Since April 25, 1966 TRI-CAP has been active with providing services for low-income individuals and families throughout southwestern Indiana and yesterday marked their exact anniversary where the organization celebrated at full capacity of holding over 250 guest at KlubHaus 61.
Guest from all over southwestern Indiana who were at the event included around 50 different organizations and companies, around 70 TRI-CAP representatives, officials from local and state government, Indiana Housing and Community Development Authority officials and others from Indianapolis, various pillars of the community who have dedicated years to TRI-CAP, and many more.
TRI-CAP representatives introduced community member who took the podium to provide testimonials of how Tri-Cap has allowed them to learn about valuable resources such as Head Start, the Fatherhood coalition, Susan G Komen, the new program Dubois CARES, and many more resources.
According to the Tri-Cap 2015 Annual Report the organization served 2,333 families including 5,964 individuals throughout last year. The TRI-CAP Board of Directors met after the event to discuss the report as well as evaluate the upcoming events and services for this year.
TRI-CAP Executive Director, Joyce Fleck, describes that the services and resource provide to the community are possible with the assistance of many community partners.
Fleck expressed that she was so grateful to see the amount of guests in attendance to support the efforts TRI-CAP aims to accomplish. She also indicated that she was glad to see all sorts of entity representatives as the everyday issues TRI-CAP addresses is important to the community and that everyone at the event helps the organization in some way.
Also before introducing their guest speaker Joyce Fleck, Incoming Board Member Kelly Mitchell, and Outgoing Board President Christopher Neu recognized several TRI-CAP representatives with awards for their dedication and distinctive years of service to the community, mission, and cause.
Sister Simone Campbell, NETWORK Executive Director, also took the podium and engaged the large audience of people as she gave her speech as the guest speaker but also had volunteers help with her presentation to demonstrate the income differences in the country.
She adds that at the same time the top 1% has gained 166 % and that this is an issue.
Sister Campbell has served in her current position since 2004 and is a religious leader, attorney, and poet with experience in public policy. She an advocate for economic justice and took part in organizing the “Nuns on the Bus” tour in 2012 where nine states rose against “Ryan Budget” that was approved by the House of Representatives. Sister Campbell described that the “Ryan Budget” proposed would cut programs that serve low-income people and the bus was an initiative to push back against it. She said that going on the road as “Nuns on the Bus” exploded with awareness and has become an exciting event as it also symbolizes an idea in culture. In April 2014 she wrote a book titled A Nun on the Bus: How All of Us Can Create Hope, Change, & Community.
Sister Campbell adds that her job is also to encourage people to stand up, do their part, and feel good about their efforts.
Sister Campbell states, “ Doing your part does not mean you have to do it all”.
