The United Way of Central Indiana has announced a $1.5 million grant for its Community Economic Relief Fund (CERF) from the Lilly Endowment to support agencies in central Indiana serving those hardest hit by the recession.

Since its December launch, CERF has provided assistance to forty-eight agencies that are providing assistance to individuals with emergency needs, including food, health care, and rent, mortgage, and utility costs. According to UWCI director of agency services Christie Gillespie, CERF funding has enabled some 126,000 households to receive food deliveries and 4,200 households to receive health-related assistance. Approximately two-thirds of the households served (67 percent) have been first-time users of the agencies, while 35 percent reported being unemployed less than thirteen weeks, 32 percent reported being unemployed more than thirteen weeks, and 32 percent reported reduced employment.

The initial $3.2 million for the fund was provided by UWCI, the Lilly Endowment, the Nina Mason Pulliam Charitable Trust, the Efroymson Family Fund, the Indianapolis Retirement Home Fund, and the Richard M. Fairbanks and Central Indiana Community foundations, as well as individual donors. CERF also announced a recent gift of $8,600 from St. Luke's Methodist Church, which is being matched dollar-for-dollar by the Moore Foundation.

"Lilly Endowment continues to be impressed by the compelling needs of those most affected by current economic conditions," said endowment president N. Clay Robbins, "and the collaborative and strategic approach to those needs demonstrated by CERF and its funders."