Kids Count<\/a> ratings in more than 10 years, but the numbers, especially in regard to health and family and community strength, still leave plenty of room for progress.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\u201cI remember a conversation with a child named James, who asked if we could stay open over Christmas break,\u201d Shepherd Community Center Executive Director Jay Height said. \u201cI asked him why, and he said because he would go hungry over Christmas if we closed. James\u2019 story isn\u2019t unique. Many of our kids get breakfast and lunch at school, and they would go hungry on weekends and at Christmas break and spring break if we didn\u2019t help. So that\u2019s why we put together boxes of nutritious food that we send home with kids on Fridays and before breaks from school.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Many of Shepherd\u2019s programs are built around supporting and uplifting families, including job training for adults and teens, high quality childcare, and education opportunities like Shepherd Academy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In 2020, Shepherd launched Neighborhood Childcare at Minnie Hartmann in partnership with Near East Area Renewal to ensure that families had access to safe and affordable care for children while parents are at work. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Height noted that Minnie Hartmann goes beyond simple childcare; the center also is preparing children academically and socially for enrollment in kindergarten and beyond.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cOur 4-year-olds take a state test for kindergarten readiness, and this past year, 10 of our 16 kids passed,\u201d Height said. \u201cWe know that the kids who passed had been in our program since the beginning, and we know that the more we can invest in them earlier the more likely they are to succeed in school. Research from Rutgers University found that early learning is the greatest way to bring equity to education. So, we want to help them get a good start.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Height said Shepherd also is helping near Eastside families by paying childcare workers and other community center employees a living wage with good benefits.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWe want to make sure that we’re helping our own folks,\u201d Height said. \u201cThe vast majority of our staff at Minnie Hartmann are moms who came through our programs. We’re helping them get state certifications and then an associate degree and ultimately a bachelor\u2019s degree.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Breaking the cycle of poverty means investing time and resources in one child, one family at a time. It\u2019s an investment that can pay remarkable dividends.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI was driving one of our students to college years ago, and I asked him why he was on his way to college when his best friend was living on the streets. He said, \u2018You know, Jay, I gave up on myself. But so many people at Shepherd didn\u2019t give up on me. I couldn\u2019t let them down.\u2019 It wasn\u2019t one person who made a difference. It was multiple people. That\u2019s what Shepherd tries to do \u2013 convene multiple people to invest in kids\u2019 lives. I\u2019ve often said every kid is going to be mentored. The question is by who? The streets or the church?\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
From hunger to health care, childcare to school readiness, many families in Indiana are struggling to meet their children\u2019s needs, especially as the cost of food, housing and other essentials has rapidly accelerated. The Annie E. Casey Foundation recently released its annual ranking of states based on children\u2019s quality of life. This year, Indiana ranked […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":636,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"off","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[5,4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-635","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-about-shepherd","category-featured"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/upliftindy.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/635","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/upliftindy.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/upliftindy.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/upliftindy.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/upliftindy.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=635"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/upliftindy.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/635\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/upliftindy.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/636"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/upliftindy.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=635"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/upliftindy.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=635"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/upliftindy.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=635"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}