‘Translates to lifesaving care’: Kicking the Stigma grants continue supporting mental health non-profits

INDIANAPOLIS — Moritta Williams and her adopted daughter, 8-year-old Sydney, turned to Brooke’s Place when they didn’t know where else to turn.

“She had the loss of parents, and we were already dealing with that,” Williams said. “And then, in January of 2023, my mother-in-law passed away.”

Come to find out, the non-profit’s grief support services and counseling did more for the family than Williams ever thought.

”I just wanted them to help us mend [Sydney], but in turn, it’s kind of mended our whole family,” Williams said.

Brooke’s Place is one of countless non-profits supported by the Colts’ mental health initiative, Kicking the Stigma.  Since its start in 2020, the group has dispersed millions in Action Grant funding to more than 65 mental health non-profits across the state and around the country. 

“By putting the full platform of their NFL franchise behind that, it’s really sending a message far and wide about the importance of mental health support,” Brooke’s Place Executive Director Theresa Brun said.

Brooke’s Place, like many others, is a multi-time Action Grant recipient. Overdose Lifeline, which brings awareness to substance use disorder, has also received funding more than once.

CEO and Founder Justin Phillips started the cause after her son, Aaron, died from a heroin overdose in 2013. She learned after his passing that naloxone, a medication used to reverse an opioid overdose, could have saved his life.

“We started Overdose Lifeline to really make access to naloxone available,” Phillips said. “Then we just continued to fill the gaps around shame, stigma and education and getting people to understand it’s a chronic disease and it’s really hard, but recovery is possible.”

Heart Rock Recovery Center is a part of the non-profit and gives moms a chance to recover while keeping their children with them.

”I want these children to have that opportunity to live in a stable, sober home and so it doesn’t continue into the next generation,” Phillips said.

Heart Rock Housing Director Nikole Young said her past allows her to connect with the women who come through their doors.

”I started using when I was 12,” Young said. “… My decisions based on my children were not a top priority; it was the next fix, the next drink.”

Heart Rock doesn’t require the women to come to them with resources, but expects that they follow their sobriety programs while also learning life skills and working through trauma.

”I give kudos to the women who have their kids here, who learn how to work a program, who learn how to clean, do chores again, follow direction, listen to staff they don’t even know and take support from the women they just met,” Young said.

On a different side of town, Irvington Counseling Collective also works to meet clients where they are through sliding-scale therapy services.

Clinical Director and Founder Lauren Hall Bushman said ICC served more than 720 people last year — about a quarter were people of color and 80% identified as part of the LGBTQ+ community.

”We know that there is disproportionate access to care throughout the state of Indiana, as is throughout our country,” Hall Bushman said.

Hall Bushman said the grant money allows her and other professionals to serve those who may be otherwise left out of the mental health treatment landscape. 

“It translates to lifesaving care,” she said.

The Action Grant funding is helping all three non-profits — Brooke’s Place, Overdose Lifeline and Irvington Counseling Collective — expand or introduce new programming. Brooke’s Place is using the money to get its outreach services into more local schools.  

“Grief does not have a timeline, so there’s not going to be an endpoint, but what we want to do is help children and teens and young adults to thrive in the midst of their grief,” Brun said.

The funding is helping Overdose Lifeline continue life skills and trauma healing programming at Heart Rock. 

“For [the Colts] just to recognize us and what we’re trying to do it’s a big deal,” Young said.

ICC is continuing to make mental health services available to people who may not otherwise be able to afford them.

“We really want to be good stewards of the care and the privilege that these funds allow us to enact,” Hall Bushman said. 

The impact of the grants speaks for itself. 

“Many people say that, in some cases, we saved their lives,” Brun said.

The support of the Colts continues to change communities across the state.

“If more of us were able to do what we can in our little corner of the world to replicate what a huge organization like the NFL and the Colts are, we can only imagine how beautiful this world would be,” Bushman said.