Evansville Promise Neighborhood

Evansville Promise Neighborhood logo

At the end of March, UE announced receiving a $30 million grant to create the Evansville Promise Neighborhood. In partnership with 23 organizations, the initiative will implement a framework for increased collaboration and expansion of high-quality services and supports that will work towards the improvement of educational opportunities, increase jobs, expand economic development, reduce violent crime, promote health and access to health care and increase access to quality affordable housing. This page will serve as a location for interested individuals to stay informed about how the effort is progressing, submit questions or ideas, and stay up to date on exciting developments from our partners. Read Evansville’s full proposal. You can also read the abstract version. As always, Evansville’s EPN proposal is up on the DOE website along with the other awarded neighborhoods. Those can be found on the Office of Elementary Education website.

Evansville Promise Neighborhood Partners

Why Promise Neighborhoods?

Promise Neighborhoods is a $30 million federal grant program through the United States Department of Education, but it is also an approach driven by a vision, inspired by the Harlem Children’s Zone. The vision of the program is that all children and youth growing up in Promise Neighborhoods have access to quality schools and strong systems of family and community support that will prepare them to attain an excellent education and successfully transition to college and a career. The goal of DOE with this funding is to improve academic and developmental outcomes for children in areas of concentrated poverty, and for those communities by identifying and increasing the capacity of eligible entities focused on achieving results for children and youth throughout an entire neighborhood, cradle to career.

Why Evansville Promise Neighborhood?

Consistent with DOE’s goals, Evansville Promise Neighborhood was conceived to advance the following pipeline goals:

  • Pipeline Block 1. – Early Health and Education
  • Pipeline Block 2. – Student Achievement and Success
  • Pipeline Block 3. – Post-secondary Education Access
  • Pipeline Block 4. – Neighborhood and Community Revitalization

Specific results expected from the Evansville Promise Neighborhood include kindergarten readiness, proficiency in core academic subjects, successful transitions from middle to high school, high school graduation, postsecondary education/credential attainment, health and safety, stable communities, family engagement, and access to 21 st century learning tools.

How will Evansville Promise Neighborhood achieve these goals?

While the grant will not fund all entities doing valuable work in the Evansville Promise Neighborhood, MOU partners will provide targeted, evidence-based solutions to advance the pipeline goals including the following:

  1. Early childhood home visiting
  2. High-quality early childhood education
  3. Free early literacy resources for families
  4. Free adult learning programs for parents and caregivers
  5. Prenatal and early childhood medical care
  6. Chronic absenteeism and dropout prevention programs
  7. High-quality, in-school academic support programs
  8. High-quality, outside-of-school-time programs
  9. School social work services
  10. High School Equivalency and Job Skill Support
  11. Post-secondary preparation, coaching, and exploration programs
  12. Workforce readiness preparation, coaching, and exploration programs
  13. Neighborhood-based employment and job skills assistance
  14. Access to and distribution of health resources, nutrition education, and healthy food
  15. Family stability programs
  16. Neighborhood revitalization
  17. Community safety and violence prevention

EPN Partner Agencies

The following table lists all EPN partner agencies, the services they will provide, and their match committed to EPN initiatives. The grant application required at least a 1 to 1 match overall (not per partner). The match amount listed includes personnel, volunteer time and effort, as well as other in-kind support services the partners will provide to EPN residents. An organization may match more (or less) than it receives. Budget Allocations from the grant to the agencies cannot be shared at UE this time.

Neighborhood Assets and Programs Supported Table
Neighborhood Assets and Programs Supported by Federal, State, Local and Private Funds
Organization Neighborhood Assets/Programs/Services EPN Match
UE Quality out-of-school time programs (Pathfinder), college exploration and readiness programs, ChangeLabs 1,209,137.87
EVSC Pre-K–12 public education, Full-Service Community Schools, high quality after school programs via 21st Century Community Learning Centers, Title 1 programs, behavioral health support, family and neighborhood engagement 5,173,195
Vanderburgh County Health Dept. Public health services, Pre to 3 Home Visiting program, immunizations, health promotion and education 1,208,186
Building Blocks Early childhood development resources, referrals, evidence- based curriculum, early learning / transition coaches and provider training model to improve quality of early learning centers 2,735,285
YMCA 21st Century Community Learning Center programs, physical fitness and family and neighborhood support and engagement 836,000
United Way K-Camp 152,000
EVPL Public library, child, youth and family programs, including early literacy and quality youth development programs 126,480
Goodwill Industries Digital Skills Academy, Excel Center Charter Adult School 2,631,197.44
Ivy Tech Community College, College Connection Coaches and K–14 Completion Coordinators 224,000
Junior Achievement JA Programs 4,975,767
Urban Seeds Healthy eating and food access programs 172,966
Youth First School Social Work program and evidence-based student and family strengthening programs 1,386,435
EPD Community policing, school liaison officers, notifications 3,403,709
Ronald McDonald House Charities Care Mobile: mobile prenatal and infant care 1,235,117.24
ECHO Housing Corporation Housing support programs, PZ Express grocery transportation, Housing Policy Director 110,500
Grow Southwest Indiana Workforce Board Employment assistance programs, skills assessment, training, JAG program 653,935
Dream Center In-and out-of-school time programs, Student Success Mentors (SSMs), Wraparound Care Specialist (WACS), neighborhood revitalization 3,402,000
Potter’s Wheel Quality out-of-school time programs, mentoring, tutoring, recreation, SSMs, WACS 378,000
Memorial CDC Housing support, quality out-of-school time programs, mentoring, tutoring, recreation, SSMs, WACS 374,855
Boys and Girls Club Quality out-of-school time programs 780,675
Community One Neighborhood revitalization and improvement 1,327,855
Total 32,497,295.55

Hope of Evansville and Youth Build are also MOU partners but were not able to provide match due to federal guidelines.

What does the grant fund?

The DOE is very specific on required outcomes for Promise Neighborhoods. There are 5 academic-focused results, 5 family and community-focused results, as well as Project Outcomes, Performance Indicators, and 4 Pipelines to target. The grant does not fund all entities doing valuable work in an area. Interventions must be evidence-based, targeted at required outcomes, supported in the research as a best practice, and targeted at the identified neighborhood. In addition, as the continuous improvement plan unfolds, there may be services missed or new needs identified requiring us to bring on additional partners. There is some flexibility built into later years for that process to occur. The pipeline of services and outcomes chart is included at the end of this summary.

Where is the Evansville Promise Neighborhood?

Our Promise Neighborhood includes the census tracts shown below, and these six schools: Evans Elementary School, Delaware Elementary School, Lincoln School, Bosse High School, Lodge Community School, and Glenwood Leadership Academy. Schools and census tracts were selected after a careful review of school and neighborhood data based on areas of most concentrated need within the Promise Zone.

Evansville Promise Neighborhood Map with census tracts

Where can I read the detailed narrative?

Read Evansville’s full proposal. You can also read the abstract version. As always, Evansville’s EPN proposal is up on the DOE website along with the other awarded neighborhoods. Those can be found on the Office of Elementary Education website.

Who do I contact with questions or with ideas about getting involved?

Questions can be directed to EPN@avanticahemanth.com.

What is UE giving in a match?

UE will support the Promise Neighborhood team from a variety of positions: CIC, CDEI, Youth Programs Camp Offerings, Corporate and Foundation Relations support, Fiscal Affairs, the Toyota Mobile Innovation Lab, and more. This is largely work individuals in these departments would conduct in the neighborhood as part of their current strategic offerings. However, now the work can scale with the benefit of additional support and targeted funding.

Organization Chart

Evansville Promise Neighborhood Org Chart

Required GPRA Indicators

Evansville Promise Neighborhood Map of Results