When I sit down for the first time with any student, when I leave, they say, will I see you again? That is to a person like, I wanna make it to the end and go to a great college and, and so it just creates this chain effect. If you're worried about where you're gonna sleep, where you're going to get your next meal from, those things are gonna impact how you show up to learn.
Five years in working with high schoolers, what can we expect coming out of Brightlane Learning in 2026? From South Bend to Evansville and everywhere in between. This is Get IN, the show focused on the Hoosier State and the incredible stories happening here today. I'm Nate Spanel, founder of Get Indiana, and I will be your host for today's conversation.
Hey there. Before we jump into today's episode, I wanna take a minute to thank the folks that made this Nonprofit Spotlight series Possible Elements Financial. As a credit union, they are a not-for-profit financial institution built on the idea of empowering individuals to achieve financial success.
And they've been doing just that for 95 years, starting right here in Indiana. Now they're based in Indy and proud to support Hoosiers, but their reach goes way beyond state lines. They don't just talk about impact. They live It Elements teaches more than 1000 financial wellness classes annually. They pay their employees to volunteer and they donate 1% of net profits to causes that improve lives.
So yeah, it made perfect sense for them to back this series because when it comes to supporting people doing good elements cares, learn more at elements.org/getin. That's elements.org/getin and use code GETIN Elements Financial, like a bank, only better federally insured by NCUA. Now let's get into this special nonprofit spotlight episode presented by Elements Financial, my guest.
Today I'm joined by Kelly Coker, Chief Executive Officer of Brightlane Learning. She leads the Indianapolis-based nonprofit that provides personalized academic support and mentoring to students experiencing homelessness and housing instability. I'm also joined by Claire Brosman, Vice President of Marketing and Communications at Brightlane Learning.
She oversees fundraising, partnerships and communications to sustain and grow their mission. Today we're gonna be talking about a. The issue that you guys are out there every day working on. We're gonna talk about the solutions you guys have, have helped put into place at Brightlane Learning, and we're gonna talk about what to expect in 2026 and beyond from y'all.
Welcome to the show. Thank you. Glad to be here. Ladies. This is gonna be a fun episode, uh, and it's gonna be impactful. I'm really excited to learn a little bit about the impact that y'all are making. We first got introduced from our friends over Elements Financial. Yep. They are champions of the community, especially when it comes to homelessness and housing insecurity.
That is a core pillar of their philanthropic efforts. And so making this introduction, I was so excited to have you guys on the show to learn about the impact that you guys are making, uh, for children across Central Indiana or we're in Marion County. Marion County. Yes. All right. So take us through, through, and let's start with.
The issue of homelessness for children and housing insecurity for children in Central Indiana. Mm-hmm. So, yeah, I think it's an issue that a lot of people don't really realize is there, 'cause you don't see it necessarily. So we have a image of what it means to be homeless and a lot of times for most people, that's not a child.
And so the reality is there's over 19,000 students who experience homelessness and housing insecurity in the state of Indiana. Can you dive into what, I think we know what homelessness is like. You don't have a home, but what, when you say housing insecurity, like what are those definitions? Yeah. And I'm even gonna challenge that we know what homelessness is.
Oh yeah. I know, right? I love that. Um, 'cause fun fact, um, Department of Housing and Urban Development and Department of Education, um, different definitions of what it means to be homeless. So our students who are experiencing homelessness can be doubled up. So two families living in the same home because of economic hardship.
Um, so there's a, it could be living in a hotel, living in a motel, any place is not meant for human habitation. There's a lot of, there's a very expanded definition of homelessness when it comes to department of education and that has to do with the trauma caused by the living situation. So, and then to carry that out, housing instability is just, um, a broader definition that would include maybe families who move frequently because like how frequent, I mean, there's not an exact number for that.
Yeah. Um, and why it matters in education, I'll kind of define it a little bit that way, is every time a student transitions schools, they lose four to six months of learning. If you move frequently, you're constantly taking one step forward, several steps back when it comes to education. And that housing instability comes from a place of just, you know, economic issues where we're unable to maintain a, just a stable living situation.
And that impacts the student the same way an episode of homelessness would, homelessness and housing insecurity. Yeah. Yeah. And I feel like, um, if people think back to their high school experience, you might remember, uh, a student, you know, in your class that was there for six weeks, two months, three months maybe, and like left and they maybe had a track record of hitting multiple places Yep.
Before they ended up in your classroom. And when you're a kid, you don't necessarily think about that. No. Um, and you said the number is 19,000 across central Indiana or the state of Indiana? Across the state of Indiana, 19,000 children and youth, uh, are experiencing homelessness or housing insecurity.
That was the, so the 20 22, 20 23 number. Yeah. So that was from 22, 23 school year through, yeah. Yeah. Department of Ed. Yeah. Oh my gosh. Like that's a, that's a big issue. Yeah. That's a big number. And 25% of those students are in Marion County. So they they are overrepresented Yes. In Marion County. So we're, I mean, over 4,000 students Yes.
In our backyard Yes. Are experiencing some sort of housing insecurity. Mm-hmm. That is wild. It is. Okay. So the issue is Stu and then how does that, um, I think affect students? Yeah. When you obviously, you know, being home, if you were out on the side of the road, that is very clear, but bouncing around to different schools mm-hmm.
Uh, maybe bouncing around living situations, like is there data or anything to, to talk about the impact that has on their education or their ability to thrive? Yes, absolutely. And I think a lot of it is just like some of the things we would think of, like if you're. Worried about where you're gonna sleep, where you're gonna get your next meal from.
Those things are gonna impact how you show up to learn in a given day. But the reality that we know is that our students experiencing homelessness and housing insecurity are, you know, they're underperforming on standardized tests compared to their housed peers. They're more frequently absent than their housed peers.
Um, their graduation rates are lower, dropout rates are higher. So all of those data points that we can look at that show us like, Hey, this education is on track. Um, all of those are skewed in the wrong direction when it comes to our students experiencing homelessness. Yeah. And I know there's a big push around where you're gonna sleep or where your family's gonna sleep, where you're gonna eat, all those things.
Uh, that can also be a major hurdle and like a setback in their learning. Yes. Talk to us about. How you guys got connected to Brightlane Learning? I'll take it back to, interestingly, I went to DePauw University. Shout out Tigers. I know. Come on. Um, and I was a Management Fellow there, so I did not think this is where I was headed.
Um, and uniquely I did a Management Fellows internship at a nonprofit organization, which is rare, I feel like. Yeah. Um, that focused on housing for folks who are coming outta homelessness. And that was a huge, um, turning point in my life for me, um, just because it made me really aware of the issue of homelessness here in Indianapolis.
Um, and from there I also realized working with young adults who were coming outta homelessness, that education was a major issue. So our folks that were coming into housing who had graduated from high school. Just had more opportunities and a better chance of kind of changing the trajectory of their life.
So I went from there to dabble in education for a little bit, and then I found Brightlane Learning, which was called School on Wheels at the time. We went through a name change a few years ago. Yes, both names are good. Yes. School on Wheels, not a bad name, but Brightlane's. Great name. Yeah, great name. I'm, I'm saying great name.
Um, but just that intersection of how education can change the path for someone who's experiencing homelessness. Yeah. Was just where I dove in. Yeah. Um, Claire, what about you? How did you get connected to Brightlane? Yeah, so I was in a point where I was working with a film festival. I was doing all the youth programming, um, and just working with students across the nation to like do really creative, exciting things and that was really, really wonderful.
But I was working with students who had access to. Extracurricular and resources that, you know, our students don't, and I hadn't really thought about this path, but um, one of my friends was actually working at School on Wheels at the time, bright Line. And she said, Hey, I think you would love it here. And I did.
And I heard that mission. I grew up in a camping background and environment. And so my entire childhood, safe, stable spaces, mentors, people, you knew your person. You knew you had support, you just saw all of the stability. Yeah. And so when this opportunity came, I thought, oh gosh, I have to jump at that because what I had and what I know is so important and I wanna make sure that all kids have that.
What's the typical way that someone in Indianapolis ends up. Homeless. I don't know that there's a typical way is what I will say. And especially for our families with children. Um, there's a lot of past into that, whether it is, and I think about it in terms of like what probably the common underlier is, is lack of a support network.
And I think about that a lot. 'cause I think about even my own life. Like I've been through a phase where, you know, we had young children. My husband lost his job, but we had a safety net. Yeah. We have parents, we have family, we have people who could kind of come around us and I work alongside families who have a very similar story to mine, but they didn't have the safety net.
Yeah. Um, which is a huge wake up call when you're in those situations in your life to think, you know, I think we try to say like, Hey, I'm so different from those people and there isn't a big difference. So I mean, a lot of it is like one or two economic hardships that. For most folks aren't gonna change your life, but we're talking like a car breaks down a medical bill.
Um, some of those things that seem like small hurdles for most of us become life changing for families who are living at or below the poverty line. Um, and those things just pile up and then families end up in unstable housing situations. Um, domestic violence is a huge, um, kind of way that people walk into that homelessness situation.
And so I think there isn't one story that says this is how families end up homeless. There are several stories, um, and there are all just. One little thing that can completely change the path of your life. One little thing. And then like the next little, and it's like, and it's sometimes, uh, if you were to hear them say like one, and it's like, oh, it's like your car, like in like a, in a vacuum in that one little like blip, you're like, oh.
And then you start to see the full timeline of things and you're like, oh. Mm-hmm. Um, we had Brian Crispin on from Wheeler Mission. Yeah. Great episode. Phenomenal. Mm-hmm. Like, and his experience with it, um, with being homeless, like Yeah. With showing up at Wheeler Mission and his was largely based on his own decisions.
Right. You know? Right. Like, and his just journey through that and the programming and like, and that was one, the first episode that really like changed my perspective on homelessness in general. Just like it was not strictly a. Beds, a rooms, like there are just a lot of things, um, in life, whether it's, you know, they, they're really big on the programming side of things as well as like learning.
And like, there's just so many different, it's not just like if we threw up apartment complexes and everyone had a bed, like that might change a little bit, but like there's, you know, lots of things that need to come alongside and organizations that need to like, get arm in arm to help, to help really move the needle on this.
And so I'm really excited to dive in to the ways that you guys are doing that. Uh, for children specifically. Mm-hmm. In central Indiana, in Marion County. So we, obviously, this is the issue across the state of Indiana, 19,000 children and youth experienced homelessness or housing insecurities. 25% of them reside in Marion County.
So that's like, you know, four to 5,000 children here. How are you guys helping them? Well, one who, what the, well, who are the partners that are helping make sure they have. You know, Maslow's hierarchy of needs, right? Starts with mm-hmm. A house and food and all of that stuff. And then you start to think about how do you help them thrive?
How do you help them go? And probably, and, and I would say change their situation a little bit. Right. You know, graduate from high school, potentially go to college, like go on and do these fantastic things. Yeah. Our organization was founded on the whole concept of partnership. Yeah. So we're going where students are.
So when you ask the question about like, who is fulfilling their basic needs, like. We are going to the homeless shelters where these students are living and we are tutoring them there, we are going to their school where their school social worker is working harder than anyone I know, um, to make sure students' basic needs are being met.
So there is like this, this huge, um, just founding philosophy of we are going to partner to make sure all needs are being met for these students. So, like you said. If you're, if you're hungry, you're not gonna walk into a space and be like, I'm ready to take on this day. I'm ready to learn. Um, and physiologically you can't, like, even if you want to, you cannot.
And so it takes all of us. It takes the shelter where they're living. It takes the school social worker, it takes, um, other nonprofit organizations. Yes. We had, uh, Martha Hoover on Yeah. Patachou Foundation. Yeah. I think it's like kind of rebranded to a A Longer Table. Yes. And talking about the quality of food that students, uh, are getting, like, and how that affects, like, they can track outcomes based on quality of food, which is why like, it's.
Things that I think a lot of us can take for granted at times. Yeah. Of like, well I get the choice to, you know, if I want to eat gas station beef jerky, I have that choice. And sometimes it's really good and I like it, but I can't say I'd want to eat that all the time. I can't say I would want to not have like high quality protein dense foods, you know, like with what they're doing at Cafe Patachou.
Yeah. Or what they're doing at A Longer Table, A Longer Table. Yes. And what I love about just the two places you've brought up already, like we've partnered with a A Longer Table to feed our kids in a summer program. We've partner, we partner with Wheeler Mission at the Women and Children shelter. Yeah. We've been tutoring there for years.
Um, and that's what I mean, like, it really takes all of us. And that's what's so cool to me about Indianapolis, you know, as a sidebar from like the issue of how we're working with these students, but. It is such a collaborative environment to work in, um, when it comes to meeting the needs of kids and families.
And it's encouraging to work in that space where, you know, we've talked about two different organizations and boom, boom. Yeah. We're partnering with them. Let's, let's use that example, right? Yeah. The, the Women's center, women and Children's Center for, uh, Wheeler Mission. Yeah. So, okay. We have, if we think through, again, this is like my DePauw education coming out.
I love it. That Yes. Has the hierarchy of nature. We think of, okay, there, there is a roof over their head. Mm-hmm. There is food in their belly. Yep. And now you start thinking of, okay, you're coming in to provide tutoring and provide, uh, educational resources, academic resources for these students. What does that look like in terms of, you know, you walk in there, is it one tutor coming in to teach a class or, or how does it look?
So at Wheeler Mission specifically, um, what it looks like is we have a staff person who goes there to run the tutoring hour, and we have volunteer tutors who walk into that space. So our education support coordinator there, his name's Keith, he determines, you know, he sets up for a volunteer, here's what you're gonna work with this student, um, during this tutoring hour.
And how he knows what they're working on is because he is talked to their parent or guardian, he's talked to their teacher. Um, if a lot of those students who live at Wheeler at attend Brookside School 54 and IPS, we also have a staff person there working with students. So he's talked to our staff person at Brookside.
I mean, this is a 20-year-old organization. Yeah. How did that evolve where you get, because I, I would say schools don't just say like, yeah, come on. Anyone can have a staff position here. How did that work? So slow and steady. Um, we started our first school partnership in 2004. Yeah. Um, second school partner 10 years later.
What I'll say is originally that school-based program was an afterschool program. Looked really similar to the program we're running at Wheeler. If you see our school-based program today, we're operating during the school day in high collaboration with school staff. Mm-hmm. Um, and we now have over 20 school partners.
Let's go. Right. So slow and steady at the start. And then truthfully, you know, we really started expanding probably 2017, 18 in schools. Yeah. COVID hit, we massively increased our school-based present post COVID, because I'm not gonna say that the need is higher for sure, but we became more aware of the need as a community and so there was more ability.
Yeah. Wasn't there like a generation to like. Forgot how to read or did not learn how to read well enough. Well, in students, not a generation, but a, it's like, I think they're like seventh graders now or something, right? Yeah. Yeah. I mean, or maybe, I don't know. I don't know the exact number. I think they're fifth graders because, because my daughter was a kindergarten.
It's the kindergarten COVID kids. Yes. The kindergarten who, like you, you think about learning where you like have a book and your finger and you're like pointing and like you learn the sounds mm-hmm. And the hooked on phonics. Yeah. You know, like, yeah. Okay. Not so you're right. Yeah. It would be a little bit younger.
Yeah. But I think there's a, there, I mean that, and that becomes relevant to a lot of people. And you think about your experience of, you think about your experience during COVID and then think about if you were in unstable housing during COVID and so yeah, you have to stay indoor. Like what do you mean indoor?
Like where's the, and like technology and a large percentage of parents were essential workers. But their students are home all day. Their kids are home all day doing online learning, and how does that work? And so there was just like a huge setback for those students. Yeah. Because like a 10-year-old, any 10-year-old anywhere is not doing school.
All right. Like give anyone the choice what, like no matter where you live, the 10 year old's gonna choose to play like Fortnite or whatever. Yes. Instead of like, yes. That's just being 10. And I had three kids in school during COVID. Yeah. And I was a working mom, and I knew how hard it was. And I had flexibility, I had support, I had, yeah.
Stable income. Why are schools not equipped to provide this support? And not saying that they sh but like, you know, if you kind of think of like, okay, organizations like this, you're doing spectacular work, but almost like what's wrong with schools from the sense of like, why, uh, they need this extra support.
Yeah. So first thing I would say, like really clear and really strong is. Schools are incredible. They're doing an amazing job at pro school. Every, we're pro school here. I know, I know, I know. He's gotta ask the questions. I know. It's a great question. Yeah. And it, um, the reality is schools are being asked to do way more than a school was ever designed to do.
Yeah. I mean, you think about it, or schools were designed to do numeracy, literacy, civic education, like this is, this was not what a school was designed to do. To take these complex issues and make sure that they came around a whole student, whole person, um, to solve the whole issue. And by the way, there's 20 of 'em in your classroom.
You have 20 students in your classroom, and the needs are unique for every student. Yeah. Um, and so when we as an organization can specifically focus on students who are experiencing homelessness and housing insecurity, we can. Become experts in understanding like, what is that? Yeah, what are those educational needs?
What are those social emotional needs that present? And what is interesting I will say is especially with a lot of our school partners, one of the things we hear a lot is not like, oh my gosh, this student like, yes, they advanced their literacy skills. Yes, they did all these academic things, but what was most helpful is when they got the opportunity to come to Brightlane Learning, they came back to their classroom in a space where they were ready to learn.
So it amplifies what the school is able to do because those kids get that one-on-one attention. They get that reset space. Do they come into your guys' like a facility? We have a classroom usually in our school where when we partner with the school, we have a room there or you know, it, sometimes it's a hallway or a space in the library.
All of that is great. Um, so they come to us. Um, yeah, so like they would, you know, show up in the morning, uh, you know, use attendance or whatever. Yeah. And then like for a class period they would come down? Yeah. So usually 30 minutes to an hour, depending on how often we are at the school. Where there anywhere, usually two to four days a week.
Mm-hmm. At our school partner. So we'll see students, um, anywhere between one and three times a week. Um, so they'll come depending on what the, and that's the big piece of it is. Because we do believe schools are so incredible. We want to partner with them in a way that makes sense for them. I, I mean, it would be a.
Being a teacher would be incredibly challenging. Immensely. Um, because it's like, if you, let's say, what's the average class size you guys really serve? IPS schools? Like that's a, uh, uh, IPS, Washington Township. Pike Township, Lawrence Township and Warren Township. Okay. Did I see In 2025 you expanded into all IPS schools.
Schools, all IPS high schools. All IPS high schools. Yeah. That's pretty cool. Yeah. So, and it's like, if you think of, you know, the, the schools you just listed, it's like a teacher's gonna walk up to someone whose parents might work at Eli Lilly and someone who's. Parents might like work here or there and like you just have so many different, someone who's facing housing insecurity Yeah.
And someone whose dad's a doctor. You know, like you're gonna see a lot of different children there and having an expert alongside them that focuses on just this specific Yep. Just like some people's focus on, uh, food insecurity. Yeah. In like, it does take a village to put this all together. And I think what's also really important in that to know is, you know, most students have an extra support system around them somewhere.
Whether it's, you know, your parents are paying for tutoring. Or you're going to the Boys and Girls Club after school, or you're, or you're like, I'm a, I'm a high school wrestling coach. Yes. So like, we have a, an academic, uh, coach who like, well, he's a wrestling coach, but he just checks GPAs once a week and make sure that everyone is like in line.
If they're not, then they have to do their homework. And, you know, someone to keep you accountable to help you, uh, get the resources and what you need to be successful. Right. And I feel like that's what's also important and, and why we're doing what we're doing is because every kid needs that and some kids.
Their families have the resources to put those extra people in their life to come around them. Mm-hmm. And we're able to do that for families who would not otherwise be able to. It's impactful for sure. So it started with, in your first 10 years, you had one school partnership. Mm-hmm. So how did it start?
Take me to the beginning of this. Sure. So I'm not clear. Yeah. In 2001, our founder, Sally Binley, she was a school social worker within IPS. And she so then understood directly the limitations mm-hmm. Of there were all of these students, like we've all the challenges that we've just been discussing, but there weren't the resources in place to support them.
And she happened to go out to California and she encountered this organization called School on Wheels. It was on Skid Row. And uh, she said, can I learn from you? And so took that model back to Indianapolis to say, okay, we're gonna start this, we're gonna try this. It's gonna look different because Indianapolis, the geography.
All that we're experiencing, it operates differently than the families that are, you know? Mm-hmm. School on Wheels, LA is supporting, but we're gonna make it work for our families. And so she first worked, it was Sally, her mom, her best friend, and her best friend's mom. And they went into two shelters and Heck yeah.
It was, yeah, all grassroots. Just starting there. Word of mouth. Mm-hmm. Two shelters. I think in that first year, 50 students. In that first year, it was a homework club, which is essentially important. But then over time, as they started working with these students, starting to encounter more of the parents in the shelters, starting to kind of really listen to the parents and learn more about that experience.
Mm-hmm. Too, it helped. School on Wheels evolve every single year. It began to incorporate a lot more of parent, uh, voice and need because children are not, you know, operating in this isolated environment. They, um, are experiencing the challenges their families too. And we are starting to learn how disempowered their parents felt too, to even advocate for their child's education.
To say, I know this from my experience. I had a hard time. I dropped out. I didn't finish college. All of these, you know, hurdles too impacted their experience. Oh my gosh. I listened to either a podcast or a book that talked about a charter school in the Greater Washington DC area, and I would say there was discipline was like cra, like this school was just like voted, you know, one of the worst five schools in America.
They were able to like change the culture there and like create this by talking to parents. Yeah. Because. Uh, like they would set up, they would, the teachers would go out over the summer and meet one-on-one with all of these students' parents. Yep. Because there was just such a history of, you know, maybe the parents felt like they were wronged by the system, maybe they didn't have a great experience of learning and like all of these outside factors that like didn't make learning important.
Mm-hmm. Right. And they were able to turn that school around. I can't remember what the book was. I can't remember what the podcast was. I know I'm fascinated, but it was, it was, I was listening to it, um, and I was just blown away. Yeah. I was like, oh my gosh. Like just by meeting and sitting down with someone and hearing them out of like, mm-hmm.
Hey, this is our dynamic and how it works. And making them feel heard and, and then figuring out how to find the solution together. Yeah. I mean, parent engagement, there's such a high link between student success and parent engagement in the school, and so it's so important and for a group of people who feel like they probably don't have a voice very often.
Seeking that voice out is critical to ensuring long-term success. Because one of the things like, you know, Claire talked about, we started in shelters and some of those were emergency shelters. So maybe 90 days we're working with a family, like you're not turning someone's academic picture around in 90 days working with that student.
You're giving 'em a safe space, you're working on some skill building, and you're providing a learning environment and you have 'em ready for the next school day. Where your real opportunity is, is making sure those parents feel empowered to advocate for their child's own education when they leave the shelter.
And so that became a really big focus for us, is the parent voice is so critical. And so how do we, how do we incorporate that in what we do? And it's become a huge component of our community-based programming. So when we're tutoring in a shelter or after school program. We really wanna focus on that. I, I, I have it.
Okay. I remember it. Okay. That was gonna, the book is called The Power of Moments. Ah, so it's a book by Chip and Dan Heath, um, that talks about Love it. This was a Houston-based charter school. Okay. So it's called New Heights Charter School and another thing. So it was all about creating these moments Yeah.
To, you know, um, that, that are memorable experiences. So one being, you know, the parent teacher meeting and if you host it there at your school, like you attendance was low, but if you went to them and met 'em, what they were, you create this powerful moment to, to roll momentum into the school year. The next one was, uh, this was in 2000.
The founders of the school who are, um, they noticed that everyone celebrated athletic signing days. Mm-hmm. Like athletics, like, you know, which is huge. I, as a sports guy, I love signing day. It was so cool. They put into place their academic signing day. So, uh, people who were, you know, going to college and like, I'm going to attend Purdue University.
Yep. I'm gonna attend Marian University. Like all, all the cool places. Yep. And they made it a spectacle for seniors so that they got their moment, they get to sit on stage or do their thing and come up there and make their official. And like, even I'm joining the work, like I'm gonna go be a Yeah. Plumber. Yeah. At this blah, blah.
And like, but everyone felt empowered to have a thing. Mm-hmm. And it made that moment big. Yeah. And that, that moment then, you know, you talk about the success of, they go on to talk about the success of those students afterwards. Of it. Yeah. And how then it also, the audience is the younger students. Mm-hmm.
Yeah. I want my 30 seconds in the spotlight. Mm-hmm. Like, I wanna make it to the end and go to a great college and, uh, and, and so it just creates this chain effect. Yeah. From moments. What I love about that too is when I think about like, how we kind of do what we do, um, we're setting goals with students and with parents to say like, Hey, what is, what's a academic skill we need to gain?
What's an academic barrier that you wanna overcome for your child? And we set these goals that are bite-sized and that everybody gets to experience some sense of accomplishment. So if you come into our program as a second grader who can't read, we're not gonna say like, learn all 26 letter sounds. Yeah.
It's gonna be like. These five, let's start with these five. It's like the classic, uh, new Year's resolution. Why It doesn't, why it doesn't make it 21 days. Everyone's like, I wanna lose 500 pounds, and they don't lose five. Right. Because it's like, it's this, it's just massive. Yeah. It's this huge thing. But if it was like, Hey, I just want to get.
A little bit here. Yeah. How do you eat an elephant? Right? One bite at a time. Yeah. And with our families too, and our students, when you are in this po moment of instability and trauma and you're in the, now, you're just addressing what's in front of you and your future focus is diminished. Yeah. And so when we can set goals, we're saying, what does your future, you have a future?
Let's think about it together. Yeah. And even those, you know, create those moments where we can really drive forward. Even if it, like, I think some people think about their five year and their 10 year plan, but it goes from like, thinking about your today plan to even, like, what does tomorrow? Right. What does three days, what does your weekend look like?
Right. And how do we start to, you know, knock down some goals there. Yeah. That's so cool. Yeah. Okay. So what does this specific programming look like? Yeah. And like, let's maybe talk about an example if you have a student, uh, of like you that you could take us through when they first found Brightlane and then, um, results that came from that.
The actual session is gonna look different Yeah. For every student. 'cause it's, you said this in your intro, it's a personalized learning plan Yeah. For each student. So. We're taking input from that parent or guardian. We're taking input from the teacher and we're saying like, here's what we need to work on.
But we do that within some structure so that kids know what to expect. Mm-hmm. So the large majority of times students are gonna enter a tutoring session and they're gonna do a writing prompt, some wild and crazy question just to get them thinking and dreaming and connecting with their tutors. So, um, I did one last night, I was tutoring with a student and it was, if you could have a pet, would it be a dog, a cat, or a kangaroo?
I mean, I mean, what, what's everyone gonna pick? Right? But no one picked kangaroo. What? Because the follow up question was how would you take care of it? Oh, like, I don't know the answer to that. That was, there was that movie Kangaroo Jack, right? Like you put a sweater on him and some sunglasses.
That's how I'd take care of them. Yeah. So we just talked about like, what do you do to take care of a pet? What would you name your pet? So we're just building kind of a connection with the students I'm working with. And then after that writing prompt, you're gonna go into, do we have homework or classwork that needs to be done?
Like, let's just keep up with what needs to be done. And then from there we're gonna go into what are your personalized learning plan goals? And we're gonna, largely, we're gonna play games that support those learning goals. So we have our entire, we have our own curriculum, game-based learning tied to Indiana academic standards.
So we're playing games, but we're working on multiplication tables, or we're working on identifying letters and sounds. And um, so that's the base of a tutoring session and. A student comes in, like, I can tell you I work with a student every Tuesday night at one of our sites, and when I, when he first moved into that place and came to tutoring, I remember his very first goal on his personalized learning plan was to engage with his tutors.
Like it was not, it was just to like talk to us and to sit for the tutoring session. Those were his first goals. That was two years ago. Now we're working on, we have accomplished multiplication tables except for seven and eight. So we've gotten everything but sevens and eights. So you talk about just like what does that consistency, setting those small goals with little moments where we celebrate like, Hey man, this kid sat through 40 of the.
60 minutes of tutoring and that's a win. Yeah. And we're gonna celebrate that. Yeah. That and then we build on that. That's a lesson that I think a lot of us could take too. Just in general. Yeah. Like how often do we in our own lives, expect the world to change tomorrow? Yeah. And get upset or impatient or give up Yeah.
On whatever our goal is. Or how often do, let's say there's parents out there that are listening, how often do you expect your kid to be the next like. Moza on the cello or whatever. Yeah. And then like, but don't even get to like the beginning and don't ever celebrate. Right. Those milestones along the way.
Yeah. I am actually so guilty of this. Yeah. Like, I think so far ahead and then like one day you, you're the thing you've been working for shows up and you're like, okay, cool. Now, but what's the next, the mark has already passed, like we're, we're way past this now. Yeah. And I think that that's a, a great reminder of Yeah.
Breaking up and celebrating, you know, sitting still and engaging with your tutors and chopping off those little goals. And what I love in those moments is what we often overlook in anything that we accomplish, all those little moments is it's the personal connection. Yeah. It's the tutors that showed up week over week over week to meet with that kiddo and where, where he is staying.
We have three days a week of tutoring. So he is got three tutors for one for each day. And the consistency with which those people show up. Is probably over half the battle of like accomplishing those things because in a world where you experience so much transience and so much instability, having the same.
Yeah. Handful of people show up in your life day over day. And I think we do the same thing. Like to your point, we accomplish something and we often think about like, man, we met the goal. We don't think about the people that entered the space along the way. Yeah. And so that's where our volunteers become like.
Completely mission critical. Yeah. And if you think about, you know, new schools, new friends, new teachers, new people, new everything. Mm-hmm. Yeah. Like that's really hard. And that, that, those flashes of stability Yeah. And recurring. Mm-hmm. Um, huge. Yeah. So important something with our, um, we have surveys for the kids and the parents, but Okay.
We wanna have their voice and make sure that everything is moving along and they, we know what supports they need. But one of the first things that we ask the student is within the first three sessions, I think mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Is do you have a person that you know you can go to at this school or at the shelter, like we focus on mm-hmm.
Them having a person. And if they don't have that person, we make sure they have that person because of that connection and that piece. Yeah. We just talked to Vernon Bateman, grew up in Gary and spent 25 years, uh, in prison. Okay. Wow. Is like now a children's author and like working through. Change his life.
Yeah. Um, and on all that jazz, I asked him that. I said, when, I mean, he started getting in trouble when he was 15. Mm-hmm. And I said, who did you look up to? And like, who was a positive influence and like someone like your role model. Mm-hmm. And he said his mom, like he lived with his mom and you know, she was doing her best.
There was no one. Yeah. Like he didn't have a, he said group and the projects in Gary like didn't have, and then like older guys that are in the gang start to be like your role models and Yeah. The things that they think is cool, like when you're a 15, like moldable, shapeable young kid, the stuff that's not good for you ends up being cool and it gets you on this path.
And that's just so impactful. Right. Like having positive role models and people that are consistent and will show up for you. Yeah. And you go down that path because you feel like those people care or they're invested in you, which is misplaced. But, but it's true. Like it's the personal connection that leads you in every direction that you would possibly go on the surface level.
It's. It's tutoring. Yeah. On the surface level, you know, it's, but tutoring and grades and academics are, is the vehicle that's changing lives. Mm-hmm. It's like the process of changing lives. Do you have any outcomes like that, that you could talk about? I mean, you, this is over a 20-year-old organization.
Like, are there, I mean, from the beginning, like, I mean, are the, have those students gone on to become doctors and lawyers and, yeah. So what is incredibly challenging about that question is the transient of our students. So it's not often that we follow a student from K-12. Yeah. Even though we work with students in all of those grades.
So, um, our first high school partnership started 2020. Yeah. So five years ago. Yeah. Um, so we're starting to see that now. Like, where are our students going next, which is so cool. Like, we do a graduation party each year for our graduating seniors. Like the coolest event that you, I mean. The coolest event you could attend.
To hear these students talk about their stories and where they're headed next and kinda like that moment for them is really cool. I mean, we focus on so many different outcomes along the way, but what I would say the main theme of those outcomes is, is like, how do we get you the next step closer? So graduating is critical.
Like it's critical for everyone's future, no matter who you are. So like grade promotion, we're looking at what percentage of our kids are promoted year over year to the next grade. Those third-grade IREAD scores. Like those are a, those are a benchmark that we gotta focus on. Um, 'cause we gotta work within the system that we're in, you know?
So we're focusing on those. We're focusing a lot with our students on growth over proficiency. So they're coming in behind. Yeah, like. In most cases, yeah, it is not true for every student, I will say. But in most cases, we're starting from behind. Let's focus on growing. Let's not focus on just the end result of being proficient, because if we focus on proficiency, it's gonna feel too far away.
So like, are you growing year over year? Are your, is your mask getting better? Is your reading getting better? Are we getting closer to the goal? So we'll track that through those individual goals that we set. So like, what's the goal? Did we meet it? How many goals are students meeting year over year? But then we are tracking those benchmarks where, you know, when we started I was like, Hey, here's all the outcomes that are worse for students who are homeless.
And we're looking at our students and saying like, how are we tracking against those benchmarks? Yep. And we're doing great. Perfection is the enemy of progress. Yeah, yeah, for sure. Yeah. Wow. When our students are graduating, we had 18 of 18 seniors last year. Graduate. Heck yeah. Yeah. We just, and we're staying in touch with them too, which is a new evolution of our program too, to connect and say, Hey, where are you?
What do you need in whatever journey that you have. Mm-hmm. Whether they are in their first job or they're taking classes, but we thought our care packages just went out a few weeks ago for those students. We have another round planned for finals. Like, it's just very cool to have those connections still.
And have that community, you know, of people who. Sincerely care about you and, and want to see you succeed and thrive, and you never know like what conversation is the one that they'll look back on and be like, that was the day that I felt like I could achieve my goals, or I could achieve my dreams, or I could change my trajectory.
It's always fascinating for me to listen to our students talk about their tutors and have those same tutors talk about the impact that they think they're making. And how wide the gap is. Like the students, I mean, their tutors hung the moon. Like they're, they have so many good things to say about their tutors and how they've helped them and what that looks like.
And the tutors very often will be like, I don't know if I'm making a difference. I'm like, if you just showed up, You would be making a difference. And it's like the tutors, we can't nail the sevens yet on the multiplication. Yeah. Like I really, and then like, and the, the students, like I was having the worst day ever.
Yeah. Mm-hmm. Yeah. The guy felt like no one was listening to me and then I got to have an hour long conversation or whatever. Yeah. Like, wow, this kid, um, that. Your student at this location, um, that Kelly has worked with for two years. I had the fortunate experience of, uh, interviewing him for a video last year.
And as I spoke with him, I said, you know, can you tell, like we talked about so many things. And he was just so open and honest, but I said, you know, what do you, what do you like about Brightlane? And he says, the tutors, they make me feel like my mom and my siblings. Do. They make me feel safe, you know? And so he just looped Kelly and all of his tutors in just like every loved family member that he has that has been in his life.
Along the way. Mm-hmm. Um, and it was just really special. And I, I know that you've heard that, but not all of his tutors have heard that, so, right. Yeah. Hey, Indiana, if you're a business owner with big plans, listen up. Whether you're expanding, renovating, or breaking ground on something brand new, you need a banking team that's ready to back your vision.
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That's elements.org/getinbiz Elements Financial, like a bank, only better federally insured by NCUA and equal housing lender. Now let's get back into the episode 2026. Mm-hmm. Beyond what we can expect. You talked about, so your first high school partnership was in 2020. Yep. So five years in to working with high schoolers.
You were 18 or 18 last year. What can we expect coming out of Brightlane Learning in 2026? You know, we saw almost 800 students last year, but we. Talked about at the beginning, there's almost 5,000 students experiencing homelessness in Marion County. So we feel overwhelmed by the number of students that are, we have yet to meet.
We are very carefully and strategically thinking about what's next for our organization and what does that growth look like? How do we continue to meet need, do we continue to grow in Marion County? Which yes, I think we will for sure. Yeah. And then also looking at like what are other ways we can impact, whether it's the depth of our programming, like do we do more with the students we're already seeing to create, you know, more opportunities for them?
Or is it the breadth of our program, we go wider to see more students back on wheels. Right? I know. So we're looking at all of that to see like where do we go next? Yeah. And what does it look like? But I think, you know, when we look at 2026, what I know for sure. Is we're gonna keep seeing students and meeting 'em where they are.
Um, and we're gonna finish this pilot year with all the IPS high schools and IPS middle schools are kind of next on our horizon, um, to see if we can get into all of those as well. You know, the more we can have that presence in a K-12 space in the same school district, the higher the chances that even if a student switches schools, oh, there's Brightlane Learning here again, and we can be a constant.
Yes. Yeah. So we're looking at how do we create more opportunities to be a constant as kids move through that K-12 space, because the reality is, even after an episode of homelessness, housing insecurity could remain for years after that. And so it doesn't go away overnight when a family suddenly becomes housed.
Like all the issues don't fade away. Yeah. Um, they're immensely helped, but they don't fade away. And so how do we keep showing up for kids in their life? In those situations? What can listeners do? We. Are powered by people. Mm-hmm. And that means volunteers. Uh, we have 234 last year, so over 200 active volunteer tutors.
Um, and you can have any background. Mm-hmm. And we need more of those students, becau or those volunteers to help our students. We also need more students. Yeah. Um, we, you can be age 14 and come and tutor students, um, because, and we see that really mm-hmm. Resonate with our kids who look up to, oh my gosh, this kid's so cool.
He's practically my age or whatever. Um, but so we need tutors to help us, um, for those volunteers. Mm-hmm. And we need donors. Mm-hmm. And we need community partners, uh, local organizations who introduced us to their employees act as sponsors for, uh, events that we have because all of our funding comes from individuals, corporations, and grants.
Yeah. What does the time commitment of being a volunteer look like? An hour a week, one hour, once a week. And you only have to commit to a semester at a time, one semester at a time. Mm-hmm. But once you're in, I want to argue that you're gonna be in, because we were talking about this this morning, uh, with our 200 volunteers.
I think we have two that have been like 19 year, 19 years. And then we have 20 that are over 10 years, 60 over five years. I mean, and the question I would say, the question that we get the most from students is when I sit down for the first time with any student, when I leave, they say, will I see you again?
Yeah. And that's not unique to me. That is to a person, will I see you again? When will I see you again? Yeah. Yeah. So, yeah. And a special shout out if you know algebra, like, we'll, we'll take you as a tutor if you know algebra, but not a requirement, not a but just if you're out there and you have one hour, A week for a semester, and you know, a thing or two about algebra. You could make a big impact here in central Indiana There are almost, I'm gonna say rough numbers, there are 5,000 roughly students experiencing housing insecurity. Mm-hmm. That you could make an impact in their life. We have, you said 800 students last year?
Mm-hmm. So we got a ways to go. Yeah, we do. Alright We need you out there. An hour of time, a week, one semester at a time. You can do that. Yeah. Close out this portion of the show. I wanna read, uh, an IndyStar article. Okay. Um, this is not about learning and what you got, but it is about the community and the impact that it can make to change someone's life.
This is the most powerful story of, of community and opportunity that I have heard, um, or read. Uh, and it's also close to home because I'm a wrestling coach. Mm-hmm. But, um, this happened out of Lawrence North High School. Mm-hmm. The headline of the IndyStar article written by Charlotte Barnes is Lawrence North Wrestler, slept on floor in a shelter, had no desk.
Now he's planning on college. Mm-hmm. So Lawrence North wrestler Michael White, cried as his Utah-bound flight ascended into Indianapolis skies in June. Terrified as he watched the earth disappeared. The plane, like the gravity felt unfamiliar. White said, I didn't know what to do. I just looked out the window and I just went up so fast.
The trip was among many. He took to wrestling tournaments in North Carolina, Virginia, and North Dakota over the summer, all to face the best in the country to grow his wrestler and to make waves in front of college coaches. The Blaine was new to white. Quickest sense. However, were not less than two years prior.
White had been a wrestling novice. He took up the sport as a freshman at Lawrence North, going through the most tumultuous experience of his life, bouncing from hotel to hotel with his family before staying in a Wheeler Mission shelter for six months. It started, he said when his family was evicted from their apartment after his mom took their landlord to court over molt White quit football because he wasn't able to make practice early in the morning with a single mom and siblings at multiple schools with different start times.
But he was determined to join the wrestling team. White and coach Jacob Aven, whom White had for study hall, quickly built a connection over his interest in the sport. White told Aven his goals, including wrestling for a Division I program and winning a state championship. At the time, Ava thought, kids tell me stuff like this all the time.
I don't even know if he'll come to the first practice. White showed up for the first practice, and it wasn't pretty. Aven said, but white kept showing up, kept working, and the results gradually came. He wasn't making excuses. Aven said he was just ready to go out and scrap. To the best of his ability and wasn't like, oh, I can't do this because of this.
It was, we find a way to make it happen. Even when he didn't really understand the sport or know what was what he was doing, you could still see. I can remember him yelling and truly exerting as much energy as he possibly could. No matter what happened. He would just keep fighting. There was plenty. White could have used as an excuse.
His mom at Wheeler Mission didn't have enough beds for his family at five, so he slept on the floor. He typically ate at school or sometimes with AV because he wasn't allowed to bring outside food into the shelter and often wasn't there for mealtime. There was no desk to do schoolwork in his family's living space, in what free time he had at the shelter.
He helped his family with assigned chores like washing dishes and cleaning cabinets. White didn't tell anyone about his family's situation at the start of the school year. Even approached him after noticing he'd been wearing the same joggers and jacket to school for two weeks, asking if he needed new clothing and if he was going through something white.
Said yes to both. An assistant principal helped white get new clothing. A liaison helped white get assistance through the McKinney-Vento Act. Mm-hmm. Federal legislation that provides resources to youth in the education system experiencing homelessness. White made wrestling work through catching rides and taking the bus to the shelter, which was more than 30 minutes from Lawrence North.
But Wheeler Mission had a 9:00 PM curfew, uh, meaning his family had to ke to keep shelter leaders in the loop about white's wrestling schedule giving how long meets can run. Mm-hmm. They run a long time. Okay. This is, I mean, this is an insane story. Yeah. Yeah. It is. Uh, it was towards the end of his freshman year when, um.
When a church set his family up with a house ending their stay at Wheeler Mission White said the best part of getting out was no curfew, no fear of getting kicked out and no assigned chores. But more than a year later, white is still catching up on school as a result of experiencing homelessness. The potential to get behind on schoolwork was one of the hardest parts at that time.
The difficulty was making sure I could get away home and to school. He said that was the hardest part because then if I was late to school, it's like I can't get work done. Then now I'm behind and now I got more stuff to worry about. And then at the end of the school day, I have to worry about getting a ride home.
He is behind where a typical junior would be due to his freshman year went. You talked about that, right? Mm-hmm. Like you put four to six months. Yeah. Yeah. Um. When he used his free period to knock out work and couldn't get much done at the skelter, but he's worked hard to catch up on the mat. White made strides the following season.
His resting IQ is improving, pairing well alongside his natural athleticism. It goes on to say basically, you know, his whole entire story there is incredible. Uh, this was written, I gotta get the right date. 'cause what's the, the current thing is gonna blow your mind. This was December 9th, 2024. Okay. He was a junior last year.
Yeah. He got second in the state at his weight class and was like a legitimate D-I recruit. Yeah. Like he, we he's a beast. Yeah. Crazy. He's a senior this year. Yeah. Ranked number one in the state and just committed to go to Oklahoma State University, which is like a top five Yeah. Wrestling program in the country.
That's incredible. Like you talk about scholarship, like Yeah. Today's like, like there's probably NIL, like this whole thing, like from. Life changing from the floor of Wheeler Mission to finding a community to like finding the, in fact, for people to like I know Coach Aven. Yeah. Yeah. Uh, for him to pour into this kid, like incredible.
Yeah. And so you talk about the impact that you could have as a mentor mm-hmm. That you could have going in there and an hour of your time a week mm-hmm. And being consistent. Yeah. Like you could change, you could help these kids change their life and their, their trajectory. Yep. When I read that, like for the first time I was, I, I like a tear.
Yeah. Like I was, it's so incredible. That's every kid's story. Like listen to the challenges in that story because it's so well laid out in there. Like these are real life barriers that don't seem like a lot, but the way, even when you're reading it, it's like, and then this and then this, and then this. And that's what all of our families are facing.
And just those. Inserts of where people were introduced to his life. That's what I, you know, like shout out to Tracy, be the McKinney-Vento liaison in Lawrence Township. She's amazing. Shout, shout out. She's amazing. And she's in that article and she did what she needed to do to help move that student forward.
And that's what it takes all those people kind of coming in where they're supposed to come in and doing what they need to do. And I mean, his life isn't just different, but every, his whole family's life is gonna be different. And generational change. Yeah. I mean that. That is huge. You know, for some, for some students it ends up being sports.
For other students it ends up being banned or whatever. Mm-hmm. Might mm-hmm. For some students it's just, you know, getting in a space where you work on your homework and you get pushed academically so that you can go to college and change your generations. Yeah. You can change generations. Yeah. Yeah. It's wild.
The work that you guys are doing is so impactful. Uh, this fired me up. Good. Like the world, the city, the state of Indiana, the city of Indianapolis needs more people like y'all doing this work out there, improving our communities. I'm very grateful. I'm appreciative. We've come into part of the show, we're gonna change topics.
Well change subject a little bit. We're gonna talk all about the state of Indiana. Love it. Love it. So this question is brought to you by our friends at JC Hart. They're a leader in creating enjoyable living experiences at apartment communities all across Indiana and beyond. Check them out at homeisjchart.com.
My question for you all. Why do you call Indiana home? I didn't choose Indiana. I moved here with my dad's job when I was in third grade, but I chose to stay here. I think it can be really tempting to say the grass is greener somewhere else. But I used to work for an organization where our whole philosophy was build up leaders so they come back to the community that they're from and make it better.
And I believe in that wholeheartedly. So I was raised in Indiana, went to school in Indiana. I'm gonna stay in Indiana and I'm gonna make Indiana a better place to be. Yeah, the grass. Some people think the grass is greener on the other side. I believe the grass is greener. Where you water? Right here. Yeah.
Oh yeah. So I had not planned to be back in Indiana. I post college graduation, I moved and then I said, oh no, I wanna be back there. And I landed in Garfield Park and I have stayed in Garfield Park because like, it just, it's a community that keeps on growing and, you know, paired with everything that you've heard today about just Brightlane in the Indianapolis community, wrapping around, how could one leave?
Oh my gosh. Absolutely. And there's a lot of cool stuff happening down there. Yeah. Yeah. Um, at Garfield Park. Yep. What's the biggest misconception about homelessness? The two that I hear most often is it's a choice and that they're lazy. Everything I have seen with every family I've walked alongside lies in the face of both of those perceptions of people who are homeless.
Most of the moms I know in those situations are working way harder than I am to keep going. In situations where I know for a fact I would've quit a long time ago, and mostly by no choice of their own, are they in the boat that they're in. I think I would just challenge that people know what homelessness looks like, and I think, you know, there is one idea that people have, but they don't think about they're third grader sitting next to another third grader in a classroom and that that student, their neighbor, their buddy.
Being unhoused, you're driving down the road or whatever. Mm-hmm. And you see the person on a stoplight or whatever. And that's like everyone's perception of what housing insecurity or homelessness looks like. Yeah. And you know, or the person that, you know, like I would challenge people to go back and listen to Brian's episode.
Yeah. And like learning about, it's incredible, like the personal life decisions that people can make that end up there. Mm-hmm. But you think about like, this is like, these are kids. Yeah. You know, like there are 5,000, there's 19,000 kids in like, that is a lot. Mm-hmm. But like, that's not unfixable. Right.
You know what I'm saying? Right. Like what, what I keep hearing about these, like I think the number that Brian talked about in Central Niana was 1000 something. Yeah. 1800. 1800 people on a given, like on that On one day. On that one day. Yeah. Like. And that's homelessness versus housing insecurity. Yes. Like look, that expands it a little bit there, but 19,000 children is a lot and way too many, but is not a number that we all couldn't work together and solve.
Right. Like that's a fixable Yeah. Thing. And if you fix that number, think about a generation from now what that single day count will be. 'cause it'll be lower. Yeah. If we fix, yeah. If we focus on the kids and, and the adults. But if we focus on the kids now we're gonna change the next generation. Well, and it's like, I mean, you kind of hinted at this too.
You said like, oh, I would've given up and like mm-hmm. And some of them have, you know Yeah. Like as an adult perspective. Yes. You know, like. You hit the nail on the head where like, if I had all this adversity against me, like I don't have the willpower to get through that and like, but when they're kids, they're still moldable.
Mm-hmm. And there's still the opinion to say like, you have so much time out ahead of you, like. The wrestler. Yeah. He picked up wrestling as a freshman. Yeah. He's only wrestl. This is his fourth season. Yeah. That's crazy. It really is. What about changing your entire life? Like granted, he's the most athletic person I probably ever seen, but like That's crazy.
Yeah, it is. Like you can get, you could be a mentor, you could be a, a tutor mm-hmm. In here and you could spend an hour a week and convince like this kid that there is opportunities they've never seen. Yeah. Opportunities they've never, that no one has talked about in their lives. Yeah. Yeah. And that exposure, like.
Just having our kids be around more people who do different things. Yeah. And they learn different opportunities that are out there. It's, it's interesting, I've, I've talked about this a few times on the podcast, really, urban Indiana and really rural Indiana aren't that different. Right. They're very different, but not that different.
Right. So I'll like, say I grew up in like, rural Indiana and, you know, in my hometown, like I didn't know people who did this. Mm-hmm. Like, I didn't know people who worked on the internet. Right. Or had, there weren't a lot of founders and entrepreneur, like maybe the like local construction company or mm-hmm.
Grass cutting company or something like that. But it wasn't like. You know, my dad, dad's buddy, golf buddy played, you know, whatever. Yeah. You know? Yeah. And so, like, by going to DePauw and meeting people from different backgrounds and walks of lives and whose parents had these crazy jobs and like the biggest towers in downtown Indianapolis, it's like, yo, this is why, just by learning that, uh, there were these different opportunities out there.
Mm-hmm. It made it seem like, well, that they can do it. I could do that. Right. And so by, you know, you're, let's say you're a remote worker. You get to work at your home like they might have, their parents might have never had the opportunity. They have to go into wherever it is, every single day. And by learning, oh, I could work on a computer and mm-hmm. Make money and raise. Yeah. Like crazy. Oh, I could live in a house. Right. That's crazy. There are, can I tell you just a, okay. I don't wanna take up too much. No, absolutely. I'm in. Okay. We're all in what I, two of my favorite stories. I think that mm-hmm. Helped with that exposure to new ideas. There was this one kiddo who was always just hype about McDonald's.
He was like, I love it. I love to eat there. I'm gonna work there. It's what I know, you know, that he was a third grader where he, it was his dream fire, you know, so much fire for it. But he came in, got paired with a tutor during, uh, a session one night, and they just kind of talked about their day. The tutor told him what he had done during the day.
The guy was in shipping and logistics, I think it was. And at the end of the night, the kid walked out and he was so excited about his future because he was gonna be in shipping and logistics like. He couldn't define that. I can't define that. Heck yeah. But he was so, like, it just transformed it one day when that kid's, the CEO of ups.
Yeah. Right. We're gonna, now we're gonna remember it from there. We're gonna hundred percent. And then, um, we have another, one of our, uh, staff members is at Longfellow Middle School, and he is just extraordinary. This is a second year in that school. And, um, one of the long fellow staff members said, will you coach the golf team with me?
And Dewan was like, uh, I've never played golf. And he's like, that's okay. So, because Dewan showed up to teach golf, play golf, have this team, they had their first successful golf team at Longfellow Middle School this year. They've always had the opportunity. But kids would come that first day and just be like, you know, golf's not for me.
This year they had 10. Mm-hmm. Golfers, six of them were Brightlane students. And, uh, now they've got ping pong balls and goodwill golf clubs so they can go practice in their apartment. Yeah. Yards. And it's just so cool because, you know, they said, okay, Deon DeQuan, Mr. Jones is gonna try this thing. Mr.
Brooks is gonna try this thing. I I'm in. I'm all in and I'm gonna do something new. Yeah. And it's gonna help me do other new things. That's pretty cool. Yeah. And being willing as an adult to take a risk narrow. I don't know anything about it, but I'll go. Sure. Yeah. Like, that's, that's powerful. And now, you know, in 10 years when they're closing business deals on the golf course mm-hmm.
Yeah. They're gonna go back to that time. Right. Like, shout out to Daquan. Yeah. Oh, I could talk about this all day long. I love it. The work you guys are doing is so impactful. We have come to the final portion of the show where we ask the same three questions to every guest that comes on. Um, so we're going here, here, here.
Boom. Go back and forth that way. Okay. What's something the world needs to know about Indiana? I think Indiana is the most philanthropic place to live. We have incredible. Philanthropy in our community. And that's from like the big players, like the the Lilly Endowment? Yeah. Down to like the, you know, family owned businesses that are like jumping in to like, support organizations down to the listeners of the Get in podcast who are gonna go out and be tutors, those people.
Yeah. So it is for the, the size of our city, the amount of philanthropy and for the size of our state, the amount of philanthropy that takes place in Indiana is incredible. So I don't think most people know that about Indiana. Yeah. I just think about the community collaboration, the extreme focus on partnerships.
Mm-hmm. The knowledge that none of us can do it alone. Uh, and maybe it's just the field that we're in, but I see it beyond that because I see it when I go home and I'm not at work. Mm-hmm. And just the way people, uh, are showing up for other people in a huge way and they say, how can I get my church involved?
Or How can I get my company involved and how can I use this skill that I have that doesn't really relate to what you're doing, but still use it to leverage and give back in a really cool way. And, um, I would say that might, it feels really unique to me because it's so special. I just feel like the idea of what helping your neighbor hasn't died here.
Yeah. Whether that be with their, either the classic time talent or treasure. Yes. You know, like people from a business perspective will give you your time. Um, but also like will, you know, volunteer their time up. Yep. Um, I love it. Totally true. Okay, Claire, we're back to you. All right. This is your chance to shed some light on a part of the state that you love, that more people need to be talking about what is a hidden gem in Indiana?
You know what, I'm gonna go back to Garfield Park. Yeah. Um, and I've been there for 20 years and the park itself, the conservatory there. We have this new, um, just a ton of businesses growing up along Shelby Street. I walked over, I, uh, shopped at Indy Type Shop. It is a vintage typewriter repair shop and bookstore.
Then I hopped over to a sustainable clothing and, uh, used clothing store that their other location is in Brooklyn, New York. And then, you know, I popped over and I bought some more feminist lit literature at Penn & Pink. So like, it's just wild the way that Garfield Park is growing and that Shelby Street corridor of businesses that are all very hyper local and totally specialized.
There's like a niche of people who. Like if you're a Garfield ian, like Garfield Parkians like have each other. You know? Yeah. Like there's a whole thing there and I love it. I'm here for like, it's kinda like I live in broad pool, like Broad Fountain Square has their gr everyone's got their little like micro tribe inside of Indiana and Garfield Park has their, has their tribe for sure.
I love it. And great things are happening down there. I encourage people to go down and check it out. Yeah. Yeah. What is a hidden gem in Indiana? I'm gonna say Arsenal Tech High School. Okay. It's the coolest campus. It has incredible history, like fascinating history and as we have expanded into all the high IPS high schools, spending a lot more time there, learning a lot more about it.
You know, people think one thing when they think of IPS high schools and I would challenge what you think about IPS high schools and I think Arsenal Tech is just one that is fascinating. To just see and learn about Arsenal Technical High School. Once a United States Arsenal includes a Civil War armory complex and the 20th century buildings on its campus.
The campus has dual significance as the oldest military installation in central Indiana and the third oldest high school in Indianapolis, of which it is the second oldest high school to still operate at its original location if you have not been to the campus there, it's crazy. Yeah. Is, I don't know how they do it in the winter.
Probably pretty cold to like bounce around, but it is such a cool campus. Yeah. It's like a legit. A legit college campus. It's like being on a college campus. Yeah. It's so cool. Absolutely. Uh, following the election of Abraham Lincoln to the presidency of the United States, the prospect of Civil War was evident.
Indiana Governor Oliver P. Morton ordered the temporary creation of an Indiana arsenal in 1861, uh, on the president's ground of the Indiana State House. However, it soon became clear that the location would not suffice. and In 1862 Congress passed an act, uh, the permanent national Arsenal at Indianapolis, and that location is where that is today.
Uh, 'cause it was far enough outside the city limits that it would not disrupt any neighborhoods. That's 1862. I mean, if you look at their banner, I think they like won the track. Championship in like 1913 or something like that. Mm-hmm. Like they have legacy history. Yeah. Arsenal Tech. Very cool. Go show up for those kids.
Yes. Watch 'em play sports. Yeah. I mean they pack that gym gets rocking. Yeah. I mean, and you'd think they've had some really good athletes that have gone through there too. Like Trey Lyles was an insane basketball player. Like all great stuff. Final question. This is the last, this is where we get guest recommendations.
We learn about other Hoosiers that are doing inspiring things. Kelly, we'll start with you. Who's the Hoosier? We need to keep on our radar. Someone who's doing big things. I'm gonna say that everyone just blanket statement should know someone who has lived experience in homelessness or housing insecurity.
Make that your mission. Like, because when you know people, you look at issues differently. So I'm gonna preface it with that. But, um, one person that I know that has that, um, in. It's in his story, so I don't think I'm saying anything that I shouldn't. But, um, a state representative, Fady Qaddoura, he, uh, lost his house in, uh, Hurricane Katrina.
And so he has that. But he is doing some really cool things when it comes to focusing on education, advocating for our students, advocating for, um, families that have barriers, um, from a policy perspective. He's really cool. Heck, I think everyone should know him. Yeah, that's incredible. Um, I'm gonna go with one of our students.
His name's Philip. He graduated two years ago. He is incredible. And his path to college wasn't easy, but he is there now. He is at Indiana State University. Go Sycamores, baby. And it is so incredible because of his passion and excitement to be there. He has already gotten some other Brightlane students to go to ISU.
Yeah. Who didn't know about this opportunity before. Didn't think it was possible, but he sat down with them on Zoom. He has done so many virtual tours to be like, Hey, this is what my dorm room looks like. This is what campus looks like. This is the experience that you could have. Let me show you. Let me tell you, let me do more.
And so, um, I don't know. I'm just so excited for this guy. He is all in. He's making others all in. He's showing people opportunities and he wants to be a teacher and he wants to be a teacher. Come on full circle. Yeah, let's go. That's awesome, y'all. It is been so much fun getting to learn about the incredible work that Brightlane Learning is doing.
The way that you're impacting last year, over 800 students right here in Central Indiana. But the jobs not done y'all. They are almost 5,000 students in Marion County in Central Indiana. There's another 19,000 students across the state of Indiana that are experiencing housing insecurity. So volunteers, where do they need to go?
How can volunteers get hooked in? Go to brightlanelearning.org. And you will find your opportunities to get involved on that webpage. You'll find it right there. Um, two, if people wanna follow up, if they wanna learn more about you guys, where can they do that? Uh, kids@brightlanelearning.org, send us an email.
One thank you to our friends at Elements for hooking us up. Yes. And, you know, making this conversation possible. Mm-hmm. And two, just thank you for the work that you're doing. Uh, you talk about, you know, you wanna be a Management Fellow, like you could have probably found yourself working on giant real estate developments or X, y, Z thing.
I know some Management Fellows that do incredible, incredible, insane work at the biggest companies in the world. Yeah, yeah. And for you to come in and make an impact here in the, in Indianapolis, uh, I'm very appreciative of that. You know, the coming back to Indiana, talking about like nature, all the stuff like being out there and it's people like you guys who are Hoosiers by choice.
They come in and find these. Uh, problems in our communities and just make it your life's work to go and solve that. Like you guys are making a huge impact in Indiana and we're very, very grateful for that. So thank you. Keep up the great work. If you're a listener out there, go in and be a tutor. Put yourself out there and, uh, help make our, our, uh, our city a better place.
Appreciate y'all and we'll talk soon. Thank you. Yeah. Alright, that's a wrap on today's nonprofit spotlight and I hope you're as fired up as I am about the work being done by amazing leaders right here in Indiana. Big thanks again to Elements Financial for sponsoring the series as a credit union.
They're not-for-profit and built on the idea of empowering individuals to achieve financial success. That's why they've been empowering Hoosiers and folks around the globe for 95 years. They're based in Indy, but they serve members in all 50 states and more than 50 countries, and they're serious about giving back, teaching more than 1000 financial wellness classes every year.
Offering volunteer hours and donating 1% of net profits to causes that matter. So if you're looking for a financial partner that's rooted in purpose and proud to serve, check out elements.org/getin. That's elements.org/getin and use promo code GETIN Elements Financial, like a bank, only better federally insured by NCUA.
Thanks again for listening. We'll see you next time right here on Get IN.
