United Way announces additional COVID-19 relief coming to Putnam County

Wednesday, May 26, 2021

More COVID-19 relief will soon be coming to Putnam County.

United Way of Central Indiana (UWCI) recently announced that Putnam County will receive a second COVID-19 Economic Relief Initiative grant for $110,448 from Indiana United Ways, the state professional association of which United Way of Central Indiana is a member.

The grant will be used to support the Putnam County community, now a part of UWCI’s service area, in meeting basic human needs brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic.

The grant is one of 47 grants that Indiana United Ways is making to member organizations and community foundations through the initiative, which was made possible by funding Indiana United Ways received from Lilly Endowment Inc.

“United Way has been a key convener and coordinator of our community’s response to meet human needs for decades,” said Chris Flegal, director of community relations for Hendricks, Morgan and Putnam counties at UWCI. “Even before this crisis, we knew that 39 percent of families in Putnam County were not able to make ends meet – despite working. In the wake of COVID, those needs became even more dire. Thanks to the generous, continued support of Lilly Endowment to our State Association, we can continue to help our community, through nonprofit partners, deal with and hopefully resolve the impacts of this trying time.”

The second COVID-19 Economic Relief Initiative grant again calls for United Ways that receive funding to leverage partnerships and relationships to better meet COVID-related basic needs aligned with the social determinants of health as defined by the CDC.

Specifically, United Way of Central Indiana plans to convene a committee of Putnam County residents to identify current community needs, forecast the demand for those needs over the next few months and invest the grant dollars in nonprofits who are equipped to respond to the urgent need.

In April 2020, Lilly Endowment helped Indiana United Ways establish the COVID-19 Economic Relief Initiative with an initial $30 million grant. Lilly Endowment made an additional $15 million grant in March to Indiana United Ways to support the initiative.

Both grants are part of Lilly Endowment’s overall grantmaking to help organizations meet COVID-related needs. Since March 2020, Lilly Endowment has made grants totaling more than $210 million to organizations working in Indiana and across the nation as they respond to the pandemic.

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