DREAM Alive

DREAM Alive (DA) mentors youth towards career paths on-site at 8 Indianapolis Public Schools (IPS) every day of the school year — in the building, known by name — meeting scholars in 6th grade and staying with them through 12th. Seven consecutive years.

Last year DA served 2,635 youth and provided 32,291 hours of mentor and career development programming. Since 2011, DA scholars have a 99% graduation rate, with 100% graduate with a defined career pathway — college, trade, military, or employment. Additionally, students enrolled in DREAM Alive are suspended 96% less than their peers and 100% of DA students last year were not involved in violence of any sort.

DA is seeking investment in three areas.

General operating support. DA operates on a $1.4 million annual budget – costing DA roughly $500 per student served, against a national average mentoring cost near $2,800. 97% of our scholars say they feel prepared for a career after high school, and 96% say they are optimistic about their future. General operating is the least glamorous ask, but the most important one: it keeps a mentor in the building every day, in every school, for all seven years DA promises a child.

Expanded work across IPS. DA is now in every IPS middle school except two, and 1 in 4 students at our partner schools is a DA scholar. Where we are embedded, and the change is measurable: higher grades with lower suspension rates. Broad Ripple and Harshman middle schools have asked for DA, and we don’t yet have the funding to say yes. Each school costs $100,000 a year. Serving every IPS school isn’t about being bigger; it lets DA stay with scholars when their families move across the city, which happens often in poverty. IPS has also asked DA to add work-based learning (WBL)to our high school mentoring, so scholars can earn credit and the WBL hours required for graduation. We are piloting this program now, and could serve up to 120 more scholars a year with both strong mentoring and accredited hours toward a career pathway — a $100,000 investment.

Capacity building. DA recently completed a consulting project that named our clearest next internal step: our first full-time development staff. Every dollar to date has been raised by our CEO and program leaders alongside their existing work. That new role is what makes long-term impact durable.

We would be grateful for investment in any of these three areas. Funds given would land in multiple places depending on area: on-site staff salaries, program costs, career experiences, transportation for scholars, and the capacity to sustain it.