Program areas at United Way of Central Alabama
Health - uwca and its partners work to improve the quality of life of residents in Central Alabama through targeted services to address needs such as: access to health care and substance abuse treatment (72,651 preventive mental or physical health screenings provided and 177,647 clients received services for physical and/or mental health, including substance abuse treatment), ending hunger (over 21 million pounds of food were distributed to over 443,000 clients), advancing health equity, providing access to quality care for individuals affected by hiv 7,294 clients assisted), offering comprehensive senior services 531,536 senior meals served), improving the built environment to be more conducive for healthy lifestyles, and providing pandemic response services. Uwca's covid response program served 949 clients with services related to isolation and access to food.
Education - from quality childcare to dropout prevention programs, uwca uses its collective resources to promote programs along the entire education continuum. In addition to supporting tutoring, after school and mentoring programs, uwca's success by six initiative improves school readiness by engaging pre-k educators and providing high quality early learning curriculum, state-of-the art classroom materials and equipment and evaluation. In 2022, the program served 1,370 students. In addition, our help me grow Central Alabama program served 306 families (with 354 children) and connected families with community-based developmental and behavioral resources so children can start school healthy and ready to succeed.
Access to services - uwca takes a leadership role in building a statewide information network entitled 2-1-1 connects Alabama, an innovative information and referral strategy ensuring all alabamians have the ability to connect with available resources in their communities. In 2022, 2-1-1 responded to 26,946 calls utilizing a continuously updated database to assist callers. 2-1-1 provides referrals for all basic needs such as food, shelter, clothing, financial assistance and child care. In addition, 2-1-1 collaborates with other organizations to provide specialized time-sensitive information on issues such as disaster relief, income tax preparation assistance, mortgage assistance, foreclosure prevention, disease outbreaks and more. Uwca's 2-1-1 call center is the first and only call center in the state to be accredited by the alliance of information & referral systems (airs).