United Way of Colquitt County

The mission of the United Way of Colquitt County, Inc. is to organize, coordinate, and maximize the resources available to our diverse community and to improve the quality of life. In 2023, the United Way of Colquitt County, Inc. Provided over $566,637 in grants to 29 human service agencies by funding 56 programs serving more than 38,419 individuals in Colquitt county.in 2023, we celebrated our 26th annual day of action. This event provides hands on volunteering opportunities to the community through local nonprofit organizations. Day of action was held september 20, 2023, where more than 135 volunteers worked at 12 agencies on projects of need. Childrens cheer and toy shop, green oaks center, Colquitt co. 4-h, moultrie ymca (two projects), boys and girls club, hero house, baby packer kits, american red cross, arts center of moultrie, and Colquitt food bank all had teams of volunteers working and a wheelchair ramp was built for a family in need by our kinetic by windstream team. More than 675 hours were given by volunteers. Sponsors for 2023 included bud k worldwide, pcom south Georgia, holiday inn express, moultrie bank and trust, publix, wal-mart, swartzentruber medical, mccpra, lasseter motor company, coca-cola, cbc bank, kinetic by windstream, esg, Georgia power, freedom logistics, and southern powder coating. Through our partnership with the dolly parton imagination library, 1,604 children were registered to receive a free book mailed monthly to ages birth to five years which increased participation by 31%. Another partnership we want to highlight is with singlecare, where we were able to offer local County residents a prescription discount cards and saved local residents over $74,940.07 in prescription costs. Statistics show that 44.1% of Colquitt County residents have one vehicle or less in their home. In, 2022 we applied for a $13,000 grant with United Way worldwide and lyft to establish a transportation program, ride United, to provide tranportation access to our local residents for things such as non-emergent medical appointments, job interviews, workforce development, trainings and other health and human related services. In 2023, we provided over 500 rides to individuals and at the end of the year revamped the program to work with a local business, all directions transportation services. United Way completed the third years payments toward the following three-year community impact grants that were awarded in 2021: leadership legends to provide mentoring and curriculum in developing a pipeline of african american males beginning in 8th and 9th grades; Colquitt County educational foundations early literacy program to implement the dolly parton imagination library providing free monthly mailed books to Colquitt County residents birth to age five; and project purposes workforce bootcamp to assist students in developing their workforce options including certifications after high school. United Way continues to fund three three-year community impact grants that were awarded in 2022: boys & girls club keys to excellence program; Colquitt County school systems early literacy program to implement baby packer welcome home kits; and moultrie-cc library system to implement the basics, a program to provide parents and caregiviers with the tools to teach and engage with babies at a young age to assist in early literacy.united Way awarded five three-year community impact grants to the following organizations covering the 2023-2026 years: Colquitt regional medical foundation to assist with a prescription plan program for discharged patients who are underinsured or uninsured to help support the uncovered costs of medication; Colquitt County board of education student services departments reach Georgia program a needs-based scholarship and mentoring program from 8th-12th grade, upon completion an award of up to $10,000, will be given to attend a Georgia hope-eligible two or four-year college of their choice; mustard seed cottages bright course program will allow residents to learn about topics such as prenatal care, parenting, relationships, life skills, and more; teens have vision 2s the raising her project to promote healthy relationships between mothers and daughters with an emphasis on empowerment, bonding, healing, and growth; and the breathe organizations parenting individuals with disabilities workshops to educate parents on topics that relate to them and to guide them in applying for needed resourses.during the 2023 year, we awarded five special grants to organizations totaling $45,000: arts center of moultrie to assist in renovating their education wing; one world link and americorps to provide capacity building strategies for our organization through hands on service; the breathe organization to provide two cnas for respite events; compassion house to assist them with installing an hvac system; and lastly Colquitt County schools families in transition program to provide backpacks for their weekend backpack buddies program after losing their state funding.we hosted our fourth annual bid United: auction for action fundraising event. This social media and radio auction was responsible for over $69,806 of funds raised during the year. This year we partnered with the weeks group to utilize their weeks app to promote and run our auction. Our local partners and sponsors were the weeks group, southern regional, rowell auctions, lazarus, birch and pine real estate, the city southern coffee, freedom logistics, prospex promotions, capital city strategic wealth, ameris bank, Colquitt County school district, moultrie ymca, sterling physician group, holiday inn express, swartzentruber medical, lasseter tractor company, hunter outdoors, and lasseter motor company.