UNITED WAY OF WASHINGTON COUNTY MARYLAND INC

United Way fights for the health, education, financial stability, and most urgent, basic needs of every resident in our diverse community. Our top priority is to bring community organizations together in collaboration to serve residents living at or below the federal poverty level. Our United for A.L.I.C.E project focuses on residents defined as the "working poor" or Asset Limited Income Constrained and Employed. These residents make just enough money that they are disqualified from receiving certain services or benefits; however, they are still living at the federal poverty level. They have little to no savings and are living paycheck-to-paycheck. Our programs focus on financial stability; access to affordable, quality healthcare; essential needs such as food, housing and much more.

Our current strategic plan goals focuses on:
1. Increase revenue and widen the scope of funding sources,
2. Increase Collective Action activities to bring more collaborative action,
3. Increase the use of multiple data sources to determine the needs of the community and whether our supported collaboratives are performing as intended,
4. Increase community engagement to support our collaborative efforts, and
5. Increase the recognition of United Way of Washington County, MD, Inc. as the key resource provider to non-profit human service agencies in Washington County through marketing and brand development.

We have an army of volunteers that help us raise funds, develop and deploy resources, and identify who should be on the receiving end of those resources. We utilize technology, relationships with our many community partners, and volunteers to leverage our capabilities. We invest in creative and calculated ways to respond to the needs of our community in the best way at the right time.

We have multiple collaborative efforts in areas of health, education, financial stability and basic needs. We offer 3-year grants for funding in these areas with 1-year grants in the area of basic needs. We also offer monthly urgent needs grants to help with unexpected, unbudgeted expenses. We have undertaken a two year program to increase the strength of all levels of leadership in the field of human services and the agencies within the field to improve the viability of services provided in the community. We have significantly increased our supply distribution efforts since the pandemic hit in March of 2020. Since that time, we've distributed $1.5+ million dollars in emergency PPE, 180,000+ pounds of food, COVID care kits, and so much more. We are looking forward to the continued expansion of our programs including our free ride share program, Ride United. We are also thrilled to continue promoting 2-1-1 as an invaluable resource for our community. Our annual Day of Caring continues to grow in both volunteers and projects; and we will be unveiling new financial stability programs to our A.L.I.C.E residents in the very near future.