Mesa United Way Inc

Causes: Federated Giving Programs, Homeless & Housing, Human Services, Philanthropy

Mission: Uniting community. Inspiring donors. Improving lives.

Programs: Agency allocations - see schedule o.

community impact - see schedule o.

community awareness (communications) - see schedule o.

other program services - grant programs:the volunteer income tax assistance (vita):the vita program is a free tax preparation service for low and moderate income people in the community. Mesa united way has supported vita for many years, but for the last five years has been the lead agency for the mesa program. Volunteers are provided with training to prepare tax returns and then must pass an irs certification test. During the 2017 tax season, 82 mesa vita volunteers contributed over 4,990 hours of their time to complete more than 5,700 tax returns. Due to their efforts, over $6. 2 million tax dollars were returned to the members of our community who need it the most. These figures each represent a slight decrease of approximately 6% from those for the 2016 tax season. Over 770 hours of tax preparation services were provided at seven different sites covering all areas of mesa. The facilities for vita sites are provided by non-profit mesa vita coalition partners. Americorps "operation second wind":americorps is often referred to as the domestic peace corps. Mesa united way has teamed up with americorps, a federal program that encourages national and community service while providing valuable job training. Operation second wind places mesa residents, most of whom are over 55 years of age, as direct service delivery professionals within non-profit agencies that provide services to the needy in our community. All positions are part-time. During this past year, 73 operation second wind members served over 45,000 hours at 16 separate programs operated by 9 different non-profit agencies within mesa. This program has been renewed for an eighth year and with 74 members serving members of the community.