. To ensure we are able to continue to do this, we are asking for 25,000 for
the next steps of our project. 15,000 of that would be used to
strictly purchase food for our community. These foods would include non-perishables, fresh produce,
meats, and specialty foods to accommodate special diets such as sugar-free and gluten-free. 10,000 will
help with operational costs including expanding our delivery services to reach more of our homebound
clients, vehicle maintenance, staff confidence,
compensation and infrastructure maintenance, which, as the speaker from Tandem pointed out, is really
hard to find grants that support these costs. We can have all of the food and equipment in the world,
but if we don't have employees or a building, you know, people to unload the truck or unlock the door,
it doesn't do us much good.
We have seen a vast increase in food and secure clients just within the last few months, and we expect
this trend to just keep going up. We served 9,795 individuals in the month of June, of which 1,751 were
just deliveries to our homebound clients.
In September, we served 10,945 individuals of which 2,170 were deliveries to our homebound clients.
Our homebound clients are really important to us. These are the elderly, the sick, the disabled, people
who can't afford transportation, things like that. Our delivery service also has been a life-saving
experience for two of our clients because our regulars,
that we provide food to every week. When they don't answer the door, it's concerning and we've had to
do well checks and twice it's saved someone's life. So we are here today asking you to help us keep
our food insecure neighbors fed. Thank you.
to apologize to the monitors I took out. I'm sorry. No, no, I apologize for this. Thank you brilliant,
beautiful, and beneficent committee members for this opportunity and your time. I'm Melanie
Davis representing Protect Our People and the Front Door, a coming LGBTIQ center. The LGBTIQ community
is under attack by our current state and federal governments.
The state supermajority has worked for years to block and roll back equality efforts from passage of
state defensive marriage acts, removing gender altogether from bias crimes law to avoid including transgender
people to the forced outing of queer children by public school faculty and administrators to repealing
medically appropriate health care for transgender students. The federal government has removed and blocked
inclusion of us from health care statistics narrowly
defined gender as relating to only two sex categories against all scientific knowledge portrayed us
as the most violent segment of the world's population to monitors, called us the enemy from within while
threatening to have us rounded up and variously dealt with by incarceration, forced institutionalization,
or given the death penalty.
The totality of this leads to intense fear and stress in a community that has just started to see some
appreciable progress in the last 20 years. Queer youth and Gen Z have grown up in a world where it was
mostly okay to be themselves, and they as a whole haven't had to hide to stay alive. And this current
state of political stochastic terrorism has the greatest negative effects on them. I won't go into the
suicide and homelessness rates, because they would haunt anyone with a conscience.
but everyone in the community who are on the internet knows them. I was contacted the weekend before
last by five families, five, just in one weekend, who are searching for information on how to move forward
in this position they're in. And this is the information that we've been providing for the last two
years with Protect Our People.
Many LGBTIQ people flocked to Monroe County in Bloomington, in particular because we have enjoyed a
reputation as the most LGBTIQ-friendly place in the Midwest. By percentages alone, Monroe County has
at least 15,000 people who fall under the queer umbrella, and that includes over 4,000 youth. That also
doesn't include the allies who love us and support our happiness and further existence, and it doesn't
include our families.
All told, we need to build community and joy, protect our people, and now the Front Door Community Center
Project and will continue to hold queer joy events. I'll speed it up. The Front Door pop-up events would
be a dance party at Western Skate Land with pizza and treat, family-style cookout at Lower Cascades
Park with barbecue treats and games, All Ages Movie Night at Farr Center for Contemporary Arts, and
a fall festival at Bryant Park.
with performances, food trucks, carnival, and a parade. Please help us reach all who need this in the
youth of the queer community. Thank you for everything. Perfect honor.
Good evening. My name is Emily Reynolds and I'm a board member with the Limestone Post and Joy Harter
is here with us too. She's the president. We both believe in local news. Limestone Media is
a news organization that publishes the Limestone Post. It's an independent nonprofit online magazine
committed to publishing in depth, informative and inclusive stories about the communities in and around
Monroe County.
We launched in 2015 as a for-profit publication with the goal of informing our readers on diverse topics
that can be covered and uncovered in this dynamic community that we call home. Our shift to a nonprofit
organization has allowed us to focus even more on public service and solutions journalism.
That means our content comes from rigorous reporting that not only on the problems and issues But on
those solutions that we can find to solve them As we've seen tonight Monroe County one of Monroe County's
greatest assets are charitable organizations it has been
being lower on the totem pole here, I've been able to hear about so many of them. But much of their
work goes unseen by the greater community. At Limestone Post, we'd like for that to change. We are proposing
to shine a spotlight on at least eight organizations between January and December of 2026.
By posting their stories, they will be amongst our stories that are about Monroe County and the surrounding
areas. Present times make it extremely important for us to find ways to build common ground, and local
news can do that.
Research shows that news, local news structures our world. That local newspapers and organizations offers
a window into how we see our reality in the place that we live. So in an age where social media takes
up a lot of our scrolling time,
Creating spaces where we can locally, where we can locally build our community and begin to weave connections
and support one another is essential. And that is what Limestone strives to do. Thank you.
Next up, we have Monroe County Humane Association, My Sister's Closet, and Exodus Refugee Immigration.
Ready? Great. I'm Andrew Krebs, the executive director of Monroe County Humane Association. And thank
you for the opportunity to share how this grant will help pets in Monroe County. Every day, we see pets
living in homes facing hardship.
domestic violence, hospitalization, addiction recovery, eviction, unemployment, underemployment, homebound
seniors struggling to make ends meet, to name a few. These pets are often silent casualties of crisis,
losing their homes, their people, and their stability. When that happens, there are almost no options
for them. That's where we step in. Our grant request will support three of our many programs that are
changing lives. The Crisis Housing Program is one of the only, one of its own,
only one of its kind in South Central Indiana and rare across the country. It gives pets a safe place
to stay when their owners face emergencies such as domestic violence, homelessness, or medical crisis.
Studies show that more than 70% of domestic violence survivors stay with an abuser rather than leave
their pet behind. And they can't go to human shelters. Without our program, many people would remain
in unsafe situations.
Most pets needing crisis housing also require vaccinations and vet care, which we provide at no cost.
Last year, we provided 1,455 days of care. This year, we've already exceeded 1,700, and we expect to
reach 2,500 by year's end, a 75% increase. Our pet food pantry feeds thousands of hungry cats and dogs
each year. Food insecurity forces tough choices. 83% of struggling families will feed their pets before
themselves, according to PetSmart charities.
Last year we distributed 28,000 pounds of food and this year we're already up 6%. Our spay and neuter
assistance program addresses shelter crowding before it starts. One unspayed dog in her offspring can
produce 67,000 puppies in six years. And according to the Bissell Pet Foundation, one unspayed cat in
her offspring can produce over 2 million kittens in eight years. Our vouchers make surgeries affordable
for low-income families, improving animal health and reducing overpopulation.
Right now, shelters in our region are at a maximum capacity with no sign of slowing down. Every kennel
and office space is full. MCHA's programs are wraparound services designed to keep pets safe, healthy,
and out of shelters, reserving those spots for animals in most urgent need. Our passion is helping pets.
When we provide a safe place for a pet, we help a domestic violence survivor escape an abuser. When
we provide pet food assistance, a fixed income senior chooses to eat instead of going without.
Every dollar prevents suffering, keeps pets in homes, and gives families hope when they need it most.
Thank you for considering our request and for supporting this vital work in our community. Thank you.
Thank you. Thank you for having me here today. My name is Sandy Keller. I'm the executive director of
My Sister's Closet.
My sister's closet was created to build a stronger community by promoting economic self-sufficiency
by providing women with professional support services and tools for success. And what we do with that
is we help a woman absolutely re-market herself in the way that she's seen on paper, the way she's able
to talk about herself, her skill sets, her past employment, and how she is able to walk into a room
because of that
85% of the women that we serve are able to find job success within six weeks of their first appointment
with my sister's closet. We have served to date over 4,000 women in Monroe County.
The women come to us with very limited education. It's extremely common for most women we serve to say
that they got pregnant when they were in high school. The average of those is between 12 and 15 years
old. They lack critical thinking skills. They need assistance moving into better paying jobs with benefits
so they and their children and their grandchildren can move into a better life. The ideas that we help
them become sustainable long term.
It takes incredible courage and determination for these women to move past their circumstances and out
of poverty and into sustainable employment.
They come to us with the weight of financial stress, they're living in unsafe situations, and they have
a history of multiple trauma and childhood ACEs, and because so many of them have recent domestic violence,
they are coming to us with extreme anxiety. It is absolutely important that we provide a safe and secure
space for them to receive their services.
We had someone break in, and that caused a lot of concern from clients who wanted to come to my sister's
closet for services, but they were very concerned about their safety when they got there. We put in
a security system, and it had completely reduced the amount of violence outside our building. Unfortunately,
we did not have outside motion detectors in the back of our building, and we feel that the recent shooting
that led to a death two weeks ago would have prevented if we had had them. My sister's closet is in,
going to a new location on the corner of Second and Patterson. It is going to be conspicuously close
to Wheeler Mission and Beacon, which will serve over 300 men who will be homeless. And again, the concerns
are rising of whether or not we are going to be able to protect these women and keep them safe. My sister's
closet is respectfully asking for $4,757 to help with exterior lighting, security cameras, motion detected
spotlights,
at LOX and a professional monitoring system that will provide 24-7 protection and rapid response. And
thank you so much for all the ways Sophia Travis has helped the community and helped my sister's closet.
We are very, very grateful for everything you've done. Thank you. Thank you.
Thank you for having me here tonight. So I'm Erin. I'm the director of Exodus Refugee here in Bloomington.
In our 44-year history, Exodus serves immigrants of humanitarian concern. So as you know, people that
are fleeing their countries not to come here to find a better job or to go to school, but for people
to survive and have a chance at life. Since we established our sub-office in October 2021, we have welcomed
over 500 refugees, immigrants of humanitarian concern here in Bloomington. It's no secret, right, that
the state and federal administrations are executing on
unprecedented attacks on immigrants and refugees and our office. The refugee program has been nearly
dismantled, leaving no new refugee arrivals in the country in 2025. And not only are we shutting our
borders to people in need, now we're stripping away food and health care from refugees as the recent
bill took away SNAP and Medicaid from refugees. Families are also living in constant fear of deportation
and retaliation by the government. So for our clients, the US is supposed to be a place of hope.
and we intend to keep it that hope alive despite the sweeping discriminatory policies that run our country
right now. So typically, we provide all the upfront services for refugees coming to the country, everything
from welcoming them to the airport, setting up housing, food, medical, education. Overall, we ensure
clients are self-sufficient here in Bloomington. But it's important to understand that this adjustment
doesn't happen in a few months. It can take years. And for that reason, our programs actually allow
us to serve people for up to five years from when they arrive.
And we continue, even without arrivals, to provide these wraparound support services that include case
management, employment, legal, and mental health services. To give you a recent example, we had a woman
who was working and paying her bills. She received a cancer diagnosis. So she could not work full time,
and a lot to manage right when you're getting cancer treatment. She had a case manager helping her.
She actually lost her health insurance, no fault of her own. It was completely the state's fault. The
case manager reinstated her health insurance within 24 hours, so she did not miss her
miss her cancer treatment.
for these reasons and many more. It's critical that our office remains open and we quickly and adeptly
serve the needs of our new immigrant neighbors who are an integral part of our community. That's why
we're asking for $5,000 to contribute to our emergency assistance fund that allows us to do that. And
remembering that our immigrant neighbors, our coworkers, our family, and our friends, we remain committed
to doing this work here in Bloomington despite the powers that be that want us to stop. We hope that
you partner with us in doing so and take a stand in supporting refugees here.
happy to report that that client is in remission and doing very well, working again. And those are the
awesome stories we get to see at Exodus. Thank you all for your time. Thank you. All right. Next up,
we have Second Baptist Church, Amethyst House, and Harrettsburg Heritage Days.
Good evening. My name is Martha Chamberlain, the chairperson of the grant committee at Second Baptist
Church, where I serve with Diane Hanks, Dara Sims, who's present with me this evening, and Andrea Love.
Thank you for allowing me a few brief minutes to share some information concerning Feed the Needy Pantry.
The pantry is located in the basement of the historic Second Baptist Church, which is a part of the
near Westside community.
The Westside community is the home to a substantial percentage of Bloomington low-income population.
Second Baptist Church has been the home of a thriving congregation since 1872 on the Westside. The church
have fight hunger by operating feed the needy pantry program. The pantry is open two days a week, Monday
and Tuesday from 10 to noon. We serve an average of 110 clients per month.
Financial contribution and a food drive twice a year helps sustain the pantry. Members of the church
volunteer to staff the pantry each week. Through our partnership with Hoosier Hill Food Bank, we can
secure food items at cost to support the pantry. Over the last two years, with the increased cost of
rent, food, and other things, the number of families seeking food has grown substantially.
Last year, with funds from the Sophia Travis grant, we were able to offer a better variety and more
protein. Turkeys during Thanksgiving, hams during Christmas, eggs during Easter, purchased ground beef
from a local meatpacking company, and through the Hoosier Hill Food Bank, we were able to purchase fish,
tuna, peanut butter, and other protein items throughout the year.
The families and persons we serve include men who are unhoused. They need items that they can eat which
do not require cooking. This year we serve more families and persons than last year.
due to the increasing cost of food. If awarded the Sophia Travis grant, we will continue to serve the
family and unhoused people in the city of Bloomington, the near west side, and Monroe County. Thank
you so very much for your time.
Council members I want to thank you all for your time. My name is Delaney Dorsch and I'm here on behalf
of Amethyst House which is a Bloomington based nonprofit that serves individuals with substance abuse
disorders. Our services include residential and outpatient treatment emphasizing a foundation towards
recovery. Like many of us in Monroe County we felt firsthand about how the dollar does not go as very
far in the grocery store these days.
At our local Kroger, a dozen Kroger grade A eggs were previously hovering around $2.89 in 2024.
Now it's $3.59. That's nearly a 25% increase. Likewise, many other necessary items like milk, bread,
and ground beef have followed the same trend. These are all staples that we buy.
And now imagine scaling those cost increases across two meals a day for our 31 residents for every day
of the year. To put into perspective, the daily average food costs are $82 at our men's house and $53
at our woman's house. These total food costs are $135 per day for our residential homes, which is an
11% increase since last year.
Nutritious meals are a cornerstone of recovery, enhancing both mental and physical health. And every
resident in our care receives two healthy meals a day, 365 days a year, ensuring that they can focus
on healing without the stress of food insecurity.
We also receive additional deviation from our friends at Hoosier Hills Food Bank, which have been monumental
in offsetting the cost of rising goods. The recrusted amount of $7,000 will stabilize Amethyst House
during this period of rising costs for about 51 days.
Our goals align with the Sophia Travis Grant's vision of health, food, nutrition, security, and shelter,
and we want the outmost quality for our residents to enrich Monroe County community members going through
a transitional period in their lives.
Covering food costs throughout this grant will help us keep residential fees affordable while still
providing the highest quality care and nourishment to those working hard to transform those lives. We've
been very grateful from previous years for the generosity of the Sophia Travis grant. And on behalf
of Amethyst House, thank you for considering this request and supporting the well-being of our community.
Thank you. Thank you.
Hi, good evening, folks. First, I'd like to thank you guys for inviting us here. And I really don't
envy your task of sorting through all of these worthy causes. I am so glad I'm on this side of the podium.
My name's Paul Strain. I'm the president of Harrodsburg Heritage Days. We're coming up on our 39th annual
Harrodsburg Heritage Days, making us one of the longest festivals actually
in Monroe County. Our festival we've continued to grow with the help and with hopefully with your help
we're hoping to bring another attraction to the festival. We found once we can get an attraction in
it's a lot easier to get a sponsor for it. So we're hoping to bring in carnival rides and we've talked to
One of the providers, we've tried this once before and selling tickets, and we're not really big enough
to bring in, you know, to make that profitable. We're asking for $4,500. And with that, we can bring
in carnival rides to our festival free of charge. No one will have to pay anything for the rides. They'll
be free to all the kids, everything equal.
This is just one of the ways we're hoping to take our festival up to the next level. So I'll be really
brief. I just want to thank you for your support. And you guys have a great rest of your day.
Thank you. You too. Thank you. All right. I'm not certain. I have a note here that says that PALS, which
is the acronym for People and Animal Service,
Animal Learning Services will either be here in person or virtual. Do we? OK. OK. They weren't. OK.
So it looks like we don't have a representative from them. So that concludes all 46 presentations.
I'm going to look to council members. That's my job for tomorrow. I'm going to look for all of our committee
members here for a job that is for us tomorrow, which is if we've not gotten our spreadsheets yet, those
are due to the council office tomorrow at
new because on friday october 10th starting at 1 pm we have a committee meeting to go over the score
and spreadsheet so i'm gonna also look to michelle just in case anybody wants to look at this after
this is done um and let her or say next steps for applicants who participate this evening the next steps
um will be there will uh
the committee will make the recommendations, then that will go to the council for their approval, which
I think we have scheduled for October 28. So, unless, you know, that gets changed. And then, but they
have all been given a sheet of paper with all the dates and so then
Once they've been approved by council, then contracts will be created and, um, uh, applicants can then
go to a commissioner meeting. Do you remember that day? I want to say November or something. Yeah.
looks like November 13th okay so November 13th applicants that have been awarded any grant amounts can
go to the commissioner meeting and they will um can pick up their check and sign the contract at that
time so um if you do get awarded a an amount uh there we will also forward to you a sheet of paper
that has to be notarized. So we will get in contact with you with regards to all of that information.
All right. Well, with that, I will say, as the gentleman mentioned, that we have a very daunting task
that is ahead of us. I feel like I've been saying that for the past month and a half related to a whole
lot of stuff right now. But with this one, we do too.
That are actually all the madness and craziness that we have going on locally.
I think that nationally this was refreshing, but it is a really hard task because we see a lot of need
for our community members. And again, I just say to thank you to every single person who continues to
do for the greater good of our community, the greater parts of Bloomington and of course here in Monroe
County, we appreciate it. So with that being said, we got some work to do if you haven't done it already,
and I'm actually preaching to myself because I need to do that tonight.
Without further ado, we are adjourned. Thank y'all.