United Way Of Summit And Medina

Housing services - our housing services department serves as the front door for homeless services in summit county and performed 1,741 housing assessments during the year. Uwsm directly assisted 489 households with rent or utility assistance for a total of 1,255 payments during the year. Uwsm also administers the community's homeless management information system and oversees data collection for homelessness in the community and is an active participant in the summit county continuum of care which works to end homelessness in our community.

2-1-1 - uwsm's 2-1-1 program connects people in need with services 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, providing referrals by phone and text and through the 2-1-1 online resource database. 2-1-1 also plays a key role as the entry point to uwsm's other services, initiatives, and programs. In fy23, 2-1-1 continues to provide 2-1-1 service for a total of eight counties (summit, medina, carroll, harrison, jefferson, lorain, portage, and tuscarawas counties). 2-1-1 handled 81,820 calls, 1,965 text and email-based contacts, and 171,734 online database searches in summit & medina counties. 2-1-1 has truly become the entry point to services throughout our community.

Corporate & community engagement uwsm works to inspire individuals, businesses and organizations to make a positive impact. By providing meaningful opportunities for groups and individuals to give, volunteer, advocate and lead throughout the year, uwsm builds connections between people and the community it serves. With a focus on collaboration, we unite diverse stakeholders to tackle our community's most pressing challenges, foster inclusive solutions, and create a stronger, more vibrant summit and medina counties.

Youth united - youth united connects young people to adults who can provide guidance, advice and inspiration to help them achieve their potential. Youth united was created in partnership with the hv3 foundation. The brainchild of akron native professional golfer harold varner iii, hv3 works to provide affordable access to youth sports and mentorship. Youth united is a positive youth development and leadership program which helps students build connections throughout the community. It puts young people in touch with trusted adults trained success coaches who can provide guidance and inspiration, helping kids stay on track for high school graduation, prepare for college and/or a career and take advantage of expanded enrichment and professional networking opportunities. Youth united advances our bold goal 2 to boost high school graduation rates, college and career readiness and youth participation in extracurricular activities for akron public schools students.

Imagination library - each month, a brand new, age-appropriate book will be mailed to every child enrolled, free of charge. With the arrival of the first book, the classic "the little engine that could," children begin to experience the joy of finding their very own book in their mailboxes. These moments continue each month until the child turns five, and in their very last month in the program the book they receive is "look out kindergarten here i come."

College & career academy of akron - uwsm works in partnership with akron public schools' college and career academies, securing partnerships with local businesses, government, and other community organizations to provide relevant, experiential learning and resources for students. All core academic courses are taught through the lens of students' interest areas, thereby developing essential communication, collaboration, creativity, critical thinking, and technical skills. Together, our goal is to graduate academically prepared, well-rounded students with a skill set that meets the talent needs of our community's employers. Since the launch of the cca model in 2018, 268 unique community partnerships have been formed as direct ties between akron students and the greater akron business community. The 4-year graduation rate for students has also risen 7.9% to 87.7%, the highest graduation rate for an urban school district in the state of ohio.

Financial empowerment center - the akron financial empowerment center (fec) is a program of the city of akron in partnership with united way of summit & medina (uwsm). The fec provides professional, one-on-one financial counseling as a free public service to enable residents to address their financial challenges and needs as well as plan for their futures. Fec clients receive free assistance with money management, budgeting, reducing debt, establishing and improving credit, connecting to safe and affordable banking services, building savings, and referrals to other services and organizations. Professionally trained and naccc certified counselors support their clients in navigating complex financial challenges and choices, helping them identify and meet present challenges and future ambitions. Bank on rubber city, another fec program, partners with banks and credit unions to provide safe and affordable banking options and educational resources that help empower people and families to improve their financial capability, health and independence. Since the launch of the fec in june of 2018 we have provided over 11,776 one on one financial counseling sessions, which equates to approximately 4,828 individuals are on the path to financial empowerment. In addition, through our fec work, uwsm operates the irs tax program known as volunteer income tax assistance or vita. Last year, uwsm vita volunteers submitted approximately 2,453 tax returns, resulting in $3.3m coming back directly to our community through federal & state refunds, and provided $613,250 of tax preparation savings to our clients.

Diversity, equity & inclusion (dei) - uwsm firmly believes that we cannot build a better future for our community unless we build it together. Our de&i programming offers routine training and development workshops for staff members and external stakeholders across the summit & medina community. Diversity training sessions are offered monthly to uwsm staff to further engage in various topics of diversity, equity, and inclusion to increase awareness and opportunities for diversity in and outside of the workplace, and provide strategies and tactics to improve communication, collaboration, and empathy to clients, visitors, and colleagues. Workshop offerings to external stakeholders and community partners include bridges summit county, implicit bias, foundations of de&i, and a newly developed workshop around generational diversity. This year, 1110 community members have engaged in our 30 external offerings. The organization also secured contract agreements with several local agencies to receive ongoing de&i training and services throughout the annual period. Our de&i programming continues to build scope of engaging community voice and feedback to further inform the organization in its shaping of community impact agendas, programs, and services. Through this effort, the development of a community outreach strategic plan has been formed to expand nonfunded partnership with grassroot and neighborhood-centric leaders and organizations of the faith community, youth and newcoming populations across summit & medina counties. Furthermore, uwsm has recently created a collective impact and de&i committee comprised of board, staff, and community members that provides advisory support for organizational community impact and de&i initiatives to further infuse equity into both small and large-scale organizational operations and strategy to support the executing of uwsm's mission and vision for our community.

Family resource centers (frc) - the frcs provide and support coordinated programs/services for students and families that reduce barriers to learning while promoting family engagement and support, student reading proficiency, attendance and graduation rates. In fy20, uwsm, in partnership with akron public schools (aps), launched family resource centers in robinson and helen arnold community learning centers. Since then, three more frcs have been opened in other clusters within the aps school district, including the first high school at north community learning center, for a total of five frc locations. With a focus on food and shelter assistance, health and wellness programs, financial coaching and tax support, parent leadership opportunities and other wraparound supports, each frc strives to address the key needs in the direct community it serves, resulting in more aps students in safe, supported and thriving family environments.