Program areas at United Way of Allen County
Priority area grant funds: United Way of Allen County provides funding to 17 organizations that provide services that help achieve community goals around food security, housing stability, and mental health access. Additionally, United Way invests in various community collaborations (kindergarten countdown, vita, persistence pays off, early years initiative, etc.) Throughout Allen County.
Volunteer income tax assistance (vita): during the 2023 vita season, tax preparation was offered at one site in Allen County and four sites in dekalb, noble and steuben counties. This year, over 60 volunteers donated over 5,000 hours to this effort. Over 2.2 million were returned to over 2,900 residents.
Kindergarten countdown: kindergarten countdown completed its ninth year where 97 children attended classes in the schools they will be attending in the fall. The program operates in two public school districts and emphasizes classroom skills like raising hands and lining up quietly as well as strengthening the literacy skills that are necessary to learn to read. This year's students showed a 18 percent increase in basic literacy skills and a 16 percent increase in social emotional scores from the assessments completed at the beginning and end of the four-week program. There was a 44 percent increase in the number students able to write their names.
Community collaborations: United Way of Allen County invests in numerous collaborative efforts that convene multiple partners to address concerns in the community in a two-generational approach through our priority areas of educational opportunities, food security, housing stability, and mental health access through community-based solutions. --donor designations: United Way of Allen County (uwac) directs designated contributions (50 or more) to a specific uwac priority area(s), initiative(s), or to local United ways in other communities. Uwac retains 15% of designated gifts to United ways/funds that are part of the northeast Indiana consortium and 15.1% on gifts to other United ways. No other fees or percentages are charged against these gifts. --volunteer engagement and day of caring: our total volunteer engagement coordinated over 1,800 volunteers for nearly 10,400 hours of community service which equals nearly 333,500 worth of service invested back in to Allen County. We work with corporate partners to connect their employees to volunteer opportunities in the community. We coordinate kit builds for them to complete or companies participate in our largest volunteer event, day of caring. Our 31th annual United Way day of caring continued to rebound in terms of volunteer numbers. In 2023, over 1,600 volunteers contributed over 6,400 volunteer hours, and completed 68 projects. Projects submitted for day of caring are completed in one day and typically consist of cleaning, landscaping, painting and other general maintenance. Projects take place at non-profit agencies, schools or private residences coordinated by neighborlink. United Way works together with corporate partners, non-profit agencies and volunteers to meet the needs of our community, making Allen County a better place to live and work. --persistence pays off: persistence pays off (ppo) is a new initiative of United Way that was launched in april 2021. The goal of the initiative is to get more students to complete their college degree or certificate by helping eliminate some of the barriers that students are facing. We partner with the trio offices at ivy tech community college fort wayne and purdue fort wayne along with luthern social services to provide students educational goal attainment, case management, life skills development and financial literacy coaching. Two hundred and twenty-seven students have received services through ppo in two and a half academic years with a persistence rate of 94%. This means that 94% of the students have either completed their certification or degree or have re-enrolled the next semester to continue their education.