More than $800K awarded to 18 nonprofits, organizations across Indiana

INDIANAPOLIS — More than $800,000 will be split across 18 nonprofits and organizations across Indiana, the Jim Irsay family announced Monday, Aug. 11. 

This is courtesy of the Kicking the Stigma Action Grant Program. 

The Irsay’s created the grant program as part of Kicking the Stigma, which is an initiative they launched five years ago to raise awareness about and end the stigma surrounding mental health. 

They have awarded a total of $7.2 million in Action Grants.

This year, there were two different grants awarded: the Community Action Grant and the Legacy Action Grant. 

The Community Action Grant was open to nonprofits and organizations working in the mental health space. Organizations could be awarded up to $25,000. 

The Legacy Action Grant is an invitation-only grant awarded to organizations in the Kicking The Stigma network. 

“Since we started Kicking The Stigma in 2020, we’ve seen great momentum in the effort to normalize conversations about mental health and support the people and organizations doing this important work,” said Kalen Jackson, Colts owner and chief brand officer/president of the Colts Foundation. “These grants continue our commitment to this cause and to the clinicians, researchers, social workers and all those who deliver vital mental health services to our friends and neighbors in need.”

(descriptions provided by Colts Communications) 

• Coburn Place Safe Haven (Indianapolis). Funds from this grant will offset individual therapy costs for the Health & Wellness Program, which offers culturally responsive programming to domestic abuse survivors and supports service costs for the Coburn Health and Coburn Thrives programming.

• Cummins Behavioral Health Systems (Indianapolis). This grant will cover therapeutic services for low-income students that attend Avondale Meadows school and SENSE Charter school.

• Hamilton Southeastern Education Foundation (Fishers, Ind.). Funds from this grant will cover the costs for SPACE mental health training for two social workers in the school system so they can be better equipped to serve their students.

• Indiana Center for Prevention of Youth Abuse and Suicide. This grant will fund suicide prevention programming to teach youth how to recognize signs of depression in themselves or someone else and what to do if they or a friend is struggling with thoughts of suicide.

• Irvington Counseling Collective (Indianapolis). This grant will help make mental health services available through low barrier counseling services, stigma reduction efforts, community outreach and the creation and management of multiple mental health related mutual aid funds.

• Overdose Lifeline (Indianapolis). Funds from this grant will cover the costs of peer support programming at Heart Rock Justus Family Recovery Center for a year.

• Recovery Café Muncie (Ind.).The grant will help expand Recovery Café’s peer-to-peer programming, in addition to providing training and materials needed to add additional peer recovery coaches. 

• Suncrest Peaks (Lafayette, Ind.). This grant will be used to fund mental health treatment for current and retired first responders, as well as their family members. The funding also will be used to provide educational materials promoting awareness and reducing stigma among first responders.

• The Cabin Counseling & Resource Center (Zionsville, Ind.). Funds will be used to provide counselors with advanced training and cover the costs for clients in need of financial assistance.

• We Bloom (Indianapolis). The grant funding will be used to support Recovery Circles: Peer-Led Pathways to Healing and Belonging programming over the next year for 500 We Bloom members.

(descriptions provided by Colts Communications) 

• Bring Change to Mind (Statewide). This grant will support the Bring Change to Mind middle school program by directly covering the costs for peer-led mental health clubs in 40 Indiana schools.

• Brooke’s Place (Indianapolis). The grant will support Brooke’s Place efforts over the next three years to expand the reach of their ongoing grief support group and grief outreach programs on the south side of Indianapolis and engage students in partnering school districts in Marion County.

• Courageous Healing (Fort Wayne/Indianapolis). Courageous Healing’s mission is to restore, strengthen and facilitate healing through culturally centered mental health services and supports. The grant will support programming that serves uninsured, underinsured and low-income populations, with an intentional focus on minority populations.

• Girl Scouts of Central Indiana. Over the next two years, this grant will support the Girls Scouts’ efforts in expanding their mental wellness programming, which aims to provide all scouts in the summer camp programming with adequate mental wellness support and the tools to manage stress and support their peers.

• IDONTMIND (National). The grant will support its “Ask A Therapist” series. Ask a Therapist is a compilation of questions about mental health, submitted by the IDONTMIND audience and answered by licensed and experienced therapists, that users can access via IDONTMIND’s social and digital media.

• The Wellness Council of Indiana. This grant will fund the Thrive at Work Indiana: A Statewide Mental Health Initiative over the next two years with the goal to transforming workplace culture, reducing stigma and expanding access to mental health education across Indiana’s workforce.

(descriptions provided by Colts Communications) 

• Indiana University Foundation (Bloomington, Ind.). Funding from this grant will be used to support the Perinatal Mental Health Initiative, which is being conducted by The Irsay Institute and IU Bloomington School of Public Health. Through this program, the institute will create a robust evaluation process for perinatal mental health work to demonstrate the efficacy of therapist and peer-led support in reducing severity of perinatal mood and anxiety disorders.
  

• Mental Health Coalition (National). Funds from this grant will support the creation of a comprehensive roadmap for supporting youth athletes’ mental health and the distribution and promotion of this plan across the country.