Center for Interfaith Cooperation

Center for Interfaith Cooperation provides safe environments, resources, and service opportunities to increase religious literacy, build empathy between faiths, and facilitate interfaith encounters.

• About Us
  CIC Increases Religious Literacy
  
  Appreciation of religious diversity is a key element in creating an inclusive and welcoming environment. CIC provides coaching and programming to help people gain insight, bridge communication gaps, and become empowered as leaders for social change. One primary avenue of this work is CIC Religious Diversity Workshops. These informative and interactive workshops are tailored to the needs of organizations across Central Indiana and enable participants to develop religious awareness and practice leading with empathy.
  
  CIC Builds Interfaith Connection
  
  CIC facilitates interfaith in-person and virtual encounters throughout the year, from large outdoor events to small group or one-on-one dialogue. Additionally, CIC provides programming for young people to develop interfaith relationships through the Interfaith Youth Dialogue and Interfaith Youth Ambassador. These programs enable emerging leaders to become a catalyst in their communities encouraging the pursuit of interfaith understanding and cooperation.
  
  CIC Creates Community Awareness
  
  Through the Interfaith Enrichment Corps, CIC connects individuals across Indianapolis to serve for one year with community non-profit institutions. In their placements, corps members target key community needs including mental health stigma, implicit bias, resource disparity, and social isolation while building supportive relationships through pursuit of interfaith and intercultural collaboration.
  
  In addition, CIC hosts community interfaith awareness events and experiences including the Festival of Faiths, New View Film Series, and Sacred Spaces Tours.
• Our Impact
  Through the Interfaith Enrichment Corps, CIC connects individuals across Indianapolis to serve with community institutions for one year to build quality interfaith relationships while advancing community solutions to address critical needs.
  
  Impact for host institutions:
  
  Gain a skilled individual who will build your organization’s capacity to
  • collaborate with religious communities
  • cultivate interfaith understanding and cultural relevance
  • enhance and augment mission services in a sustainable fashion
  
  Over one year, members commit to 1700 hours of service and training to take on unique roles within an organization including: engaging in service activities such as volunteer recruitment and support, community collaboration, mental health stigma reduction, staff/volunteer training, cultural connections, event planning, and other community-oriented activities.
  
  Impact for service members:
  
  While making an impact with your host organization, service members also develop self-confidence, self-discipline, independence, time management, perseverance, integrity, adaptability, initiative, problem solving, regulation, and collaboration.
  
  Many service member alumni go on to pursue enriching careers in organizational leadership and use their year in the Interfaith Enrichment Corps to build hands-on experience in the following areas.
  • Understanding of Community Needs and Demographics
  • Volunteer Management
  • Trauma-informed Practices
  • Fundraising/Grants Literacy and nonprofit fiscal stewardship
  • Maintaining Work-Life Balance