Community Impact

United Way: A Renewed Focus

Last year, United Way of Delaware celebrated 60 years as the state’s largest and most effective fundraiser for health and human service programs. But UWD is much more than a fundraiser. Today, UWD is a bridge linking community leaders and agencies together to address Delaware’s most pressing problems — issues that the community itself has prioritized.

Based on the results of the 2004 Delaware Community Needs Assessment, UWD divided the leading community concerns into five Strategic Focus Areas:

 

.“In principle, it’s about strengthening the effectiveness of all the charities and trusts, all of which are trying to solve a specific issue but which, when acting alone, don’t have the scale to deliver qualified results,” says Richard Goodmanson, chair of the board of UWD. “So let’s figure out what the most urgent needs are right now in our community, and then let’s form an integrated approach to tackle those problems by focusing the resources of every agency involved with that issue.”

 

Success By 6™

Led by Ann Wick and Evelyn Keating, Success By 6™ is a collaboration between more than 25 partners. It is United Way of Delaware’s first Strategic Focus Area and part of a national initiative to ensure that children under age 6 are prepared to succeed emotionally, physically and academically before entering school.

And in Delaware, there is great need for such a program:

  • The state has one of the nation’s highest infant mortality rates.
  • In Delaware, nine out of every 1,000 babies die before reaching their first birthday.
  • Each year, 5,600 suspected cases of child abuse and neglect are reported in Delaware.

Along with pre-natal care, education and support services, SB6™ also addresses early education. According to a University of Delaware study, in Delaware 70 percent of infant and toddler care and education programs were rated poor to mediocre for child-
learning activities.

Yet studies show that $1 invested in early care programs can lead to $17 in savings on remedial efforts, such as special education and juvenile-justice programs.  The SB6™ program strives to equip caregivers to encourage early childhood learning, improve early education programs, strengthen awareness and communication, and participate in public policy.

Thanks to UWD’s generous donors, in the past year:

  • 1,700 Delaware women with high risk pregnancies were provided prenatal care;
  • 3,000 Delaware parents were provided parenting education classes; and
  • 4,000 children were enrolled in preschool programs.



Strong Families, Strong Children

Building on the initiatives in SB6™, this Strategic Focus Area will help children succeed in school, thereby preparing them for a healthy, productive adult life. Without support, the odds are against many children:

  • Consider that one in four children in Delaware lives in a single-parent household
  • One in four Delaware households are headed by women living in poverty, defined as an annual income of $17,260 for a family of three.

The fallout can be devastating:

  1. One in four Delaware eighth-graders admits regularly using alcohol
  2. Nearly half of 11th-graders — 43 percent of survey respondents — admit drinking in the past 30 days.
  3. During that same time period, one in four 11th-graders has smoked marijuana.
    Other at-risk behaviors can stem from drugs, violence and sexuality.
  4. By 10th grade, half of Delaware’s teens are sexually active
  5. And the impact on the student’s lives can be devastating. Delaware’s arrest for juvenile violent crimes — seven per a population of 1,000 — has nearly doubled since 1990.

It is easy to see why education suffers. Only half of Delaware’s 10th-graders meet state math standards. Children need positive role models to help them avoid at-risk behaviors. They need tutoring to ensure success in school, and they need healthy childhoods, with both their physical and emotional needs met.

Because of United Way in the past year:

  • 15,100 children received before- and after-school care
  • 24,000 teens received health education and counseling; and
  • 27,500 youth engaged in youth development programs.




Healthy & Independent Communities

Living an independent life is often a challenge for seniors on fixed incomes and people with physical or mental health conditions. Accessing health care — indeed, even paying for it — can prove difficult. Transportation is often an issue. Securing jobs and maintaining a social life can be a Herculean feat. Left unmet, these needs lead to a wide range of social problems – problems that ultimately end up costing taxpayers.

In Delaware:

  1. One in three seniors reports some form of disability. As Delaware’s senior population grows, those numbers are likely to increase.
  2. In the last decade the number of Delawareans over 75 increased nearly 50 percent.
  3. The population age 85-plus is increasing at a rate three times the general population.
  4. One in four over age 65 live alone, increasing the risk of social isolation and related health risks.
  5. The problem is not limited to seniors. This year, 27,000 Delawareans will experience serious depression, the leading cause of lost-worker production, according to the World Health Organization.

This Strategic Focus Area, sponsored by AstraZeneca, helps these vulnerable populations lead healthy, independent lives by providing access to transportation, assisting with securing jobs and ensuring that nutritional needs are met.





Financial Stability

Most of us take food and shelter for granted. But more than 60,000 Delawareans will seek emergency food assistance this year and nearly half of the homeless people in Delaware have children.
Unless their basic needs are met, these Delawareans, who are constantly living in crisis mode, cannot
contribute to the community.





Strong Neighborhoods

Drawing from the four other Strategic Focus Areas, this focus area looks at communities that are especially at risk. Each of Delaware’s three counties has certain neighborhoods with teen parents, high poverty rates, adults who lack a high school education, non-English-speaking neighbors and crime.
By pinpointing which towns, neighborhoods and rural areas are particularly at risk, UWD can get to the root of the problems, addressing them before they have a chance to grow.
UWD’s work on the five Strategic Focus Areas will be funded by campaign dollars, by grants, and by the generous support of corporations and individuals throughout Delaware.