A Note from Allison: My Proud Look

25 Feb A Note from Allison: My Proud Look

My mom has what we call her “proud look”.  Which is awesome because her kids and grandkids always know when she is proud of them.  If you would have seen me last week, you would have seen my equivalent of a “proud look”.  That is because New Hope of Indiana was accredited as a United Way of Central Indiana agency.  This was the first class of accredited agencies for UWCI in many, many years.  This accreditation is significant because it tells the greater Indianapolis Community that New Hope demonstrates “a responsiveness to community needs; diversity and inclusion in governance, operations, community engagement and employment; organizational and financial health; and alignment with United Way impact initiatives in basic needs, family opportunity, or social innovation.”

This makes me proud not only for the current associates and board of New Hope who demonstrate their servant-leadership and commitment to New Hope’s mission every day, but for the Daughters of Charity, St. Vincent and the many past leaders and associates who have been part of New Hope for its now 41-year history.  Their dedication, love, leadership, vision and service put New Hope in the place it is today.  It has not always been easy, and I thank them from the bottom of my heart for all they have done for New Hope and the people we serve.

I am also proud of our New Hope team that is working extremely hard to understand the gaps in service in our community for people with disabilities and their families.  You might know that most of our new programming including the Cheese and Thank You food truck and AIM were designed to fill a gap in services for young adults with disabilities leaving high school.  We are committed to continuing this practice of identifying service gaps and leveraging our resources to find innovative and useful solutions. Our next gap-filling endeavor will be Camp Catalyst: a one-week day camp for for middle-schoolers with AND without disabilities.  Camp Catalyst will be for all children, with and without an identified disability, but our real focus is on middle school children with a disability and their siblings.

As with all new programs, we need to raise some start up funds and you can help us do that at a fun event on March 12th at 7pm.  Camp Bingo will be a night of beer, bubbly and bingo where you can have fun and win great prizes all while making a summer camp experience possible for Camp Catalyst campers.  I hope to see you there!

I will still probably have my proud look.  (Thanks mom!)

Peace,
Allison