Sherburne County Area United Way

Affiliate of dolly partons imagination library the program provides books for children under the age of 5. The books are mailed directly from the dollywood foundation once a month to the registered children. It is our job to promote the program and enroll the children into the book database to provide accurate information to the foundation. It is also our duty to fundraise for the program in order to pay an estimated $2.30 per book. We currently have 1500 children enrolled living within our service area (including the zip codes: 55309, 55330, 55371, 55377, 55398). Short term goal is to get books into the hands of the children in our community. The long term goal is to increase kindergarten readiness.

Community support - a direct impact program we have is community connect (previously project homeless connect), where we bring together over 40 vendors to offer resources and education to people in need. We also offer free lunch, haircuts, and essential items such as hygiene products and home winterizing. Over 200 community members attended the event, representing over 400 people within the families. The short term goal of the event is to offer the resources to the event attendees. The long term goal is to expand the reach of resources and information beyond the walls of the event by the attendees sharing their information, as well as getting the community to know what organizations exist in order to help support or be supported by. Art bright since oct. 2021, we have provided sessions to 115 attendees of the program. The short-term objective of the program is to provide social interaction for the aging population and respite for memory loss caregivers. The long-term objective of the program is to provide support and education to the community about memory loss and the growing of the aging population that needs support. Communities of practice- this is a new program with different areas. One is called directors united which services the elk river and big lake area nonprofit leaders. The other is called nonprofits united which services the princeton area nonprofit leaders. These groups bring together nonprofit leaders to engage in networking, resource sharing, and community building within the various nonprofit organizations. The short term goal is to connect the local nonprofits for immediate needs. The long term goal is to build lasting relationships within the nonprofits so they can rely on each other and work together outside