News Release

INDIANAPOLIS — Indianapolis-based not-for-profit The Villages of Indiana is using a Lilly Endowment Grant of more than $1.6 million to create a support program for what it says will be a rising number of expectant mothers and newborns in Indiana.

The Villages of Indiana, a family and child services agency, says it will create a new, statewide mother-centered adoption program by 2025. The program will be piloted in Evansville and is designed to help those in difficult circumstances facing pregnancy or parenthood to decide if adoption is right for them.

Due to the near-total abortion ban passed by the Indiana General Assembly last year (which, due to a request for a rehearing, is under preliminary injunction), The Villages of Indiana predicts that there will be an increasing number of women who find themselves pregnant with few resources. The new program is supposed to provide them with much-needed services, whether they choose adoption or to raise the baby themselves.

If an expectant mother chooses to pursue adoption, the program will put her in touch with a trained case worker who will help her fully explore adoption, even matching her with a potential adoptive family.

Resources provided by the program are also supposed to extend past the adoption phase. for mothers at risk of postpartum depression.

In some cases, mothers pursuing adoption decided not to go through with it. If that happens, the program will provide a different set of services in order to help her raise her child.

The Villages of Indiana has 17 offices serving all 92 Indiana counties and about 300 staff, the adoption program allowing for the hiring of seven new staff members. While the plan is to have the program in place in Evansville by the end of this year, it will not stop there. The agency’s longterm goal is to make their program available to anyone in the state.