United Way Of Central Alabama Inc

Programs: Health - uwca and its partners target emerging health issues impacting our community such as childhood obesity, chronic diseases, the uninsured, childhood immunizations, substance abuse, family violence, and oral health. United way health communities initiative partners in the safe routes to school program with the walking school bus program, bicycle safety rodeos and other activities to promote safe, healthy exercise and reduced traffic emissions. In 2016, safe routes to school partnered with 28 schools and participated in 65 community-wide events, impacting 7,551 children.

income - uwca is working to reduce the number of lower-income families who are financially unstable. Uwca supports partner agencies and implements the financial stability partnership initiative, which was created to strengthen communities by identifying and tackling the underlying causes of financial hardship facing today's low-income families. Uwca, with more than 100 partners, assists low-income individuals and empowers them with the tools and skills needed to maximize income, build savings, and acquire stabilizing assets. Uwca's individual development account program, a matched savings program, helps low-income individuals purchase a first time home, start or grow a small business, or further their education. To date, the program has helped individuals buy homes, pursue education and start small businesses valued at $25 million with 463 households completing the program. Uwca's free tax assistance program resulted in 3,265 tax refunds of $2. 48 million to low-income alabamians. Additionally, uwca provided financial education outreach to 3,297 individuals in our community.

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 own success by 6 initiative focuses on improving school readiness for children from birth to age five. During the school year, success by 6 engaged pre-k classrooms and their teachers with high-quality curriculum and state-of-the-art classroom equipment and materials. Success by 6 served 800 pre-k students total, and all students assessed achieved our benchmark of 85% or higher on the kindergarten readiness assessment. Classrooms in the success by 6 network improved their learning environments by an average of 15% on the early childhood environmental rating scale.