Initiatives

Martindale Brightwood Education Zone

Announcement

A Thank You Reception for all MBEZ Partners is scheduled for Thursday, May 30th from 4:30-6:00pm at Edna Martin Christian Center's Town Hall at 37 Place located at 2605 E. 25th Street Indianapolis IN 46218.

Jay Nordgaard

Edna Martin Christian Center

Role: Project Page Administrator

Tysha Sellers

Edna Martin Christian Center

Role: Backbone

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About this Initiative

Year Started:

2016

Initiative stage:

Initiating Action

Location:

Indianapolis, Indiana, United States of America (the), Midwest (IL, IN, MI, OH, WI)

Initiative Purpose and Goals:

MBEZ is based on the evidence-based Harlem Children's Zone where multiple stakeholders committed to a common agenda to address economic mobility for families through the lens of education. The effort builds on the programs and services offered by 40 agencies, resident groups, and supporters. Using a collective effort, MBEZ seeks to improve the educational development and academic outcomes of MBEZ children and provide critical supports for parents/caregivers raising children in the Martindale-Brightwood community.

Our Priorities include:
1.Ensure pregnant mothers in MB deliver healthy babies
2.Support the development of excellent, accessible programs, trainings, and schools that provide a linkage of uninterrupted growth for children’s academic growth.
3.Address the social, emotional and academic needs of children and youth
4.Provide MBEZ families access to housing, employment, and social services, allowing them to remain and thrive in MB
5.Continue expanding the social capital network in MB
6.Stabilize the MB community so it becomes a healthy, safe and stable learning environment for students & families

Initiative website:

http://www.ednamartincc.org

Collective Impact Elements in Place

Common Agenda

Continuous Communication

Shared Measurement

Backbone Support

Mutually Reinforcing Activities

Backbone Support

Organizations serving in the Backbone Role

As the lead agency for the Martindale Brightwood Education Zone (MBEZ), Edna Martin Christian Center continues an almost 80-year collaborative work with the American Baptist Churches of both Greater Indianapolis (ABCGI) and Indiana/Kentucky (ABC-IN/KY). Through this long-standing relationship between EMCC and ABCGI/ABC-IN/KY, the 2 Executive Ministers serve as ad hoc members of the EMCC board and continue to give input, feedback, and guidance along with opportunities to partner with the churches on various ministries and programs like MBEZ.
Collectively and collaboratively, ABC churches have worked together for decades on programs and ministries to help break the cycle of poverty. Volunteers from ABC churches assist EMCC annually with various programs, events, ministries, etc. through financial and volunteer efforts, continuing the partnerships Mrs. Edna Martin began 80 years ago with the ABC churches. This designation is a critical driver in EMCC’s charge to sustain this important work. One example is the America For Christ denominational offering that is collected each year. For the ABCGI Region, 75% of the Region portion is subsequently given to EMCC to support their various ministries and programs, which includes EMCC’s leadership in MBEZ.
Additionally, EMCC’s relationship with ABC is fortified at the local level with Oasis of Hope Baptist Church and the Oasis Development Corporation. This collaboration continues to guide and in counsel EMCC’s larger community and residential development initiatives.
In terms of EMCC’s broader service boundary, EMCC also has a 10-year partnership with Eastern Star Church. Through the MBEZ collaboration and the larger EMCC community services framework, each organization maintain focus on school aged youth education efforts and workforce development. Eastern Star is one of the founding supporters of the MBEZ and will refer families, coordinate supports through The Rock Initiative, and join EMCC in health-related strategies to ensure food access and education outcomes are met.

Backbone structure

The various roles in the MBEZ Organizational Chart may be filled through various agencies and various funding streams. Some of the work of MBEZ overlaps directly with the ongoing work of many of the organizations.

As lead agency, Edna Martin Christian Center is providing oversight for the new positions specific to MBEZ. Supervision of MBEZ staff is under the EMCC umbrella and once a MBEZ Director position gets filled, they would take over responsibilities for MBEZ staff.

Measures of Success

After five years, the MBEZ expects the following outcomes for MBEZ families:

80% of full-term (39 weeks and above) babies delivered by MBEZ mothers
80% of MBEZ children are kindergarten-ready
60% of MBEZ children perform at grade-level in math and reading
60% of MBEZ youth participate in youth development programs
80% of MBEZ youth graduate from high school
80% of MBEZ high school graduates enroll and ultimately graduate from a career pathway, program, degree, or other post-secondary program
50% of MBEZ parents are engaged in supporting their children in school and out of school
80% of parents/caregivers are employed at a living wage
60% of parents/caregivers retain employment for a minimum of 3 months
80% of parents/caregivers experience an increase in their net income
80% families receive housing assistance
50% families reside in stable and affordable housing

Initiative Activities and Milestones

Activities

With recently updated strategic themes and priorities, MBEZ has laid out nine 5-year goals and 12 desired outcomes that will be tracked through the MBEZ families. Many of the partnering MBEZ agencies have already been tracking information that has been vital in collaboratively focusing MBEZ members on addition data that should be collected as we implement our strategic themes and priorities.
We expect to learn which programs and services are providing the best results which we can share with the greater community as we advocate for community partners and donors. Success often breeds success and we need to be able to tell our success stories within Martindale Brightwood so we can attract more MBEZ families and get them connected to the services and programs available with MBEZ.
We’ll also learn which of the programs and services are struggling. This will give MBEZ leadership information to help discern what changes are necessary to bolster these results in the future in order to meet our goals. This means potential considerations for new or additional partner agencies, new or additional programs and services, switching from a current program or service to a new or different one, etc.
Ongoing collaborative dialogue with all MBEZ agencies will be imperative along with ongoing dialogue with community partners like CTS, CICF, United Way, Lilly Endowment, etc. Collecting data on our desired outcomes is crucial to see if we’re meeting benchmarks and to continue to fine-tune the focus of MBEZ. Our ongoing sustainability will be bolstered by showing our proven outcomes to our current and future funders in order to create greater synergy across the Martindale Brightwood community.

Milestones

In partnership with the Great Families 2020 program at Edna Martin Christian Center we have connected 50 GF2020 families into the broader MBEZ collaboration of agencies.

Community Engagement and Advancing Equity

Community Engagement Activities

For the first 3 years MBEZ Partners continued to dialogue and plan for this initiative and how best to engage the affected communities. Most of our partnering agencies already have connections within our communities and are leveraging those connections to connect families to MBEZ and the available services so these families can reach their own goals.

We continue to seek input from the community as we have worked out details of the MBEX Initiative. Zach Adamson, the Vice President of the Indianapolis City County Council, has been an important connector with both the City of Indianapolis and Marion County for potential grant opportunities and other funding sources. Councilperson Adamson has also been able to bring other community connectors to the table for their feedback, input, and support.

The Martindale Brightwood OneVoice community group has a representative on the MBEZ team and their input has been vital as we've organized and streamlined our approach.

Activities to Advance Equity

MBEZ is based on the evidence-based Harlem Children's Zone where multiple stakeholders committed to a common agenda to address economic mobility for families through the lens of education. The effort builds on the programs and services offered by 40 agencies, resident groups, and supporters. Using a collective effort, MBEZ seeks to improve the educational development and academic outcomes of MBEZ children and provide critical supports for parents/caregivers raising children in the Martindale-Brightwood community.

Our collective vision is “all children in Martindale-Brightwood (MB) are equipped for the highest level of academic achievements, career success, and community services.”
In pursuit of our vision The Martindale-Brightwood Education Zone works to provide families and children with well-coordinated, innovative and high-quality programs and services to help every student advance through school and reach their maximum potential.

Strategic Themes of MBEZ include:
●Build a community support network comprised of representatives and resources from stakeholders including but not limited to residents, public health, the religious community, government and civic organizations, educational organizations, social service agencies, public safety agencies and philanthropic organizations.
●Create a shared achievement plan that helps minimize organizational silos and duplication of services.
●Identify and leverage best practices in programs and services supported by evidence-based practice and research.
●Deploy new programs where there is evidence of critical gaps to be addressed
●Document, measure and share the progress of children, youth, families and the collective outcomes with the community
●Build sustainable operations of all MBEZ-endorsed programs and services to ensure goal attainment and scale of the initiatives

Initiative Partners and Governance

Contributing organizations

The MBEZ will operate with a full range of partners working in various capacities to support the common agenda. The partners will work together to:

▪Leverage the full array of assets within the MB community;
▪Introduce new initiatives or scale-up existing programs and services targeting children, youth and families;
▪Document measurable progress and advancements of each MBEZ participant; and
▪Provide diverse resources and supports for families living in the Martindale-Brightwood neighborhood.

More than 40 agencies are members of the effort. Contributions of time, resources, technical assistance come from the following:

Overall--
Brightwood Library
Eastern Star Church
American Baptist Churches
United Way of Central Indiana
Central Indiana Community Foundation
LISC
The Mind Trust
CTS

Prenatal supports--
Nurse and Family Partnership
Community East Hospital

Ages 0-5 High Quality Education Centers--
Mary’s Little Lamb
Auntie Mame’s Child Development Center
Edna Martin Childcare Ministry
Leadership & Legacy Preschool Academy
Early Learning Indiana
Pride Academy

School Age Youth Supports--
Indianapolis Public Schools
Big Brothers and Big Sisters
School-based out of school time providers
Leadership and Legacy School Age Youth Program
IPS School 51
IPS School 56
Kindezi Academy at Joyce Kilmer IPS 69
KIPP-Indy Public Schools Network
Oaks Academy
Insititure for Quality Education
EdFit Indiana

College to Career Supports--
StarFish Initiative
Oasis Christian Community Development Corporation
KIPP To College
Martin University
IUPUI
Marian University
EmployIndy

Head of Household stabilization Supports--
Center for Working Families
PACE
Eastern Star ROCK Initiative

Neighborhood development and engagement supports--
OneVoice
MOVE Martindale-Brightwood
IMPD
Stop the Violence
IndyParks—Douglass Park
Brandywine Creek Farms

Sectors Engaged

Nonprofit

Philanthropic Funders

Public Sector

Business Sector

Broader Community/People with Lived Experience

Initiative governance

Pre/Post-Natal
The Pre/Post-natal committee is responsible for identifying and deploying strategies to support pregnant mothers and their unborn child. Examples of possible strategies include helping mothers connect to appropriate health care providers, assistance in securing additional supportive services in preparation for the birth(s), care for babies after the birth; ongoing parenting education classes and ensuring mothers connect with the network of early child development centers throughout Martindale-Brightwood. Indicators have been established for this committee. Proposed activities should align with the given indicators.

Early Childhood
The Early Childhood committee shall implement activities to ensure children ages 0-5 enroll and excel in high quality early childhood education (ECE) centers throughout the area. While the service delivery team is responsible for enrolling families in the ECE centers, this committee should develop strategies to help to build the capcity of existing ECE centers to operate at a high level designation and expand the amount and types of developmental activities available for the childrento ensure they are kindergarten ready by age 5. The committee may also choose strategies to help promote the network of high quality ECE centers in the area. In examining the resources of the committee members, the committee may want to explore ways to improve communication throughout the neighborhoods regarding what parents should look for in a high-quality ECE and developmental indicators to support the growth and development of their children during this critical age period. Indicators have been established for this committee. Proposed activities should align with the given indicators.

School-Age: K-8 and 9-12+
The School-Age committee has been subdivided into two committees to support the different needs of children and youth from K-12. The K-8 committee will focus on program, activities, and other supports for children in K-8th grade. The 9-12+ committee will focus on youth grades 9 and post high school. Both committees should identify existing offerings available in schools as well as out of school programs to address the full range of needs of children. Working together, members should look to establish linkages with other providers; jointly promote offerings in the community, explore opportunities to pursue additional funding and to encourage the use of evidence-based curriculums among the various providers. Based on data reports provided by EMCC, both committees should monitor the progress students participating in their respective programs. If necessary, the committees may propose new programs to address programming gaps in the community. In addition to programming, the committees should look to ensure support services such as tutoring, financial literacy, mentoring, counseling are available and accessible for families. Indicators have been established for this committee. Proposed activities should align with the given indicators.

For the 9-12+ committee, there is the added responsibility of developing strategies that provide career paths for students beyond high school. Partnerships with corporations, vocational training schools, and colleges/universities should be established to provide support for students during and after completing high school. Other activities this committee for consideration include helping students develop strong financial literacy skills, opportunities to help parents understand resources to help with college selection and scholarships, as well as vocational training opportunities and requirements for entry.

Parent Engagement
The Parent Engagement committee shall take the lead in developing and deploying strategies to help parents become more involved in activities in the school as well as the broader community. Activities suggested by community voice or parents may be proposed to help ensure parents understand the progress of their children are making in the schools and if necessary, improve the communication throughout the community as to available activities that can help supplement their child’s learning. This committee should also consider implementing social capital events in the community that provide opportunities for parents and their children to participate throughout the year. Indicators have been established for this committee. Proposed acctivities should align with the given indicators.

Family Stability
The Family Stability committee has been subdivided into two categories: Workforce Development and Housing. The Workforce Development committee will be responsible for executing strategies to help parents to acquire the necessary skills to become employed or increase their level of income. This committee may also work with the youth 9-12+ to explore strategies to help older youth secure employment during the school year as well as during the summer time.

The Housing committee is responsible for helping to create a seamless pipeline of housing supports for MBEZ families experiencing challenges with housing. The committee should explore new partnerships to encourage the building of additional affordable housing units and continue leading the way relative to the MBEZ Housing Village project. Indicators have been established for this committee. Proposed activities should align with the given indicators.

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