United Way of Asheville and Buncombe County

Community schools recognizing that education and equity are inseparable and key to our vision of a United and resilient community, we have staff who show up to work every day in one of seven public schools where they are responsible for aligning resources and partnerships to create hubs of support for students and families. While the long-term focus of community schools is to ensure all students can graduate ready for college, career, and community, this work must focus on the here and now. This involves working with community partners to address issues such as hunger, homelessness, interpersonal violence, poor health conditions, etc. United Way of Asheville and Buncombe County supports investments in seven community schools: Asheville middle, enka middle, owen middle, erwin middle, a.c. reynolds middle, north Buncombe middle, and Asheville high/silsa. Examples of investments made in these schools/communities include - three fully functioning school-based health centers located on school campuses providing a range of physical, dental, eye, and mental health services, after-school clubs and activities, and weekly community nights where families can share a healthy and free meal, academic support, as well as community connection and relationship building. United for youth community schools focus attention on key schools within our community - strengthening the relationship our community has with those schools, students, and families. But to have a wider and more long-term impact and address systemic issues that have contributed to the achievement/opportunity gap among students of color and those experiencing economic insecurity we must have a broader coalition of partners working together to tackle these tough issues. That's where United for youth comes in. This group is a multi-generational, cross-sector cradle-to-career partnership. This growing partnership was forged between Asheville city schools, Buncombe County schools, United Way of Asheville and Buncombe County, and representatives of local health, social service, higher education, and youth services community partners. Mobilizing volunteers the volunteer center of United Way, hands on asheville-buncombe, makes it easy for individuals and groups to get involved in meaningful volunteer opportunities with local nonprofit organizations and schools. Our staff also works closely with local businesses, providing ways for teams to support our community. We also host two big drives each year: a school supply drive that put a brand new fully stocked backpack in the hands of over 2300 youth last year alone and a holiday book drive that has put 17,000 new books in the hands of children over the 11 years we've run it.