Go Farther Literacy Fund

We are looking for parents, guardians, family members, or local organizations in Indianapolis who support children who attend a K-12 public school or attend a K-12 public charter school, district school, or IPS Innovation Network School in Indianapolis.  We will be prioritizing applications from families and individual community members.

Applicants can be anyone who lives in Center Township, is the parent, guardian, or family member of children who attend a public school in Center Township or is a student who attends a public charter school, district school, or IPS Innovation Network School in Center Township. Organization partners serving Center Township students may also apply.

We don’t have a specific target number for how many students each idea needs to serve. Across all the ideas we fund, we are hoping to help hundreds of students. If you are applying via an organization, we request that at least 10 students participate in your project.

We are currently focused on funding initiatives that serve school-aged children in K-12.

No. We believe that solutions to our literacy crisis can come from anyone in our community. In fact, we will be prioritizing applications that come from primarily parents and community members. We hope that this literacy award program taps into the creative resilience that resides in our community already and helps individuals from all different backgrounds find solutions that help our children learn!

The Mind Trust staff and community stakeholders will collaboratively decide which ideas to fund.

This initiative is fully funded by The Mind Trust.

Yes, this program’s focus is purely on literacy. However, see the next three three FAQS for a deeper for more context.

Yes. Research tells us that students’ reading comprehension proficiency is based in part on their background knowledge. Therefore, students need and benefit from a broad knowledge base that spans science, history, art, and other subjects to achieve literacy. We also know that students’ motivation to read is influenced by their interest in what they are reading. Center Township students have broad interests that these projects can and should tap into.

Projects may be done in-person or virtually. We are open to projects that involve interacting in-person with students (using appropriate public health precautions) as well as projects that use any kind of technology (physical books and materials, mobile phones, tablets, computers, radio, television, social media, gaming devices, etc.).

Not necessarily. We are looking for projects that will help students with English Language Arts. However, research shows that fluency and literacy in a non-English home language can help children with English language fluency and literacy.

Funds will be distributed about 2-3 weeks following project selection and announcement.

We expect all the ideas we fund to be implemented and actively serving students by the end of December 2022.

We ask that you request a specific amount needed for your program in your application. If your application meets our criteria and your proposed budget seems reasonable, we hope to fully fund your project.

In addition to financial awards, we can provide suggestions or make connections to other people and organizations who can help you implement your idea.

No. These will be “unrestricted” awards used to cover costs related to supplies, books, materials, space, people’s time, hardware, software, or anything else you need to support students’ learning.

We strongly encourage applicants to adhere to health and safety guidelines issued by the Marion County Public Health Department when implementing projects.

We want our awardees to share their successes and lessons learned. Not just with us, but with the broader Indianapolis community. However, we hope to not make it hard or burdensome. We will work with each awardee to figure out the best approach and timeline. It might be a written summary, a short video, a video chat, or a site visit (public health guidance permitting).

Before COVID-19, many Black and Latino students in Center Township couldn’t read on grade level. Now, with hybrid learning leaving some schools physically closed and relying on remote learning, socially-distanced in-person learning, etc., students are in danger of losing even more learning opportunities to develop and cement foundational literacy skills. We know our community is resilient and determined. Many people are getting creative to help the children in their lives not fall behind. In light of this, we want to provide some financial support for those efforts and share them more broadly to inspire others.