The Poverty Problem Hiding Across Indiana

Every other negative statistic results from that. So if we can address the poverty issue, we've addressed many of the other ills in our community. When you go out there and do that, you feel more connected to your zip code, to your town. It is like the lifeblood of great communities. One in six individuals [music] in central Indiana has used a service provided through United Way or through a United [music] Way park. How do you see this in your community and then how can you start to formulate a plan to change it?

From South Bend to Evansville and everywhere in between, this is Get In, the show focused on the Hooser State and the incredible stories happening here today. I'm Nate Spangle, founder of Get Indiana, and I will be your host for today's [music] conversation. My guest today is Fred Payne, and he is the president and CEO of United Way of Central Indiana. There he helps lead efforts to help people [music] move out of poverty and build long-term stability. Since joining United Way in 2022, [music] he has helped advance a 5-year strategic plan to address the leading indicators of poverty. Previously, he served as Indiana's [music] commissioner of workforce development and was part of the leadership team that launched Honda's Indiana Auto Plant down in Greensburg, Indiana.

I'm really excited to learn how you came from the bayou and ended up in a studio in Broadripple. You like that? The double B there. Uh I'm excited to hear about the work that United Way is doing. I think everyone out there knows, has seen the brand, but really learning how it works. And then also maybe a little bit of diving into the Greensburg auto plant and like Honda, you know, investing in the state of Indiana.

I know we're a big sector for for automotive across the state. So, man, welcome to the show. Well, thank you for having me. I'm excited to be here and excited to share and talk and get to know you a little bit better and have people to get to know United Way better. Come on. And so your journey in Indiana starts in spring law day after you you came up here from Louisiana to like shadow a law day.

Is that how that worked? So yes, I applied to law school here in Indiana as well as down south and I visited spring law day. What is spring law day? So, the law school has a day in the spring where potential law students can come and they can visit the school and they take tours and they sit in on classes and I had the opportunity to do that. So, on that day, I sat in and I just felt comfortable and I made my decision that day. Was it a is a spring a spring day down in Bloomington?

The leaves start to like come back a little bit. You're like, "Oh, this is nice." Oh, man. It was beautiful. And then December hits and you're like, "What? Did I sign up?"

No, I'm just kidding. But okay, so day one like you knew going to that like tour day that you wanted to come be, you know, part of the Hooers. But then, you know, how long is law school? Law school is three years. It took me two and a half, but my intent was not to become a Hooser. My intent was to attend the law school and return to Louisiana.

Okay. Well, what part of Indiana got its hooks into you and kept you here? Well, actually when I was uh finishing law school, I had I was going into my final semester of law school and at this neat little place at Tenth and Walnut, I worked at a small law firm in Bloomington and there was a gas station at Tenth and Walnut that I passed by every single day. And I never stopped at that gas station because the gas was a little bit more expensive than the gas closer to my apartment. So on this particular day, I stopped in that gas station because I needed to get some Mentos because I was going to have the opportunity, or at least I thought I was to ask questions and sit in on a deposition with the attorney for whom I was working. [clears throat] Went into the gas station, picked up my Mentos, and the cashier clerk was not at the counter.

So I was standing there alone, and then in comes this other person. Person and I began a conversation. The person had just come to Bloomington uh to start graduate school and four years later that person was my wife. There it is. No way. I mean, you must have been a heck of a conversationalist.

Like you're probably sitting there thinking too like I hope this attendant never comes back. Like you're like kind of forced into a convo there. That's incredible. Actually, I was really ready to leave because I was almost late for where I was supposed to be. But the person I struck up a really good conversation when I say it was a really good conversation. It was a great conversation and and like I said, the rest is history.

The question is, how did you end up getting the like did you get her phone number right there? Like how did you end up getting the date? Oh, that was a a longer story, but uh I'm sure we don't have a whole lot of time here to do that [clears throat] because I can talk about this all night. I love it. And I have different variations of the story that I tell when my wife's around and when I'm not. Of course you do.

Yeah. Well, we'll see if she listens or not, right? We'll see if she listens. But no, that was probably one of that goes down as one of the best days of my life because at that gas station, I met who would become my best friend who would eventually become my wife. She was from Michigan. I was from Louisiana.

We decided to make Indiana our home. Wow. And so, did you guys stay down in Bloomington or how did you end up in the in central Indiana? Well, actually, I graduated before she did and I ended up looking for a job in the Midwest instead of returning back home because I actually had a job waiting for me back home and because of her, I ended up looking for a job in the Midwest. No way. And we ended up choosing Indianapolis because it was um it was close obviously close to her and uh it was an opportunity for me to practice law in Indiana.

Yeah. Okay. So you you end up, you know, choosing Indianapolis, choosing the Midwest, did you have a big family down in Louisiana? Yes. I'm one of eight. Oh.

So was like and did uh your a lot of your other siblings like spread out far from home? No. Wow. So for you to go like that's a huge commitment to be the one of eight that ends up, you know, on the other side of the country, like literally from south to north. Yes. I am the only one who's traveled this far away, but we're still a pretty close family.

I keep trying to recruit uh my nieces and nephews to come to Indiana. They come and visit, but I have not been able to recruit them to come and uh to go to school or to to move here, but I'm still working. Yeah. Well, we'll see after they listen to this episode. Maybe this will be the one that, you know, does it for him. So, how did you get into the the like government and then into the nonprofit sector?

Like, you know, talk about being the Indiana's commissioner of workforce development. Yes. So, how did the path go from being a lawyer and practicing that into becoming the commissioner for workforce development? It starts again with me practicing law in Indianapolis and I practice and I practice employment and labor law. And then when Honda was going to open a new facility down in Greensburg, I ended up leaving private practice and I went to Honda to help start the legal division at the time. Oh, wow.

So, you got employed by Honda? Yes. And they were already set to come to Indiana. Yes. Okay. So, how when Honda is looking all across the world and then all across the United States and then maybe they land on, hey, we want something in the Midwest.

How do they choose Greensburg? That was an entire uh process where they went through a sort of a what they have a site selection process and they have a site selection committee and it was down to Indiana, Illinois, and Kentucky. Those were the final three uh areas. And Indiana, interestingly enough, Indiana wanted it. You had people like Governor Mitch Daniels at the time who put forth a great effort and I always remember this photo that we have and I still have it at my house down in Greensburg. No one told the citizens of Greensburg to do this.

So one day uh they all met down at the courthouse in Greensburg and they formed a Honda H. And there was an aerial photo taken of the citizens in Greensburg making that Honda H that essentially reminded the people from Honda that they had made the right decision to choose Greensburg, Indiana as their new home for their new North American plant. Wow. I mean that is cool. I mean we talk about that like wanting these businesses to bring their jobs here. Like that is a one way to do it where you bring a little bit of the small town Indiana feel of like, hey, you're going to be welcomed here as one of us.

I mean, today so many people across Decar County and the surrounding counties work at that at that Honda facility. It is a huge employer in southeast Indiana. I don't know what the number you mean, you probably know how many jobs Honda created there. Well, at the time when we first started, we were going to create uh a little over 2,000 jobs, but if you recall, uh the financial crisis hit. So, we first we began uh with 1,000 employees at the time with one shift and then the economic crisis, you know, hit with the financial crisis. So, we paused and then we brought in a second shift about two years later.

So, we started off with a thousand then added another thousand employees about a year and a half to two years after that. And like do you have stories of like the furthest someone was traveling to work there? like it has to be pretty I mean distance. Well, we we created we made sure that we were trying to hire for safety for drive time and to make sure that we included as many people in the radius as possible. So, initially when the plant began uh we started off with a geographic radius uh of about an hour's drive and we made sure that we were doing that for safety reasons and a variety of other reasons. So it was about at that time it was no more than an hour's drive.

Okay, that makes sense. But I mean you talk about an hour's drive from Greensburg, it's like you're you're basically Cincinnati, you know, like you're probably pretty close to like Lawrenburg right there. Like I think that drive is probably an hour. You're you're on one side is Cincinnati, the other side Indianapolis. I drove from Indianapolis every day and it took me uh a little bit probably about 64 minutes from my uh garage to uh the parking lot in Greensburg. Obviously it's Honda but it's like kind of a startup like did it feel kind of like that?

Like you had some entrepreneurial like chops while you were there? Yeah, it was it was very much a startup but when you talk when you look at what's there now it did not exist in 2006. Wow. So 2006, you know, there was 17 the organization purchased 1776 acres of land. Uh what was what an oddly specific number 1776 that's America 250 I suppose. And then u started building the plant what again what things look like in 2006 did not exist you know doesn't exist or today didn't exist then.

So there was an announcement in 2006, construction began in 2007, and the first car rolled off the line in October 2008. 2 years of like of work before a car comes off the line. That's pretty wild. So you end up doing that and you guys grow, you get to a,000, you you know, the plan ends up getting to 2,000. I don't know what it would be at today, but I know that it's a large employer in Decar County and and the surrounding counties. How long did you end up staying with Honda?

I stayed there almost a decade. Okay. Almost a decade. From there, where did you make the transition to? So during that time, um I served in a variety of leadership roles at the facility. And part of my role was on our administration side helping with our uh workplace and workforce.

And in 2017, Governor Hulcom wanted to bring an industry approach to workforce development. Okay. So at that time he asked me to serve as the commissioner of the department of workforce development. I I want to know what how does someone get appointed by a governor? You know like is it a phone call? Is it an email?

Do his people reach out to your people? What does that feel like? It felt great. I mean, when you have someone like a governor who thinks that you have the ability, you have the skills, and you have the, you know, wherewithal to help them in their administration to move things forward, particularly in an area that they believed is, as what Governor Hulkcom called it at the time, the defining issue of the decade was and and still is workforce development. So, it was an honor to be asked by him to serve in that position. So, So, did he pick up the phone and call you?

So, I did receive a phone call. That's pretty cool. See what phone call first. Wow, that's awesome. Like it's kind of like that's almost like your um like your NFL draft call. It's like you get that and you're Hello, spread.

And it's like, hey, we'd like to select you first overall to come and lead workforce development. That's awesome. It wasn't exactly like that. Well, you know, we feel like that. We can dream. We can feel like that.

But it was an honor to serve. Yeah. So then, how long were you working for the state? I was there for Governor Hulcom's entire first term and then a year after that. So I served close to five years in that role. And what I think that people that are in it understand what workforce development means, but you know like we have Hoosiers from all over that listen to this show like can you explain that to me like uh if we weren't in you know local economics and government?

So the Indiana Department of Workforce Development serves two uh distinct purposes. one is it is the workforce training provider for the state but then it also administers the unemployment insurance trust fund. So on the workforce development side of the house it really leads the state in training and policies related to workforce and training. So for example during my tenure there we started what was called the next level jobs program and there are two sides to the next level jobs program. One for individuals and one uh for companies. So for the individuals we created uh a pipeline for individuals who wanted to get a certification say maybe in computer coding or they wanted a certification in something else or welding.

We would end up paying for them to receive that certification like upskilling. Upskilling definitely upskilling. And so that was one part of it to ensure that individuals got the training that they need to fit the skills that they wanted to have or they needed to have to get what we called a highwage high demand job. How did you determine what a high wage high demand job is? Sure. We ended up uh doing some analysis on jobs that um had really at the time jobs that were over like 1750 an hour.

Yeah. Okay. Well, this is, you know, talk about 2017, 2018, 2019 because now it's feels like every kid starts with a job at 15 bucks an hour and it's like this wasn't totally how it was in, you know, even 5 years ago, right? It was totally, it was totally different. The landscape was totally different. So, you have those jobs and then you also have the jobs where the demand is high.

So, individuals are going into communities and these jobs are pretty hot. If you recall, you know, let's just say the the time period that we all knew about the. com era and that era, you know, you had do and then you had individuals who were learning that skill. They were learning computers. They were learning all of the things that were surrounding that. So those jobs were in high demand.

Yeah. This makes me think of um so I was part of the or fellowship program. Yes. And so this was all started I mean back in I mean 20 years ago when Angie's List and Exact Target and these tech companies around central Indiana were losing a lot of their technical talent to the coasts and they were like hey we need to get a program built here so we can retain the this you know high level of talent to grow these tech companies and you think about like the outcomes of Angie and exact target like it seems though that to have worked there similar yes yes sim similar concept And we also started at the time we started the office of workbased learning and apprenticeships because we started to really understand that there there had been a a a pendulum swing and that pendulum swing had really swung away from trades and skilled jobs and really individuals learning a trade and craft at the high school level.

So we wanted to make sure that we were trying to maybe level set that trend and bring things back to make sure that there was that type of training at the high school level and even at the middle school level. So we wanted to make sure we were encouraging employers to engage with programs that gave students an opportunity for them to earn and learn at the same time. So the office of work-based learning and apprenticeship was created. So that's that would be the job training the workforce development side of the house and then the other side is the unemployment insurance trust fund which you know it pretty much speaks for itself. We administered that when people are unemployed to no due to no reason of their own we would end up um you know ensuring that they received unemployment insurance payment. Okay.

All right. I I want like five to seven more minutes on this because I'm very intrigued and then I want to dive into how you end up at at the at the United Way of Central Indiana. Okay. So, one, what when you're in workforce development for the state of Indiana, what kind of asks are you getting from employers from the biggest employers? cuz I'm sure you know someone at Lily has your phone number, someone at Cumins has your phone number, someone at Honda, someone at all these big companies are saying like, "Hey, we want to continue to grow here." Lily just hit a trillion dollars in in valuation.

It's like they can't do that without really really good people. So like what were they reaching out to you asking about? So we had a lot of collaborative efforts with employers throughout the state. The goal was to make sure that we had individuals who were in the state of Indiana who had the training and skills aligned with the jobs that they needed in the moment, but also the jobs for the future. So that's that's part of that was part of the equation when we talk about high wage, high demand jobs. Yeah, we would sort of get information from employers on growing trends and we would try to make sure that we had training that was designed to really fit those employers needs and have relationships with schools with the IvyTechs of the world with the other schools that would be training individuals and getting them certifications and and credentials.

And this apprentice program you talk about uh you work-based the office of workbased learning and apprenticeship. Is this the crew that's part of like they've gone to Switzerland a few times now. They like really studied the apprenticeship model across trades but also across like finance and you know all these different things. Is that like that whole crew? Sure. It was at the time you know there were a variety of individuals and organizations who were studying apprenticeship programs.

So um you have the Fairbanks, you have Ascend Indiana, all of us were looking at the same things together. So the office of workbased learning and apprentichip is not that group that went to that's going to now uh Switzerland, but we are part of the studying of all of the states. Uh I got you uh work-based learning and apprenticeship program. So yeah, I mean it's super interesting when you talk about I mean we just had someone on who started a trade school for learning how to operate cranes. Yeah. Like like he said I think the stat was 71% of who your crane operators are 50 years old or more.

Oh wow. So, it's like I didn't know that statistic, but something like I mean, don't quote me, go back and listen to that episode when it comes out, but like it was something crazy where it was like a there are a lot of crane operators that are over 50 years old and they need young people to want to. So, I think the school's called Train for the Crane. And I was like, these are interesting things. Like, these are jobs. I do feel like in the 2000s to the mid2010s there was this you talk about that pendulum where it was just drilled into people's heads that if you don't go to college and graduate with a degree from any college like you won't be successful and that like people were really pushed that way and then you see people that are like you know they take on college debt or they do these things and then they end up like well what I wanted to be was a a skilled trades you know I wanted to be an electrician or I wanted to start my own plumbing company and I probably didn't need to go, you know, get my degree from somewhere or I could have done it with a certification from somewhere.

And now it does seem like there is a that pendulum it kind of has swung in a way that people promote like you can be successful without going to college. You can be successful and go to college. Like it kind of just depends on what your pathway is. Is that kind of like what and to put a bow on that part of the conversation? Sure. So So I I'll level set there.

So every student, every person needs education and training. Full stop. Yeah. Now it looks different for different people. Everyone doesn't want or need a 4-year degree or need a PhD. So when we think about the learning continuum, uh regardless of what field you're going in, there's going to be some training involved.

There's going to be some education involved. And I think what we did uh for a long time was we put education and learning in a bucket and that bucket was the four-year college degree. And there are so many jobs out there that can give a great quality of life for individuals that do not require a 4-year degree. So when during my time at the department of workforce development and our partnership with the commission for higher uh education uh we wanted to make sure we were telling the story about what true education is and what's needed because the highway to um economic advancement it is through education but it looks different for every person. Wow. Okay.

And then the other side of workforce development that I think is going to start to tie us into what you're doing today is uh from the unemployment. You got a there's a phrase to to put it all correctly. How do you say that? The unemployment insurance trust fund. Yeah. The unemployment insurance trust fund.

So this would be if someone you know finds themselves unemployed for as to no fault of their own. Then they you know I think there's an office and you go to and you file that and then I don't know exactly how it all works. That's probably, you know, a you question, but I'm sure through that you started to see people uh in different um socioeconomic classes, right? Like, you know, there are people, you know, talk about 2008, there was a lot of people that had college degrees that found themselves unemployed. And then through different you know times throughout you know human history there have been whether it be you know again the financial crisis or talk about like the great depression you know you found manufacturing like unemployment can at times strike anyone regardless of socioeconomic division. Is that like where you started to see people in challenging adverse times?

The best example which all of us want to forget but but it is reality was during co 19. Yeah, that's so true. And at the time, two of the biggest issues, um, there were a lot of issues, but the two that were up front and center were obviously health. The other was unemployment. Yeah. And when it comes to unemployment insurance at that time, we had individuals who had never filed for unemployment before in their life.

And now because of the climate in COVID, because of stay-home orders and all of those things, individuals were not working. So now they had to depend on a system that they had never depended on before. And so what I saw was I saw individuals who had degrees and who always had really good jobs, but for a moment in time, they were unemployed. And then we also saw individuals who were uh cyclical in their employment. lose their employment as well. So we saw, you know, across the landscape individuals who were struggling and so that was just a different moment.

They were all struggling and we all played a part, you know, for that global pandemic because it just wasn't in Indiana. If you remember, CO was a global pandemic. Yeah. And we saw uh people struggling. I don't know if you know the numbers and I don't know what the if that's like public information but February of 2020 you know what was unemployment file like I don't know um like applications filed versus let's say you know uh 6 months later or 3 months later you know February to June what does that look like so generally in an average week at the time the number of unemployment claims that were filed in any given week for Indiana was anywhere from 2500 to 3500. Okay.

Average for the state. For the state. Okay. When CO hit, the first week that we saw it was 64,000. Oh my god. Then the following week, that pretty much doubled.

So that gives you that lets you know just the gravity of the challenge that we were facing at the time from 25 to 3500 all the way up to 60 plus,000 in a week and then you talk about doubling again to over 100,000. Yes. Yes. So that was the moment that we were in uh during co that and you're the leader of this, right? Like this is all under your leadership. How are you galvanizing your team and like branding people like hey this is insane growth but like we can handle this like what were you saying to your team?

We had to make sure that we understood the moment and we had to understand what our systems were able to do. Yeah. And so the first thing we had to look at was whether or not our system because all of unemployment at the time and it still is it's you apply online. Yeah. So we're talking about a high input, high output IT system. Okay.

So we had to make sure that our system wouldn't crash. And so I asked our chief of IT who told me, hey, the the system won't crash because of the volume, but it could possibly crash because of all the changes that could possibly be made really quickly because you don't have time to troubleshoot. So many of these changes that we were going to have to make, we would have to make them in a number of weeks as opposed to months. And is there a pool of money? How did that work where you go from 2500 to 3500? But I don't know what the average amount like I don't know how that all works.

But I have to assume you're like, "Hey, we had a forecasted budget and now we have a global pandemic and like I don't even like it it when over a,000% increase, you know, like how do you start thinking about that because you probably obviously you timeliness matters, you know, like hey, we we can't wait around because people have to buy groceries and gas and you know, they have to keep their lives going." Like that seems like an incredibly stressful situation to be in. I would be disingenuous if I if I tried to downplay the stress. Yeah. But we had an excellent team around. Um and even though there was stress, they didn't show it.

That's awesome. We were blessed with uh team members who understood that they were working for everyone else. And you talk about the dollars, there were a few things at play. So, the max that you could get at the time for unemployment weekly was $390. Yeah. And there's a formula, right?

It's just not an automatic if it's based upon the amount of money you earned. It's there's a formula. So, I'm not going to start sounding like an unemployment geek here. Um because I could really geek out over this stuff. Yeah. So there was a formula and employers pay into that trust fund.

But then because of the volume and because of uh the moment that we were in, there were federal uh fundings that were placed that were given to the different states. So we were able to tap into those uh funds. Also, we made sure that each person who was eligible ended up receiving their unemployment. But it did take some time for us to get those payments to each individual. like I just want to do like quick math just in general and then I want to move into this next topic but just to like put that into scope this is not uh factual because you said there's a formula and we don't have to go into it but if it was if you had the week before co starts 3500 people that all got $390 okay that would be 1. 36 million so 1.

36 and if one two weeks later you said it went to 60 and then doubled And if you had 120,000 people, you're talking going from $1. 3 million to $46. 8 million in a 2e span. Your your numbers are, you know, roundabout. You're in the ballpark. Over over that period of time when we were in CO, we uh paid claims uh that totaled out to be 10.

2 billion to over 900,000 hooers in the state. So that that shows the need. That's not a number. Those are numbers that no one wants to ever have. No. Like I mean that might be more I don't know if you went in rears of like you know people that were in your position for like you know decades before.

It's like I don't know if they've ever you know maybe I don't know what it was in 2008 during the financial crisis but like maybe you had pretty high numbers then but $10 billion in a course of how long? It was a course probably over a two-year period of time, man. But through that, you learn about one high stress situations and you learn about the impact that you you can make and you know and you learn about the need that's out there across the Hooser State. You end up then, you know, coming over to the United Way. How did that transition out of uh workforce development into United Way? How did that transition happen?

When you you look at the goals of each organization, they are kind of similar. Because when we're looking at workforce training and we're looking at unemployment, we're making sure that we're helping individuals to advance. When you look at that, when we have the Department of Workforce Development, our dollars were devoted to training to ensuring that an individual uh receive the training so that they can receive a job or they can be upskilled. Right? When you come to United Way, that is part of what we do, but we also ensure that we're taking care of the whole person because now we're in an environment, you know, that's more at the local community level, at the regional level. And so, an individual may have some challenges with unemployment, but they have a challenge with unemployment because they don't have transportation or there may be a food insecurity issue.

So it's not just about training, right? So with United Way of Central Indiana and our partners, we can help an individual uh have some supports uh that in addition to helping them get a credential or to get some training, uh their car may break down and they can't lose that job and some of our partners will help provide transportation temporarily or you have an unhoused individual who needs some emergency shelter. Yeah, some of our partners are focused on ensuring that individuals have emergency shelter. So, I'll give you an example of just the impact over the last year for our fiscal year and it's about to end. Our fiscal year runs from July through June. So, we helped over 30,000 people maintain housing over this last year period of time.

It's over 30,000 people to maintain house. That's a huge number of individuals. When we think about the services that United Way provides, one in six individuals in central Indiana either is or has used um a service provided through United Way or through a United Way partner. So that tells you the one in six. One in six. Oh my.

Oh yeah, that's a big impact. So when I think about what was happening during CO with unemployment and the need that I saw statewide, similar to the needs that I saw regionally, communitywide, and once you get bit by the community bug, and you want to make sure that you're helping and you realize that you can be a vehicle uh to help change a person's life, it's transformative for you and you want to make sure that you're doing everything that you can to help another individual and someone else's family to live the life they're capable of living. And that's part of the reason why it became such a good fit for me. And it became one of these things that um I wake up thinking about. I go to bed thinking about because I know that Indiana can really be a great place. We are a great place now.

we can be so much better, you know, as we continue to help our neighbors out. And what I see here that I, you know, what I see here that's redeeming about a lot of this place and some places around, we have a high degree of collaboration in central Indiana. We have employers who want to help. We have people who want to help and organizations who want to help. So, those are some of the things that excite me about Indianapolis and the surrounding communities because we have a 7count geographic radius. And in each one of those places, you're going to get high collaboration, high desire to help and you're going to get some engagement.

Okay. Two questions. Yeah. Start with the first one. What was the story or the domino or the thing? Like I'm I I feel like everyone who works in nonprofit or philanthropy has the moment where something opened their eyes to the opportunity to really make a big impact and like you they couldn't stop thinking about it.

You you know wake up, go to bed and there's there's usually a story or a domino that that tipped it all over. It really is my own privilege. And I was experiencing some health issues at one point during that 2020 time period, 22 time period. I went to uh my appointment one day and these are appointments that I went to every day for a certain period of time and you end up seeing the same people because they may have the same schedule. And I remember going in on a Thursday, Friday, and there's a gentleman who I saw uh for I had seen him for the probably the past two weeks and he wasn't there. So I assume that he had finished and I didn't get a chance to say goodbye.

The following Monday, the gentleman is there and I said, "Hey, I missed you on Thursday, Friday. I thought you had finished your, you know, your appointments." and he looked at me. He said, "No, I didn't finish. I I just didn't have a ride." It didn't hit me then, but I said immediately, "Hey, here's my number.

If you need a ride, you can just give me a call." Again, it didn't hit me then. So, when I finished my appointment that day, I got in my car and I called my wife. My routine was to call my wife, you know, to let her know how the appointment went. And I'm on my way home. And I called her gave her other information.

Hey, I'm on my way home. Almost fine. You know, as I was driving home, my privilege smacked me in the face. There I was. I had strong support system with family and friends. I felt like I had a job that I could go to every day even with health conditions that I can focus and still make a difference.

I wasn't worried about a ride. I wasn't worried about medication. And here this gentleman was, he was worried about a ride. And if he was worried about a ride, there probably were some other barriers. And it hit me like a ton of bricks on my way home that my privilege is not what everyone else has, but my privilege shouldn't be my privilege alone. Those should be basics for everyone.

And I couldn't get that thought out of my mind. And then it became more important for me to end up devoting this next chapter of my life to community. in late 2016, early 2017, my mom had cancer. Um, and I remember going to like you talk about like appointments or like reoccurring treatments. It's like, you know, this is a multiple sometimes multiple times a week, sometimes like consecutive days, but like it's a lot of time where you see the same staff there and you know, like I I would driver, but I had my uncles there that would help drive her, my grandma, like we had a village that came together and helped, you know, go through this this time. And then you yeah you you can look around those rooms and say like not everybody has that you know especially I mean you know some people move across the country and they don't end up you know like building out a a networking community and imagine being if you're from Louisiana and you end up in Indianapolis but this is where your career took you and if you don't have a big family like that can be very lonely and and you can start to Yeah.

I mean, you talk about this this privilege does smack you in the face and and it's wild to think about that like as you're you yourself are going through your own health condition to then have like that moment of wait I'm privileged even though you're also experiencing a health condition like I think those are the the people and and again it's the domino it's the story right so so that was what it was it was seeing this and then you know how did you end up deciding that the United Way was the right place to get plugged in. And then how are y'all making a huge impact across central Indiana? Sure. Having conversations with people from United Way, uh, people on the board talking about their impact. After you realize that those are, you know, the things that United Way is doing and then when you have my eye opening experience, it's not too hard to end up falling in love with the place. What is you like?

I mean, when you say it as a whole, I think that, you know, places there are other nonprofit and philanthropic organizations that are a little bit easier to understand. You know, like Gleaners Food Bank, it's like, okay, I kind of understand what their mission is. Uh, we've had, you know, all the way from Home Repairs for Good. It's like, okay, in the name, we know what they're doing. Uh when you look at the United Way, you guys work with a ton of partners. Maybe from like reporting and data and like knowing just information about where partners need to plug in and do more work.

Like the United Way is kind of like an almost an infrastructure throughout central Indiana of knowing about, you know, leading indicators of poverty to where people can make an impact. Give me like the high level of like what the United Way is. So high level, I'll just give you that word united. Yeah. So it really unites all of these different uh resources really under not all of them under roof but we end up becoming an access point. So our role in central Indiana is really twofold.

One is to ensure the nonprofit human services sector is stable and strong. The nonprofit human services sector. So is that like food housing? boot housing, all of the basic types of needs, the things that individuals would need to live on a day-to-day basis to advance economically. So if you're health the Maslo's hierarchy of need, this is like tier one of the pyramid. Sure.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Following. So so in that ensuring that uh the sector itself is stable and strong.

We're engaged in public policy work. You've heard of on my way prek for Indiana. United Way of Central Indiana was the organization along with uh some other partners that pushed uh to make that really the state system for uh lowincome individuals to receive uh uh scholarships for early prek. Gotcha. because we know that reading and you know ensuring that individuals who are who have children that those children can read by the third grade um is important and that doesn't start in the classroom when they're in the third grade. It starts much sooner.

So from a public policy standpoint there's that. So that's one of the ways that we help look out for the sector. We also ensure that we have impact in community through partners who do direct service work. So when we talk about direct service work, you talk about an organization like Second Helpings that does food. You talk about an organization like Flannerhouse that's doing a variety of services uh in community. So those organizations are doing the work.

They're doing the feeding people. They're clothing people. They are sheltering people, right? We are the infrastructure that helps them to do that. We provide them with funding support. We help provide them with other services whether it's uh board training, recruiting and things like that.

We are sort of the backbone and help provide grants for them from a capital standpoint. We help provide infrastructure grants for them. uh IT grants, things that they need to do to end up operating. We help them to do those things. We don't do all of it, but we help defay some of that cost so that they can focus on the direct services and many of them are really doing some great work. Yeah.

And then you talk about United and measuring the impact and measuring the need. I think that's a big piece too. It's like not everyone has, you know, money to do a big corporate study of the of knowing whether, you know, how they can improve, how they can make a bigger impact and knowing the value of, hey, $1 into this org created this much. I hate to say it's like it's not all numbers because it's people, but it's like people, but like successful NPOS's know that a dollar can make multiple dollars of impact or multiple, you know, like multiple impacts there. But you, you know, a lot of these are smaller teams. They don't have the ability to go out there and create a study to know that, hey, by putting uh shoes, one of my good friends runs a new shoe day, it's an awesome organization, but putting new shoes on kids uh to help them, you know, get back there as Indiana shoe bank.

It creates this much economic opportunity, you know, like that's a lot. I feel like is that's a piece of the United Way. what we do, another way of saying is that we help to empower the organizations to do the work that they do. Yeah. And if you have an organization that is focused on uh emergency shelter, then we could help provide funding to help them uh do the e emergency sheltering. They end up providing us with data and that data tells us a story and it helps them out later too.

So for example, we have an initiative called the centers for working families. Now it's not a big center and it's not where families go to work. So but it is a bundled approach to workforce training and workforce supports and services. So individuals who have engaged in that centers for working families model have increased their household income by about 14 $15,000. and organizations throughout our United Way network. They are centers for working families uh entities.

So for example, the Indianapolis Urban League is a centers for working families uh entity. They uh provide the centers for working families support. A Grace Care Center in Hamilton County uh provides that type of support. So it helps individuals um and that is one of the ways that we're helping them. But the data side of that is something that's also captured on our website. You can go to our website wwci.

org and you go to the data section. We have what we call an impact united dashboard. This is a public-f facing dashboard that lets the public know what community organizations are doing. It is a dashboard that shows u data whether it's on economic development it's on um you want to talk about food the data is there we just had a release yesterday on what's called the Alice report it's called ALS because it's an acronym to uh for asset limited income constrained but employed individuals and what that means is that these are families amilies that are working but are not making ends meet. The Alice data that was just released yesterday, it shows the percentage of families that are in Indiana that are Alice households or that are in poverty. And okay, I want to I want to dive into this.

I pulled up the dashboard. This is asset limited. So meaning we don't have a ton of wealth or things, right? Like this could be from houses to cars to 401ks, right? Asset limited. Mhm.

income constrained. The income that they have, not only is it limited, but it's constrained to, you know, two or three things. They don't have a they can't use it in a variety of ways that a family that doesn't have those constraints and they're employed like the inbart is employed like they are working, they are gainfully employed, but they are still asset limited and income constrained, right? Okay. So, this you know largely they're doing the right inputs. to the inputs is like hey we want people we want people working you know going out into society and you know you know contributing but then the data here is pretty wild.

This is the 2025 this is over the the course of 2025. This is this is the new if you pulled up the data now that will be the new data that we just released. So 241,744. So 241,000 Indiana household no central Indiana central Indiana households 241 over 241,000 central Indiana households are Alice and or poverty yes I don't how many households are there in central Indiana yeah that is is quite a huge number more than one in three households within Marian County are Alice meaning asset limited the whole nine yards or poverty Yes. 59% of zip codes in United Ways service area have more than 30% Alice in poverty households. Yes.

That's throughout again that's throughout the seven county area. So the seven I mean this is a stat too. 49% of African-American or black households are Alice in poverty. Like that's almost I mean that's half that shows you that shows you the need uh that we have. And when you talk about the data that we have, our organization tries to lead with need. Meaning that we want to make sure that our resources are going to where the greatest need is.

And the organizations that are directly helping individuals are the organizations that are what we call community- based organizations who are doing the direct service work. There are 90 accredited United Way organizations in central Indiana. And accreditation means that they go through this process of we review their governance process, we review their financials. It's sort of a good housekeeping seal of approval, right? Yeah. Meaning they'd be a good steward of funds like like hey you kind of do a little audit type thing, you know, of or accreditation.

Yes. And they do what they and they are doing what they say they do. Yeah. If they are saying that they're feeding people, then we confirm you are feeding people. if they say that they have a board that has good governance, then we've confirmed all of [snorts] those things. It's kind of like um because I think that people as as funders would think like well, you know, I'm giving my money to XYZ thing directly and it's like, you know, you hear too many crazy stories of, you know, whatever's happening like, you know, the unfortunate stories of people taking money and donations and they're not necessarily doing exactly what they say they're doing.

having like a third party like the United Way to say, "Hey, our accredited institutions are they are doing what they say they're doing with the funds that they are given." Yes. And then and we go through that reacredititation process with um with the agencies on a periodic basis, but every year when they apply for grants, they're telling us exactly what they're going to do with the grants. And then they have to provide us with the data bag showing that they did did the things that they say they were going to do. And we have some really fabulous organizations that are in uh central Indiana that are doing some really good work and that are helping people uh to advance. They're helping people to gain financial security.

They're helping uh kids to learn how to read. They're doing so many good things. So even though the stat itself is a horrible stat, we can't overlook the individuals and the organizations that are out there really doing good. And if those organizations didn't exist and if they were not doing that work, the number that you see there could be much greater than that. Is there a stat about poverty in central Indiana that blew your mind? One number that I always pay attention to, it was even before I was at the Department of Workforce Development has always been the unemployment number, but it's not the number that's there, but it's really the number that's not listed.

It's the number of people who are not looking for a job because of a variety of reasons, whether they're distressed or something has happened. Those are individuals who can and will at some point be back into the workforce and where there is an opportunity for them. And we want to make sure that we're creating pathways for them to come back to employment so that they can end up being good heads of their own households so that they can be economic drivers in their community. So that's a number that I've always paid attention to, but it's not the number that's it's not the top number. I want to dive into how data turns to action. So, I'm looking at one specific zip code cuz I went to the map and there's just one that's like pulling me in.

46218. It's like east side of downtown, like northeast of downtown. Like what would I mean I don't know the roads or but 46218 is the zip code. The number is 70% of households are Alice and poverty, right? Alice or poverty. go on the website and like see all the data about how they're determining what this means, whatever.

But like the number is seven 70% of households, seven out of 10 households in 46218 are either in poverty or asset limited income constrained, but they are employed. They're they're people are working there. They're working. How do you take a number like that? People are working like there are people that go to work and in this zip code. How do you make an actual change?

What has to happen there so that they are less limited on assets or less constrained on income? That really does take a focused effort. With the organizations we have who are working in that area, who are working in various parts of town, uh they have a variety of programmatic things that help individuals to move to their next level. So you may have a family, let's just say everyone's working. They're in the Alice population. Their challenge this month may very well be food.

So there are organizations that can help them with the food for that month and they may just need a little leg up for that month, right? And so once that month is over and they've been able to receive the food for that month, then that helped them, you know, the following month, right? It's sort of like a a snowball effect in both ways. When a bill isn't paid, then you know the debt keeps piling on, right? But when you help a family to pay some of that debt down and they keep going in that direction, they end up having um a little bit of distance put between them and their currently not so positive situation. So that's when we talk about our goal for our strategic plan, it is to specifically distance 10,000 households from poverty.

And 10,000 households is roughly about 33,000 people. And the reason that we say we distance people, it's intentional because you may have a family that is on the asset limited income constrained side of the house. And then you may have a family that needs emergency shelter. they have no assets at all. So the intervention with that family is much different than the Alice family. It recognizes that each family is different.

But the goal is is that with each intervention through United Way or United Way agency puts a little bit of distance between them and their currently not so positive situation. And then at at some point they've had enough interventions that they're no longer Alice and that or that they're no longer in poverty. and four areas that we know that are leading indicators of poverty. There are plenty of others, but we focused on four. Basic needs, people need to eat, they need shelter, they need transportation, they need clothing. So, basic needs is one.

Early child care and learning. Kids need to know how to read before the third grade. All of the stats show us and demonstrate that if they cannot read by the third grade, then they have a lifelong of challenges awaiting in terms of literacy and everything that's attached to literacy. Safe and affordable housing doesn't matter what community you go into right now, there's a housing issue. Doesn't matter what your socioeconomic level is, but just imagine if you are uh someone who is uh who has quite a few burdens and barriers. And then the final one is economic mobility.

Individuals need to have some economic tool to take them to the next level. So when we look at those, our goal is to make sure that one, we have about 20% of the families and individuals in our sustained stability category. And that means that we want them to when they've worked with us or one of the organizations that they've had a job or they've had a permanent place to stay 6 months to a year or their children are enrolled in a quality childcare program. And then secondly, the next third of that um 30% we want individuals to be enrolled in some type of credentiing program. If they don't have a high school diploma, they're working on a high school equivalency or they're working on a certification. And then the last half of that 10,000 households, we want to help them to increase their household income by 65%.

So, it's a little difficult for us to say that we're going to have an economic mobility strategy and we don't put a premium on economic mobilities, which is why 50% of that goal is increasing individuals income by 65%. And today, we're about 77% to that goal. Wow. So, that would be 5,000 households, correct? Right. Is that the half of Yeah, it's it's a little bit over that.

Yes, a little bit over that. increasing by 65% household income. Yes. I think this is interesting and I like this number because I I'm like, "Wait, hold up. You said 5,000 you you were talking about the 65%, not the whole 10,000." Yeah.

Right. Yes. Yes. Yes. So, it's 10,000 households. Yes.

5,000 of which you are committing or you guys are your goal is to take 5,000 households in central Indiana and help them increase household income by 65%. Yes. Okay. Uh, and like is that like a what's the average of those like what's the average household income? It needs to go from blank to blank. It it depends on where the person or the family comes in through the system, right?

Cuz this is interesting. You know, you have the zip code 46218 where you have 12,000 total households. 70% of them are either in poverty or atlas. But you go to, you know, you go to Carmel, you go to Hamilton County and there's 14,000 households. There's still 382 households that are like it's 17% Alice or poverty in Hamilton County. Yeah, it's every county.

It's not like there's no there's none on here where no one lives. There's not a neighbor in poverty or in you know Alice or poverty like you know there's orange unfortunately there's orange all throughout this and so yeah like there is a big a big job ahead of you guys. It's a big job and to me and the data will tell you the biggest challenge that our communities are facing is poverty. Every other negative statistic results from that. So if we can address the poverty issue, we've addressed many of the other ills in our community. And that is irrespective of place.

You look at that chart and you will see that there is alice and poverty in every single county here in Indiana. And that means that there needs to be work done in every single county here in Indiana. When you determine poverty, is that like is it a number? It's like, hey, uh it's all based on income per person. Yeah, it's a there's a number that the federal government the federal government updates that poverty number every year per person per household. Like a quick Google search says one person if you were it's like 15,650.

like yeah so it's like helping that how does how do you get everyone over that two people 21,0001 so it would be let's say that if someone comes in at if two people a couple young they are technically in poverty if they were at 21,150 it's helping that increase by 65%. Yes and we we'll do that in a variety of ways. Let's say that couple they they've come in, they're working, but they haven't optimized their skills, but they need a certification to do that. So, we'll work with them to get the the organization, the community- based organization will work with them to get that certification. But while they're also doing that, they're helping to they're helping them to set a budget. they're helping them with all the other support so that once they go through those programs, not only would they have a certification, but they also could have increased their credit score because we know that the credit score is, you know, one of the barriers that that people face um in trying to have economic freedom.

So on average, and these are general statistics, so all generalizations are wrong, even including the one that I'm about to make. Individuals who have a credit score below 630 or who in the 500 range or lower pay on average about $8,600 more a year than someone who has a 650, a 675 plus. And you may ask, well, where where's all that cost coming? Higher interest rates. they're having to pay uh more like first month's rent. So all of those fees add up to a population that can least afford to do it.

So it's so it's imperative that a credit score is increased as much as it can when we're trying to distance people from poverty. Yeah. Okay. We talked about it briefly and I want to you know we're kind of getting close on time here but I mean this is incred like it's no it's not it's terrible but the like you know understanding it is incredible and knowing like hey once you see this data you can't unsee it and you're like it like slaps you in the face right where it's like how can you go out and make an impact and it makes sense as to the United Way. I think some people um I mean my generation is like I've known the United Way. I'm 29 years old but I I had maybe had the preconceived notion where it's like oh well I'll just donate to the an org directly which is a good thing.

We're not saying don't but I understand now uh how you guys come into play and that kind of the overarching you know uniting of all of these different organizations like I think this has been immensely helpful on that front. We talked about, you know, your five-year strategic plan and leading indicators of poverty and I think we talked there's those four things you just talked but like how does that look practically like if we are if you want to go out and assess your community like you know you wherever you live because we said it's in every county across Indiana how and like let's say someone's listening to this you know in northern Indiana and they want to make an impact in their community like what are these leading indic like how do you see this in your community and then how can you start to formulate a plan to change it? So very quickly on how do you see it? I want to make sure I make this point.

Poverty has no place, face or race. So you may be looking at poverty or you may be looking at an Alice person every day and not even know it. They're sitting on the pews next to us at church. They're in the line next to us, in front of us, or behind us in Walmart or Target or whatever store we're in. So it's difficult to really see if you're looking at a person. But when it comes down to seeing things in community and knowing where there are some challenges for people to lock in, I think many people believe that they have to have this enormous wealth to give back.

That isn't true. People can give their time, people can give their intellectual power or they can also uh share their experiences and their stories. So that's just general, right? But if an individual who wants to uh volunteer, we have uh we've launched what we call volunteer. It's uh our initiative that the Lily endowment uh funded and we just launched it. uh individuals who are looking to volunteer, they can go to volunteair.

org and they can end up signing up and it's a an initiative and there's some proprietary software that allows them to get matched with um good volunteer opportunities throughout central Indiana. So, that's one one way to volunteer. I think that's crucial. I I I love that one part. So, I came in 2019. I'm from a small town.

It was easy because there weren't that many options, you know, like in a small we're 1500 people like volunteering is like, okay, this month, you know, the Boy Scouts are doing this thing and, you know, next month the football team's doing this thing and like it was easy to get plugged into orgs, moving to central Indiana, moving to Indianapolis. There are so many great organizations doing impactful things that that like you could there's no shortage of opportunities to like show up and whether it be, you know, help with home repairs, cleaning up a neighborhood, uh feeding people, like there's just there's no shortage. And it's almost like, you know, doing some soularching about where you want to make a big impact and like getting connected to those orgs. Like for me, I kind of preface this early. Uh when I had cancer, she ended up uh passing away in 2017. And I found this organization called Brooks Place that was helping um provide a space for kids who had experienced loss, whether that be a parent or sibling or grandparent.

And it was I just like found it by happen like I don't even know how I just like came across my screen and I was like yes like this is the thing that I want to go get involved with and I spent you know two summers like going there and all I did was serve pizza and like you know crack some corny dad jokes and like just like you know bring a little of uh all my energy into the space but it was like it was by luck that I ended up right where I was supposed to be. And what you guys are doing with voluntair seems as though you're not relying just on luck to find something. So how does so proprietary software that helps match people to nonprofit orgs in central Indiana? Yes. So we it was just launched back in March. So it's it's really new.

So we are trying to ensure that more people sign up and more organizations sign up. So it's the the typical just as you said you know someone comes and they want to volunteer don't know where to go or an organization needs more volunteers this is a good repository for them to to go to uh for them to get connected to a volunteer or a volunteer to get connected uh to an organization like one United way to find volunteer opportunities in Indiana. See what I did there? You like that? You like like you did that. [laughter] And then I I do want to circle back and you you you talking about some practical things that we see in community that can be done.

I do want to circle back to that and and I didn't want to go past it. One one quick thing, you know, with with children. I talked about the stat about children who can't read by the third grade. We have a program called ReadUp. And this is a program where individuals can go and volunteer uh and they help read to third and fourth graders, right? And that helps with literacy.

Just volunteering like that, giving an hour of your time, that can help. And you'll be amazed at how not only does it help the individual who uh is being tutored, but it also helps the person who is providing the tutoring support themselves because it gives them an opportunity to give back. But it also gives them a sense of, you know what, I'm really making an impact, a sense of value that they've already had, but they recogn they're recognizing it in a different way. It increases the surface area that your privilege might slap you in the face. Yes. Which I think is a good thing.

Uh one of the things I love about hosting a show and getting to bring people from all different oh backgrounds, experience, interest is just diversity of thought and experience. And you know, I live in Broadripple. I own a house. Like I, you know, run a business and I get to talk on a podcast all day. Like that's so much privilege, you know, like you just go through those lines and the more I get to have conversations like this one and with other nonprofit organizations and you know, we put out the word and and we also go do it. You know, we're going to be part of um in July we're doing a big they're getting 777 volunteers to help clean up parks across Indiana.

Awesome. Great. It's like we get to go out there and be part of uh street sweep is what they call that. and they, you know, but also use our platform and anyone can use their platform to talk about how they're giving back in their community. And it's not just for the person receiving it. It is like the lifeblood of great communities.

Like when you go out there and do that, you feel more connected to your zip code, to your town, to your, you know, your state and your county. And it's having that connection and that sense of ownership. One thing I do love about small towns, the best small towns, the majority of people feel like owners. Even you might be renting a house, but you feel like an owner within that community. And so when you know you can just see it on the streets when people pick up trash and when they when they just take a pride in their community and spending time empathizing with others in your community knowing that you know again it's you you said it earlier poverty has no place or face race place or face but the more time you spend outside of you know your day-to-day specific 9 to 5 whatever you can start to relate to others that might be experiencing your same area, your same geography in a different way.

Yeah, that that is you're you're so right. And that's that can be summed up in one word, connection. Yeah. Whatever success looks like for you, you want to see it happen. And that is why it's so important for us to do everything that we can to have people in our communities connected in every way that they can because connected communities are better communities and better communities have a better state, a better state. It's a better country.

And you see where I'm going with, you know, the ladder. It's better. It's better all around. And if there's anything that I can do on a daily basis to help someone with their connection, whether it's something that they like to do or something that they once like to do and haven't done it in a while, I want to do that because that's going to help them and it's going to help another person. I love it, man. Okay, we've come to the end of the show where we get to talk all things Indiana.

It's been a pleasure to get to learn more about your journey through workforce development which I think that is a topic again that is not necessarily top of mind for everyone in the state but affects everyone in the state. Then talking about the work you've been doing with the United Way, you know, it's one of those moments where I look back and it just puts me into a state of reflection which I I enjoy to do from time to time. This has been so incredible. But 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 homejcart.

com. My question for you, why do you call Indiana home? It is the place that I I met my wife. It is the place that I found a connection to community and it's a place that I found that uh has been good for my children and my family. It is a good place. Good place to get connected.

Get connected. We have three questions left for you all about the state of Indiana. This first one is your opportunity to shed more light on a part of the state that more people need to be talking about. What is a hidden gem in Indiana? I think Eagle Creek is a hidden gem. Yeah, I love Eagle Creek Reservoir.

It is a is a hidden gem and I don't think many people as many people know about it as they should. Yeah. And municipal park, a city park. I think a lot of people think it's Eagle Creek State Park and it's like no, this is run and operated by the city of Indianapolis and it is trails, the whole nine yards. It is Saturday mornings at Eagle Creek are hopping. Great spot.

Dog park as well. Oh yeah, I'm sure. Okay, this is where we source new guest options and learn about people that are making a huge impact. Who is a Hooser we need to keep on our radar? Someone who's doing big things. Jasmine Shahid Young.

Um, she is the founder of Rise Indie and her husband Akmed Young, who is now the president of of the Indianapolis Foundation. I think those two are doing really great work inside the city. Dynamic duo. Let's go. We love that. Uh, we'll have to talk to them.

And finally, when you think back from your first Indiana memory, stepping on campus in IU Bloomington uh for spring law day to today and all the things that have happened in between. What is your favorite Indiana memory? That day at 10th and Walnut when I met Kelly Payne. Shout out. I love that. It's a love story.

Come on, Fred. Thank you so much for coming on the show and sharing your journey from the bayou to the hooer state. Uh learning about all the ways you've made an impact. Again, I I I'm never going to forget the numbers when you're talking about 1. 3 million to 46 million roughly. Again, these are all estimated numbers, but like the managing the stress of that time throughout the global pandemic, then coming over and making a huge impact at United Way of Central Indiana, just like I I think that everyone, you know, I hate to say it, but like if we could all have that moment where your privilege slaps you in your face and and you have to look around and say, "How can I make the world better?

How can I get more connected in my local community, make an impact in my county, impact in my city, impacting my state, my country?" Like I just love that mentality of thinking of how you can serve others. Uh if people want to get connected to you, if they want to get connected to United Way of Central Indiana, how can they do that? They can reach out. We have our website is uwci. org and they can get connected uh through that and uh hopefully we can connect to more people so that they can get connected to what their interests and desires are.

Yeah. And that volunteer that's v o lu n p a r. org. Yes. volunteer. It has a repository of a ton of central Indiana nonprofits and volunteer opportunities.

I mean, I'm literally scrolling through from like pantries to build site volunteering facilities and maintenance lifeline. A lot of really really, you know, manager of recreation. That's pretty cool. Come on. Uh, a lot of really awesome opportunities on there. Go check that out.

And, uh, thank you so much for coming on. Thanks for stopping by. We'll talk to you soon. Yo, thank you. This show is made possible by our friends up at Sweetwater. Whether you're looking to start a podcast or take your content to the next level, click the link in the description to see all my gear recommendations at Sweetwater.

If you want a behind-the-scenes look [music] at everything we're doing across the state, make sure you follow me on Instagram and Tik Tok, Nate Spangle. Thank you so much for listening and being a part of what makes the Hooer State great. We'll see you next time here on Get