Missouri Slope Areawide United Way

Community investments to United Way partner agencies:education, mentoring, a stable home life, and jobs - msa United Way fights poverty through partnerships and investments to ensure that every child enters school ready to succeed, are reading at grade level, and graduate from high school on time. Msa United Way stabilizes homes of at-risk students by providing supportive services such as case management, housing and transportation assistance, mental health services and mentors to increase school attendance and improve behaviors. Msa United Way invests in programs that improve academic outcomes and assist those living in poverty with finding and retaining employment.msa United Way, together with partners, provided 2,549,231 meals to those in need and 34,848 nights of shelter to the homeless. Accomplishments of note among a multitude of services provided, 2,313 children received character and leadership training from over 600 mentors, 211 children were provided mental health services, and at-risk youth received 2,152 hours of direct supportive counseling. Thousands of volunteers were recruited and mobilized to provide meals through our summer hunger program, pick up, sort and distribute donations, assist nutrition programs for seniors, hold food drives and personal hygiene supply drives, assist local community organizations through day of caring, and raise needed funds that stay local. These payments include contributions from donors for specific agencies. Msa United Way responsibly fulfills donor intent.

Homeless shelter:in october of 2017, a major local emergency homeless shelter shut down, leaving many without needed food, shelter, and resources. United Way stepped in after being asked to provide emergency shelter throughout the frigid winter months. United Way opened a permanent emergency shelter in march 2018. United Way has kept hundreds of men, women, and children warm and safe by providing more than 14,000 nights of shelter in 2022. Msa United Way was the only 24/7 emergency shelter in the region, saving lives, especially on days with windchill as cold as -50. Additionally, msa United Way provided hotel rooms and care to covid-positive homeless clients and continued to facilitate access to covid-19 testing prior to admission into the shelter to keep all residents safe.

United Way backpack program:msa United Way fights hunger by administering the United Way backpack program, providing more than 1,300 backpacks every other weekend full of food to students in bismarck-mandan and outlying rural communities. In 2022, 153,114 meals were provided to at-risk youth to end weekend hunger.

Expenses paid for community service projects.included in community services is the dolly parton imagination library administered by United Way and other smaller community service projects. The dolly parton imagination library is a program administered at no cost by msa United Way where free books are mailed monthly to the homes of local children ages 0-5 each month. In 2022, 40,827 books delivered to thousands of local preschoolers.