United Ways identify and build on community strengths and assets, help individuals and groups with specific community interests find ways to...
WHAT WE DO
Everyone deserves opportunities to have a good life a quality education that leads to a stable job, enough income to support a family through retirement, and good health. Advancing the common good is less about helping one person at a time and more about changing systems to help all of us. United Ways identify and build on community strengths and assets, help individuals and groups with specific community interests find ways to contribute their time and talents, support direct-service programs and community-change efforts, and advocate public-policy changes.
Consider this: 5.6 million US teens and young adults ages 16 to 24 are neither in school nor working. Many of these "disconnected youth" are simply cut off from the education and career paths that could help them live a good life and make positive contributions to our society and our economy.
Nationally, two-thirds of students are not reading on grade level by 4th grade. That proportion rises to four-fifths for children from low-wage families. Our work in the area of early grade literacy will enable us to identify, fuel and replicate best practices in our local schools.
To be financially stable, working families need housing that is affordable. Today, more than 4 million working families spend more than half of their income for rent and/or mortgages, leaving them particularly vulnerable to eviction or foreclosure if their income is interrupted.
A crisis disrupts the building blocks of a good life: education, income and health. Disaster work is foundational to the United Way Worldwide mission of mobilizing the caring power of communities to advvance the common good.
Get involved
Change starts here! You are the part of this great community. It is easy to get involved with United Way to create opportunities for a better life for everyone in our community! We encourage you to provide your personal email address so that we can keep you informed of the needs in our community and the inspiring work of the programs supported by the United Way!