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As a subscriber you can listen to articles at work, in the car, or while you work out. Subscribe NowIBJ has chosen Dennis Bland, the longtime president of the Center for Leadership Development, as the 32nd recipient of the annual Michael A. Carroll Award in recognition of his work to transform the lives of Black youth in Indianapolis.
Bland, an attorney who went to high school, college and law school in Indiana, spent 13 years volunteering with the Center for Leadership Development before joining as president, where he’s served for 24 years.
“Youth development is for me a vocation, a mission, a calling,” he told IBJ earlier this year. “I deem it a privilege having the opportunity to work with and support youth and families to help youth realize their highest potential.”
IBJ will honor Bland with the Carroll Award at IBJ Media’s Innovate Central Indiana event at 11:30 a.m., Dec. 11, at the Westin Indianapolis. Tickets are still available.
The Michael A. Carroll Award is given annually to a man or woman who has demonstrated the former deputy mayor’s qualities of determination, humility and service. Carroll was among six people killed when two small planes collided over southern Marion County on Sept. 11, 1992.
IBJ Publisher Nate Feltman said “there is nobody more deserving” than Bland of this year’s Carroll Award.
“Dennis has spent his life in service to others,” Feltman said. “His work with the Center for Leadership Development has positively impacted thousands African American youth in their pursuit of academic and career achievement.”
The center focuses on what it calls the CLD Principles for Success, which are five core values that it describes as “fundamental and vital to developing youth and preparing them for the highest levels of personal development, career success and an enriched overall quality of life.” The principles are character development, educational excellence, leadership effectiveness, community service and career achievement.
In recent years, the center has completed a $33 million fundraising campaign and opened a 20,000-square-foot expansion of its building. It said earlier this year that it would use a $200,000 grant from Bank of America’s Neighborhood Builders program to expand to help youth in neighborhoods with the most need on the east and west sides.
IBJ Media named Bland to its Indiana 250 list of influential Hoosiers in 2024 and 2025. In 2022, the Indianapolis Colts honored Bland with its Inspire Change Changemaker Award.
A full story about Bland is scheduled to be published in the Nov. 14 issue of IBJ.
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