United Way is evolving. To increase the depth and breadth of the impact we make in communities, United Wayis taking the initiative on empowering and assisting specific populations in a holistic way. This will included convening, partnering, collaborating and advocating-as well as funding. By leveraging all available resources – financial, staff, volunteers and agencies – in a variety of strategies, we believe we will be more likely to create sustainable positive community change. This model will be more proactive, issue driven and prevention focused; a powerful approach to thinking creatively and harnessing every asset to improve more lives. Additionally, these refinements allow us to align our United Way system across local geographies so that we have more consistency while still being sure each Member United Way is able to best address their local needs.

How did we choose this direction? We facilitated 12 community visioning sessions across our region and reviewed community assessments, agency surveys and secondary data. Thanks to all of you who have participated to date. We analyzed these sources to ensure that going forward we: Ø are addressing unmet needs;
Ø have the core competencies to execute on the issues;
Ø and that we could achieve measurable impact in a reasonable time frame. Additionally, where it makes sense, we will try to align regionally and nationally with other United Ways and United Way of America, to maximize consistency and leverage resources.

UWMC is accountable. Volunteers throughout the region will continue to be highly engaged and involved. Funding will be focused around specific strategies and outcomes. This will allow agencies to share best practices and report on common outcomes and successes in our communities. The reporting process will give us information about the ways we are achieving community impact. These results will be shared with our communities. As we continue to strive to improve the lives of people in our communities, your continual support as a community partner is vital. Thank you again for generously sharing your time, treasury and talents.