United Way of Central Indiana: A Community Effort to Address Poverty

Britni Shrout| September 29th, 2026

MJ Foundation

Poverty is a lot more than not having adequate income. It’s stress that impacts health and affects how children develop and whether they become equipped to achieve upward mobility. It’s impossible choices, like whether to pay the electric bill or buy groceries. And it’s based to a large extent on how and where you grew up. In other words, poverty is part of a system that can be almost impossible to overcome.

Along with more than 100 community partners, United Way of Central Indiana (UWCI) serves as a catalyst for economic progress, funding and bringing together resources to help connect the individuals who need assistance to those who can provide it. Since 1918, UWCI has helped residents get through crises and build better futures. To this day, they organize fundraising for resources and advocate for policy changes to help people overcome the challenges that would otherwise keep them in poverty.

They provide a route not just to immediate relief from a crisis for a neighbor but long-term, systemic poverty reduction across Boone, Hamilton, Hancock, Hendricks, Marion, Morgan, and Putnam counties.

understanding poverty in central indiana

Poverty is a growing and complex challenge requiring big-picture solutions that address current needs and set residents on a stronger economic trajectory. To meet these challenges, UWCI uses a “2Gen” model that supports adults and their children. They also look for insight in data, collaboration, and equity, and they work toward changing the systems that inhibit economic mobility through grantmaking and policy advocacy.

Because there’s a massive discrepancy between the federal poverty level that opens the door to receiving aid and what a family can legitimately live on ($31,200/year v. $74,028 for a family of four in Indiana in 2014), United Way has developed its own framework for evaluating the extent of financial hardship. Asset limited, income constrained, employed (ALICE) households earn more than the federal poverty level but less than they need to afford the basics.

These approaches impact more people than you might think: More than a quarter million households in Central Indiana live in poverty—or are one crisis away from it.

a strategy for changing lives

UWCI collaborates its partner organizations across several initiatives through its Partners in Purpose plan. Its investments, policy advocacy, and grantmaking strategies address four interconnected pillars to address poverty and acute need:

Basic Needs: UWCI works directly with accredited partners to distribute essential services to neighbors facing immediate hardship. This includes funding food assistance programs, such as Central Indiana Food Relief Fund, and stabilizing individuals experiencing a temporary crisis to help keep them from falling into systemic poverty.

Early Care and Learning: Because education is a primary predictor of lifetime financial stability, the organization focuses heavily on expanding child literacy and learning success. UWCI funds early childhood education programs to help children from under-resourced environments enter school ready to thrive.

Economic Mobility: Finding a pathway out of poverty can be difficult. UWCI invests in workforce development pipelines that help increase long-term household earnings through job training, certification courses, and employment networks.

Safe and Affordable Housing: UWCI reduces housing insecurity and homelessness across its seven-county reach by supporting community programs that preserve affordable housing, prevent unjust evictions, and offer shelter security to vulnerable families.

How You Can Help

The scale of poverty in Central Indiana requires a lot of help, from a lot of us. UWCI provides many ways to get involved:

Volunteer: Community members can engage in direct-service volunteerism or join structured networks. UWCI coordinates individual projects, large-scale community events, and targeted volunteer campaigns tailored to corporate teams looking to make a hands-on local impact.

Donate: Donors can fuel regional grantmaking through individual giving, workplace giving campaigns, or highly focused donor networks and giving societies—or work UWCI into their planned-giving legacy.

Advocate: Systemic change requires legislative backing—and leans heavily on those who can get involved as policy advocates. Advocates work alongside UWCI to champion state and local policies that expand access to affordable childcare, strengthen housing protections, and allocate public funding toward economic mobility programs.

No matter how you contribute, you can feel good knowing you’re helping people live the lives they’re capable of living.