Mission:
To raise, manage, and distribute funds in support of charitable endeavors serving Indianapolis community needs with preference to the Mapleton-Fall Creek neighborhood.
About TCSI:
TCSI was created as a tool to ensure that critical opportunities are not missed due to lack of human or financial resources. As a 501(c)(3) and 509(a)(3) exempt organization, TCSI was established in 2003 to push forward important community initiatives including but not exclusively to Tabernacle Presbyterian Church. During its 20+ year history, TCSI has been involved with the success of Raphael Health Center, the Neighborhood Christian Legal Clinic and the development of the field and mini-stadium adjacent to Tabernacle Presbyterian Church.
Our History, Our Future
Just north of Downtown Indianapolis sits an uncommon sight: an NFL-caliber athletic field abutting a modified fifteenth century Gothic-style church. Here, a well-worn path leads inner-city youth to a safe, fun space to let off steam. The grounds of Tabernacle Presbyterian Church (Tab) have joyfully engaged and served those that share its urban "backyard" for 100 years. TCSI’s most recent two projects provided a quantum upgrade of facilities for TabRec’s football and soccer programs. Among other likely projects, TCSI’s future activities will seek to do the same for Tab Rec’s gym-based programs. Through its recreation and sports ministry, Tab Recreation has served as fertile soil for over 100,000 future business, political, and community leaders as well as a launching pad for future collegiate and professional athletes. For a century, youth have met up with friends, teammates, coaches, mentors, and volunteers on the court, track, and field to learn life and sport fundamentals.
Considered among many as a model of modern urban youth programming, Tab Recreation has a merited reputation of inclusivity in terms of gender, race, income, and faith. Unique among faith-based youth programs, Tab Recreation intentionally blends its service to the youth of the Church with the youth of the surrounding community. For these two groups who might otherwise not interact, the program provides a safe space to play, socialize, and build empathy for each other's experiences.
Tab's Backyard: Community Demographics
Families come from the neighborhood and all over the city to play on Tab's field and in the gym. In addition to Tab Recreation programming, the field is a community field and is heavily utilized by local schools and organizations. As George Hill, former Indiana Pacer and Tab Rec alumni, describes it, Tab is a refuge "where they (kids) don't have to worry about what's going on in the outside world or the violence." Tab's geography in the heart of the city is no accident. In the mid-1960s, the church recommitted to stay at 34th and Central to serve the heart of the city and this mission-driven legacy survives today in Tab's community programs.