INDIANAPOLIS—Indiana Republican Todd Young spent his Tuesday night listening to stories of how a local Indianapolis community is helping its most needy citizens find their way out of poverty in hopes that he could learn to spread that success to other communities.
Young was joined by Bob Woodson, who is considered the "godfather" of empowering neighborhood-based institutions to fight poverty, and Pastor Darryl Webster, who has been putting Woodson’s lessons to work in Indianapolis through his "Men’s Boot Camp" program, which has been transforming lives for a decade in his 46218 zip code, described by Webster as the city’s most troubled area.
The mostly African-American crowd of over a hundred consisted of many who have been through Pastor Webster’s Boot Camp and came to share testimonials about how they were lifted up from problems such as drug addiction and incarceration into productive forces in the community.
Their stories were the focal point of a documentary by Opportunity Lives, the group that put on the event, which features Webster and was shown before the event.
"My boot camp guys have used their own creativity to start jobs," explained Webster, who runs the program out of the Emmanuel Baptist Church. "Now they are hiring in the community."
One of the men who spoke, referred to by Young as the "best caterer in Indianapolis," came through the boot camp program and now owns the largest minority-owned food service company in the city. He told Young about the trouble his business faces as one of the only employers that is willing to hire ex-offenders.
This is not a new topic for Young. Since he came to Congress in 2011, Young has worked with Woodson on crafting legislation that would empower programs such as Webster’s boot camp that have been proven to work and improve lives.
Young passed legislation this summer that creates a mechanism for effective privately funded social programs to apply for federal funding. One such program that Young explained is the Nurse-Family Partnership, which is run by Goodwill of Central Indiana.
The program connects low-income pregnant women with registered nurses who provide pre- and post-natal care that otherwise would be too expensive. In five years, ninety percent of mothers’ babies were born healthy—a high-rate for low-income families—and the government therefore reduced its Medicaid expenses.
Young’s bill would get local successes such as the Nurse-Family Partnership the funding that they need to expand, and reimburse some of the investment made by private funders.
"This is an area of public policy that I really have a heart for and have been able to show leadership in," Young told the Washington Free Beacon in an interview after the event. "I want to continue to do it in the Senate, which brings me to this meeting."
Young said that he holds these types of meetings regularly in his congressional district, located just south of Indianapolis, and sees it as crucial to the way he handles his duties as a legislator.
"This is something I’ve done on a regular basis down in my congressional district," Young said. "I heard a lot of very powerful testimony from people tonight. You add up enough anecdotes from these experiences and you start to detect patterns."
"The more I can learn about the means of the 46218 area code, the better I can serve that population," Young said. "It’s just the right thing to do—to make sure that every Hoosier feels like you represent them."
Young contrasted himself with his Democrat opponent Evan Bayh, a former Indiana senator who remained in Washington, D.C., to work at a lobbying firm and barely maintains a residence in Indiana.
"There are two types of legislators," Young explained. "There are legislators that wait in their office for lobbyists to come deliver them legislative proposals, and then there are others that go out and find challenges and opportunities back in our communities with those you serve."
"I intend to spend lots of time back here in Indiana—presence really matters when it comes to representation. I can’t think of a piece of legislation that I’ve worked on where the origins of the idea didn’t emerge from interaction with actual Hoosiers."
"Every place I go I say, ‘What challenges are you facing that are created by the federal government that we can remove? What opportunities are you currently pursuing that we might be able to assist with?’ Those conversations inform my legislative work in Washington."
A group of Democrat protestors attempting to tie Young to Donald Trump stood outside of the Indianapolis Public Library with signs, unaware that the event was more a community anti-poverty gathering than a political one. Two trackers also entered the event, though one left saying that he "didn’t want to disrupt this," according to event organizers.
It is unclear whether any of the protesters were associated with the Bayh campaign. One protest organizer told the Free Beacon that she was employed by the Hillary Clinton campaign and that the Indiana Democratic Party put on the protest.
Neither the Bayh campaign nor the Clinton campaign responded to requests for comment.