United Way of the Plains

Grants awarded from the community fund along with donor designation to agencies. For the grant awards from the community fund, panels of community volunteers evaluated applications for funding from agencies, resulting in funding to 68 area nonprofit agencies through our funding cycles for "opportunity on the Plains," "impact on the Plains, "promise of the Plains."

Collective impact, planning and administration of grants received: perform research and collaborations with community groups toward solutions to community needs, including grant-funded projects, and various projects that benefit the community in the areas of education, health, financial stability, and basic needs. United Way's lead role in community grants resulted in grant revenues in excess of $4.3 million for the local community, of which $1.9 million was directly administered by United Way of the Plains. Grants awarded were primarily in the areas of education, financial stability, health, and homelessness. Examples of these accomplishments include the following: education initiatives: continued operation of the dolly parton imagination library program which provides a free age-appropriate book to preschool children once per month, until the child reaches age five. Over 12,000 children participated in this program during 2023. Throughout the year over 109,000 books were distributed to children in sedgwick, butler, and sumner counties for this program. Through a collaboration with wichita state university and coaching for literacy foundation, United Way was able to distribute over 6,700 books to over 3,370 kindergarten -third grade students in area elementary schools. These books featured diverse characters and were part of a summer literacy kit designed to encourage reading over the summer months and provided reading guides for parents to help their child strenghten their reading skills in addition, 195 volunteers continued to lead the read-to-succeed program which partnered with area elementary schools, by providing reading coaches dedicated to reading with children. Reading coaches devoted 30 minutes once a week with a student to help develop reading skills. As a result, 443 second & third grade children enrolled in this program benefited from this mentoring program. Health initiatives: prescription medicines: through a partnership with singlecare - provided a discounted prescription drug plan, which accessed over 4,000 times in 2023 by area residents, saving them over $420,000 on prescripton costs. Dental care: through a partnership with delta dental of Kansas, provided dental insurance coverage througout the state of Kansas for working individuals that are not able to afford traditional dental insurance. Through this program, 900 claims were paid during 2023 for individuals, valued at over $257,000 in dental care benefits. Financial stability initiatives: a total of 115 volunteers were recruited, trained and provided assistance in filing over 5,800 federal returns for the elderly and low-income residents resulting in over $7.1 million dollars being returned to these individuals. During 2022, United Way launched a new coalition to help individuals avoid predatory lending services. Through our bank-on ict initiative, individuals work with partner financial institutions to obtain banking services that they were previously denied. In its second year of operation, the coalition was able to service over 1,500 individuals with safe and affordable banking information, thereby avoiding the need to use such vendors as payday lenders and check cashing vendors. Basic needs initiatives: homeless initiatives: United Way serves as the lead agency for the wichita/sedgwick county coalition to end homelessness, which is comprised of 511 individuals and organizations from nonprofit, faith-based, government, and business organizations, and individual community advocates. This coalition colloaborates on the planning of the services needed for homeless individuals and families in our community. During 2023, this committee served over 2,100 individuals by providing assistance with emergency shelter, transitional housing, and street outreach and housing services. With over 1,000 individuals being housed or kept in housing during the year. Veteran transportation: United Way partnered with the robert j. dole va medical center and the city of wichita transit department to provide the veterans ride free program, which provides free bus transportion for veterans in the wichita area, thereby revoming transportation barriers to access various services. Almost 60,000 free rides were granted during 2023. Disaster response and assistance: during 2023, United Way continued its role in providing assistance to victims of an april 2022 tornado. Through the relief fund established to assist victims of this disaster, United Way distributed over $213,000 in relief funds to residents impacted by this disaster. the individual applications for assistance are reviewed by a long-term recovery committee, established by the city of andover, with United Way having a seat on the committee.

Give items of value program (giv): warehouse location used to receive and distribute donated products such as office furniture/supplies, linens, paper goods, and other various items from area businesses and national retailers. Product is distributed to area non-profits at no cost, thereby allowing the receiving agency to spend more of their dollars on their respective mission. During 2023, 108 local companies and national retailers donated items with an estimated fair market value over $3.2 million. These donations benefited 264 agencies in our community during the year.

United Way's 2-1-1 statewide call center and website: this program provides a 24/7, 365 days/year confidential information and referral call center that connects people needing assistance or wanting to volunteer with organizations that can address their need. During 2023, this program provided help to individuals over 159,000 times. the top needs requested by callers were in areas of utility/rent assistance, tax preparation services, shelter information, and food pantry information. United Way's volunteer center: this program provides coordination of volunteer projects between agencies needing volunteers and individuals/groups wanting to volunteer. During 2023, the center coordinated activities for almost 300 group projects and connected over 6,200 volunteers to local nonprofits needing help and provided over 18,600 hours of volunteer time.