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 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 3,551,045 meals to those in need and 24,774 nights of shelter to the homeless. Accomplishments of note among a multitude of services provided, 2,165 children spent quality time with a mentor, 428 children with trauma increased coping skills, and at-risk youth received 2,152 hours of direct supportive counseling. Thousands of volunteers were mobilized to hold food, diapers, wipes, personal hygiene and warm winter gear collection drives, with 850+ volunteers assisting local community organizations through day of caring. 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 purchased property with a partner in 2019 to build a permanent shelter for the community, serving men, women, and families. Msa United Way re-opened our doors during the daytime hours in december 2022 and has been the only 24/7 emergency shelter in the region, saving lives, especially on days with windchill as cold as -50. The new facility, called the center for opportunity, began serving residents on june 1, 2023. The goal of the center is to bring a multitude of services onsite, such as behavioral health case management, childcare, career readiness training, housing assistance, and financial literacy counseling. The new facility provides safe space for families with children, as well as victims of domestic violence. 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.

Ending hunger in our community one Way that msa United Way fights hunger is by administering the United Way backpack program, providing more than 1,700 backpacks every other weekend full of food to students in bismarck-mandan and outlying rural communities. In 2023, 180,840+ meals were provided to 1700+ at-risk youth to end weekend hunger. Msa United Way recruited and coordinated more than 570 volunteers to serve daily meals (23,542) in 11 parks during the summer to combat summer hunger. Together with our partners, 62,396 children, adults, and seniors now have access to healthy meals.

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 2023, 40,770 books delivered to thousands of local preschoolers across a 10-county region.