Sedalia Pettis County United Way

In July 2019, the United Way of Pettis County introduced Dolly Parton's Imagination Library to Pettis County residents with children who reside in Pettis County. The Dolly Parton's Imagination Library provides age appropriate, high-quality books each month to registered children birth through age five at no expense to the family. These books are hand selected and addressed to the child. United Way of Pettis County covers the expense for all Pettis County qualifying children because we understand that giving children access to books allows for supported cognitive development, improved language skills, preparation for academic success, increased concentration, and improved imagination and creativity.

United Way’s health goal is to enable individuals and families to improve their health. This requires increasing access to health care and health insurance, but also creating healthy communities, increasing physical activity and access to healthy food, and ensuring that children and families get off to a healthy start.

Good health is an essential ingredient for individual success and a thriving community. Healthy kids are more likely to succeed in school. The whole community will flourish when all of our residents have access to public parks, playgrounds, healthy foods and quality healthcare. United Way of Pettis County is committed to more than short-term charity for a few; we are committed to lasting solutions that build opportunity for all.

The United Way of Pettis County helps lead initiatives that focus on Mental Health and Substance Abuse. The United Way of Pettis County also partners with SingleCare in providing access to their prescription savings card. The free SingleCare prescription savings card helps to reduce the cost of prescription medication. The card has unlimited use, so individuals can apply it to every prescription they fill. Better yet, the card works for both the insured and the uninsured – anyone can use it!

Over the past 20 years, the cost of living in the United States has increased by almost 90 percent, drastically outpacing income growth. To make ends meet, families are borrowing heavily and relying on high-cost alternatives to cover their daily living expenses.

The goal of United Way is to help hard-working families become financially stable and take the next steps toward long-term independence. Too many families in the United States are walking a financial tightrope - they are barely getting by, which leaves them with no resources to save for college, a home or retirement. We want to help transform that tightrope into solid ground by helping individuals and families gain the tools to increase their income, begin to save and purchase assets because financially stable people are more like to have access to quality health care, provide a good education for their children, and contribute to their local economies.

The United Way of Pettis County provides funding and support to local community agencies that focus on assisting with income stability and food insecurity. The United Way of Pettis County helps lead initiatives that focus on Hunger. We partner with local non-profit organizations to create educational cooking classes called Set the Table. These classes are not only free, attendees also get to take home an electric skillet, cooking supplies and food prepared by the chef and participants.

The United Way of Pettis County provides funding to local community agencies. These funded partners have the best programming in the region, and are held accountable for results in order to receive funding from the United Way of Pettis County. These agencies support programs that help drive the United Way of Pettis County's initiatives and assist families with income stability