Program areas at UWCM
The organization has chosen to focus and accelerate community wide solutions in three main community impact areas: health, education, and financial stability. Within each of these impact areas, there are primary goals. Health addresses mental health and addiction. Education addresses kindergarten readiness, student success, and career and college readiness. Financial stability addresses housing and child care. United Way of Central Minnesota also provides the community safety net, ensuring access to food and emergency shelter with each year's first dollars raised. Safety net programs are evaluated and selected by a team of experienced volunteers familiar with the agencies and community needs. Program investments in the three impact areas are reviewed by teams of community volunteers after a letter of intent and full request for proposal are accepted by the organization. The investment team of community volunteers reviews the applications and makes funding recommendations to the board of directors.
United Way's imagination library book program provides free, age-appropriate books each month to local children from birth to age five. The goal is to help all children be prepared for success in school and life. During the year, uwcm delivered approximately 62,000 books.
In response to the covid pandemic, the covid relief fund was created by uwcm to provide support to our communities. The fund has provided: - technology for telehealth support - home delivered meals to isolated seniors - support to families navigating distance learning - support to homeless youth - childcare support for tier 1 emergency & health care workers
United Way also provides donors with the opportunity to designate their contributions to other eligible charitable organizations. A processing fee is collected based on United Way worldwide guidelines. Donor designations in the current year totaled $160,505.