INDIANAPOLIS – The Jim Irsay family today announced more than $800,000 in Kicking The Stigma Action Grants to 18 nonprofits and organizations, with impact in Indiana, who provide mental health treatment services or raise awareness about mental health.
This is the fifth year of the Action Grant program. The Irsays created the grants as a part of Kicking The Stigma, an initiative they launched in 2020 to raise awareness about and end the stigma surrounding mental health. Since then, the team has awarded $7.2 million in Action Grants in Indiana and beyond.
The announcements were made in advance of today's Training Camp joint practices with the Green Bay Packers, where players from both teams will take part in a joint mental health service project at Grand Park.
"Since we started Kicking The Stigma in 2020, we've seen great momentum in the effort to normalize conversations about mental health and support the people and organizations doing this important work," said Kalen Jackson, Colts Owner & Chief Brand Officer and president of the Colts Foundation. "These grants continue our commitment to this cause and to the clinicians, researchers, social workers and all those who deliver vital mental health services to our friends and neighbors in need."
This year's cycle featured two different grant opportunities:
COMMUNITY ACTION GRANT RECIPIENTS:
The Community Action Grant was open to nonprofits and organizations working in the mental health space. Organizations applied for up to $25,000 in funding, and initiatives must align with one of five key focus areas: Behavioral Health Workforce Development, Equitable Access to Treatment & Resources, Grassroots Peer-to-Peer Programming, Awareness & Anti-Stigma Initiatives and Youth Mental Health.
Recipients in 2025 include:
- Coburn Place Safe Haven (Indianapolis). Funds from this grant will offset individual therapy costs for the Health & Wellness Program, which offers culturally responsive programming to domestic abuse survivors and supports service costs for the Coburn Health and Coburn Thrives programming.
- Cummins Behavioral Health Systems (Indianapolis). This grant will cover therapeutic services for low-income students that attend Avondale Meadows school and SENSE Charter school.
- Hamilton Southeastern Education Foundation (Fishers, Ind.). Funds from this grant will cover the costs for SPACE mental health training for two social workers in the school system so they can be better equipped to serve their students.
- Indiana Center for Prevention of Youth Abuse and Suicide. This grant will fund suicide prevention programming to teach youth how to recognize signs of depression in themselves or someone else and what to do if they or a friend is struggling with thoughts of suicide.
- Irvington Counseling Collective (Indianapolis). This grant will help make mental health services available through low barrier counseling services, stigma reduction efforts, community outreach and the creation and management of multiple mental health related mutual aid funds.
- Overdose Lifeline (Indianapolis). Funds from this grant will cover the costs of peer support programming at Heart Rock Justus Family Recovery Center for a year.
- Recovery Café Muncie (Ind.). The grant will help expand Recovery Café's peer-to-peer programming, in addition to providing training and materials needed to add additional peer recovery coaches.
- Suncrest Peaks (Lafayette, Ind.). This grant will be used to fund mental health treatment for current and retired first responders, as well as their family members. The funding also will be used to provide educational materials promoting awareness and reducing stigma among first responders.
- The Cabin Counseling & Resource Center (Zionsville, Ind.). Funds will be used to provide counselors with advanced training and cover the costs for clients in need of financial assistance.
- We Bloom (Indianapolis). The grant funding will be used to support Recovery Circles: Peer-Led Pathways to Healing and Belonging programming over the next year for 500 We Bloom members.
LEGACY ACTION GRANT RECIPIENTS:
The Legacy Action Grant is an invitation-only grant awarded to organizations within the Kicking The Stigma network with the goal of creating larger-scale impact in the mental health sector.
Recipients in 2025 include:
- Bring Change to Mind (Statewide). This grant will support the Bring Change to Mind middle school program by directly covering the costs for peer-led mental health clubs in 40 Indiana schools.
- Brooke's Place (Indianapolis). The grant will support Brooke's Place efforts over the next three years to expand the reach of their ongoing grief support group and grief outreach programs on the south side of Indianapolis and engage students in partnering school districts in Marion County.
- Courageous Healing (Fort Wayne/Indianapolis). Courageous Healing's mission is to restore, strengthen and facilitate healing through culturally centered mental health services and supports. The grant will support programming that serves uninsured, underinsured and low-income populations, with an intentional focus on minority populations.
- Girl Scouts of Central Indiana. Over the next two years, this grant will support the Girls Scouts' efforts in expanding their mental wellness programming, which aims to provide all scouts in the summer camp programming with adequate mental wellness support and the tools to manage stress and support their peers.
- IDONTMIND (National). The grant will support its "Ask A Therapist" series. Ask a Therapist is a compilation of questions about mental health, submitted by the IDONTMIND audience and answered by licensed and experienced therapists, that users can access via IDONTMIND's social and digital media.
- The Wellness Council of Indiana. This grant will fund the Thrive at Work Indiana: A Statewide Mental Health Initiative over the next two years with the goal to transforming workplace culture, reducing stigma and expanding access to mental health education across Indiana's workforce.
OTHER PARTNERSHIPS:
- Indiana University Foundation (Bloomington, Ind.). Funding from this grant will be used to support the Perinatal Mental Health Initiative, which is being conducted by The Irsay Institute and IU Bloomington School of Public Health. Through this program, the institute will create a robust evaluation process for perinatal mental health work to demonstrate the efficacy of therapist and peer-led support in reducing severity of perinatal mood and anxiety disorders.
- Mental Health Coalition (National). Funds from this grant will support the creation of a comprehensive roadmap for supporting youth athletes' mental health and the distribution and promotion of this plan across the country.
Through the Action Grants and personal donations by the Irsays, more than $32 million has been committed to expand treatment and research and raise awareness in Indiana and beyond since 2020. Friends and fans can learn more or donate at KickingTheStigma.org.
