UNITED WAY OF CENTRAL LOUISIANA INC

We work to connect people and resources in a community with high poverty and isolation. We interpret this mission in five primary ways:
* helping people achieve educational goals from early childhood past high school graduation;
* helping people be financially stable;
* helping people achieve better levels of health;
* providing basic needs such as food and shelter; and
* improving the not-for-profit sector in central Louisiana.
We are in essence a local think tank for helping people, but also much more - a forum to identify community issues, then develop evidence-based solutions, and to secure the resources to apply those solutions and strategies.

We connect people to each other through voluntarism, and we connect agencies to each other - sometimes working to establish new needed agencies such as the Family Justice Center in recent years. We also help consolidate agencies to put scarce resources to work more efficiently and effectively. We recently created the Strong Neighborhood Project, a collective impact project with many public and private organizations that builds upon - and is guided by - the strengths and assets of neighborhood residents. We support the project as the backbone organization.

1. We facilitate community discussions and research to determine local needs and issues. We then create strategies based on that information to make our community a better place for all.

a. Education: Years ago, we issued a request for proposals to help very young children become ready to enter pre-K at age four. Our local school systems had reported that a third to one-half of 4-year-olds were behind by age four. As a result, we began funding an evidence-based program known as Parents as Teachers. We are also sponsoring The Leader in Me at Pineville Elementary School, a school transformation process based on Stephen Covey's "Seven Habits of Highly Effective People." TLIM develops "soft skills" and leadership among children, improving attendance and grades while decreasing behavioral problems. We've created a Child Wellbeing Roundtable to facilitate this work. We also fund the Boy Scouts, Girl Scouts, and YWCA to provide broad programs for kids across our region.

b. Income Stability: We created a Financial Stability Roundtable of bankers and financial professionals to host a conversation on how we could help more local households become financially stable. Out of this Roundtable grew our VITA program - certified volunteers who file tax returns for low- to moderate-income households at no charge. We are working to create a Financial Success Center, where volunteers can sit down with residents and help them create budgets, repair credit scores, and so forth. We facilitate financial education workshops in low-income neighborhoods (part of our Strong Neighborhoods Project). We fund the Homeless Coalition to help people stabilize.

c. Health: We partner with our regional Office of Public Health to host community meetings. We provide FamilyWize prescription discount cares that have saved local families over $1,000,000 to date. Partnering with the Louisiana College School of Nursing and local hospitals, we are conducting health screenings and educational workshops in target neighborhoods.

d. Basic Needs: We allocate funds to local shelters, a free lunch program, and domestic violence programs. We also support the leadership of our local Homeless Coalition in pulling this work together, and we convene the local disaster response effort known as the Central Louisiana VOAD.

e. System Excellence: We created the Agency Excellence Initiative, certifying local agencies who demonstrate a high level of excellence according to our "Agency Excellence Workbook," a 75-page checklist with eight modules that spell out what excellence means across all facets of nonprofit work. We fund 211 to help people know where to go for help.

2. To enable this work, we raise funds through payroll deduction and other donations, and then our teams of community volunteers allocate the funds to local programs after visiting and reviewing their work. We also secure program-specific grants.

We have a 30-member Board of Directors, drawn from across our community, in addition to a growing network of community volunteers in various programs. We have six staff members, two of which are funded by a grant for the Strong Neighborhood Project. We typically have a healthy cash reserve of six to eight months of operations, since our region is prone to either hurricanes or evacuations from further south. This also gives us the strength to try new initiatives such as 211, The Leader in Me, the Strong Neighborhood Project, and others.

Our CEO, David Britt, holds an earned doctorate and has 36 years of management experience in the not-for-profit and higher education sectors. He has taught at the undergraduate and graduate levels for the University of Louisville, the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, Louisiana State University-Shreveport, and Louisiana College.

Our Director of Operations, Debbie Dove, has 31 years of experience with this United Way and knows our finances extremely well. Sharon Greiner, our Director of Community Investment, has 14 years of experience with us and many years of previous experience with the not-for-profit sector. Abby Blocker is our Vice President of Campaign and Marketing, coming to us from the Capital Area United Way in Baton Rouge.

Since 1954 we have enabled a variety of local agencies and community programs to flourish, from the Salvation Army to Scouts to our more recent and innovative Homeless Coalition. Our Strong Neighborhood Project is our latest success; as a collective impact effort, we have connected more community partners than ever before in a focused effort to improve the quality of life for residents of three census tracts with very high rates of poverty. This innovative project bridges the gulf between formal social service systems and the personal and interpersonal bonds that create community.

We are now conducting a strategic planning initiative with a respected outside consultant. Our business model has shifted from old (take in money, fund member agencies) to a community impact model that engages a growing number of community residents and leaders to focus on our community's most serious concerns.