How will you know if your nonprofit’s new idea meets the criteria of innovation set by the Arago Honors?
Proposal writers should make the case that their innovation is more than change, as it must be distinctive and add value to the community. While these examples do not directly correlate to the Arago Honors, they do highlight outstanding nonprofit innovative programs in our city.
Fresh Start Recovery Center
In 2017 Volunteer of America’s (VOA) Fresh Start Recovery Center received an Impact 100 grant to expand its residential addictions treatment program for pregnant women and mothers of young children to combat the exploding opioid addiction epidemic. The Impact grant remodeled Theodora House, adding 45 more beds (to the current 15) to quadruple the families served.
The Case: The reality of opioid abuse is terrible—in 2013 there was a 30% increase in children entering the Department of Child Services (DCS), primarily due to Parental substance abuse. In 2014 the expansion of Fresh Start ensures more babies are born without illicit drugs in their system. Since the grant was made, additional Fresh Start recovery centers for mothers and their babies have been opened in Columbus, Winchester, and Evansville and the Richard M. Fairbanks Foundation has also supported the program.
Rock Steady Boxing
In 2010 Rock Steady Boxing received an Impact 100 grant for a physical therapy program using boxing-inspired non-contact routines to help patients with Parkinson’s disease (PD) fight its debilitating symptoms. The program initially began through the friendship of two Indianapolis residents when a Golden Glove boxer designed the first program in the country to attack Parkinson’s at its vulnerable neurological points. An increasing body of medical research has proven his intuitive insight.
The Case: Realizing that their experience might be replicated by others, the Rock Steady Boxing founders obtained IRS 501c3 status for their growing entity in 2006. Word of the program and its results have continued to spread beyond their imaginations. In 2020 there were 865 Rock Steady Boxing affiliates in all 50 states and 18 additional countries.
Nurse-Family Partnership
Nurse-Family Partnership is a community health program that empowers first-time moms to transform their lives and create better futures for themselves and their babies. This program began in central Indiana in 2011 with federal funding. The national program is locally implemented by Goodwill of Central and Southern Indiana, Healthier Moms and Babies, and IU Health’s Nurse-Family Partnership works by having specially trained nurses regularly visit young, first-time moms-to-be, starting early in the pregnancy and continuing through the child’s second birthday.
The expectant moms benefit by getting the care and support they need to have a healthy pregnancy. At the same time, new mothers develop a close relationship with a nurse who becomes a trusted resource they can rely on for advice on everything from safely caring for their child to taking steps to provide a stable, secure future for them both.
The Case: In over more than four decades of the national program, national research consistently has proven that Nurse-Family Partnership helps to address the risks of poverty, preteen births, other poor maternal and child health outcomes, high school dropout rates, domestic violence, and child maltreatment for first-time moms and their babies.
Labeling nonprofit programs as innovative can be a challenging task. The three local examples above—Volunteers of America’s Fresh Start, Rock Steady Boxing, and the Nurse-Family Partnership of Goodwill of Central and Southern Indiana and IU Health are only a sample of hundreds of nonprofits creating strong public value.
We wanted to identify a few more nonprofit programs scattered across the US to help potential applicants discern nonprofit innovation for the Arago Honors by the Meridian Foundation.
The Music Foundation of Greater Naples
One of six outreach programs at the Music Foundation, MusicScores!, is the second -act of Judy Evans after she completed her 38- year career as an orchestra teacher in Ohio and Florida. In 2008 she became intrigued with studies that showed left and right brain activity in pre-school children becomes better connected if a child plays the violin or piano. Judy created the curriculum for Head Start children in Naples, Florida to help youngsters develop language, listening, social development and motor skills, while dramatically improving kindergarten readiness –just by putting petite violins in their hands twice a week. In an initial cohort of 67 preschoolers in Osceola county Florida, the young children’s measures for getting ready- to- read jumped from a range of 22 percent to 75 percent to a range of 94 percent to 100 percent in one school year.
Goodwill Keystone Area
Recognized with a nonprofit program innovation award in 2019 by the Pennsylvania Business Journal, the Goodwill Keystone Area (Harrisburg, Pennsylvania) created a Logistics Apprenticeship program for individuals with disabilities. The curriculum allows students to develop job skills they will need in entry level positions. The program leverages Goodwill logistic facilities that move donated goods through 22 counties. High school student apprentices start working part-time for six weeks at a Goodwill logistics facility that moves them into full time positions with community college credit after 18 months of training, Graduates of the program receive a job offer as a warehouse operator, paying an hourly wage of $15.75 an hour.
Trusted World
Founded by Michael Garrett, who specializes in efficiencies and process control and is trained in Six Sigma, and lean manufacturing, this Garland, Texas nonprofit is committed to providing the best resources at no cost. They have created a more effective donation process by creating a nationally built distribution system of first responders, social work case managers, crime victims, school counselors, etc. With Trusted World these groups no longer need a donation closet.
Trusted World provides clothing, food and personal care items within 48 hours so first responders can focus on their mission and not spend valuable time trying to find much needed items. Trusted World has built an inventory control system to efficiently locate items and support its 515 network partners to change how nonprofits work. Trusted World was a member of the United Way of Dallas-Fort Worth Social Innovation Accelerator program in 2020.