United Way Of Westmoreland County

Programs: Community investment - community investments support uwwc's mission "to improve lives by mobilizing the caring power of communities," and are focused on our priority areas of education, health and income (financial stability). We provide community investments through the funds donated to our community impact fund which are strategically invested in partner agencies through a rigorous grant process. Our investments are targeted to: 1) success in learning and life - enriching academic and social development for all youth so they are ready for work and life; 2) basic needs and financial stability - helping families in need and creating pathways to family financial stability; and 3) health access and independence - supporting seniors and vulnerable populations in living safe, healthy and independent lives. Additional support for community impact is provided through various collaborative efforts and partnerships with other funding sources, and service providers for programs such as mothers making more, a cross-sector program that helps single mothers get the education they need to obtain jobs that increase their family financial security. Finally, promoting civic engagement, specifically volunteerism and advocacy, is integral to our community investment efforts. In 2014, 1,037 volunteers, representing 17,385 service hours, were leveraged to support uwwc's community investments.

education - uwwc has become increasingly focused on the issues of education and employment. Our board of directors recently affirmed this at our strategic planning conference, saying that we must focus on ensuring the best educational opportunities for young children as it is a critical path to building a stronger community and that we must support young people and adults in training for and securing living wage jobs. Uwwc has worked to improve early care and education for the past several years, and we have made an impact on the school readiness of thousands of young children. The following are 2014 statistics of these initiatives: family engagement - providing "books for babies" to over 2,493 families of newborns and 24 raising readers clubs to provide parents with literacy resources; pre-k vision screening - over 4,000 pre-kindergarten children screened for vision; transition to kindergarten - over 4,900 children impacted by high quality transition activities; and counseling for career success - 16 school districts and 4 career technical center producing plans to address the needs of our community's workforce.

faith in action - since inception in 2007, the united way of westmoreland county's networked faith in action (uwwc fia) model has served over 1,676 recipients with the support of over 700 volunteers, providing 75,734 hours of service through 44,294 unique service events. There are five uwwc fia sites operating in our region with programs that serve the alle-kiski valley; murrysville, export and delmont; penn township and irwin; scottdale, mt. Pleasant and new stanton; and the greater greensburg area. These sites complement the independently incorporated faith in action programs located in latrobe and uniontown which are both united way partner agencies with whom we support financially and collaborate closely. The purpose of fia is to help older adults remain living safely and independently in their own homes by offering free non-medical services like assisted transportation to doctor appointments, home safety checks, supportive visits and minor home maintenance projects provided by a corps of trained community volunteers. In 2014, the uwwc-fia network served over 900 older adults through approximately 350 volunteers.

pledge processing - the planning and implementation of our online pledging tool for local companies, as well as verifying of nonaffiliated agencies in which donors designate during our annual campaign. Volunteer center - in 2014, united way of westmoreland county not only built upon prior volunteer successes, but expanded services to further engage community members in volunteer service. In the fall, united way hosted our 12th annual day of caring, a single day of service which again had a resounding community impact. That day, approximately 635 volunteers - including over 40 corporate volunteer teams and individual community members - offered their time, skills and compassion to over 67 service projects, hosted by over 50 different nonprofit organizations across westmoreland, fayette and armstrong counties. Projects ranged from painting, landscaping and general maintenance, to working with seniors and elementary school students. Through their day of caring service, volunteers provided nearly 3,000 hours of work to organizations, valued at over $67,000, according to the independent sector's value of volunteer time. Earlier in the year, united way also debuted a new volunteer service to community members: a quarterly volunteer enewsletter and online listing of local volunteer opportunities. Working with our partner agencies, united way collects details on local volunteer opportunities, posts them on our website and notifies subscribers of opportunities via a targeted enewsletter. These efforts have resulted in increased and year-round engagement of volunteers, and has contributed to our overall goal of establishing united way of westmoreland county as the number one volunteer resource in our region.