CICOA Receives United Way Grant For Essential Services

CICOA Aging & In-Home Solutions has received a Basic Needs Fund grant of $260,000 from United Way of Central Indiana for the 2020-2021 fiscal year.

This is unrestricted funding that will support essential elements of CICOA’s work and ensure an adequate safety net exists for our most vulnerable neighbors. CICOA qualified for the Basic Needs Fund grant based on UWCI’s focus areas of food and transportation.

CICOA’s Meals & More program and Way2Go transportation service improve client access to nutritious meals and reliable, affordable transportation, which in turn support health, independence, and the ability to successfully age in place in their own homes.

“CICOA is working to respond to these essential needs with wrap-around services that have a positive impact on the health and healthcare outcomes of the aging population, especially those facing significant barriers and circumstances that make them vulnerable to poor health,” said Tauhric Brown, CICOA President and CEO. “We are honored and grateful for United Way’s trust and investment in CICOA.”

“United Way is aggressively responding to the immediate needs of our community in today’s health and economic crisis,” said Sara VanSlambrook, chief impact officer for United Way. “We have a strong safety net of organizations that is working tirelessly to meet the needs of so many individuals struggling to make ends meet. These dollars will go a long way to help minimize the suffering today and for months to come.”

CICOA is one of 58 organizations receiving a total of $8.3 million in unrestricted grants to support food, transportation, housing and healthcare programs for thousands of individuals in Boone, Hamilton, Hancock, Hendricks, Marion and Morgan counties. Meeting the basic needs of children, individuals and families has been a foundation of United Way’s work and is especially critical today as the community slowly emerges from the COVID-19 pandemic.