2023 Building Bridges Award Winners Announced at Inaugural Event

Last week, LISC Indianapolis celebrated the outstanding contributions, initiative and leadership in the Bridges to Career Opportunities, or Bridges, Network at the inaugural Building Bridges Awards. Nearly 100 partners and coaches gathered at the Neidhammer Events Center. Each individual award winner received a trophy and a $3,000 professional development grant. The Team Impact winner received a trophy and a $500 grant for a team celebration. As the inaugural awards ceremony for the Bridges Network, LISC intends for this celebration to become a local staple championing how exemplary coaching and education can make a real difference across Indianapolis communities. Here are the 2023 Building Bridges Award winners:

Rockstar Rookie: Monique Johnson

This award recognizes a Bridges Network staff member hired within the last 12 months who hit the ground running and brought significant impact to their team in a short amount of time.

The nominator for this year’s winner said, “This individual has done more than hit the ground running, she has hit the ground running without track shoes on and simultaneously making, branding, and lacing up the track shoes while sprinting in a marathon. This individual consistently goes above and beyond to support our coaching team. Her experience as licensed social worker, breadth of community resources, and how to navigate complex life situations for people experiencing barriers or trauma, has helped the rest of the coaching team understand the scope of work, what questions to consider, and how to connect members to the appropriate resources. As an entirely new Bridges site, we have had to establish our processes, identify best practices, strategize on how to recruit members, and how to connect our members to resources that will help them eliminate barrier from achieving their goals. This coach has been a part of building our work from the ground up."

Please join LISC in congratulating the 2023 Rookie Rockstar and recipient of a $3000 professional development grant, Monique Johnson with the Mosaic Center for Work, Life + Learning.

Coaching Champion: Sharon Brashears

This category recognizes an outstanding Bridges coach that has demonstrated tremendous initiative and desire to go above and beyond in serving their clients.

The nominator for this year’s winner said, “This individual doesn't just coach AT a person, she coaches TO the person, making each dialogue personal for each client. When we initially meet with a client, she spends time with each individual, allowing them to share how they are feeling about their finances. Just by allowing them to talk, while she listens, not only helps her in her position, but most of the time, information is shared that is beneficial to all the coaches. She also finds joy in special acts of kindness – from bringing small gifts to clients at the Senior apartments to volunteering at neighborhood events. Moreover, this individual not only serves external clients, but internal clients as well - her coworkers. She is the coworker that bakes goodies for a small team meeting, drops off candy for the receptionists, or acknowledges the work one of her peers is doing."

Please join LISC in congratulating the 2023 Coaching Champion and recipient of a $3,000 professional development scholarship, Sharon Brashears with the John Boner Neighborhood Centers.

Spotlight Leader: Starla Hart

This category recognizes a Bridges network leadership staff member who demonstrates exceptional guidance, direction, decision-making, and commitment to the Bridges work.

The nominator for this year’s winner said, "Imagine being tasked with one of the most insurmountable projects. Create a new community-based center within one of the largest private employers in the state - from the ground up. You will have to hire an entire team, train them, build every single process, identify gaps from services to data collection, and all the while manage bureaucratic red tape to make it work. Throughout the course of six months, this team participated in key trainings, engaged in strategic planning and process mapping, organized a roadshow to educate and inform stakeholders, planned a community hiring event and officially launched coaching services. This individual has led with poise and grace. Her ability to navigate the team through planning, development, and implementation is a perfect example of leading by doing. Her leadership style, which is transparent, tactful, service-minded, and also direct, is what has supported and driven the team to achieve early success."

Please join LISC in congratulating the 2023 Spotlight Leader and recipient of a $3,000 professional development scholarship, Starla Hart with the Mosaic Center for Work, Life + Learning.

Team Impact: Edna Martin Christian Center

This category recognizes a Bridges site that has most embodied the values of excellence, service, and commitment to helping clients progress toward economic self-sufficiency. An organization that has exceeded their annual performance goals and demonstrated great promise heading into this year.

The winner of this year’s award is one of the original four Center for Working Families partners to implement the Bridges to Career Opportunities model back in 2016. They have worked for decades to bridge the racial and economic differences in their community by leading a variety of initiatives that empower residents and encourage a vision of hope.

Though still battling the aftermath of COVID-19 on their Center’s foot traffic, this site surpassed their annual enrollment goals by 15%, exceeded their training completion goals by 25%, and ensured that over 85% of enrolled members received the complete bundle of services including income supports, financial coaching, and job coaching.

In the last year, they have expanded their staff to include several new coaches, upgraded their training certification offerings, and launched a new learning lab to serve as a member resource center. Leadership from this site also traveled to Houston in August 2022 to participate in a two-day peer-learning session with another LISC-sponsored Financial Opportunity Center and bring back best practices for their continuing work in Martindale-Brightwood.

Please join LISC in congratulating the 2023 Building Bridges Team Impact Award winner – Edna Martin Christian Center.