United Way of San Diego County

At United Way our goal is to build a vibrant community with opportunity for everyone and to ensure that every child and family has a bright future. We expend our financial and non-financial resources on ensuring that underserved children have the opportunity for academic achievement and their families have increased financial stability and the access to health care and other resources that enable their children to reach their full potential. Only in this way will a child have success and be able to obtain a self-sufficient job that will sustain the next generation of families in our community.

We do this work because transforming children into educated, independent adults is the job of the entire community. Our work is focused on providing children and their families with the supports they need to succeed by partnering with a diverse group of community stakeholders from government to community based organizations to school districts. We work outside the classroom, removing barriers, providing resources and skills training so schools and teachers can do their best work inside the classroom. United Way coordinates and drives diverse efforts and harnesses them to support youth and their families before, during and after school - from cradle to career.

We know a child's academic success depends on a foundation of family stability. In light of that, we support job development and workforce training; ensuring that individuals will acquire a job that supports a family. With one in three families in San Diego County unable to make ends meet, providing help to working parents is a critical part of creating a stronger community. United Way knows that by building financially strong families, children are given the support and tools they need to succeed in school.

In order to support families in our community, we have adopted the practice of 'Collective Impact' – a unique, proven and replicable approach to community problem solving that includes all sectors to work together to find new and innovative ways to address social challenges and develop lasting solutions. By bringing together businesses, government, schools, churches, foundations and nonprofit organizations to focus on an agreed upon common agenda and using data and community voice to inform decision making, and incorporating a culture of continuous improvement – significant community change can be made.

We have adopted a Collective Impact framework to accomplish our goals and we are realigning existing resources rather than creating new programs and services. Collective Impact is a nationally proven business framework that demonstrates how to create unique, systemic and sustainable community change. It harnesses the commitment of individuals and entities from multiple sectors to create a common agenda for solving specific social problems. We have unified these stakeholders - schools, government, funders, community organizations and citizens to move from isolated support systems and programs to an aligned approach that supports healthy productive lives for families and children.

We use the proven principles of Collective Impact - a common agenda, shared goals and measurement, ongoing communication, data tracking and a commitment to continuous improvement. Using the Collective Impact framework United Way is able to focus on essential functions currently lacking in much of our civic infrastructure:

• Creation of a shared and coordinated data driven strategy among community stakeholders with community residents at the center
• Systemic accountability and transparency: internal and in the larger community
• Advocacy: on the ground, in policy and for funding

We focus our efforts on the point of intersection between the data and the lived experience of community residents and partners that we serve. We act as the convener. In this critical role we give existing services, partners, families and their children the chance to align and assemble efforts where they can efficiently and effectively change conditions making sure fragmented work is aligned and that goals are based on data, community voice and results.

We use the proven framework of Collective Impact which gives us access to all of the resources, tools and collective knowledge of this model. We learn from others across the country using this model and are able to adapt practices to the specific needs of our community. Our partners at San Diego State University, Point Loma Nazarene University, Cal State San Marcos, San Diego Unified School District and the cities of San Diego, Vista and Chula Vista, among others, all bring extensive expertise, knowledge and authenticity to our work.

We have realigned our organizational infrastructure to support our Collective Impact work ensuring that our staff competencies are best aligned to bring to results our work in the community.

United Way of San Diego is at the national forefront of listening to the community and including what is learned in strategy development and implementation. Based in practices learned at The Harwood Institute, over the last three years, United Way has been conducting community conversations to hear directly from the community the aspirations they have for themselves and their children and what barriers and challenges are preventing them from reaching these goals.

This invaluable information is then added to the quantitative data that we have acquired. We are driven by data, informed by research and confirmed by the community. To this end, we identify areas in which our community's aspirations intersect with the research and data.

The community conversation process is a tool that is used in an on-going and continuous manner to constantly verify that our methods and strategies are representative of the community's ever evolving needs. Engagement and solicitation of community voice are an integrated piece of the way we do our work.

Accomplished in 2013
• 600 families received toolkits to increase their child's readiness for Kindergarten
• 3,357 youth, parents and teachers were provided information or training to improve reading proficiency
• 97,000 books and literacy materials were distributed
• 26% increase in reading proficiency for participating 1st-3rd graders
• 2868 youth and adults served; 82% showed positive change in financial knowledge, behavior and skills
• 192 veterans developed skills and trained for careers; 100% job placement rate
• 33% of immigrant clients reduced their public assistance by an average of $506
• 68,956 clients were educated and given access to support services, like food, rent and utility assistance
• 514 improved their financial situation and reduced dependence on public benefits
• 45 girls in the juvenile detention system learned to write a resume, set financial goal and interviewing skills
• At 69 VITA sites, tax refunds totaled $28562254; 48486 returns completed; 3447 clients were screened for benefits