Women’s Fund of Central Indiana announced the creation of an “incubator” designed to attract social service entrepreneurs to Indianapolis in an effort to develop solutions that will improve the lives of emerging adult women (ages 18 to 24) and move them toward economic stability. Women’s Fund is dedicating ten-years and millions of dollars to fund its new “NEXT” initiative, which begins with an incubator designed to attract the most talented, visionary social service leaders to develop solutions to fill the gap in services for emerging adult women in need. Over the past two years, Women’s Fund has conducted extensive research highlighting the lack of culturally competent services to help emerging adult women in need establish a strong foundation for a lifetime of success. Their research indicates young women in need don’t have access to the help they need at this critical stage in their development. NEXT will help these young women move from economic instability toward economic stability.
The competitive process begins for local and national social service entrepreneurs to apply to participate in NEXT. Interested candidates are invited to apply. Statements of intent will be due September 2014. Selected entrepreneurs will be notified December 2014, full applications due Spring 2015, final entrepreneurs selected Fall 2015 with NEXT projects scheduled to begin in 2016. Applicants interested in applying can learn more about www.womensfund.org/NEXT.
