Heartland Scholar House

MAKE REAL CHANGE! Support Heartland Scholar House!

Heartland Scholar House in Central Indiana is on a mission to end the cycle of inherited poverty and transform our community by empowering families and youth to succeed in education and achieve life-long self-sufficiency. 

WHAT WE DO

We support single parents pursuing higher education by providing comprehensive wraparound support. This includes advocacy, academic coaching, and life skills training. Services are provided to both parents and children as a two generation approach to addressing poverty. Scholar House services wrap around the entire family. We leverage community resources, such as childcare providers, financial literacy educators, and specialized support services for domestic violence, mental health, and nutrition. A crucial aspect of our program is offering safe, stable, and affordable housing for Scholars and their children, allowing them to focus on their studies.

WHY IT MATTERS 

We are addressing the urgent issue of generational poverty in Central Indiana, where over one-third of households live below the poverty line or struggle to meet basic needs. Poverty disproportionately affects single-parent families who make up approximately 30% of households in the counties we serve. Although we serve all single parents, we target single mothers as they are more likely to be single parents living in poverty and face additional challenges such as social isolation, food insecurity, and exposure to violence.

Post-secondary education is a proven pathway out of poverty, yet single mothers face significant barriers—juggling childcare, work, and academic demands—with only 8% graduating within six years.

Heartland Scholar House is the only program in Central Indiana dedicated to helping single parents navigate these barriers by leveraging community resources to break down all barriers they face in their academic pursuits.

OUR IMPACT

We are affiliated with Family Scholar House in Louisville, Kentucky who has operated for 23 years with the following outcomes:

❤88.6% graduate within four years (national average: 31%).

❤65% continued their post-secondary education.

❤81% exit to stable employment.

❤70% of graduates immediately exit government assistance.

❤100% exit the program to stable housing.

❤The children of scholars often go on to forge their own path to self-sufficiency as 82% attend college when they come of age, compared to the  national average of 61.4%. 

We implement the Family Scholar House Model with fidelity and can not wait for the day that we can report the same statistics in this community.

WHERE WE ARE AND WHERE WE ARE HEADING...

We opened our first Scholar House Campus in Anderson Indiana, in 2022. Since inception, Heartland Scholar House has received fervent community support and demand, leading to the expansion of programming and housing in Marion and Muncie in 2024.

As the Indiana Affiliate for Scholar House, we seek to plant programming in regions where there are 1) high rates of poverty in single parent households, 2) multiple options of postsecondary education, and 3) accessible community resources.

Indianapolis is an ideal location for a Scholar House program and funds raised through this campaign will support efforts to establish our campus in Indianapolis.

* Heartland Scholar House is program of JobSource Inc.