Additionally, the Endowment made grants to help each community foundation explore how they can effectively play a leadership role in their local community. The Community Foundation utilized the grant to build internal capacity, facilitate focus group discussions, and develop initiatives to address high-priority community challenges and opportunities.
During our focus groups, we had an opportunity to speak with community members, businesses, local officials, and nonprofits organizations to discuss the current needs of Putnam County and the role we could play in building a more prosperous Putnam County. After listening to the feedback from these sessions, we determined one of our top barriers to the upward mobility of Putnam County citizens is education and workforce development.
We have partnered with EDGE 21, a Putnam County-based 501c3, to increase the enrollment of students eligible for Indiana’s 21st Century Scholarship Program. We will work closely with EDGE 21 on increasing post-secondary educational pathways for our students.