United Way of Central Massachusetts

Founded in 1920, the United Way of Central Massachusetts' mission is to people and resources to improve the community. United Way of Central Massachusetts has played a critical role in the local community by helping those in need. As community leaders, we convene local resources - donors, volunteers, partners and agencies to address the most critical human needs, and create a positive, measurable impact in the community. Programs are aligned with our strategic goals: EDUCATION, FAMILY STABILITY, and HEALTH and SAFETY NET. Our entire community benefits when the most vulnerable members of our community find a way out of crisis, children are able to learn, people are healthy, and parents earn enough money to support a stable family.

Our work is future-focused around access to education, family economic opportunity, and physical and

Goal One: EDUCATION: This focus area builds toward high school graduation, the single most powerful predictor of whether a young person coming from generations of poverty will break the cycle.

Goal Two: HEALTH: Interventions address not only the intentions and skills of individuals, but also their social and physical environments, including the networks and organizations that affect them.

Goal Three: FAMILY STABILITY: Focus on connecting adult learners with alternative education and work experience opportunities that will allow them to access sustainable wages and future economic opportunity.

A recent investment undertaken by United Way was a five-part leadership equity workshop series on diversity, equity and inclusion that engaged staff, Board Members, and key volunteers to better understand systemic racism and ways to advance diversity, racial equity, and inclusion in our work, community, and personal lives. This series, and group discussion, has allowed us to begin reflection on what steps we can take to address these issues, using our influential role as a funder and convener to advance this work.

United Way has been thriving as a convener to proactively meet the immediate needs of the current pandemic by creating Worcester Together, a multifaceted collaboration to serve the needs of individuals and families during the pandemic. Worcester Together is made up of more than 300 people from community based nonprofits, funders, municipal departments, small and large business partners and faith leaders that have worked to directly address the issues that were exacerbated by the pandemic. Task forces organized by Worcester Together meet weekly to address the issues of food insecurity, education, childcare, housing and shelter support, mental health, behavioral and social-emotional support. United Way has led advocacy efforts to bring local, state and federal resources to the community to combat these, and other issues. We have an active working relationship with municipal leaders, state representatives, and federal legislators for both policy, and giving voice to the underrepresented.

March 16, 2020, an initial group of 26 people convened, concerned about the lives of our residents as the COVID crisis came to a head. This became Worcester Together and has grown to over 300 participants on weekly zoom calls with the following goals: collective problem solving, communication, sharing resources, and coordinating efforts to make it easy for those in need to access multilingual supports and services to ensure that everyone would know where to turn for support. The work cascaded into interconnected Task Groups: Food, Housing and Shelter, Health, Vaccine Equity, Education, Seniors, Youth Development, Behavioral Health, Economic Development, Employment, Culture, Clergy, and internet access. Throughout it all, our United Way has served as a facilitator, advocate, leader, and response-funder helping to support critical community needs. During the pandemic we converted existing grants to flexible funding for the organizations we support. We also joined forces with our local community foundation to fundraise and provide rapid funding for COVID-related needs. This, the Worcester Together Fund, raised close to $11 million dollars, which was granted out in three phases: Response (w/in 72 hours of 'application'), Rebuild (organizational support), and Reimagine (systems change). We leveraged funding, directly supported, and provided responsive leadership to several critical issues that arose, including access to childcare for front-line workers, access to technology and internet for home-bound students, food access, eviction prevention, and mental health. We coordinated remote learning hubs throughout the city, so children had a safe place for virtual schooling while their parents were working. We also played a significant role in Worcester’s effort to vaccinate the community. Using weekly data brought by our local hospital system, we were able to ensure vaccine equity by targeting neighborhoods and community sites for vaccine clinics. This work is ongoing.