Last year, CICF worked with a local agency, Smallbox, to train 36 representatives of different neighborhoods and population groups as ambassadors for their communities. Each ambassador conducted a listening tour to gather residents’ concerns, excitements and hopes.
These conversations, along with national and regional data, have helped shape CICF’s commitment to dismantle barriers and build more pathways for everyone in the community to reach their full potential, no matter their place, race or identity. On this month’s episode of For Good, meet a few of the ambassadors and find out how their work is fundamentally transforming CICF’s goals and initiatives.
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Transcription of episode available below.
WHO YOU’RE LISTENING TO
Kim Jacobs – WFYI Media
Liz Tate – vice president of community investment at CICF
Tamara Winfrey-Harris – vice president of marketing and communications at CICF
Rob MacPherson – vice president of development and philanthropic services
Annie Smith – CICF community ambassador representing the Far Eastside and Lawrence neighborhoods
Valerie Davis – CICF community ambassador representing the St. Clair Place neighborhood
Darrin Orr – CICF community ambassador representing the Northeast Corridor
Beatrice Beverly – CICF community ambassador representing the Martindale Brightwood neighborhood
Alicia Collins – community collaborations director at CICF
DISCOVER MORE
The G. I. Bill Changed My Family’s Life – a note from Brian Payne, president and CEO of CICF, about race and opportunity
Smallbox – a creative agency focused on building cohesive brand experiences for mission-driven organizations
Welcome to For Good, Central Indiana Community Foundation’s podcast highlighting stories about passion, purpose, and progress in Central Indiana. At CICF, we believe in opportunity and equity. We believe that our communities and neighborhoods are stronger because of our diversity, and we believe that, with innovation and boldness, Central Indiana can be a place where everyone can reach their full potential, no matter their place, race, or identity. This is our community and these are your stories.
LIZ: I like to say we opened the doors and windows of the foundation and allowed the residents to actually become very engaged.
Central Indiana Community Foundation is making a promise. Its new five-year strategic plan dismantles barriers and builds more pathways for everyone in our community to reach their full potential, no matter their place, race or identity.
ALICIA: It’s important to us that we do things with the community and not to the community, so we wanted to make sure that we were listening to people all over Marion County and Hamilton County.
CICF’s goals: Change systems, empower people and dismantle institutional racism, but the work of pursuing equity cannot be accomplished by any foundation working alone.
ROB: We kind of went to the, you know, the people that we knew in the not-for-profit area and some neighborhood leaders that we knew, but then we said to them, ‘who do you know?’ It’s not that we don’t want you, a neighborhood leader, we want the insiders, the unknown grassroots leaders in your community. I would say we probably didn’t know 80% of the ambassadors that came to us. They were never on our radar screen before.
