On Wednesday, the Healthcare Foundation of La Porte (HFL) invited community leaders, partners, nonprofits, and staff to the ribbon-cutting ceremony of the foundation’s new office building and Conference & Learning Center. After speeches from HFL President and CEO Maria Fruth, Former Chairman of the Board Jeff Bernel, and Chairwoman of the Board Kathleen Lang and a blessing by Board Member Father Nate Edquist, foundation leaders and members cut the ribbon, effectively celebrating a new chapter.
The new headquarters and meeting space is a collaborative resource for the entire county’s benefit. It’s a hub that connects the foundation to the nonprofits and community leaders that are working to make La Porte County one of the top 10 healthiest communities in Indiana by 2030.
Originally established in March of 2016, HFL was funded by the sale of the former IU Health La Porte Hospital, now Northwest Health – La Porte. Founded on the principle of promoting health and wellness in La Porte County, the foundation focuses on three main areas: strategic and thoughtful leadership, grantmaking and scholarships, and capacity building and continuous growth of nonprofits in the community. The foundation’s assets now total to $230 million, exemplifying its incredible outreach in the community over the years.
“When we started the foundation in March 2016, the intent was to establish grant making. We talked to everyone from the nonprofits to the city and county government to understand what their needs were,” Fruth said. “We did what's called ‘get to know’ where we sat down with these organizations and collected a lot of information, specifically from the nonprofits. They told us their needs, and one of the needs they identified was the need for education and leadership skills. They wanted to grow, they wanted to be more effective, and they wanted to be more efficient.”
The foundation continues to invest in La Porte County to enhance its overall community health and wellness, providing funding to address the issues that the county faces such as infant mortality, substance abuse, infrastructure (parks improvement and new trails), food deserts, mental health, access to care, and more. From 2017 to the first grant cycle of 2021, $24 million in grants have been awarded to nonprofits, cities and county agencies, to fund some of those needs. Now with its new facility – totaling 13,000 square feet – that investment in the community has become a true collaboration with its community partners.
The new building is home to offices and the Conference & Learning Center, which includes dedicated nonprofit incubator spaces to promote the development and growth of the county’s nonprofits. With free-to-use meeting spaces for foundation grantees, nonprofits, government groups, and health-and-wellness-related activities, the Conference & Learning Center operates as a hub and vital resource to entities who previously did not have access to simple amenities like meeting and educational seminar rooms.
“What we discovered through this process of ‘getting to know’ was that a lot of organizations don’t have any space for meetings, the smaller nonprofits especially,” Fruth said. “So the purpose of the building is the Conference & Learning Center. It's available to nonprofits, to government entities in the cities and the county, and to healthcare providers. It is not just for health education; it's for the growth and betterment of the community.”
The Conference & Learning Center has three separate conference rooms divided by operable partitions that can hold 223 occupants when combined. Each conference room features state-of-the-art audio and visual equipment, Wi-Fi, video conferencing, video recording, and more, in addition to amenities such as a warming kitchen and a coat room.
“The space and design have the up-to-date technology so that groups throughout the community– governmental and nonprofits – can come in and use that for presentations and to communicate more effectively, develop plans, have groups meet together, and collaborate. We believe that will make everything much easier,” Lang said.
The Conference & Learning Center will also give space to the leadership academy that HFL hosts with Indiana University to educate and train nonprofit leaders.
“There’s a tremendous amount of passion among the nonprofit leaders in the community, and sometimes because of the lack of funding, they are not able to go to conferences. We identified that there was a need for education, and with that, we started our leadership academy,” Fruth said. “We have graduated two classes of nonprofit leaders, and we want to establish a dedicated space for that continuous education.”
The Conference & Learning Center is located at 140 East Shore Parkway near Chessie Trail in La Porte, which HFL helped to fund.
“The area was open and now we brought it to a different level. You can see all the development going around. In essence, we’re the conduit for the next stage of life for this area,” Fruth said.
For more information on how to reserve space and appreciate the amenities in the Conference & Learning Center, visit www.hflaporte.org/hfl-conference-learning-center.
