Program areas at UWWC
Community care allocations- United Way of Wyandotte County recruited 51 volunteers from 29 companies and the community at large to review proposals for community investment. The volunteers committed to a total of 1,020 volunteer hours to review 62 proposals from 33 agencies and conduct 45 site visits. The volunteers made investment recommendations based on program quality, agency capacity, and how well the program services align with our goals in health, education and financial stability.
Youthbuild kck is a program for low-income young people between the ages of 16-24 to work full-time for 9-12 months towards their ged or high school diploma while learning valuable construction skills by building affordable housing and other beneficial community projects. Youthbuild kck's vision is to educate and employ under-served young adults, positively engaging them in the rebuilding of their own lives and the communities around them. The youthbuild kck program provides: g.e.d. Classes, integrated construction curriculum with a nationally recognized pre-apprenticeship certificate, life skills training, college preparation, civic and leadership development, americorp college scholarship opportunities, and certified nursing assistant certification.
Early childhood education programs: United Way of Wyandotte County partners with the Kansas city ks public schools, the family conservancy, and various other community organizations to administer state and local funded early childhood education grants. The population served through our programs includes children up to five years of age, with an emphasis on children who are at risk and not currently receiving other services and their families. The purpose of these programs is to: 1) increase the number of children receiving high quality early childhood education, 2) increase the quality of the early learning environment, 3) identify young at-risk children and families needing health services, 4) strengthen relationships schools and partners have with families and through these programs more than 600 children and families received high-quality early childhood education services. Additionally through a new partnership with the ks health foundation we have been able to provide books to children in Wyandotte County to children under the age of 5. Over 700 children have enrolled in the dolly parton imagination library and receive a book mailed to their home monthly until their fifth birthday.
The volunteer center connects local nonprofit programs with volunteers recruited from the community. This program connected over 2,500 individuals with volunteer opportunities through group service projects and community events. The volunteer center also provides support to agency partners on volunteer management and training. Volunteer opportunities for young and old are available through national days of service, corporate volunteer days, ongoing and episodic volunteering, individual and group projects, skill based volunteering, and supply drives.the volunteer center also oversees a local senior corps program called rsvp, which is supported by the corporation for national and community service.
Rsvp is a local senior corps program supported by the corporation for national and community service. In Wyandotte County rsvp is a liaison between an available talent pool and unmet community needs. Rsvp connects skilled people, age 55+, with community organizations needing their experience. This program facilitated 152 volunteers serving 9,586 hours in areas like mentoring, food pantries, and senior companionship.
Emergency assistance-united Way of Wyandotte County is responsible for providing emergency assistance (utilities, rent/mortgage payments) to individuals in Wyandotte County. The board of public utilities (bpu) hardship assistance program is operated by United Way to assist bpu customers that have experienced an unexpected financial hardship. Temporary assistance for labor families assists members of organized labor (or their families) who are in crisis with rent, utility assistance, and medical bills. Utility assistance provided with funding from the bpu is administered by United Way and operated by 8 partner agencies. Utility assistance is means tested (must be at or below 150% federal poverty level) and available to Wyandotte County residents. Last year these programs served 924 households in Wyandotte County. United Way also serves as the local board chair for the emergency food and shelter program (efsp) in Wyandotte County which provides funding for agencies to support: food pantries, mass feeding operations, emergency shelter, and rent/mortgage payments. Phase 35 and phase 36 of efsp are multi-year phases that both ending in march 2020 . We project we will serve more than 21,000 individuals during these phases.
Donor designations: workplace campaigns provide employees with the opportunity to designate their donation to specific United Way certified social service agencies. Through this service United Way is able to encourage and facilitate philanthropy while also informing donors about the work their local United Way is doing in partnership with other social service agencies.