A new vision of community

Michael Morris

by Julie Fanselow

September 27, 2005 | Focus on Study Circles, Vol.16, No.2 | Indianapolis, Indiana

 

Michael Morris, a facilitator for Indianapolis'
Family Circles, with his two daughters, Mariah and Melanie.

Life is bright these days for Michael Morris. The single father is active in his community and is pursuing new goals: a career for himself and college for his two daughters. He credits his newfound, positive outlook to his experience in a study circle program called Indianapolis Family Circles.

Morris has endured and overcome many setbacks. As a young man, he lost his right eye after being stabbed by gang members. He went on disability, and he and his daughters eventually had to move to an Indianapolis public housing complex with a particularly rough reputation. He had no desire to interact with anyone at the Hawthorne Place Apartments until several neighbors talked him into joining the new smallgroup community dialogue known as Family Circles. There, he learned other Hawthorne residents had the same concerns he did, mostly for their children’s safety and education. “I realized people wanted something better,” he says. This experience proved to be a turning point for Morris and for his daughters.

After the circles concluded, Morris and several other Hawthorne residents began a resident council and launched several projects aimed at improving conditions in the apartment complex, including a youth center and a program in which parents took turns watching children as they waited for their school buses. Several more rounds of study circles were held, including one that mixed teenagers and adults.

Amid his growing community involvement, Morris faced more struggles. His remaining eye worsened and, in 2002, he became legally blind. For about a year-and-a-half, Morris’ daughters—Mariah, now 13, and Melanie, 9—had to care for their father and their apartment as Morris’ eyesight failed. But in July 2003, Morris’ luck changed: he had a successful cornea transplant that gave him 20/40 vision in his left eye.

In 2004, the family moved to a nicer apartment complex 10 blocks from Hawthorne, and Morris is already talking with staff from the school across the street about improving recreational access for the school and neighborhood.

He is also working with Indianapolis-based Software Performance Training on its not-for-profit job-training program, Learning Tree. Participants get computer training, partially funded by their work at the busy concession stands at major area sporting events—experiences that help them build communication skills and grace under pressure. “Michael is very good at engaging others and creating the momentum that’s necessary for them to be focused in their work and feel valuable,” says Rhonda Coleman, the project’s director.

Meanwhile, Morris also has begun work toward an associate degree in radiology. He hopes to have a job as an x-ray technician and start saving money before his girls are ready for college; later, he plans to pursue studies in nuclear medicine and magnetic resonance imaging.

“Study circles gave me my voice back,” he says. “Before, I didn’t have a voice, or I didn’t choose to use my voice. This made me someone who gets things done.”

Funding for the Indianapolis Family Circles was provided by the Central Indiana Community Foundation, as well as by the Annie E. Casey Foundation as part of its Making Connections initiative.

Indianapolis' study circle program at a glance:

City and state: Indianapolis, Indiana
Population: More than 783,000
Focus of study circles: Neighborhood revitalization
Number of study circle participants: Just under 1,000

Learn more: Neighborhoods