Learn more about the local nonprofits fundraising to better Monroe, Owen counties

Nonprofits around Monroe County looking to better serve their community are fundraising through Aug. 12 as part of the Gannett Foundation’s crowdfunding and grant initiative, A Community Thrives. Hundreds of organizations around the country, including four in Monroe and one in Owen County, are participating in the program.

The nonprofits have to raise a minimum of $3,000 or $6,000, depending on their operating budgets, to qualify for additional grants from the Gannett Foundation. They will keep the money they raise, and top fundraisers can receive thousands in grants.

Each organization is fundraising through the online platform Mightycause. Through the site, anyone can donate as little or as much as they want to any organization. The nonprofits around Monroe County are working toward causes such as increasing affordable mental health services, providing work attire to low-income women looking for jobs and opening a freestanding birth center.

All of the organizations' fundraising pages can be found at acommunitythrives.mightycause.com/giving-events/act22.

Here's more about the local organizations and how they plan to use their donations.

My Sister's Closet

Founded in 1998, My Sister’s Closet provides free work clothes and job help, such as interview training and resume construction, to local low-income and at-risk women.

The organization at 414 S. College Ave. has helped fewer women in recent years due to the pandemic, but staff are starting to see an influx of clients again, director Sandy Keller said. 

“A lot of people are just now getting back into the job market because they’ve been able to find … someone to watch their kids,” Keller said. “And many of them have lost their jobs because of the pandemic.”

This year, the nonprofit is helping more refugees than before, including women from Afghanistan, Syria and Egypt. Donations from the fundraiser will partially go toward services for refugees, including English-language learning programming with help from Broadview Learning Center. 

Ultimately, one of the organization’s primary goals is to help women look and feel qualified and confident enough to get the jobs they interview for, Keller said. 

“We want it so that when they walk in the door, nobody could tell by the way that they look … that they are in any type of emergency situation,” she said. “Because while we all would like to say that we just look at people’s credentials, the truth of the matter is that human beings are very visual.”

Tandem Community Birth Center and Postpartum House

Formed in 2019, Tandem Community Birth Center and Postpartum House will be Bloomington’s first freestanding birth center when it officially opens. The center is set to partially open with a gynecology clinic and community space within the next few months and open a birthing center and postpartum house by the end of 2022.

The nonprofit, at 2613 E. Third St., is in the final stages of opening its midwifery-led gynecology clinic, according to the fundraising page. But the cost to open is significant, from licensing to furnishing and buying medical supplies.

Along with donations, the center is encouraging participants to share images and stories they want their health care providers to see, to show they are more than their bodies.

More:Tandem Birth Center plans to partially open this summer, fully open by end of 2022

Co-founder Julie Duhon told The Herald-Times last month she wants clients at Tandem to feel like their providers see them for all they are, from their little aches and pains to their paranoid 2 a.m. thoughts to the emotions they’re experiencing.

Tandem has two match challenges, one a dollar-for-dollar match up to $500 from Morgenstern's Bookstore and the other will match up to $3,000.

The center received $60,000 in grants through Gannett’s A Community Thrives program last year.

Spencer Pride

At the Spencer Pride Community Center, the mission is to make Indiana a more welcoming place for all people. Along with operating its community center, Spencer Pride hosts an annual Pride festival and offers health screening, education and youth group services to people across southern Indiana.

The community center, at 17 E. Franklin St., needs more space for health services and youth and support programs, Director Judi Epp said. The organization, which plans to make the community center’s second floor ready for move-in, aims to raise $15,000.

Spencer Pride plans to use the money raised for purposes such as installing overhead lighting, bathroom fixtures and a closet shelving system.

"We've been using the first floor and worked hard to make it usable, but we're now realizing we've outgrown it," Epp said. "It's an old, historic building, so you can imagine how much work is involved."

The nonprofit also provides legal and mental health services, STD testing, ally workshops, grief support groups for widows and provides free WiFi to anyone who needs it — which is quite a few people, since the center is in a rural area with spotty Internet, Epp said.

Ultimately, Epp said, the money raised will help Spencer Pride remain part of the community.

"We have been around for 15 years, and this is shepherding us into the next 15," she said. "We want to be around for a really, really long time."

An anonymous donor has offered to match up to $5,000 of funds raised.

Spencer Pride was awarded $12,500 from Gannett’s A Community Thrives program last year.

New Hope for Families

New Hope for Families was founded in 2011 as Monroe County’s emergency housing solution that keeps families together. Earlier this year, the nonprofit opened two new buildings at 1140 S. Morton St. - an emergency shelter for families experiencing homelessness and an early childhood care and education center.

Donations the nonprofit receives will go toward maintaining and expanding its services, Director of Development Jim Olsen said in an email.

"New Hope has been dreaming, planning and working for years in order to relocate and expand, and we are excited to be in our new facility and almost done with the capital campaign," he said. "The ACT funding will enable us to maximize the impact of our new facility."

Child care in Monroe County:Child care centers have addressed challenges during pandemic

The nonprofit has sheltered over 300 families since opening, according to its fundraiser page. Eight in every 10 families served at New Hope moved into stable housing.

In Monroe County, at least 36 families with 70 children were experiencing homelessness in 2020, according to the Indiana Housing and Community Development Authority.

Catholic Charities Bloomington

Catholic Charities Bloomington, at 803 N. Monroe St., began about 40 years ago, when the Archdiocese of Indianapolis came to Bloomington and decided it needed increased mental health services. 

The nonprofit aims to help everyone receive mental health care, regardless of their identity or ability to pay, Clinical Director Michael Stribling said. In addition to traditional therapy provided by its 12 therapists, the organization also provides lesser known mental health care, such as play therapy and eye movement desensitization and reprocessing, a type of therapy that helps relieve distress associated with traumatic memories.

Like many therapy services, Catholic Charities Bloomington saw a significant increase — about 300%, Stribling estimated — in clients when the pandemic hit and started providing telehealth services. So many people need its services that the nonprofit’s waitlist is often closed. 

“As hard as the 12 of us work to see as many clients as we can … a lot of the time, we have to say, ‘Please call back in a week,’” Stribling said.

The organization accepts all forms of Medicaid and uses a sliding scale to help clients who can’t afford services, which private providers often can’t afford to do. 

Catholic Charities Bloomington’s fundraiser is called “Normalize Therapy.” Stribling said everyone can benefit from having a non-judgmental place to express their feelings. 

“It’s really scary because people don’t want to go in and just share all the secret things that have happened in our hearts,” he said. “But therapy is actually one of the safest, most protected spaces that human beings can access.”

Christine Stephenson covers children and families for The Herald-Times. Reach her at cstephenson@heraldt.com.