Promise Indiana Initiative - Indiana Youth Institute

About

Youth need academic, social-emotional, and financial support to thrive. The Promise Indiana program encourages families and communities to support youth as they build college-bound identity and aspire to attain degrees and credentials.

For over 20 years, the Indiana Youth Institute (IYI) has worked to improve postsecondary success for all Indiana children. Through our college and career initiatives we actively support, connect, and train Indiana’s youth workers, educators, and community leaders to ensure Indiana’s students have a clear and attainable pathway after high school.

Get Involved

The Promise Indiana program brings together many organizations and individuals to invest in the future of Indiana's young people – schools, financial institutions, colleges and trade schools, nonprofits, foundations and more.

Families

Kids start dreaming about their futures even as early as kindergarten. And families are the first ones who support those dreams! You can learn more about how the program works and how you can get involved by following the link below. We want to partner with you to make sure your child knows they have a bright future!
Schools

School staff are key partners in the Promise Program. We are excited that over 60 school corporations and 150 schools around Indiana currently participate and we look forward to continuing to build this program with you. You can learn more about how the program works and how families get involved on this site, or feel free to follow the link below to request specific information for school partners, Together, we can ensure all Hoosier kids know they have bright futures!
Community

Community members and organizations can contribute to the Promise program in a variety of ways. From supporting a local Promise program site in your community, making an investment in kids’ futures with a financial gift or sponsorship, or becoming an individual ‘champion’ and providing encouragement to children you know, we look forward to continuing to build this program with you. You can learn more about how the program works and how families get involved on this site, or feel free to follow the link below to request specific information for community partners. Together, we can ensure all Hoosier kids know they have bright futures!

Find a Promise Site near you

Promise programs are active in every region of our state.

Learn More

When we participated in our Walk Into My Future event at Bethel College, we had every expectation that our students would have a positive experience on a college campus. What surprised us most was the amount of parents who mentioned that this was also their first experience on a college campus, and how powerful it was for them to do this with their child. ...We had one parent of a kindergarten student who was so excited about our Baugo Promise efforts that he chose to champion his son's entire class
Principal, Elkhart County

Promise has changed the conversations among our students, their families, and our school staff. Students are excited to say that they are going to college. Our community supported our students at the 100 percent level as champions.
Gail Lange, Principal, Boswell Elementary

The Promise program has done an outstanding job of reaching out to parents and helping them understand how realistic it is for them to prepare for their child’s future education.
Penny Cooper, 2nd grade teacher, Prairie Crossing Elementary

Whenever I have approached the superintendents, principals, or teachers about an activity, they have supported and worked with it wholeheartedly. Being a retired teacher, it has been wonderful to re-establish relationships with former students who are now hard-working parents through the Promise program.
Betty Martens, Promise Coordinator, Fulton County

At the Walk Into My Future event this April, we were approached by two first grade students from one of our participating elementary schools. They handed us homemade cards from their classroom thanking us for the opportunity to come to Valparaiso, that their siblings had come the year before and had said it was the best field trip that year.
Julie Giorgi, Former Promise Coordinator, Porter County

Jay County has partnered with the Promise program for nearly five years, and we see the impact as parents and guardians are now expressing familiarity with The Promise and anticipating the opportunity to enroll additional children in this savings program. The support and encouragement school administrators, faculty, and staff provide has had a positive impact on family engagement and enrollment as well.
Rusty Inman, Executive Director, John Jay Center