Meridian Foundation Arago Honors Awards Recipients 2023
Eleven Nonprofits Each Awarded $10,000 as the 2023 Arago Honor Recipients Program of the Meridian Foundation celebrates four types of nonprofit innovation
Indianapolis- December 11, 2023 Indianapolis-based Meridian Foundation announced today that eleven nonprofits have been named 2023 Arago Honor recipients. The program awards $10,000 in unrestricted funds to nonprofits that demonstrate they are creatively solving a community problem. Nonprofits are honored for disruptive, incremental, start-up, and catch-up innovation. Since beginning in 2021, 26 nonprofits have earned nonprofit innovative honors.
More than 65 organizations submitted original letters of interest to the Meridian Foundation for review. The pool was narrowed to 16 nonprofits for a community group of volunteers to further assess nonprofit innovation. The final group of eleven nonprofits were asked to answer individualized supplemental questions before the awards were made. This year’s group of nonprofits are working to improve health and well-being, workforce development, education, arts, social capital, and housing.
Honorees for this year are:
Medical Mutts Service Dogs, Inc., was founded with the visionary idea that it is possible to combine a suitable animal shelter dog and groundbreaking training to be an alert for the scent of a seizure, a drop in glucose levels (diabetic), or the rise of anxiety in patients with psychiatric disorders. (Disruptive innovation)
16 Tech Community Corporation Inc. is honored for becoming a growing intentional resource destination for entrepreneurship and innovation in the diverse and historic neighborhood on Indianapolis’ near northwest side. 16 Tech is currently home to 200+ innovation-related entities, employing 800+ workers. (Disruptive innovation)
Purdue Polytech High School-Englewood (PPHS) claims distinctiveness as the only school in the US operating without a master schedule to individualize learning for its 550 students. An internally-designed technology tool affectionately named Drewber, maintains order and aligns student need, choice, and voice (Incremental innovation)
Christel House Academy Indianapolis is honored for its innovative Indy Teach program, building a pipeline of new K-12 teachers in urban classrooms. Resident teachers in the one-year apprenticeship program work alongside a highly effective teacher to earn Indiana licensure. Since the program began in 2017, 90% of apprentices still work in education. (Incremental innovation)
Indianapolis Film Project/Kan-Kan Cinema is honored for intentionally building a community around film as the only independent and locally grown nonprofit arthouse in Indianapolis. Located in the Windsor Park neighborhood, Kan-Kan is returning to the humble beginnings of film, relying on a mix of earned income (ticket sales, leasing) sources, memberships, and philanthropy to build sustainability. (Start-up innovation)
Eskenazi Health Foundation is honored for its Community Weaver solution. The key innovation is treating a low-wealth neighborhood as the patient and improving overall health of its residents by weaving connection and support services to fit individual needs while leveraging assets and strengths already residing in the local community. (Start-up Innovation)
Project WILL, Inc., supports young adults with behavioral health challenges, focusing on individuals with cognitive and intellectual differences in the African-American community, who are not the typical focus of existing systems. Young adults transitioning from high school receive support, training, and skill-based volunteer positions at local nonprofits enabling them to become financially secure. (Start-up innovation)
Deeply Ingrained, Inc., a nonprofit born during the pandemic, is honored for giving at-risk youth hands-on woodworking experience to build trade-based skills. The nonprofit is the only Indianapolis organization providing industrial arts opportunities to youth as an alternative education setting for Perry Township Schools and VOICES Corp., a day-reporting system for the juvenile justice system, among others. (Start-up innovation)
Martin Luther King Multi-Service Center Indianapolis is honored for 40 West Digital, a social enterprise videography business, operated by Black teens and young adults receiving career readiness skills, personal growth, technical and soft skill development, as well as entrepreneurship education in this 15-week workforce development program. 40 West Digital is part of the Best Buy Teen Tech Center network in over 50 cities nationwide. (Start-up innovation)
Martindale Brightwood Community Development Corporation (MBCDC) Jumpstart Indy is an introductory real estate program recognized for empowering residents to take ownership of their neighborhood and teach participants to reimagine how their neighborhood is redeveloped. The program pairs each participant with an experienced real estate professional to provide guidance. (Catch-up innovation)
NAATC (Naptown African American Theatre Collective) is recognized for taking initial steps to build an “Equity house” for Black theatre professionals in Indianapolis, creating performance art that speaks to humanity, beauty, and the power of Black stories. An “Equity house” is a theatre registered with the only professional union for actors and stage managers (Actor’s Equity Association), providing contracts with more equitable pay, benefits, and opportunities. (Catch-up innovation)
This year marks the third anniversary of the Arago Honors Awards. Unlike many grant programs, funds given through the Arago Honors are unrestricted, which allows the nonprofit to use the award however they see fit, helping carry forward a new cycle of investment and innovation.
To learn more about the innovation selection criteria and the previous 15 nonprofit recipients, visit the Meridian Foundation’s website, www.indymeridianfoundation,org.
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About the Meridian Foundation
Founded in 2019, the Meridian Foundation aims to support, accelerate, and celebrate nonprofit innovation in Central Indiana. For more information, visit www.indymeridianfoundation.org