Every student has the potential to thrive.
We have seen firsthand the strength, resilience, and power each student holds within them. But the obstacles facing many of our students - poverty, trauma, violence, lack of access to crucial resources - have kept them from discovering this potential.
Since 2016, Elevate Indy has worked tirelessly to change this. In our very first semester of Elevate, we served 95 students in our high school and elementary school classes with holistic mentorship and academic and personal development. In 2024-2025, we grew to nearly 1,400 students grades 4th-12th!
We are immensely proud of the work we've been able to accomplish over the past nine years, including:
- Thousands of hours of mentorship both in and out of the classroom
- Supporting our alumni with personalized mentorship and continued access to resources
- Hundreds of sports & adventure experiences
- A consistent 99% graduation rate over the last five years
Most importantly, we have developed long-term, life-changing relationships that have helped thousands of students feel equipped, empowered, and supported in their journey toward becoming the best versions of themselves.
As we celebrate ten years of these life-changing legacies, we are grateful for how far we've come and the needs we've been able to meet. However, we are also all too aware of how much need still exists in our city. The demand for trusted adult mentors in the lives of under-supported students is higher than ever. Our partner schools are eager to expand our programs, but we do not have the capacity to meet the ever-growing needs of our city's youth.
At least…not yet.
This is why we are launching our $1 million Bridge Funding Initiative over the next two years - so we can expand our efforts and transform more lives within our city. With this initiative, we can answer the call from the thousands of young people in our city’s most marginalized neighborhoods who desperately need - and deserve - to know that they are seen, known, heard, and loved.
Without your support, we cannot continue meet our students where they need us most. Scaling back our programs will mean limiting the number of students who receive the care and support they need to succeed. This type of support empowers our city's most vulnerable young people to become thriving, contributing members of our community, but without adequate funding, we cannot continue opening doors to successful futures.
But, with your help, we can expand our reach and deepen our impact in our city by:
- Hiring and training more Teacher-Mentors to increase our capacity for life-on-life mentorship to students who lack trusted adult relationships
- Expanding our alumni support and postsecondary pathways to offer more resources and guidance to our alumni long after high school
- Developing scalable partnerships with even more local industry leaders, giving students access to real-world skills, training, and opportunities for economic mobility
- Partnering with like-minded youth development organizations to address the needs of our city’s young people, resulting in a collaborative effort aimed at creating a stronger future for our city
These expansion efforts will ultimately allow us to reach our goal of serving over 10,000 students and alumni through long-term, life-changing relationships.
This initiative is about more than building up our students. It’s about envisioning a better future for our city. Research shows that every student who graduates high school earns over $10,000 per year more than those who do not. Their increased earning allows them to spend more in the local economy and require fewer public services, boosting the economic growth of Indianapolis as a whole. By opening doors to economic mobility for under-supported students, we empower them to become thriving, contributing members of the community.
And, through college and career services like Pathways To Purpose and Elevate Beyond, we equip our students to becoming leaders in the workforce with professional development such as internships and skills training. In short, when you invest in Elevate students, you're investing in the future of our city, because when our students win, we all win.
Elevate is built on the belief that no one gets there alone. We have big goals for the next decade of Elevate, but we cannot get there without your help. To find out how you can support the 2025-2027 Bridge Funding Initiative and champion another ten years of impact, schedule a chat with Aaron Story to learn more.
