Paving the way to a brighter future.
Supporting Our Children & Community
Eastern Star Church JEWEL Human Services, Inc. (ESC-JHS) is building the ROCK Community Center for Children & Youth (RCYC) to serve Pre-K-12 students by enhancing community, economic, educational, and workforce development opportunities in a safe environment. The RCYC will be located on Eastern Star Church’s main campus at 5750 East 30th St. in Indianapolis, Ind., an area within the 46218 zip code that includes the Arlington Woods neighborhood. This will be a 60,000 square-foot, multi-purpose and mixed-use facility focused on positive environmental design and child development theory, evolving with community needs.
Currently, the surrounding community needs safe, engaging structured play places for children and safe, empowering programming for youth. The Bright Stars Programming within the space will be age-appropriate with proven models focused on building resilient young people. Programming will be consistently offered on a weekly basis and in three development tracks (Speaker Series, Village, and Cohort), focused on age group and familial need.
ESC-JHS envisions a one-year construction period to build the RCYC. ESC-JHS intends to self-fund $1,000,000.00 towards the building construction costs and a further $3,271,362.00 towards personnel and programming with staggered hiring in quarter four of year one and expanding into a full-time administrative staff of six full-time equivalents by year three.
An additional point of contact is Leigh Riley Evans, Director of Community Development and her contact number is (317) 591-5050 Ext. 109 and email is levans@easternstarchurch.org.
Sincerely,
Pastor Anthony Murdock
Executive Pastor, Eastern Star Church
A LOOK AT OUR JOURNEY TO THE ROCK INITIATIVE
Laying the ROCK Foundation
Throughout its 100-year history, Eastern Star Church has been committed to serving the needs of the community, including those in Indianapolis, nationally and abroad. Faithfully and divinely led by Pastor Johnson, the congregation began a major new initiative – The ROCK (Renewing Our Community for the Kingdom) Initiative – to bridge evangelism and discipleship in 21st century terms to the tangible needs of the community, encouraging and empowering both ESC members and neighborhood residents to transform lives and the community . After several years, we are entering our Second Phase of The ROCK Initiative and invite you to learn more.
ROCK Initiative featured in Indianapolis Business Journal
In a 2019 article, the Indianapolis Business Journal provided a detailed account of how the Eastern Star Church ROCK Initiative is transforming the Arlington Woods community through four core areas: affordable housing, a strong community, financial security, and enhanced educational opportunities. Read the full article by clicking the link below.
4 Pillars of the ROCK Initiative
Affordable Housing
Strategic focus areas: • Building 25-30 new homes
• Building a mixed-use facility with rental units, community services, and businesses
• Rehab of owner-occupied homes
• Legal partnerships to assist in landlord tenant disputes
Strong Community
Strategic focus areas: • Neighborhood Association creation
• Branding/identity
• Safety
• Public sector infrastructure investments • Support services
• Advocacy
• Food availability
Quality Education
Strategic focus areas:
• Regular educational programs focused on building self-sufficiency skills
• Leverage church and community resources to help improve K-12 educational institutions
• After-school programming in school facilities or at the church
• Job-training certifications
• Early childhood education in partnership with
Day Early Learning and Arlington Woods School 99
• GED and college-readiness programming
Financial Security
Strategic focus areas: • Non-predatory financial services
• Financial education programs
• Neighborhood business support for hiring local residents
• Expand job access for people who have been away from the workforce for extended periods of time
• Assistance with expungements
• Public and private transportation services
OUR VISION
During the past several years, Eastern Star Church, along with other financial investors and partners, has made significant strides in achieving our goals. We have developed new affordable housing units, renovated houses, advocated and supported for high quality education opportunities at all levels, supported efforts for a stronger neighborhood, and introduced the ROCK Fresh Urban Garden and the ROCK Fresh Market to ensure our neighbors have access to healthy food options in an area that was previously a food desert.
However, completion of the entire plan will require ESC to involve many partners. By developing partnerships with the city, corporations, individual investors, and nonprofit organizations, ESC is committed to bringing additional financial investments into this neighborhood to strengthen the community for both residents and employers.
ESC recognizes that it probably will take a decade or longer for the true impact of this work to be noticeable: The decades-long decline in economic indicators for this neighborhood will be reversed to show positive improvement. Examples include:
• The percentage of neighborhood residents living in poverty will decline.
• The median home value of homes in the area will increase.
• The median income of residents will increase.
• The percentage of households spending more than 30% on housing costs will decline.
• The number of family households headed by a husband and wife will exceed the number of family households headed by women with no husbands present.
• There will be options for non-predatory financial services and healthy grocery choices within walking distance for residents.
We look forward to you joining us in this important initiative!
The ROCK Community Center for Children and Youth is part of Phase II of our ROCK Initiative Plan — a comprehensive plan to transform the Arlington Woods neighborhood in Indianapolis, Ind. We envision this project as a critical component of our plan to provide a safe, caring environment for the children who live in one of the most impoverished communities in the city. The following are the blueprints for the center, which is scheduled to open in 2022.
FINANCIAL INVESTMENT FOR ROCK COMMUNITY CENTER FOR CHILDREN & YOUTH
OVERVIEW OF THE ROCK INITIATIVE MASTER PLAN - PHASE I AND PHASE II
Phase I of the ROCK Initiative Master Plan
Phase II of the ROCK Initiative Master Plan