Claire Fiddian-Green is the President and CEO of the Richard M. Fairbanks Foundation. Opioid addiction is taking an undeniable toll on Hoosiers struggling with addiction, their families, and Indiana employers and communities. In an ideal world, we could keep people from becoming addicted to prescription pain medicine or using heroin in the first place through comprehensive prevention programming for youth, parents, teachers and employers. There is much more we could and should be doing when it comes to prevention in Indianapolis and across the state. But as we focus on scaling up prevention efforts, we also must ensure those who are suffering from opioid use disorder get connected with the […]

Alex Cohen is the Director of Learning and Evaluation for the Richard M. Fairbanks Foundation. The most recent round of ISTEP+ results, released last month, continue to show students in Marion County public schools performing well below state averages. At Indianapolis Public Schools, for example, fewer than 25% of elementary and middle school students passed both English and math ISTEP+ tests. These numbers should serve as a call to action to support struggling students and schools. Unfortunately, they’ve also raised a common refrain used to push back against efforts to improve educational outcomes for low-income students. In Marion County, 31% of children under 18 live in poverty, and 66% of […]