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As a subscriber you can listen to articles at work, in the car, or while you work out. Subscribe NowIndianapolis-based Lilly Endowment Inc. has awarded a $100 million grant to the National Urban League to create an initiative dedicated to studying and improving quality of life for Black residents of Indianapolis.
The newly formed Indianapolis African American Quality of Life Renewal Initiative is in part a response to the ways the coronavirus pandemic has disproportionately affected Black people and illuminated decades of economic disparities for that community, the league said Wednesday.
“This initiative represents an historic opportunity to build a model for other communities to emulate,” said Marc H. Morial, president and CEO of the National Urban League, in a media release. “The economic crisis triggered by the COVID-19 pandemic has wrought unprecedented destruction on Black urban communities, many of which never recovered from the Great Recession, and it will take an unprecedented approach to rebuild and revitalize them.”
The effort will seek to encourage collaboration and the combination of resources between the Urban League, the African American Coalition of Indianapolis and the city’s public, private and civic institutions. They would include local and state agencies, community groups, faith-based organizations, charitable foundations and businesses.
In the first months of the initiative, leaders will focus on seeking input from all corners of the city’s Black community. They intend to refine a set of priorities, explore best practices for addressing those priorities, and establish a team to guide the overall strategy.
The $100 million in grant funds have been earmarked for such activities as planning, programming, research, leadership development, community projects and establishing organizational infrastructure.
“We hope that the efforts funded through this initiative, which will supplement the Endowment’s ongoing support of the efforts of several Indianapolis organizations that strive to improve the quality of life of African Americans, will materially enhance the future prosperity of significant numbers of African Americans in our community,” said Clay Robbins, CEO of the Lilly Endowment.
Founded in 1937, Lilly Endowment is one of the largest private charitable foundations in the country, with $15.1 billion in assets at the end of 2018. Most of those assets are tied to the stock of Indianapolis-based pharmaceutical giant Eli Lilly and Co.
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I am all for distressed communities getting assistance. With the funds and brainpower assembled, I hope the root cause of poverty, violence, and economic disparities is addressed. It’s beyond complicated, but this group can accomplish a lot if focus homes in on cause and effect. This can be accomplished only within the Black community. An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. And, I do not mean abortions and killing Black babies through Planned Parenthood. Illegitimacy ranges between 75 and 80 per cent. I saw the concept of Black Dad gangs on television. Dads! Dads! Dads! Proclaiming “Enough is enough” is not enough.
Right on again, Susie. Katie Kieffer hit this spot-on in her column, Black Fathers Matter:
https://townhall.com/columnists/katiekieffer/2020/06/22/black-fathers-matter-n2571041
Great article – my sentiments exactly. Robert Woodson, Shelby Steele, Candace Owens, and IBJ’s own columnist Star Parker – among others – all get it. Leo Terrell has come around – welcome! Thank you for posting this link, Bob P.
$100M is a lot of money to assist multi-generational ills. Concern for where and how the impact
will help. Black fathers in the family, keeping guns from adolescent hands, respecting life in utero,
and assisting law enforcement with testimony will be good for all, I think. Many millions have been
tendered in WIC, Food stamps, Medicaid, and this has helped. Covid has accelerated so much in such little time!
Does anybody have any concerns about other minorities?
Doesn’t rising tides lift all boats.
We know this is nothing less than a feel good message to deter the extortion of current Marxist movement. Lilly when it is not enough they will extort more.
Big government and big business have used the black population as a pawn in a sinister game of population and people control. The rats die because they don’t know why the cheese is free.
Steve, I resent the way Dems use Black people for the vote. Obama did nothing in his eight years. Really sad, as i had high hopes he would help. BLM is not for Black lives, but people think it is and don’t realize what that political party’s agenda is.
Sounds like a racist initiative to me.
Everyone’s comments here are so spot on. I hope that more people are coming around to grasping the “destructive initiative” that is undermining our republic. I am encouraged hearing people voicing their concerns as too many are afraid to raise their voice and stand against these (and many other) deceptions.
I love our country, our freedom, rights & flag.
Let’s fix what has not been carried out for the last 70 years, not tear it down.