United Way Foundation of the Capital Region Leverages Gifts to Make an Impact
The United Way Foundation of the Capital Region was created in 1996 to help ensure services will be available in our community when they are needed most. Gifts to the Foundation come from caring people through their wills and other planned giving vehicles. These gifts help support United Way of the Capital Region’s work in our community and provide a stable base of funding during challenging economic times.
The mission of United Way of the Capital Region is to improve lives in Cumberland, Dauphin and Perry counties by identifying the most pressing community needs, finding solutions to those needs, and demonstrating how these solutions are making a difference. Our goal is to tackle critical issues facing our community in the areas of health, education, income and basic needs by focusing on the root causes of these problems. To do this, United Way is transitioning to a collective impact approach to solving problems. Collective impact requires that everyone work together to find new and different ways to address the challenges and develop lasting solutions.
This organizational shift comes after two years of studying the needs of our community and listening to residents about the issues they care about most.
In 2015/2016, the Foundation helped United Way through this transition by supporting the following initiatives:
Research and Development of a Community Dashboard:
The dashboard will be a community resource that houses data from United Way’s 2014 Assessment of Our Community, monitors health and human service conditions throughout the Capital Region, and shows the progress and impact of United Way’s work on identified pressing needs. Currently there are seven partners in this project: Dauphin County Human Services Department; the Foundation for Enhancing Communities; Harrisburg Regional Chamber; Harrisburg Housing Authority; PinnacleHealth System; Penn State Health Milton S. Hershey Hershey Medical Center; and the Partnership for Better Health, Inc. The dashboard’s planned launch to the community is December 2016.
Implementation of Community Conversations:
Since last fall, expert community task forces have been meeting to create recommendations for potential solutions and strategies in the following United Way focus areas:
- Health: Lack of access to health care
- Education: Disparities in school readiness and school achievement
- Income: Children and families living in poverty
In early 2016, more than 20 Community Conversations were held to garner community insight and input about these three issues; creating a broader community vision for the expert task forces.
Each session lasted for about 90 minutes and was moderated by Dering Consulting. More than 400 community members attended one or more of these events. The results of the conversations are now helping guide the taskforce’s solutions, which will be available to the community this fall.
Working Capital:
The Foundation has also funded working capital, United Way of the Capital Region’s most flexible funding stream. Funds are used to underwrite community initiatives and collaborative efforts identified by United Way’s community impact committee. Examples of these current efforts include:
Perry County Health Coalition - A coalition actively working on developing efforts to improve health care access and health literacy in Perry County. They are implementing strategies and recommendations contained in the Health Market Analysis (a previous effort underwritten by the Foundation).
Parents and Partners - A community partnership, lead by the Foundation for Enhancing Communities, designed to provide the tools necessary for families to achieve success. This group works to broaden resources for children and families by building strong partnerships between the community, early learning providers and schools. This multi-year effort is made possible in-part by the Race to the Top - Early Learning Challenge Grant from the Pennsylvania Office of Child Development and Early Learning.
To learn more about how the Foundation supports critical work in our community, contact Karla Mitchell, major gifts and planned giving manager, at kmitchell@uwcr.org or 717.724.4050.
