FOCUS AREAS: What matters.
To achieve positive, measurable results, United Way focuses on four issue areas critical to our community: helping kids succeed; assisting people in need; promoting personal independence and community involvement; and building healthy families. United Way works to accomplish these goals by partnering with excellent local human service agencies and by sponsoring a number of community initiatives.
Each year United Way monitors progress toward desired outcomes through the citizens’ review process. In 2006, for example, mobile meals were delivered to 100 percent of the homebound elderly who had requested them. Ninety percent of children in a treatment program for severe behavioral problems were able to return to regular childcare or classroom settings. And 93 percent of families involved in disaster situations were established in suitable housing (emergency shelter having been made available immediately) within 30 days of the incident.
In addition to meeting immediate needs, United Way has also brought a broad spectrum of constituencies together to work for long-term solutions. United Way’s Profit in Education© initiative has contributed to a reduction in the high-school dropout rate from 26.5 percent in 1989 to 11.8 percent in 2006. When the Success By 6® initiative began nine years ago, there was only one accredited childcare center in St. Joseph. Today Buchanan County has 17 accredited centers. These are the kind of positive changes that will continue to benefit the community.
