United We Fight. United We Win.

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.

That’s why United Way’s work is focused on the building blocks for a good life:

• Education – Helping Children and Youth Achieve Their Potential

• Income – Promoting Financial Stability and Independence

• Health – Improving People’s Health

Advancing the common good is less about helping one person at a time and more about changing systems to help all of us. We are all connected and interdependent. We all win when a child succeeds in school, when families are financially stable, when people are healthy.

United Way’s goal is to create long-lasting changes by addressing the underlying causes of these problems. Living united means being a part of the change. It takes everyone in the community working together to create a brighter future. Give. Advocate. Volunteer. LIVE UNITED.

DIVERSITY AND INCLUSION

We respect, value and celebrate the unique attributes, characteristics and perspectives that make each person who they are. We also believe that bringing diverse individuals together allows us to collectively and more effectively address the issues that face our communities. It is our aim, therefore, that our partners, strategies and investments reflect these core values.

STATEMENT OF PRINCIPLE

More than 125 years ago, the diverse community leaders who founded United Way crossed cultural, religious and economic boundaries to make a difference through collective action. Today, diversity and inclusion remain vital to achieving our mission, living our values and advancing the common good.

We recognize structural racism, ethnic discrimination and other forms of oppression have contributed to racial disparities that have existed in the past and persist in the present. We acknowledge those inequities are the result of policies and practices that work to marginalize entire populations of people. We unequivocally denounce racism/ethnic discrimination because it undermines the well-being and vitality of our communities. Our United Way Network seeks to dismantle disparities and strives to engage residents and community members, especially those whose voices have traditionally been marginalized, in the shared work of fortifying equity and empowerment. We work with public and private partners to co-create solutions that ensure everyone has the resources, support, opportunities and networks they need to thrive. We commit to leveraging all of our assets (e.g., convening, strategic investments, awareness building, advocacy) to create more equitable communities. We are committed to educating our staff, board members, and communities.

Equity is the foundation of our work, from our engagement with donors to our investment of community resources to our interactions with the public. We define equity as the presence of justice and fairness within the procedures, processes and distribution of resources by institutions or systems. We commit to equity as a core value and practice to advance our mission of connecting people, resources and organizations to create a thriving community for everyone. We offer 211 as a resources for non-English speaking persons to call and speak with a navigator, who assists them in connecting with essential agencies. Our mission compels us to prioritize historically marginalized and systematically excluded people. It is necessary to focus on race, ethnicity and socioeconomic status, as well as other intersectional identities, to end the historical, social and systemic inequities that persist in our communities.