In November 2024, we reported that DIP-IN was one of the 24 recipients across the U.S. to receive a donation from Lilly towards health equity programming, on behalf of the Milestones to Meaning program™. DIP-IN was honored to be one of the recipients of these funds, and a subcommittee of Steering Committee members across the three DIP-IN communities has been working hard the last handful of months to determine how to utilize these funds for their communities.
Ultimately, the committee decided to use the funds in two different ways: 1) providing funds to each neighborhood association within the DIP-IN communities to provide activities that increase social connection and community involvement, with an ultimate goal of increasing neighborhood association membership, and 2) using remaining funds to create a printed and electronic resource directory, specific to each community, so residents have local resources for food access, transportation, housing, and more, that they can access right at their fingertips.
Funds are already being dispersed to neighborhood associations, and some associations have already used these funds in exciting ways to engage more residents.
Stringtown Neighborhood Association in the Near West and Riverside Civic League in the Near Northwest are using funds to host porch parties to engage residents in their communities and let them know about their local neighborhood associations.
In the Northeast, Oxford Neighborhood Association has already used some of the funds on their neighborhood cleanup efforts, to both improve the community and also use the event to let neighbors know about the association and what they do.
More and more of the neighborhood associations will continue to use their funds throughout the rest of 2025 to provide engaging activities for their neighbors, so make sure you are on the lookout if you are a neighbor!
The information gathering for the community-specific resource directories is already underway, with physical production of the directories expected in late 2025. Once the directory for each community is complete, the directories will be posted online and 5,000 physical copies of each community’s directory will be distributed locally.
The directories will be reevaluated annually–for a certain time period–to make sure resources are updated and relevant to the communities. The DIP-IN communities are excited to be using these funds to invite more social connection among residents, increase community involvement, and make resources more readily accessible to improve health equity in their communities.