Tracking youth programs getting City-County Council crime-prevention grants

INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) — The Indianapolis City-County Council has handed out its first round of 2021 grants designed to help stop violence in the city.

A total of $403,000 is going to 25 groups in Indianapolis. The grants range in size from $4,375 to $32,500. Most of the grant money is going to youth programs for educational and career training. But also, the Indianapolis Soap Box Derby Association Inc. is getting $10,000 for the storage and maintenance of soap box derby cars.

Inside of a building on the near-northwest side is where the Indianapolis Soap Box Derby Association stores a couple dozen cars. According to Peg Huffman, the association’s secretary-treasurer, the cars are more than a vessel for many of the kids in the racing program, but a vehicle to a clear path in life.

“We work with kids that are currently in jail. We have had children that we have worked with that have been shot. We have children that are probation, so we do work with at-risk kids,” Huffman said.

Volunteers run the organization; no one is paid or, Huffman says, or reimbursed for gas money. Every dime that comes into the organization goes straight to the kids and their cars. They have 45 used and slightly worn derby cars that need to be stored. Not everyone in their program has a suitable place at home to store the cars, so the $10,000 from the council will help with storage. Plus, a southern Indiana police department just donated 15 derby cars that all need work. The money will give the association the additional space needed to work on the cars.

“We don’t just do all the work for the kids. They learn to use screwdrivers. They understand there is a lot of physics and a lot of STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) in these projects. It is all physics,” Huffman said. 

The association races at the Wilber Shaw Soap Box Derby Hill on West 30th Street off Cold Spring Road. The 2,000-yard track is one of the oldest in the Midwest and is home to the first African American world champion; his two younger brothers have followed suit and race on a national level.

Right now, 45 kids are in the intercity racing league. Huffman says, without donations, these kids would not be racing or learning how to use their hands and minds to move themselves forward.

Most of the City-County Council’s crime-prevention grants are for youth-oriented programs for career and educational training. The biggest grant, $32,000, is going to T3 impact incorporated. The money, according to the project description, will provide services to Pike Township families and others, including people in court-ordered diversion and in youth reentry programs.

Freewheelin’ Community Bikes on Central Avenue has been awarded more than $23,000 for youth apprenticeship programs

Other grants will go to established community centers for jobs counseling, tutoring, and neighborhood cleanup programs.   

The City-County Council and the office of Mayor Joe Hogsett have handed out millions in crime-prevention grants over the past several years. Measuring tangible benefits from these taxpayer-supported programs is tough to measure, according to Rick Synder, leader of the Indianapolis Fraternal Order of Police. 

“We see the money going up and up and up that is being directed toward crime-prevention opportunities. The questions remain: What are the outcomes? Are we truly getting the outcomes for that investment?” Synder said.

He also says that in 2020 the City-County Council changed an ordinance that allows crime-prevention dollars from the city to be distributed to convicted felons who are operating crime-prevention programs 

Pictures and video of soap box derby racers with this story were from the Indianapolis Soap Box Derby Association.