Indianapolis offers an important lesson in how organized communities can move from demanding change to helping govern it.
LIVE FREE Indiana and its partners developed a co-governance model: grassroots leaders engage public officials consistently, shape priorities, monitor implementation, and hold institutions accountable for results. This organizing helped move $17 million toward Community Violence Intervention, non-police crisis response, and efforts to end chronic homelessness.
Co-governance matters because public policy often fails in the gap between announcement and implementation. Organized residents provide continuity across election cycles and keep public systems connected to lived experience.
The Indianapolis model also broadens the definition of safety. Violence prevention cannot be separated from housing, crisis response, employment, healing, and the treatment of people returning from incarceration.
LIVE FREE’s Indiana report documents the organizing practices behind this work. LIVE FREE Indiana continues that statewide work through Keep Indy Home. Explore LIVE FREE’s broader community organizing and public safety work or join an upcoming action.
