Impact By the Numbers
At VOICES, we meet youth and families at the crossroads of trauma and transformation. Many enter our programs carrying the weight of violence, poverty, and lost opportunity. Through healing-centered engagement, education, housing, and workforce pathways, we help them access the resources, relationships, and support needed to rebuild hope. We believe a vice isn’t just a substance or weapon, it’s hopelessness. We exist to replace it with healing, belonging, and purpose.
Housing with Healing
Through Blossom House (emergency shelter) and Jake’s Place (transitional housing), VOICES has provided over 10,000 safe nights of shelter to youth ages 13–23, connecting residents to stability, therapy, and employment.
Power & Promise: Youth Leadership in Action
In 2024 alone, 396 youth graduated from Power & Promise—gaining paid experience in civic engagement, mentorship, and mental health advocacy.
Transforming Youth Outcomes
89% of VOICES youth successfully complete their programs, compared to the state’s 69% average — leading to a recidivism rate of just 11% among system-involved youth.
Centering Underserved Youth
Serving over 1700 youth annually, with 73% identifying as living below poverty levels, VOICES works where inequity is highest—bridging opportunity gaps in education, housing, and mental health.
Investing in Community Wellness
VOICES’ wellness, family engagement, and school-based programs have provided over 4,000 hours of case management and served 150 families, with 76% reporting improved quality of life.
Our Four Pillars of Wellness
VOICES programs and services are grounded by our Four Pillars of Wellness
Healed
Systemic oppression forces us to acknowledge that healing must be the core for communities to transform and thrive
Educated
Equitable educational opportunities are essential for economically stable and thriving communities
Creative
A collective and neutral platform for trauma and social justice issues to be explored without judgment is essential
Disciplined
Communities need tools to create new personal habits and pathways for self-sufficiency
Since 2010
VOICES has co-created innovative programming with its youth and communities. VOICES is a Black-led organization founded and ran by a local wife and husband duo, Kia and Trey Wright, with a desire to transform communities of color.
All staff and board members are predominantly people of color and are from working-class and diverse backgrounds. Given their identities–as well as their personal, professional, and civic involvements, VOICES leadership has a profound, nuanced understanding of how systemic racism, generational poverty, and gaps in systems of support entrench the challenges their youth and families face.
This understanding has led to new VOICES initiatives that aim to change the inequitable system youth are engaged in, alongside supporting, and growing the youth themselves. VOICES believes that playing a role in systems-level change is the only way to achieve their long-term vision: bringing about the day when every Indianapolis child, family, and community has the tools, resources, and collective capacity they need to lead self-determined lives.
Board of Directors
Melissa Blackwell
Principle
Blackwell Commercial Real Estate
Michael Coleman, Chairman
Workforce Development
Elevance
Joe Copeland
Senior Institutional Consultant
Morgan Stanley Wealth Management
Diane Wade
Director of Community Engagement and Marketing
Marian University
Lauren Marie Hall Riggins
Founder and Principle
Braided Futures
Raphael Adeola
Global Talent Acquisition Partner
DormaKaba