By David Gordon, associate editor
The CV Post
Now in its 50th year, the local United Way chapter is taking a new and broader funding approach in an effort to improve how the Chippewa Valley deals with three key topics affecting its residents’ quality of life: education, health and financial stability. Starting with the 2015-16 fiscal year on July 1, the organization will invest 75 percent of its $1.6 million budget in organizations working collaboratively in those three interrelated areas, and in the process will reduce the number of agencies receiving funds from 42 to 25. Those 25 agencies, however, will provide 39 different programs for residents.
The new approach stems from much study and discussion aimed at identifying the root causes of needs that undermine the quality of life in our area, according to Jan Porath, executive director of United Way of the Greater Chippewa Valley. It involves three partnerships that will collaborate to “reduce overall need in the community,” she said, rather than having United Way continue to fund programs that focus narrowly on their separate, smaller pieces of the overall puzzle.
These new partnerships will focus on eliminating barriers to a better quality of life. Their broad goals, according to United Way’s website, are to ensure that “children enter school ready to succeed,” to help increase individual’s and families’ financial stability, and to “promote healthy lifestyles and behaviors.”
This approach will ensure that “at-risk populations [in Eau Claire and Chippewa counties] have access to the building blocks to a good quality of life,” Porath said.
At the same time, 25 percent of United Way’s funds still will support some 17 agencies that deal with the immediate needs of people in crisis situations involving food, shelter, clothing and medical care, according to James Peters, United Way’s marketing director. Those agencies, though, will be required to collaborate with other programs designed to help people move beyond needing assistance for basic needs to making progress toward long-term self-sustainability.
The new funding plan’s collaborative emphasis will bring to the table some groups – including government agencies – that previously have worked independently of United Way agencies, even though their goals and activities often overlapped. Among its other goals, the new plan aims to improve communication among organizations working together on related issues so that each one knows what the others are doing rather than working alone in “information silos.”
Some United Way organizations elsewhere have taken similar approaches with considerable success and that number is increasing, Porath said, citing Madison and Milwaukee as in-state examples.
Peter Farrow, who heads Group Health Cooperative of Eau Claire and chaired the 2013 United Way campaign, said the new funding model is “moving United Way toward having measurable goals.”
The organization’s commitment to fund the broader programs on a three-year cycle carries with it a requirement that results be measurable. This will allow time for the changeover to take effect and for data to be collected and analyzed as part of an effort to increase the programs’ accountability, Porath said.
This new approach will help United Way stay relevant to the changing society it serves, Peters said, adding, “Over time, we could really transform this community.”
Each of the networks has developed action plans that will utilize the experience and expertise of United Way program partners. The health initiative will focus on obesity, mental health, domestic violence and alcohol abuse, according to a 36-page brochure that details the proposal.
The financial stability partnership will target people aging in range from middle school to about 45, with the goal of increasing their basic financial literacy, including money management and debt-reduction skills. The partnership also aims to ensure that employment-related training teaches youths and young adults to follow a path toward economic success, according to its 20-page booklet.
Recommendations from the education network – the first one established, some four years ago – are aimed at getting pre-school children from low-income families prepared to learn, Farrow said. He added that the strongest predictors of high school dropouts are reading levels and the number of words a child knows in third grade. Improving results in those areas requires coordinated efforts with children before they enter kindergarten, he said.
The education network’s 20-page brochure stresses adequate nutrition and health care for children before they reach kindergarten as two of the conditions necessary for educational success. It adds that public and private agencies need to coordinate their “efforts to strengthen and support families, so that they are empowered to effectively raise their children” and be engaged and involved in their children’s lives.
The three new partnerships created by United Way are intended to support people who otherwise would fall through the inevitable gaps created when agencies focus on their own programs rather than take the broader view that is encouraged – or required – by collaboration. The ultimate goal is to leverage individual organizations’ efforts to produce an overall community impact that goes beyond the sum of what each agency can accomplish individually.
As United Way’s website puts it, implementing these plans “will help ensure that children enter school ready to succeed, that families are more financially stable, and that individuals have the best opportunities for health and wellness.” The website notes that the plans particularly target the nearly 5,000 children in Eau Claire and Chippewa counties from families at or below 200 percent of the federal poverty level and the 27 percent of households that earn less than $25,000 annually. (The 2013 poverty level for a family of four was $23,550.)
The United Way received 74 applications for the 2015-2018 funding cycle, Porath said, adding that each application was reviewed intensively by three separate advisory panels consisting of about 40 volunteers. The panels made site visits and reached considerable consensus for their recommendations, but the United Way board made the final funding decisions.
Farrow noted that the board was closely involved in developing the United Way’s new approach and that some of the discussions were “very passionate.” The challenge now, he said, is “helping people see the opportunity and the hope” that the revised approach provides and using it to build stronger relationships throughout the community.
Peters conceded that some donors may worry about their favorite organizations losing financial support, but he said that people who only want to support a single program should donate directly to that program rather than giving to United Way. He added that, as the new approach is phased in, United Way donors will be making an investment in the entire community rather than in a wide range of less-well-integrated programs.
Three organizations will receive United Way funding for the first time during the 2015-18 budget cycles: Junior Achievement, which provides personal finance and work-readiness education to students in middle and high school; Positive Avenues, which offers crisis intervention to 12- to 17-year-olds; and the West Central Wisconsin Community Action Agency, which runs a homelessness prevention program.
A total of 22 organizations are continuing program partners with United Way, but some of last year’s 42 partners chose not to apply for funding this year, Porath said.
There will be a greater emphasis on making transportation services available as the United Way’s new program funding model develops further, Peters said. He also noted that the planned funding includes a micro-grant program to help deal with financial barriers that prevent some students from enrolling or staying in school.
Editor’s Note: Quotations in this story were gathered at a Jan. 21 news conference and in interviews conducted with United Way officials, most of which occurred during 2014 as those officials were in the process of formulating their new program funding model. The CVPost plans continuing coverage of the implementation of the new United Way funding model, including reaction from those agencies whose funding was not renewed and changes that the new model will require of agencies that continue to receive funding.
The CVPost Admin says
Now in its 50th year, the local chapter of the United Way is taking a new and broader funding approach in an effort to improve how the Chippewa Valley deals with three key topics affecting its residents’ quality of life: education, health and financial stability.