Announcing the Community Partners We’re Proud to Support in our Shared Goal of Preventing Hunger & Homelessness
One thousand. That’s the number of local people estimated to be homeless each night in our community. Of those, approximately 20% are children.
Sixteen thousand. That’s the number of local people who experience hunger each year, and 6,400 are children.
We know a family in poverty cannot achieve success without stable housing and can’t be healthy without access to food. At United Way, we believe every family should have the opportunity to live in a warm, safe home. And we believe that everyone should have access to nutritious food, too.
We have a Bold Goal to prevent hunger and homelessness and we recently announced our investments in local programs that are working together to achieve this goal. We wanted to share the latest United Way Community Partners with you and welcome them (some back again!) to the United Way family.
What do we hope to achieve?
At United Way we are working with local experts to find root causes to both homelessness and hunger to keep families and children from ever experiencing these traumas. We also provide funding to shelters and food pantries, with a focus on all family needs to try to break their cycle of poverty for good. By investing in local programs through this Bold Goal, we will:
- Prevent hunger for families and children.
- Prevent homelessness for families and youth.
How do we decide what programs to invest in?
We thoughtfully select the programs we fund based on community need, alignment to our strategic goals, and those that can demonstrate the biggest, measurable impact. Community members, just like you, serve as volunteers to review each application, do site visits, review financials, and hear proposals. Based on these reviews, our volunteers recommend which programs we should fund.
With the help of our Community Impact Review Panel volunteers, we are confident we are honoring our commitment to our donors and investing in the most impactful programs to prevent hunger and homelessness and ultimately reduce the number families living in poverty locally.
Who will be receiving funding?
- CAPLP (Lakes & Prairies Community Action Partnership) for the Supportive Housing Program which provides supportive housing services to families and youth experiencing homelessness in Clay County.
- Churches United for the Micah’s Mission emergency shelter and services and Dorothy Day Food Pantry to provide housing with a focus on families and children who are homeless. Investments from United Way will help strengthen supportive services to ensure families are able to access stable housing faster after being identified as homeless or at risk of being homeless.
- FM Coalition to End Homelessness for education and data support to achieve permanent solutions to prevent and end homelessness. Investments for United Way will support education, unified advocacy efforts, and cutting-edge training.
- Great Plains Food Bank for Ending Hunger 2.0 which works to bring sustainable, long-term solutions to hunger through advocacy, research, and community-based solutions. Investments from United Way will help recover, purchase, and distribute greater amounts of nutritious food, expand programming to help alleviate childhood hunger, and help reduce barriers and increase access for our neighbors living with food insecurity.
- Presentation Partners in Housing for the Housing Navigation Program which works to break the cycle of homelessness by helping families overcome chronic homelessness. They do this by helping families attain and maintain housing stability, by connecting them to community-based resources that can provide ongoing support, and by providing crisis-based assessment, triage, and support services . through their Prevention and Diversion Program.
- Rural Enrichment & Counseling Headquarters Inc. (REACH) for the Food Pantry in Hawley, Minn. Investments from United Way will allow REACH to purchase food for their community food pantry, school food pantry, and their BackPack program designed to ensure young people in our rural communities aren’t hungry.
- Youthworks for the Transitional Living Program and Street Outreach Program which serves homeless youth ages 18-21 with a goal to ensure that every youth has a safe place to belong and be heard. Investments from United Way will help provide services to runaway, homeless, trafficked, and street youth and provide transitional housing, case management, counseling, life skills education, parenting support, transportation, and more as well street-based and site-based outreach, including a drop-in center.
- YWCA Cass Clay for the Emergency Shelter and services and supportive housing program for families experiencing homelessness. Investments from United Way will help provide emergency shelter and affordable housing and case management to women and families with children who are experiencing domestic violence and homelessness.
New partners mean new solutions and opportunities. These programs are receiving United Way investments for the first time.
- Folkways for the SNAP Double Bucks program at the Red River Market which creates a space for all people to experience the joys and benefits of locally grown healthy food. Investments from United Way will help make fresh and locally grown produce accessible to those experiencing food insecurity and ensure people in poverty have access to nutritious food.
- Churches United for supportive services at Bright Skies Apartments which serve members of the community that have a significant level of need and have experienced chronic homelessness. Investments from United Way will help provide a Family Case Manager to provide services right on-site at Bright Skies Apartments and help meet the needs of tenants and build independence.
- SENDCAA (SouthEastern North Dakota Community Action Agency) for supportive services for families experiencing homelessness. Investments from United Way will help provide case management and financial assistance to help families resolve their housing challenges.
We are so excited to invest in these proven programs and see their impact in helping to prevent hunger and homelessness and lift families out of poverty. By bringing together community partners, data, community leaders, and innovation we know we can change the lives of our neighbors in need for generations to come.
We invite you to learn more about our investment process or check out ways you can get involved.