ADVOCACY & PUBLIC POLICY EFFORTS
DIVERSITY STATEMENT
Consistent with our mission, the Indianapolis Urban League (IUL) is committed to valuing diversity and uses diversity as a tool to maximize organizational and community impact and effectiveness. IUL is committed to fostering a work and community environment where each person is appreciated, valued, respected, and encouraged and where racial, ethnic, and cultural diversity is valued and protected.
EDUCATION
- The Indianapolis Urban League supports efforts to address the needs of impoverished, urban and township students in Marion County.
- The Indianapolis Urban League supports public policy initiatives that support and expand efforts to achieve excellence in all schools in its service area including traditional public schools, charter schools, collaborative efforts among both entities, as well as voucher and tax credit educational entities.
- While supportive of the right of parents to exercise all school options, the Indianapolis Urban League’s public policy emphasis has been to promote educational excellence in all school types including traditional public schools, public charter schools, or voucher and tax credit educational entities.
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- The Indianapolis Urban League believes that all schools, regardless of type, should be held to similarly transparent standards of accountability and uniform measures of assessment.
The 2021 Indiana Statewide Education Convening: “The Role Diversity, Equity & Inclusion Plays in Black Student Success” featured guest panelists Aleesia Johnson, Superintendent, Indianapolis Public Schools, Dr. Flora Reichanadter, Superintendent, MSD of Pike Township, and Dr. Patricia Payne, Director, Racial Equity Office, Indianapolis Public Schools on May 26th. View 2021 Indiana Statewide Education Convening
WORKFORCE DEVELOPMENT
- The Indianapolis Urban League supports the Ban the Box Initiative mandate that local employers not seek information on initial job applications regarding an applicant’s criminal history.
- The Indianapolis Urban League supports the restoration of full funding of the Mayor’s Marion County Re-entry Initiative currently managed by the Central Indiana Community Foundation.
- The Indianapolis Urban League encourages all types of employers to hire individuals from the re-entry population or ex-offenders.
- The Indianapolis Urban League supports existing legislation for criminal record expungement (I.C. 35-38-9) and efforts to broaden current state legislation.
- The Indianapolis Urban League supports efforts to ease drivers’ license reinstatement and fee waivers for persons with a criminal record and for those who are in arrears for child support who subsequently lose their drivers’ license as a result.
- The Indianapolis Urban League is a member of the Marion County Re-Entry Coalition.
HEALTH & WELLNESS
- The Indianapolis Urban League supports working to build healthy and safe communities to eliminate health disparities through prevention, healthy eating, and fitness.
- The Indianapolis Urban League supports ensuring access to affordable healthcare for all people who are uninsured.
- The Indianapolis Urban League provides opportunities for community awareness on a variety of health-related issues.
- The Indianapolis Urban League supports the provision of clinically and culturally competent needle exchange programs.
- The Indianapolis Urban League supports sustained and expanded outreach to young people, particularly young people of color, who are impoverished and/or homeless, and engaged in sex for survival or are the victims of sex trafficking. This group constitutes the largest concentration of new HIV/AIDS infections.
BASIC NEEDS & QUALITY OF LIFE
- The Indianapolis Urban League supports the continuation of the moratorium against disconnecting the utilities of low income households from December to March each winter so that poor and disabled persons and their household members do not suffer because they are delinquent on their utility obligations.
- The Indianapolis Urban League supports sustained and increased funding from the State of Indiana for Connect 2 Help (211) operations in Indianapolis which serves people statewide.
- The Indianapolis Urban League supports efforts to have private, governmental, and non-profit employers to adopt families during the holiday season and throughout the year to help meet their financial and social needs.
LOCAL AND NATIONAL ADVOCACY
INDIANAPOLIS (October 28, 2020) – A special, commercial-free, hour-long edition of All INdiana Politics will air Wednesday, October 28, at 6:00 p.m., ahead of the 2020 general election. Brought to you in part by the Indianapolis Urban League, this special edition of All INdiana Politics will feature national contributors Donna Brazile and Michael Steele, representing the Democratic and Republican parties respectively. The evening will be hosted by News 8 anchors Brooke Martin and Phil Sanchez with Indianapolis Urban League President & CEO, Tony Mason, providing introductions. View All Indiana Politics Special Edition Featuring Donna Brazile and Michael Steele
NEW YORK (August 13, 2020) — The National Urban League’s 2020 State of Black America report, “Unmasked,” explores the various ways that the coronavirus pandemic has revealed the face of racism in America – particularly within our economy, our health care institutions, and our justice systems. View 2020 State of Black America
View Executive Summary
View 2020 Equality Index
