IUPUI’s Midwest and Plains Equity Assistance Center is being awarded $8.5 million to continue promoting equity-based assistance and training throughoutt the Midwest.
The five-year agreement from the U.S. Department of Education gives the Map Center the opportunity to improve the public school system in a 13-state region.
“We've been re-awarded the Map Center for many reasons,” IUPUI professor Kathleen King Thorius said. “But one of the most important is the relationship between our focus as an equity assistance center and the relation and the commitments of our Great Lakes Equity Center with the commitments and the activities of our IU.”
The Map Center is one of four regional Equity Assistance Centers in the U.S., and it has worked to prevent educational injustices for over a decade. Thorius said the center plans to continue the initiative over the next five years with the new funding.
“We're continuing an already robust set of technical assistance activities,” she said. “So moving into this next cycle, we’re continuing to place more of a focus on addressing issues around social and emotional wellness for educators and students in our public school systems that have been through so much stress.”
As part of Region 3 of the Equity Assistance Center network, Indiana’s Map center will extend their new plans to Illinois, Iowa, Kansas, Minnesota, Missouri, Michigan, North Dakota, Nebraska, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Dakota and Wisconsin.
Organizations inquiring about the Map Center can submit a request for services here.
