Heart of Indiana United Way was recently formed by combining United Way of Delaware, Henry and Randolph counties with United Way of Madison County (also serving Fayette County) to transform and improve more lives in Indiana. Jenni Marsh, president and CEO of Heart of Indiana United Way, provides context around the new organization and its intended impact in the five counties it serves. 

Q: What is United Way? How does Heart of Indiana United Way fit into the larger organization?

A: United Way is a global nonprofit network fighting for the education, health and financial stability of every person in every community. Heart of Indiana United Way is a regional United Way working across five counties to bring people, organizations, and communities together to provide resources and solutions locally to our most pressing issues.

Q: How did Heart of Indiana United Way come to be?

A: About four years ago, several Indiana United Ways came together to deepen our impact. We worked with board members to make sure the idea of merging was a good one for each local United Way. Throughout the process, United Way of Delaware, Henry and Randolph Counties and United Way of Madison County (also serving Fayette County) discovered great synergy between staff and board members. We publicly launched as Heart of Indiana United Way in July.

Q: What does your organization focus on in the communities you serve?

A: Nearly half of the families in our region are struggling, unable to make ends meet despite working. Our work focuses on engaging the community in volunteering, raising money, and strategically investing resources into programs and initiatives that put children, adults and families on the path to lifelong success and stability. There is a focus on health, as we work to strengthen connections with health care providers and ensure that everyone in our community has access to health care. 

Q: Why is your organization the ‘heart’ of Indiana?

A: While families struggling to meet their basic needs transcend the boundaries of county lines, so does the culture of neighbors helping neighbors. Individuals across our region have generous hearts and find ways to give back to their communities. Hoosiers’ heart for service and giving back is an inspiration and what Heart of Indiana aspires to be.

Q: What does it mean to “Live United?”

A: It means inclusivity. Everyone has a role to play in making our communities stronger; every person in our community must have a voice, be heard and fought for. COVID showed us that disparity is abundant in our communities, and there is work to do. For every person to thrive, we must live better; we must live united.

Q: Where does the money donated to your organization go? Are there types of organizations Heart of Indiana United Way focuses on funding?

A: When you donate and give, you help create opportunities for thousands of lives across the region to realize a way out of poverty for themselves and their children. We work in partnership with local nonprofits to make grants which reflect local communities’ needs. We invest in a range of programming that puts children and families on a pathway out of poverty, including United Way’s own strategic initiatives, such as THRIVE and Grade Level Reading.

Q: How important are individual and corporate donors to your mission?

A: They are transforming lives. Single moms are pursuing their education to have better job opportunities because of our donors. More kids under the age of five have access to books in their home. Families are enrolling in health benefits and accessing health services. Volunteers are preparing taxes for low-income households and weatherizing homes for those struggling to pay their utility bills. Thanks to our donors, we can make these and many other life-transforming opportunities available.

Q: How does Heart of Indiana United Way tackle anti-racism?

A: When your tagline is “LIVE UNITED,” you must embrace every person in every community. That’s why diversity, equity and inclusion are at the center of our work. We cannot help people achieve what they hope for in their local communities if there is systemic racism or classism. We work to include people from all walks of life when we listen to community members and develop our plans for how we can most impactfully transform lives locally. To end inequity and injustice, we believe you must have tough conversations. We do not shy away from them—often we convene them.

Q: What is Heart of Indiana United Way’s Day of Action?

A: On Sept. 2 in Delaware County, hundreds of volunteers come together for a single day of service to help people and nonprofits. They will pack snacks for school children, prepare literacy kits for young readers and their families, and serve at local nonprofits to help them catch up on on-site projects. Henry County is in the process of scheduling and planning their annual Day of Caring which will take place this fall. In early November, Madison County’s annual volunteer service day, “Operation Weatherization,” will take place, bringing volunteers together to help people with their homes in anticipation of winter.

To learn more about the newly formed Heart of Indiana United Way and its initiatives, visit www.heartofindianaunitedway.org. 

Jenni Marsh is president and CEO of Heart of Indiana United Way.

According to the Yale Program on Climate Change Communication, over 50% of Hoosiers are worried about climate, as it continues to be negatively affected by carbon emissions. A person or thing is carbon neutral when it does not add greenhouse gases (GHGs) to the atmosphere. Carbon neutrality means being net-neutral. You still emit some GHGs but invest in projects that soak up the same amount it emits. Anything can be carbon neutral: an individual, a household, a company, a specific product that a company makes, a city, a state, a country, even the entire world.

In 2018, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change declared the world must become carbon neutral by 2050 or face expensive and horrific consequences. Carbon Neutral Indiana (CNI) is a nonprofit social enterprise that’s helping Indiana become carbon neutral as soon as possible. Founded in April of 2020, CNI analyzes the carbon footprints of households, businesses and academic institutions at no charge and connects them with verified projects that offset their footprints. If you don’t want your carbon emissions to damage your very own backyard or experience longer heat waves, more heat strokes and respiratory illnesses from poor air quality, there’s something you can do about it. Here are three steps to take toward a life of carbon neutrality: 

1. Measure your carbon footprint and other GHGs from activities.

It’s important to first calculate your carbon footprint to see where your emissions come from. Some of the largest sources of greenhouse gases in a typical household include electricity, natural gas, transportation and consumption, which means buying goods and services. For example, if you calculate all the energy required to create, ship and operate an iPhone, as well as the energy to run the servers that store its data, it’s about as energy intensive as a refrigerator. 

2. Reduce emissions wherever possible.

To reduce a household’s direct emissions, you might consider investing in energy efficiency to reduce the amount of electricity used per product, such as LED light bulbs or energy efficient appliances such as dishwashers and refrigerators. There are so many other ways households can reduce emissions. Use a heat pump, work from home a couple of days a week, go for a plant-based meal by participating in “meatless Monday” and buy high quality clothing as opposed to fast fashion, which creates about 10% of global emissions. Take more time to seal any air that leaks into or out of your home, fly less or not at all, install solar energy, and switch to a hybrid or an electric vehicle to get higher miles per gallon. 

3. Offset the remainder as you go. 

Investing in the carbon market by purchasing carbon offsets is a great, affordable way to balance the remainder of your emissions. That is, buy carbon offsets generated by internationally verified projects that either reduce emissions or pull them out of the atmosphere. Examples include a tree-planting project or a landfill methane-capture project. Due to so many project types and developers, there’s a massive competition to offer the lowest cost, highest quality “negative emission.” This results in a cost-effective reduction of GHG emissions. So far, CNI has invested in three internationally verified carbon projects: forestry and land use, methane capture and utilization and nitrous oxide avoidance from nitric acid reduction.
Although these steps may seem intimidating, CNI makes it easy by measuring your carbon footprint for you over the phone in fifteen minutes or less and providing the best carbon offset investment options for you.

For more information on Carbon Neutral Indiana or becoming carbon neutral, visit: https://www.carbonneutralindiana.org/.

Daniel Poynter is the founder of Carbon Neutral Indiana.

According to a United Nations study, the COVID-19 pandemic has caused the largest disruption of education in history, having already had a nearly universal impact on learners and teachers around the world. Head of school at the International School of Indiana (ISI), Elizabeth Head, has details to share about a faculty member that has the distinction of being an educator during the pandemic in both China and the U.S.

Reopening Schools on Different Sides of the World

Richard Bruford, our current upper school principal at ISI, started 2020 as the head of an international school in Suzhou, China, and within months found himself moving to Indianapolis to fill the upper school principal role at ISI — all during a global pandemic. While reopening two schools on opposite sides of the world during a global health crisis was not what Richard had expected, the globalized experience of working through the challenges of a pandemic with staff, faculty and students from all over the world has been invaluable for him and the rest of the ISI administration.

Richard was working at Suzhou Singapore International School when the COVID-19 pandemic first started. China was one of the first places to shut down due to the origin of the virus, which meant their schools also were among the first to go virtual. The pandemic started when his school was on break for Chinese New Year and with so many teachers and students abroad when the country locked down, they resumed learning with teachers and students across 10 different time zones.

Richard’s team in Suzhou was unique in that it was among the first in the world that had to implement a plan for virtual learning. Other parts of the world were actually able to learn from China’s switch to virtual learning and had time to prepare. Similarly, the ISI team was one of the first in Central Indiana to create a plan for reopening. As an international school connected to a network across the globe, ISI had the advantage of drawing on their peer institutions to develop a successful operational plan.

Making the Move from China to the U.S.

After the initial outbreak of the pandemic and just as classes in Suzhou were returning to in-person learning, Richard chose to take a job across the world in Indianapolis. ISI appealed to Richard due to the small class sizes that offered a more personalized approach to both teaching and learning. He chose to move across the globe to ISI because of the diverse school community where students can develop a globalized perspective and have empathy for others all over the world.

With travel restrictions, it took exactly one month door to door for Richard and his family to make the move from Suzhou to Indianapolis. When arriving in Indianapolis, he found the U.S. was in a different place with the virus due to differences in protocols, procedures and the rate of disease transmission. The students, teachers and staff at ISI were able to find support and comfort in his experiences, as he had already gone through many of the challenges of teaching during a pandemic while at Suzhou Singapore International School.

Using Global Experiences to Create a Safe Learning Environment

Richard was happy to use his experiences to share safe and effective procedures with our ISI staff. For example, ISI created a cohort model specific to our school and campus that kept students in pods to prevent transmission if a student were to contract COVID-19. Richard, as well as the entire staff and faculty, positioned ISI to be one of the first schools in the region to create and implement a COVID-ready campus plan, developed through proactive conversations with the first foreign schools to deal with COVID-19. As a result, our school was among the first Central Indiana schools to safely resume in-person instruction.

Progressing Beyond the Pandemic

Schools are still facing challenges as they continue to work through COVID-19, but ISI has found that flexibility has allowed the school to exceed even during a pandemic. Since state-mandated reporting began in September, ISI has only had about two dozen confirmed cases (3.6%) among students, faculty and staff. That places the institution near the top percentile in terms of COVID-safe campuses among our Indianapolis-area peer schools.

“That genuine care for the student’s health and well-being has driven ISI to be successful in providing students with the best education in a safe and fun environment,” Richard said. “I couldn’t have made a better choice.”

As the pandemic continues to impact the world, ISI has found a globalized approach to education offers a perspective that allows the school to flourish even with the challenges brought by COVID-19. With staff members like Richard, we are able to come together collectively to make choices that are best for students, staff and faculty.

For more information about ISI and safety procedures in place at the school, visit https://www.isind.org.

Elizabeth Head is head of school at the International School of Indiana.