Living United

United Way-Thomas Jefferson Area 2012 Annual Report

We are very proud of the work our board of directors has done this past year in researching local needs and determining where services were lacking and how best our United Way could make an impact in our community.

Our 2011-2012 Annual Report does a great job in explaining the issues and showing how we are addressing them through community impact grants and direct services.

We'd love your feedback.

 

 

Posted by Kim Connolly

CenturyLink Supports Our United Way's Mission

Our good friends at CenturyLink recorded this radio ad for us yesterday.

 

United Way Year End Gift-Simone Alley Century Link -60 REV

Listen for it on Z95, WINA, HitKicker Country and Generations over the next month.

 

We sincerely hope that our friends and neighbors in the greater Charlottesville area will support our work in School Readiness, Self-Sufficiency and Community Health.

 

Posted by: Kim Connolly

Sweating the Details for the United Way Day of Caring

The United Way Laurence E. Richardson Day of Caring.

The United Way Day of Caring.

The Day of Caring.

Or, in our office shorthand: DOC.

Our office is in “All hands on deck!” mode in preparation for our annual volunteer extravaganza next Wednesday, September 19^th.

This year, we have 2,300 volunteers registered for 234 projects at 113 nonprofits and schools. There are teams from 65 local businesses and organizations, with the University of Virginia and UVa Health Systems providing nearly 1,000 of our volunteers. Our good neighbor, State Farm Insurance is sending around 100 volunteers, and Lexis Nexis and the CFA Institute each send around 70 employees to volunteer. And other local businesses send from 2 to 50 employees.

That means a whole lot of local businesses allow and encourage their employees to spend a day volunteering in our community. And we can’t forget those employees left behind to keep things running.

Jessica Snyder, our Volunteer Center Director, is seeing her 9 months of preparation come to fruition and is deftly handling the thousand details that make the day run smoothly, not to mention taking the last minute changes in stride. The rest of us do what we can do help her. We haul the signs out of our basement, print new signs, arrange pick up of traffic cones, alert the media, assign our board members project sites to visit to thank the volunteers. The spread sheets detailing every one of the projects are voluminous, and the details (weights for balloons? – check) are numerous, but necessary to making such a huge undertaking seamless. It is fun, it is exhausting and somewhat overwhelming, but on that day, at the kick-off breakfast at Albemarle Square, when the State Farm Singers are lifting up their voices in joy, and the hundreds of volunteers are full of energy to make a difference in our community, it all seems worth it.

 

Posted by Kim Connolly

Charlottesville Region Anticipates the 2012 United Way Day of Caring

The excitement is building in our region as 2,300 volunteers prepare to work on more than 200 projects for local nonprofits and schools in the city of Charlottesville and Albemarle, Fluvanna, Greene, Louisa and Nelson counties on September 19.

Many thanks to Charlottesville Newsplex for capturing the community's anticipation in this public service announcement.

 

Nonprofit Volunteers, Boards and Governance in Charlottesville

This is a busy week for us.

Jessica Snyder, our Volunteer Center director, is finalizing all the United Way Laurence E. Richardson Day of Caring projects, with the final volunteer teams choosing their projects today.

Our annual board retreat is this Friday. It is a time to reflect and to plan. At last year’s board retreat, our board members self-selected which of our three impact teams they would serve on: School Readiness, Self-Sufficiency or Community Health. Board members invested a lot of time and energy this past year investigating the issues and unmet needs in our community relating to their specific impact areas. Our board members have already shown their commitment to positive change and are energized for further
action.

Speaking of good board governance, the deadline for nominations for our United Way Nonprofit Awards of Excellence, for leadership or board governance, is this Friday, September 7. Find more information and nominating guidelines here.

 

Posted by: Kim Connolly

Nonprofits, Audits, Financial Strength and Transparency

If it is August, it must be audit time at our United Way. Each August, two auditors from Hantzmon Wiebel, LLC take over the lunch table on our third floor for an exhaustive review of our financial records. From individual donations, to grants we have received, to grants that we make to other local nonprofit programs, our audit is complicated. In addition, we are the fiscal agent for several programs like The Santa Fund and Women United, among others. Plus, we have several direct services of our own, such as Child Care Scholarships, Prescription Assistance and the United Way Volunteer Center. Whew! No wonder the auditors set up shop upstairs for about a month.

Why is all this important? Transparency and accountability. When a donor is evaluating a nonprofit, they should also look at the organization’s financial stability and efficiency. An annual audit should be available on that organization’s website. If an organization is not large enough to require a full audit, they should have at the least an independently performed year‐end income and expense statement available to the public.

Not only do we have a full audit performed every year, we also have an Audit Committee which includes a Darden professor of economics, a corporate Chief Operating Officer, and an accountant.

One of the results of our fiscal and management practices is that our overhead is impressively low – last year it was a mere 16.01%. The Better Business Bureau states that nonprofits should spend no more than 35% on overhead. Not only do we require ourselves to have a full audit each year, we also require an audit from each local agency applying for a United Way Community Impact grant. If an agency's revenues are under $200,000, the agency may submit a financial compilation in accordance with Statements and Standards for Accounting and Review Services issued by the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants. When a program receives a grant from us, you know it is well-vetted.

Ask the hard questions. We welcome yours. Our Audit Committee has worked very hard to make a complex document clear and understandable. Here is last year’s audit. Once this year’s audit is complete, we will post it on our website. We are proud of our well run, financially stable and - most important – effective organization!

While is all this important? Because heartfelt stories and emotion-triggering photos need to be balanced with proof of financial stability and program results. Nonprofit donations are like investments in a program’s stated mission. And folks want to see a good return on their investment. United Way-Thomas Jefferson Area is invested in School Readiness, Self-Sufficiency and Community Health. What are you invested in? Join us and see the results.

Our United Way Targets Important Issues

The following is a letter to the editor which appeared in the July 28, 2012 issue of The Daily Progress.

United Way targets important issues

Thanks to The Daily Progress for the June 4 article about our United Way’s emphasis on strategic philanthropy(“UnitedWay adjusts funding”). We recently undertook an extensive strategic planning process, resulting in a refocusing of our efforts toward the themes of self-sufficiency, school readiness and community health. By focusing our resources on specific, targeted issues, we can have the greatest return on investment for our donors who share our concerns, and the greatest impact in changing lives.

From our board’s year-long investigation,we adopted priorities in each impact area where we believe we can have lasting, significant impact: job training; addressing barriers to employment; increasing financial education and literacy; increasing home visiting services for young children to ensure school readiness; improving prenatal care and the health of babies; promoting physical activity, improving nutrition and obesity prevention; and increasing access to preventative and basic health care.

We will seek innovative approaches to address these critical issues and will bring funding, advocacy and volunteerism to create better outcomes.

Our region is fortunate to have an abundance of tremendous nonprofit organizations. No single organization can meet every need in our community. Through partnerships with many of these great organizations and by encouraging collaboration on similar programs, our new approach will enable us to focus our efforts in areas of significant challenge and create lasting, life-changing differences for our citizens.

We are energized by this new direction; it is our hope that the public will join with us through their financial support and volunteer efforts. Together, we can have a tremendous impact.

DANIEL GOODALL, Albemarle County

Daniel Goodall is a member of the United Way executive committee. This letter also carried the names of Blair Kelly, chairman of the United Way Board of Directors, and executive committee P.K. Kamath, Liza Borches, Margery Daniel, Peter Brooks, Brad Groff, Alison DeTuncq, Ray Mishler, Jim Kennan, Dick Brownlee, Eric Johnson, Brad Ramsey, Mike Chinn, Deborah van Eersel and Mark Giles.

Why Participate in the United Way Day of Caring?

Each year on the day of our United Way Laurence E. Richardson Day of Caring, United Way staff and Board members team up and travel to visit the volunteers and nonprofits where projects are taking place. As soon as we stepped into the door of the Virginia Discovery Museum on my trip to local nonprofits that day, I knew that something special was taking place. All of the volunteers were smiling, laughing and busily working away. We were greeted by the wonderful staff at the museum and heard about the amazing work that had taken place with the volunteers.

As soon as I got back to the office that day, I wrote a letter to the museum staff asking for them to share what made the Day of Caring so special for them. I thought that highlighting the excitement at the Virginia Discovery Museum and showcasing the impact the volunteers made that day could help other nonprofits see the benefits in participating in such a special event.

Here is what the Virginia Discovery Museum staff shared:

"Every year, the Virginia Discovery Museum participates in Day of Caring. In fact, we purposely schedule our exhibit renovations around that day. This year, we welcomed volunteers from BB&T and CFA for an all-day, museum-wide renovation project. Starting at 9am, volunteers painted every room in the museum with new, exciting colors, helped us move furniture that otherwise would not have moved, and constructed new exhibits for the kids to play on. It is safe to say that without the hard work and enthusiasm of these volunteers, our recent new exhibits (Discovery Garage and Virginia Frontier) would not have opened on time to the public.

The most memorable part of Day of Caring is the camaraderie and the “willingness to do anything” of the volunteers. More than once, staff at the Virginia Discovery Museum was told that the volunteers come expecting to work hard and accomplish the tasks set before them. The staff started the day with several possible tasks for the volunteers, thinking that only a token few would be accomplished. By the end of the day, every single task was complete; and both the staff and volunteers left the museum exhilarated with a sense of accomplishment.

In the following week, staff members raved about the help we received from Day of Caring volunteers. We wish this event occurred multiple times throughout the year. We genuinely hope that the volunteers had a great time at the museum and we eagerly await the next Day of Caring."

United Way-Thomas Jefferson Area Announces $634,038 in Grants to Local Programs

 For the past nine months, the board of directors of the United Way-Thomas Jefferson Area has been implementing its new strategic direction of focusing on three specific areas of impact: School Readiness, Self-Sufficiency and Community Health. Impact teams consisting of 49 United Way board members, plus interested community volunteers, met dozens of times in the past year to develop priorities within each impact area. Our board invited local nonprofits to submit proposals that would help meet the priorities in each of those areas. Our United Way is investing a total of $634,038 in grants this year to local programs, and for the first time has provided some multi-year grants.

The priorities of the SCHOOL READINESS impact area are: to provide home-visiting services for families with children zero to three years old; increasing the access to quality early education through the Virginia Star Quality Initiative; and to partner with schools, preschools and community groups to improve children’s successful transition to kindergarten.

School Readiness Impact Team Members: Eric Johnson, Chair; Bill Bradley; Peter Chapin; Mike Chinn; Bryan Elliott; Frank Friedman; Rondi Furgason; Phil Garland; Michael Geismar; Amanda Hoffman; PK Kamath; Chris Laing; Chris Lee; Brad Ramsey; Bill Wardle.

School Readiness grant partner programs:

• The Home Visiting Collaborative, consisting of Jefferson Area CHIP and CYFS, received a three year grant,
• CYFS’s Child Care Quality program also received a three year grant.

“Multi-year funding is something new for us,” notes Cathy Train, United Way’s president. “But in the case where there is a strong, ongoing program with proven results that specifically addresses our priorities, we felt that investing for the long term could create some momentum in children growing up healthy and arriving at school prepared to succeed.”

Our United Way’s SELF-SUFFICIENCY impact area team’s goal is to “invest in individuals and families working to become financially stable and economically independent.” “We found that this goal really spread across all three of our impact areas,” Train states. “A family struggling to make ends meet, or parents working two or three jobs without health insurance, doesn’t leave time to help children with homework or ensure adequate preventative health care.” Our United Way sought programs that addressed one or more of these priorities: addressing barriers to employment and job training for unemployed/underemployed local residents, including promoting high school graduation and post-secondary education; increasing access to financial education, literacy and budgeting; and supporting employment through adequate and accessible transportation, child care and shelter.

Self-Sufficiency Impact Team Members: Deborah van Eersel, Chair; Charles DuBose; Sasha Farmer; Adrian Felts; Dan Goodall; Fred Greer; Peter Harbilas; Allen Hughes; PK Kamath; Jim Kennan; Don Long; Abby Lunn; Susan Prindle; Joyce Robbins; Phil Sparks; Juan Wade; John Young.

The United Way has partnered with the following programs to help address these priorities:

• Changing the Odds, which addresses teen readiness for workforce, college and financial independence, offered by the Boys and Girls Club;
• Family and Individual Development Program, which teaches financial literacy to low-income, mentored adults, offered by Charlottesville Abundant Life Ministries;
• Strive, a one-on-one mentoring program from Charlottesville Abundant Life Ministries focused on goal setting and accountability for Charlottesville High School boys received a three year grant;
• Computers4Kids, which provides long-term mentoring, technology training, computer access, job readiness skills and college to career guidance to low-income middle and high school students, received a three year grant;
• Bank on Great Charlottesville is a program of the Legal Aid Justice Center that expands access to affordable financial services and financial education programming for unbanked and under-banked households;
• The Adult Tutoring program of Literacy Volunteers – Charlottesville/Albemarle has received a two-year grant to serve students attempting to pass the G.E.D. test;
• The Re-entry Services program of OAR/Jefferson Area Community Corrections assists ex-offenders with their reentry needs as they transition back into the community;
•  PACEM’s Journey Advocate program received a two year grant for providing one-on-one mentorship for shelter guests who are employed or have regular income;
• The Center of Hope, a Salvation Army program that assists homeless families to recover from homelessness to lasting self-sufficiency through employment, housing, meals, clothing, furniture, education/life skills programs and local collaborations with holistic assistance;
• The Salvation Army’s Emergency Shelter provides temporary and long-term shelter, money management skills, educational and life skills programs, meals, clothing and furniture;
•  The Welfare to Work program of WorkSource, which provides economic opportunities for low and moderate income citizens through workforce development activities aimed to support a job placement program for persons with significant barriers to employment who are making the transition from welfare to work.

Our research determined that in the area of COMMUNITY HEALTH, the priorities were clear: improve prenatal care and the health of babies; promote physical activity and improve the nutrition and eating habits of local residents, or other obesity prevention projects; and increase access to preventative and basic health care resources for underserved persons, including low-income and rural communities. “The United Way is invested in building a community where people are healthy and have access to needed care,” says Train. “We need to help develop healthy habits, starting at an early age.

Community Health Impact Team Members: Liza Borches, Chair; Guy Babineau; Glenn Bannan; Spencer Birdsong; Lisa Cannell; Deborah Conway; Margery Daniel; Dorrie Fontaine; Ray Mishler; Gary O’Connell; Eunhee Park; Jim Richardson; Carolyn Schuyler; Jim Shannon; David Stebbins; Margo Szeliga; Mike Wesson.

In order to meet the priorities of the Community Health focus area, the United Way is partnering with the following programs through grants:

• The Mobile Food Pantry, run by the Blue Ridge Area Food Bank, distributes nutritious food, including fresh produce and perishables, directly to needy clients living in underserved, rural communities surrounding Charlottesville;
• The Community Action on Obesity Program, run by the Community Action  on Obesity Task Force, reduces barriers of access to healthy foods for low-income or working poor for improved nutrition and eating behaviors and provides activities utilizing consistent motivational techniques emphasizing the outdoors to increase active lifestyles for a lifetime;
• The Child Victims Health Access program of Foothills Child Advocacy Center provides a comprehensive continuum of physical and mental health services for 250 child victims of physical and sexual abuse and assault annually, and received a two-year grant for a forensic nurse;
• The Teen Pregnancy and Parenting program of Jefferson Area CHIP supports success by encouraging teen parents to continue their education, receive prenatal care, delay pregnancies and understand the important role they play in their children’s lives;
• The Neighborhood Health Outreach program is an obesity prevention partnership between the Women’s Initiative and the Martha Jefferson Hospital Wellness Clinic, and received a two year grant for its neighborhood-based offerings.

“By focusing our investments on specific goals and priorities, and through encouraging partnerships and collaborations with similar or complimentary programs with long-term goals and measurements,” Train declares, “it is our hope that we will create substantial positive change in our community.”

None of this would have been possible without the leadership of our Campaign Chair, Alison DeTuncq, president of UVA Community Credit Union, who led teams of volunteers in raising the funds necessary to address these priorities. And, in the end, it is the members of our community - our donors - who have invested their money in improving our community, that we have to thank. Together, we WILL make a difference.

 

Posted by: Kim Connolly

 

Are you Invested in Our Community? We Are.

What would happen if families had access to quality health care, kids entered school ready to learn, and individuals had the job skills they needed to become financially stable? How would their lives be different? How would our community change?

That is our vision. And we need your help.

The United Way-Thomas Jefferson Area is invested in: School Readiness, Self-Sufficiency and Community Health.

To ensure people have the tools they need to thrive, we have assembled a winning team: local nonprofits, business leaders, educators, health professionals and public servants. We are leading these team members in solid, research-based community strategies and linking them with the resources needed - funding, volunteers, advocacy, technology, in-kind resources and corporate partnerships - to deliver transformative, measurable results.

Today we’re appealing to you to step up to the plate and invest in our community. Please make a gift to help the United Way hit a home run for programs that make families more successful, and our community more prosperous.

We’re all on the same team; we all care about this community. It’s time to come together and Hit One Out of the Park.

Everyone who makes an “Out of the Park” donation that is received by June 1, 2012 will be listed in a full page ad in The Daily Progress (please indicate if you want to be anonymous).

What are you invested in? Give today. Click here.

Thank you.

 

Interning for the United Way a Valuable, Wide-Ranging Experience

In my third year at the University of Virginia I decided to enroll in the internship program (UIP) for the entirety of my fourth year. I had extra space in my schedule and thought it would be fun to get out of the classroom for ten hours a week and do something a little more practical.

My first day at the United Way was both wonderful and overwhelming. Jessica, my sponsor, showed me my desk and then introduced me to everybody in the office. They were all incredibly nice and excited to meet me and they all wanted to tell me all about what they did. I of course promptly forgot everything that they said and spend the next few months learning everything I could about the office and remembering what they had told me earlier.

At my internship seminar I heard horror stories of other interns’ experiences; they would vacuum for ten hours a week, didn’t have a desk to sit at, or would have to deal with highly erratic sponsors and schedules. At the United Way, however, everybody went out of their way to accommodate my schedule and they did their best to involve me with everything that went on in the office. As the intern I expected to do a lot of the busy work in the office, but people would hesitate to ask me to do certain things; everybody really wanted me to have a valuable experience and not just envelope-stuffing experience. I helped organized a School Supply Drive, participated in the Day of Caring (I have never blown up that many balloons), went to a Board Meeting, did research for Impact Area meetings, worked on the Better Business Challenge to make the office more sustainable, and accompanied people to the radio station.

From January until April, I devoted most of my time to doing taxes through the EITC tax coalition. While taxes might not sound very exciting, I really enjoyed this portion of the internship! It meant I got to interact with clients, problem solve if a return got rejected, and really feel like I was making a difference in the community.

By interning at the United Way, I now have a much better understanding of how organizations, and particularly non-profits, function. I feel a lot more confident that I will be capable of holding an actual job. I gained great work experience and also started really connecting to Charlottesville (the University tends to be a little bit of a bubble at times). It felt great to be a part of an organization that works so hard to improve the community. I know that when I visit Charlottesville in the future, I will definitely drop by the office and say hi to everyone!

Posted by: Ellen Janssen, University of Virginia Class of 2012

Save the Date for "One Fine Day for the United Way"

Circle Monday, July 23rd on your calendar for an amazing day at Keswick Hall at Monticello.

For golfers, the United Way Golf Classic, which normally sells out, will be played on the club's Arnold Palmer designed course. Last year's beer tasting tents on the course were a big hit, and will be back again this year. The tournament includes a box lunch and delicious dinner on the patio.

Don't golf? We have you covered. "An Afternoon in the Country" offers a wine tasting tour of three wineries, a box lunch with a speaker, and the opportunity to join the golfers for dinner in the evening.

Both events benefit the United Way-Thomas Jefferson Area. We are invested in: School Readiness, Self-Sufficiency and Community Health. Spend "One Fine Day" with us and help us invest in our community.

More detailed information will be posted soon. If you can't wait and have questions, please contact Caroline Emerson at [email protected] or 434-972-1701. Sponsorship opportunities are also available.

Welcome to Our Team, Albemarle Orthopaedics!

 

Albemarle Orthopaedics, PLLC, has been specializing in General Orthopaedics and Sports Medicine in the Charlottesville/Albemarle community for more than a decade. Dr. William T. Grant and the AO staff bring a friendly approach to patient care while at the same time providing the highest level of treatment. We take a conservative approach and recommend surgery only when necessary.

Albemarle Orthopaedics, PLLC, is pleased to support the United Way via the Home Run Club. We appreciate the opportunity to give back to the community in this novel way.  We hope fans of all stripes will consider us for their orthopaedic and sports medicine needs!

Team Up for Our Community!

CenturyLink loves being a part of these two winning teams – UVA baseball and the United Way-Thomas Jefferson Area. Where else can you have all things wholesome like baseball and hot dogs and make a positive impact in the community with your donation every time that  home run is scored! It’s an absolute win when we are able to support a local Charlottesville organization that does so much to help with School Readiness, Self-Sufficiency and Community Health.

And the tailgate in May provides a great way to connect with other businesses that not only care what’s happening in the community but are willing to step up and act by joining the Club.

This year as the Team Captain we have a small gift that we’ll be sharing with each business as a token of our appreciation. But you have to sign up to find out what it is! One will be coming to our friends at Overhead Door soon!

 

Guest post by: Simone Alley, CenturyLink

Welcome to Our First Team Members!

Some businesses know a great way to help their community while also getting some goodwill marketing exposure when they see it.The same day we sent out information on the United Way Home Run Club, we had a response from BB&T and then from the Pepsi Cola Bottling Company of Central Virginia.

Welcome to the Team!

 BB&T is proud to again "Team up" with our United Way and The University of Virginia Baseball team as a member in the Home Run Club.  This continues to be one way that BB&T lives up to its mission of "Making our COMMUNITIES in which we work better places to be."  Hit some Home Runs!!!

 

Pepsi Cola Bottling Company of Central Virginia is excited to be a Home Run Club team member again this year.  What better way to support the United Way, the UVA baseball team, and the community! Supporting the Home Run Club not only helps bring the fans closer to UVA baseball, but also helps us help the United Way work towards their mission.

 

Hit a Home Run for Your Business and the Community

It’s back by popular demand! It’s the United Way Home Run Club!

Do you love University of Virginia Baseball? We do. And we appreciate the work ethic and sportsmanship of Coach Brian O’Connor and the high standards he sets for his athletes.

We also love our community and work every day to “move the needle” on our three focus areas: School Readiness, Self-Sufficiency and Community Health.

So we thought, “Why not combine our community’s passion and support for the baseball team with an equal passion for reaching out to help others in need?” And so, the United Way Home Run Club was born last year.

For every home run the UVA baseball team hits between April 1 and the end of the 2012 season, Home Run Club team members pledge $10 to the United Way-Thomas Jefferson Area. Last year, the first with the new composite bats, that totaled 18 home runs through the post season.

CenturyLink has enthusiastically returned as our Team Captain this year. They will be hosting a tailgate party using Cavalier One for our team members before the May 9 baseball game. Here is a photo from last year’s tailgate, in which we enjoyed incredible food and drink donated from several area businesses.  We were told that we had the best Cav One tailgate food all year.

We find ourselves listening closely to each game broadcast on WINA, or following online, and the Home Run Club does not officially start until April 1! If you listen to WINA broadcasts of the baseball and lacrosse games, you will hear our radio ads urging you to join the Club, as we are an official baseball and lacrosse broadcast sponsor, thanks to the support of CenturyLink.!

Small businesses owners are urged to join our team for some high visibility goodwill marketing – their names will be listed in our ads in The Daily Progress, with mentions during radio broadcasts, too! We will also be doing mini-business profiles on this blog, with links to our Team Member's websites.

Can we add your business name to the team roster? Individuals are welcome as well. If you know of a local small (or big!) business that loves UVA baseball and also wants to support our community, tell them about the United Way Home Run Club. They can publicly show their support of both, plus get print and radio exposure for their business. Win-win.

Click here to download a form.

This promotion is so popular, that we already have a local business signed up before doing any outreach!

Welcome to our first team member of 2012:

Overhead Door Company of Charlottesville.

GO HOOS!

 

The United Way Home Run Club is made possible  by Team Captain CenturyLink

 

 

 

 

 

Posted by: Kim Connolly

 

Pulling People Together

We have each been involved in supporting local nonprofits for more than 20 years. Jane thrives on helping organize special events for a variety of organizations and Bryan has served on the board of our United Way for more than 20 years, as well as serving as the chair of the Charlottesville Regional Chamber of Commerce and as a volunteer for Special Olympics, the Red Cross, Blue Ridge Rotary Club, and the Party Parade.

Our United Way impacts the community in many ways that people do not see. Not just by providing grants for local programs and by offering many direct services, but by advocating for the human service needs of all citizens. There are many issues in our community that concern us, including the education of our children and their well-being. Children need to be raised with the appropriate education and social skills plus the understanding that they are part of a larger community. The economic prosperity of our region is also very important, and we need to provide people with the skills they need as well as the jobs needed to sustain a healthy and safe living environment for everyone who lives here.

Our United Way addresses these issues by looking at where the needs are; we do this by pulling together community members-from nonprofits, businesses, the education and health care communities, and the public sector -and listening to them about what works and what hasn't, and where they see the need for more action. That is why we support our United Way both financially and with our time -because of the important role it plays in our community. We feel strongly that the dollars raised here stay in our community. We have a staff that works tirelessly to provide direct services like the Volunteer Center, Child Care Scholarships, Prescription Assistance and so on. We can see a tangible impact on our community through the United Way.

Posted By:

Bryan Thomas, Area Executive, BB&T

Jane Thomas, Community Volunteer

Every Gift Creates An Impact

In this season of Thanksgiving, we at the United Way-Thomas Jefferson Area are thankful for the many people and organizations who choose to support us.  We are fortunate to have a wide variety of donors, ranging from large corporations to small businesses, schoolchildren to college professors and anyone in between. 

One recent donor stands out particularly in my mind: a woman who came to our office to hand-deliver her gift of $2 cash.  I have met this lady before and know her well enough to know that she lives on a very limited income.  While $2 may seem like a small amount to some people, it was a generous gift for her, considering her limited resources.  I doubt she has a car, so I was particularly touched that she cared enough to take the time and effort to come deliver her gift in person.

Every donor is important.  Every gift we receive, regardless of size, combines with others to create a lasting impact in our community.  With these generous donations, we advance our goals of School Readiness, Self-Sufficiency, and Community Health.  We all win when a child succeeds in school, when families are financially stable, and when our neighbors are healthy.  United Way-Thomas Jefferson Area appreciates all of our supporters who help make our community a better place to live.

 

Posted by Alaina Schroeder

With Your Help, We Are Changing Lives

Wow.

A little recent number crunching on our part yielded this statistic:

The average annual benefit this past year for our United Way RxRelief Prescription Assistance Program clients was $4,017 in medications (retail cost) -- this represents 30% of the average annual income of our clients ($13,186).

This is how we have an impact on our community.

In order to qualify for assistance from this program, individuals must have a chronic, long term condition like diabetes, heart disease or mental illness that requires medication, and they must be uninsured.

They no longer have to choose between paying their electric bill or paying for medications. They are staying healthier because they are taking their medications regularly. This reduces the need for emergency medical care, which reduces the financial burden on hospitals treating uninsured patients, or on the families facing insurmountable medical bills. Because they are healthy, they miss less work, so they have a steadier income and their employer has a consistent employee.

Community Health and Self-Sufficiency are two of our impact areas (the other is School Readiness). This program, in which our employee, Medication Assistance Caseworker Helen Frye, spends her time mostly at the Charlottesville Free Clinic and Region Ten Community Services Board, as well as at Martha Jefferson Hospital's satellite offices, demonstrates how we can leverage our resources to have a very large impact.

When you are considering where to make your charitable donations this year, please consider how our United Way uses your donations to maximize the ways we can have a positive impact on individuals’ lives and strengthen our community.

 

Posted by Kim Connolly

UVA Employees Can Have a Powerful Local Impact

Starting today, October 3, employees of the University of Virginia, our area’s largest employer, can support their favorite charities through the Commonwealth of Virginia Campaign.

This workplace giving campaign allows employees to designate a gift to a specific nonprofit organization or several organizations. With more than 12,000 employees, just imagine the impact if each gave $1 a week to an organization! Not all employees do participate, but many of those who do, designate $5, $10, $20 or more per pay period.

The United Way-Thomas Jefferson Area was formed in 1943 by the Charlottesville Regional Chamber of Commerce, and has from our beginning been known for our workplace giving campaigns. This is not a surprise since we were formed by a business owners organization. However, we are just one of 1,300 nonprofit organizations that UVA employees have to choose from in their state-run campaign.

It is our hope that our friends and neighbors at UVA have heard and read about the many ways we have an impact on our local community, and that they realize that every dollar contributed to the United Way-Thomas Jefferson Area not only stays here in our local community, but because of our strength, stability and thoughtful leadership, we bring $4 of services to the community for each dollar donated.

We focus on school readiness, self-sufficiency and community health.

In the past year:

• 2,100 volunteered for the United Way Laurence E. Richardson Day of Caring, providing $280,000 worth of labor to local nonprofits and schools.
• 2,416 children received shoes, clothing, medication and eyeglasses through the Santa Fund.
• 1,500 low-income individuals received free tax help creating $2.6 million in saved fees, tax credits and refunds, to be saved and spent in our local community through our local Earned Income Tax Credit coalition.
• 575 uninsured adults received $2.24 million in needed medications through our prescription assistance program.
• 100 United Way child care scholarships were provided and 96% of those parents maintained their employment.
• Volunteers collected, sorted and distributed over 50,000 lbs of food for local food banks through the Stamp Out Hunger Food Drive, for which we recruit volunteers and provide local marketing.

In short, we hope that University of Virginia employees will scroll down that long list of national, international, regional and local organizations to get to the end of the alphabet at the “U” and use code #3627 to designate the United Way-Thomas Jefferson Area to receive their support through the Commonwealth of Virginia Campaign. We promise to use their gifts in a thoughtful, impactful and powerful way to change lives right here in Charlottesville and Albemarle, Greene, Fluvanna, Louisa and Nelson Counties.

 

Posted by Caroline Emerson