April 2, 2021 — RecycleForce has received a grant of $2,288,000 from Lilly Endowment Inc. through its initiative, Enhancing Opportunity in Indianapolis. The grant will support RecycleForce’s Peer Leadership project, serving Marion County citizens who are returning to the community from incarceration, experiencing homelessness, or are young adults with current or past criminal or juvenile justice involvement.
RecycleForce is one of 28 organizations being supported through Enhancing Opportunity in Indianapolis, an initiative designed to improve the livelihoods of individuals and families facing complex and varied challenges associated with poverty and financial insecurity.
RecycleForce’s reentry model helps raise returning citizens out of poverty and preserve public safety by allowing them to work and manage criminal justice oversight. The Lilly Endowment grant will enable RecycleForce to serve no fewer than 600 citizens and train 120 peer leaders to move out into the community as offender supervisors.
With this grant, RecycleForce will work with key partners such as 1 Like Me and Trusted Mentors for peer leader training and ongoing support of peers; Craine House for affordable housing, reliable transportation, and safe childcare; Duvall Residential Facility as a primary referral source; Indianapolis Department of Public Works which will continue to hire and advance retuning citizens trained by RecycleForce; and Indianapolis Office of Public Health and Safety which provides violence prevention funding and support; and Keys2Work to assist with job placement and follow-up.
“We are honored that Lilly Endowment has confidence in our ability to reduce poverty in Indianapolis, and humbled as we move forward to do the work,” said Gregg Keesling, President of RecycleForce.
“We are grateful for the tremendous response we received from the Indianapolis community during a time when organizations were called upon to significantly ramp up their existing programs and services in response to the acute needs brought on by the COVID-19 crisis,” said Rob Smith, Lilly Endowment’s senior vice president for collaborative strategies. “We believe that the projects being funded through this initiative have the potential to improve the lives of a significant number of Indianapolis residents facing the challenges of poverty and financial insecurity.”
Lilly Endowment launched Enhancing Opportunity in Indianapolis in 2019 because poverty and financial insecurity have been persistent challenges in Marion County. Research has indicated that around 20 percent of residents in the city have been living in poverty and an additional 20 percent have been living close to poverty and struggling to make ends meet.
Through Enhancing Opportunity in Indianapolis, Lilly Endowment invited eligible organizations to consider how they would work comprehensively with other community partners and employers to help residents make progress toward achieving lasting economic self-sufficiency. Due to the number of high-quality proposals Lilly Endowment received and the compounding challenges COVID-19 brought to bear on already vulnerable individuals and families, Lilly Endowment nearly doubled its initial funding commitment to more than $93 million.
About Lilly Endowment Inc.
Lilly Endowment Inc. is an Indianapolis-based, private philanthropic foundation created in 1937 by J.K. Lilly, Sr. and his sons Eli and J.K. Jr. through gifts of stock in their pharmaceutical business, Eli Lilly and Company. Although the gifts of stock remain a financial bedrock of the Endowment, it is a separate entity from the company, with a distinct governing board, staff and location. In keeping with the founders’ wishes, the Endowment supports the causes of community development, education and religion. The Endowment funds significant programs throughout the United States, especially in the field of religion. However, it maintains a special commitment to its founders’ hometown, Indianapolis, and home state, Indiana.
About RecycleForce
RecycleForce is a 501(c)3 that is committed to reducing crime through employment and job training while improving the environment through electronics recycling. Since 2006, RecycleForce has safely recycled more than 120 million pounds of electronic waste while providing job training to thousands of returning citizens.