Fort Wayne UNITED Tie Day
The program will feature community service opportunities and field trips, including higher learning day visits to local colleges and universities and participation in Fort Wayne UNITED’s Choose Success Initiative (C.S.I.), in partnership with ICON Family Organization, which will expose them to examples of the positive outcomes of good decisions and the negative consequences of poor decisions. Leaders will facilitate a Conflict De-escalation and Violence Prevention Workshop with students. Top achieving students in the program will be given the opportunity to make a presentation at an annual Gathering of Leaders (EACS Board Meeting).
Fort Wayne UNITED L.I.V.E. Sessions
L.I.V.E. (Listening to Input and Voices through Engagement) concerns on a variety of subjects, including education, employment and family. Previous L.I.V.E. sessions have been focused on Fort Wayne Police Department practices -- how they impact the African American community, perceptions, and also, how to create and foster healthy relationships between the FWPD and the African American community. Participants are allowed to vote via live polling, and their answers are collected and used as local data.
Fort Wayne UNITED LIVE Forums
These quarterly gatherings bring FWPD and African Americans together to discuss perceptions, perspectives, and experiences, via panel discussion in front of a live audience. Highlighted are the voices of not only the African American community, but also many FWPD officers who desire to foster healthy relationships. Audience members are allowed to vote via live polling, engage in round-table discussions, and make recommendations on how to create healthy relationships between communities of color and law enforcement.
Fort Wayne UNITED Public Safety Academy Training
In partnership with the FWPD, African American males are exposed to real life scenarios that allow them to experience training, experiences, and challenges that local law enforcement face daily. These experiences provide opportunities to change perspectives and attitudes, while using positive presentation as a tool to build relationships.
Fort Wayne UNITED Late-Night Basketball Program
As we strive to keep the shooting on the court, and off the streets, the Fort Wayne UNITED late night basketball program aims to take young people who are most likely to commit or be victims of crime, off the streets of the most high-crime areas, during the time that crime is most likely to take place, after dark. Participants are invited to play basketball, engage with local leaders, and take advantage of opportunities like employment and record expungement.
United Response
In partnership with Mayor Tom Henry and the Victim Assistance Department of the Fort Wayne Police Department, United Response is designed to serve families who have lost loved ones to homicide. The program was created to provide additional aid in the form of stipends to help offset burial costs. As part of the program, when a homicide takes place, families of victims are engaged with a case worker from the Victim Assistance team to be given the opportunity to receive meals while grieving. If the family chooses to receive the service, hot meals are delivered to their homes by a Fort Wayne UNITED church for seven days. Churches also provide the family with church contact information, free services, support groups, and victim assistance information for follow-up help, if needed.
REAL Dad
"REAL Dad” an acronym for Relational, Engaged, Attentive, Loving Dad, are an opportunity for men of different backgrounds to discuss vital and relatable topics that pertain to being a dad. Guest panelists, during live appearances and prerecorded videos, unpack things like family history, communication, masculinity, emotions and men's health in an attempt to gain multiple perspectives and shed light on the fact that there is more than one way to be a “real” dad. The honest discussions include the negative and positive sides of being a father, and new techniques to build stronger relationships.
United Front
The goal of the United Front Initiative is to bring the community of Fort Wayne together to attain racial healing, equity, education, and organizational transformation by developing shared knowledge and understanding around various topics related to diversity and inclusion. Educational sessions are offered to Fort Wayne organizations, businesses and individuals in order to empower them with the ability to value diversity, assess their environments, and implement interventions that will enhance their inclusive cultures, motivating people to work together toward community shared goals. The United Front Initiative is funded by grants and donations.
Fort Wayne UNITED CSI
The Choose Success Initiative allows African American males, ages 14-18, to be exposed to the positive outcomes of good decisions, and the negative consequences of poor decisions. Over a two-day period, participants witness sentencing in the courtroom of Superior Court Judge Wendy Davis, spend a half day at Indiana Tech University and then have a hands-on experience at the building trades with trainers and skilled instructors.
Meals 4 Healing
When a homicide takes place, families of victims will be engaged with a case worker from the Victim Assistance team within the Fort Wayne Police Department to be given the opportunity to receive meals while grieving. When the decision is made by the family to receive the service, hot meals will be delivered to their homes by a Fort Wayne UNITED church for seven days. Churches will provide the family with church contact information, free services, support groups, and victim assistance information for follow-up help, if needed. Parkview Health is also a partner in the Meals 4 Healing effort.
Global Leadership Summit and Leaders Lunch
Fort Wayne UNITED participates in the Global Leadership Summit and Leaders Lunch every year. Fort Wayne UNITED participants join other Fort Wayne residents at this annual two-day event that provides world-class leadership training. For more information about the Summit click here.
Want to participate in any of these programs? Email us at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. and we'll get you connected to a program.
