United Way of Benton and Franklin Counties: Shaping the future of our community

United Way of Benton & Franklin Counties is shaping the future of our community.

We make that bold statement in recognition of our network of donors, businesses and nonprofits which work together to address the complex needs of the 300,000+ people living in our region.

We shape the future by building collaborations and focusing resources to ensure access to the building blocks of opportunity – education, income and health – that every person needs to thrive.

Our work is focused by tracking trends to identify the areas of greatest need in our community. Then, we work to fill critical gaps.

Need grew during this challenging year. Students missed valuable learning opportunities. People’s hours were reduced or their jobs eliminated. Stress took its toll on mental health. Neglect, violence and substance abuse increased. But the biggest problems facing our community are not new. Hunger, homelessness, lack of access to medical and mental health care — these are just a few examples of pre-pandemic challenges that grew even bigger during the shutdowns.

Over the last year, we rallied resources to address these growing gaps. We placed $1.4 million with more than three dozen local nonprofits to support access to food, shelter and job skills training to help people obtain and keep employment, and access to mental and behavioral health services.

More than 20% of people in our community receive services from these funded partners, and we anticipate that number will climb. Plus, we helped local donors give an additional $730,000 to more than 300 nonprofit organizations.

We rallied other resources to help nonprofits respond to growing local needs while wrestling with shrinking budgets. We turned our no-longer-used Nonprofit Training Center into a PPE depot and distributed more than 450,000 pieces of free PPE to 51 local organizations — and we’re still fulfilling these orders because it reduces expenses for nonprofits while enabling them to safely serve local needs.

With pandemic restrictions and a new use for that Center, we pivoted to provide virtual coaching and training to local nonprofits to help them stay strong during these challenging times.

One year ago, we launched a free volunteer connection platform (www.volunteertricities.org) to help local people safely support the volunteer needs of local organizations. Help is still needed, so all are encouraged to check the site for opportunities to serve.

We applaud the ongoing vaccination efforts that are addressing immediate health concerns, but we know that the impact of the pandemic is far from over. Recovery will take time. In the coming year and beyond, we will continue to do what we have for more than 60 years. 

We will continue to work toward “the new normal” but we can’t do it alone. Recovery and rebuilding a healthy future require all of us working together to ensure that our community moves in the right direction: That everyone has a safe place to sleep at night; that no child is hungry; that children enter kindergarten ready to learn; that parents have the support and skills necessary to help their children succeed; that high school students graduate; that our vulnerable neighbors have access to food and medical services.

We are future focused — which means that our primary mission is to support kids and families to grow the strong employee, customer and voter base we need to have our community, and everyone in it, flourish.

Our local United Way will continue to build partnerships and rally resources to solve our region’s biggest problems and creating lasting change.

Because, UNITED, we shape the future.

This story was originally published April 30, 2021 at 12:45 AM with the headline "United Way of Benton and Franklin Counties: Shaping the future of our community."