Your Story. Our Community.

I’ve been volunteering here for 20 years, because you can see a child getting help that needs help. It’s as simple as that. We have an impact on the kids, their families, our city, the crime rate and educational impact of our community. I have big visions for what I think can happen in the future. I want every kids who wants and needs a mentor to be able to have one, because we know the difference that it makes in a child’s life.
—Larry, board member for Big Brothers Big Sisters of Central Indiana

Safe Place is a national program that’s run in Marion and Hamilton county by us at Stopover. It’s a program that’s denoted with yellow and black Safe Place signs on businesses and organizations that show that a child could come there for safety if they need help. It started in 1983 in Louisville, Kentucky. Since then it has spread to 37 states right now. It’s something that’s available for kids whenever they need help. Whatever reason they might need to trust an adult, they can go to where they see a Safe Place sign. In Indianapolis, we have all the libraries, all the fire stations, every IndyGo bus, Boys and Girls Clubs, YMCA’s, every Indy parks community center – over 450 sites marked with the signs, ready to help kids.
—Jonathon, Safe Place coordinator at Stopover

The obvious hook for me was the bikes. I’ve been a cyclist since I was a kid. I started riding and never stopped. But it’s grown to be a lot more than that. You get to work with kids one-on-one. You get to teach them about bikes. You get to teach them about being healthy and about teamwork and hard work and all those things.
—Nathan, communications director at Nine13 Sports

Work brought me to the city over 20 years ago. Indy is a great place to live, I just love it. There are so many different activities in town.
—Jaree, participant of Indy Ultimate

Our society—ideally—will not only continue to recognize, but also value the importance of creative outlets for kids.
—Charlie, board secretary for Arts for Learning

We spend quite a bit of time trying to help our mentors understand where mentees are coming from. We interview them and gauge their interests so that we can pair them up with people that have common interests and life experiences.
—Manon, mentor match coordinator for homeless prevention at Trusted Mentors