United Way Of Greater Mercer County Inc

Programs: Education program & initiatives:in partnership with education based non-profit organizations in the mercer county community, we provide effective youth development programming to children. The evidence-based programs used in the classrooms build social and emotional development skills such as self-esteem, self-awareness, social skills, decision making, relationship building, and conflict resolution. In fy 16-17, 2,260 youth in 125 classes in 20 elementary schools benefited from this program. Reading oasis is an education program that provides a place where families can read together, learn how to make reading a habit at home and gain access to books year-round. Currently, united way of greater mercer county has three reading oasis rooms in 3 schools. Each reading oasis has bookshelves with hundreds of new books, comfortable bean bags and learning rug. To date over 2,000 books have been donated. (child literacy improvement project or clip) the clip initiative increases the accessibility of age-appropriate books to children by creating small child-friendly reading areas in local barbershops and beauty salons to improve childhood literacy and foster a love of reading. United way of greater mercer county partners with individuals, schools, nonprofit agencies, civic leaders and local businesses and corporations to create literacy kits and host book drives. In fy 16-17, over 760 kits, including literacy, steam, anti-bullying, and personal care kits were created and delivered to area schools and community centers. In addition, 3,224 books were collected and donated to local elementary schools.

income program & initiatives:the vita (volunteer income tax assistance) program offers families and individuals making less than $65,000 free tax return preparation by trained and irs certified volunteers. In fy 16-17 2,610 returns were prepared totaling $2,656,548 using 66 volunteers who totaled 2,909 hours. United way of greater mercer county assists families, both the student and parents, to complete their free application for federal student aid (fafsa). This service is offered at no cost to students in the mercer county area. In fy 16-17, 102 benefitted from this service. Retirement workshops (financial empowerment) are seminars that review the retirement process for members of the public employees' retirement system considering retirement specifically; the retirement application process, beneficiary options, group life insurance and the taxability of your pension.

health program & initiatives:united way of greater mercer county partners with local nonprofits to implement the "going to the barbershop to fight prostate cancer". The goal of the program is educate men in urban and under-served areas about the importance of prostate screening. In fy 16-17, united way and its partners reached 2,576 individuals with direct prostate cancer prevention education, screened 33 men for prostate cancer, and trained 29 barbers to understand the importance of discussing prostate cancer prevention with their clients. United way of greater mercer county applied a three-prong approach to impact food insecurity: awarding $75,000 to 10 nonprofit agencies to expand their focus on summer hunger; packing 178,000 bowls of oatmeal at the 2017 strike out hunger meal packing event; and partnering with local and statewide government and nonprofit agencies to promote awareness of free summer meals for children.

other programming & initiative:united way has been supporting 2-1-1 since its inception in 1997. 2-1-1 is a free, confidential referral and information helpline and website that connect people from all communities and of all ages to the essential health and human services they need, 24 hours a day, seven days a week. In fy 16-17, nj211 fielded a total of 5,859 inquiries for mercer county. The greatest need was financial assistance. At united way of greater mercer county (uwgmc) we channel the passion and energy of young people to create the next generation of community leaders. Student united way is a student-led organization that works to address the education, financial stability and health of their local community. Uwgmc currently has a student united way chapter at the college of new jersey. United way of greater mercer county and the familywize community service partnership have teamed up to make prescriptions more affordable to the community. Familywize cards have provided needed relief with great success to individuals and families in mercer county. In fy 16-17, 5,499 individual and families saved a total of $590,222 on prescription costs. Through our donor designation program, united way of greater mercer county collects, processes and transfers donations on behalf of hundreds of local organizations.