United Way funds 100+ agencies regionally, including Macedonia Face’s Senior Center.
United Way Helps Neighbors Fulfill Their Potential
Consider for a moment Kev’s story. A proud United States Marine Corps veteran, Kev was having difficulty finding a job after serving in Baghdad. With support from United Way partner agency Auberle, Kev earned hazardous material certifications that led to a full-time job. He’s now on the way to owning a home and a vehicle.
Then there’s Frances, an 86-year-old woman whose landlord refused to make repairs. United Way partner agency Neighborhood Legal Services helped Frances find a safe senior apartment where she has heat, air conditioning, a washer and dryer, and safe drinking water.
United Way Southwestern Pennsylvania
Their stories are examples of how human services funded by United Way of Southwestern Pennsylvania are helping to create a community where everyone can thrive. While needs have remained consistent since the pandemic, this holiday season United Way staff are seeing a significant uptick in urgent needs confronting working families. These needs are driven in part by increasing living costs and complicated by decreasing state and federal funding.
The government shutdown has also led to delays and cuts in SNAP food assistance, threatening a hunger crisis for nearly 300,000 people in our region. Kev and Ms. Frances are just two of the 150,000 people who contacted United Way’s PA 211 Southwest help center last year. PA 211 Southwest is the region’s front door to human services.
How PA 211 Helps
Every call, text and email to PA 211 is answered by a real person. These compassionate and highly trained resource navigators who connect callers to resources in 211’s curated database of 7,000 resources, helping with access to food, job training and services for older adults.
These days, food banks, senior services and job training programs are struggling to keep up with demand. There are thousands upon thousands of households across our region who, despite working at least one job, do not earn enough to meet their basic needs. United Way’s ALICE (Asset limited, income constrained, employed) project tracks how working people are faring economically in states across the country. The findings are stunning: 38% of people in our region — that’s 332,000 households — who are working at least one job do not earn enough to pay for the essentials like food, housing, child care, transportation, health care, and utilities.
Beyond Just the United Way
United Way provides multi-year grants so that nonprofits have three years of steady and reliable funding for their work. That also helps agencies weather uncertainties like federal cuts and budget delays. In between three-year funding cycles, United Way runs highly responsive grant programs that rise to new challenges. These include funding for neighborhood-based food assistance, agencies addressing transportation barriers that keep people from attending school and work, library-based literacy programs for early learners, and funds for low-cost Internet access and digital devices so that people can get and stay online for school, health care and work.
How You Can Support
Its robust year-round volunteer program engages 5,200 people annually in helping nonprofits with urgent needs such as food, school and personal care supply packing to painting and refurbishing facilities.
United Way also uses its convening power to strengthen the nonprofit sector, providing training, advocating for human services in Harrisburg and bringing other foundations together to react to emerging needs before they become a crisis. To learn more, donate and get involved visit UnitedWaySWPA.org.
Story and Photographs Courtesy of United Way
Subscribe to TABLE Magazine’s print edition.
