United Way to Invest Nearly $3M in Rutherford and Cannon Counties

The United Way of Rutherford and Cannon Counties recently announced its plans for investing $2,891,033 in the community for the fiscal year beginning July 1, 2017, in the areas of education, health and financial stability.

In alignment with United Way’s community impact model, the organization’s investment strategy focuses on systematically addressing community needs. The United Way continues to partner with local agencies to align programs within priority issues that will produce lasting, sustainable change in Rutherford and Cannon counties.

Aligning with United Way’s priority issue of income supports, the Third Shift Sheltering Program is designed to provide third-shift employees an opportunity to access shelter services in partnership with The Salvation Army. The program’s outcome involves moving participants from a condition of homelessness into permanent housing. Employers of program participants benefit indirectly in that their employee is afforded an opportunity to accept a third-shift job, access to meals and benefits of the sheltering program which help to reduce instances of absenteeism and to increase productivity.

Phil Holt, 2016-17 Community Impact Chair for United Way, said, “Community Impact and the results achieved are the cornerstone of United Way. In the last three years we have invested time, effort and dollars to improve our application and investment process. Further, we use a group of volunteers with very diverse backgrounds to assess our funding opportunities, meet with various programs, review information and data relevant to their community needs and the results that have been achieved by each program. We believe this is creating a better environment for improved results within our community, and thus insuring the wise use of resources which we take very seriously.”

With a competitive grant funding process, programs, initiatives and collaborations are evaluated on effective, efficient programming, the ability to measure clearly defined outcomes, and communicate ongoing strategic management and impact within United Way’s priority issues.

Additionally, United Way plans to invest into the community through programs and services such as 2-1- 1, the Volunteer Income Tax Assistance (VITA) program, Charity Tracker, etc. 2-1- 1 is United Way’s information and referral specialist line that can be accessed by phone or computer. A toll-free call to 2-1- 1 connects community members with a specialist who can provide information regarding local resources –such as food, clothing and shelter assistance to legal and financial services.

The list of 2017/18 United Way program partnerships will be available after July 1 at www.yourlocaluw.org/programpartners.