Confronted with a persistent waiting list of up to 100 men per month, the nonprofit Fathers and Families Center (FFC) has announced a $5.5 million capital campaign to double its capacity to serve Central Indiana fathers.
The “Vision for the Future” campaign, announced on June 3, is the organization’s largest fundraising effort to date. FFC has already secured $3.9 million toward its goal, propelled by major contributions from the Eli Lilly and Company Foundation, the United Way of Central Indiana and various private donors.
“Every month, we have to place dozens of men who want to enroll in our program to learn how to become better fathers on a waiting list,” President and CEO of Fathers and Families Center Larry Smith said. “Central Indiana needs engaged fathers more than ever before. With our ‘Vision for the Future’ campaign, we will reach more fathers with comprehensive programming. Our children and entire community will be better for it.”
A lifeline for local household
The center explicitly equips local fathers by providing targeted, cost-free services centered around education, employment assistance and structural family stability. The targeted demographics highlight the critical nature of these resources:
- Economic realities: FFC provides all programming at no cost, which remains vital given that participants report an average income of less than $12,000 at initial enrollment.
- Participant demographics: While open to any father aged 16 or older, the average participant is 30-35 years old. Most of the dads served are divorced or never married, facing underemployment or unemployment.
- Justice-involved outreach: At least half of the men entering the program are justice-involved. All participants join the programs completely voluntarily.
The societal returns on these interventions are stark. At the same time, Marion County experiences a recidivism rate where up to 50% of individuals released from incarceration return within a single year; FFC participants experience a recidivism rate of just seven percent.
“Thousands of men are struggling in our community,” Smith said. “Many of those we serve have experienced abandonment in their own childhood. They want to break the cycle but need help to do it.”
Expanding the Strong Fathers framework
The financial investments will directly address physical space and staffing limitations that currently cap monthly class sizes at 35 men. FFC served 1,225 men in 2025; the new campaign is engineered to scale that figure to more than 2,400 fathers annually. Because an average of two children benefit from each man engaged, the expansion could positively impact nearly 5,000 local youth each year.
At the core of this expansion is FFC’s flagship program, “Strong Fathers,” an intensive three-week, 90-hour course focusing on parenting workshops, communication building, and healing trauma. To mitigate systemic barriers to attendance, the center partners with Second Helpings to provide free daily lunches and with the IndyGo Foundation to provide complimentary bus passes.
Upon graduation, participants unlock access to secondary services, including vocational training paths, job placement assistance, high school equivalency exam preparation and the Healthy Couples program.
The move to Brougher Plaza
To accommodate the influx of new participants, the Fathers and Families Center is relocating from its current site at 2835 N. Illinois St. to a leased facility at Brougher Plaza, located at 2830 N. Meridian St.
The transition to the larger, modernized space removes ongoing facility maintenance burdens while offering comprehensive amenities:
- Flexible classrooms: Multipurpose rooms dedicated to hosting dynamic parenting workshops, group activities and family nights.
- Dedicated focus rooms: Private spaces tailored for confidential one-on-one coaching, case management, mental health referrals and re-entry consultations.
- Basic needs distribution: An on-site food pantry to combat immediate household food insecurity, alongside a clothing closet with dedicated fitting rooms to equip men with professional attire and suits for graduation and job interviews.
- Community space: A central gathering area designed to host program graduations and larger family engagement initiatives
Community leaders rally behind the mission
Local civic and health administrators continue to echo the long-term public safety and health benefits of bolstering fatherhood engagement in the metro area.
“Once a father has stability and confidence, he’s able to pass that stability down to his kids,” Kendale Adams, deputy chief of police for the Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department, noted. “Creating family stability is a powerful tool in helping to stop violence in our community.”
Dennis Murphy, president and CEO of IU Health, emphasized the multi-generational impact of a father’s daily actions. “You’re always being a role model, even when you don’t know it,” Murphy said. “Kids pick up on 100% of what you do. They watch how you treat other people. They see what you value by how you spend your time.”
The community will gather to celebrate these efforts at the upcoming Faces of Fatherhood luncheon on June 19, featuring a keynote address from Strong Fathers graduate Idris Immanual Siddiqi.
Since its inception in 1999, the Fathers and Families Center has provided transformative resources to more than 27,000 fathers across Central Indiana.
Contact multimedia & senior sports reporter Noral Parham at 317-762-7846. Follow him on X @3Noral. For more news, visit indianapolisrecorder.com.
Noral Parham is the multi-media reporter for the Indianapolis Recorder, one of the oldest Black publications in the country. Prior to joining the Recorder, Parham served as the community advocate of the MLK Center in Indianapolis and senior copywriter for an e-commerce and marketing firm in Denver.
