“Leading is choosing to engage around a common goal,” she said. “To create lasting solutions to our most pressing social problems, leaders cannot just create isolated services. They must build community capacity, think systemically and collaborate with others.”
United Way staff, directors and volunteers talked to more than 1,000 people about the kind of community they would like to live in. United Way board of directors chair Robb Blume, who wrapped up his term Monday, and chair-elect Rachelle Leicht summed up the feedback in four main objectives:
- You want a community with real, human connections, where everyone has value and can feel it. A community where people work together;
- You want a community where education matters and where our littlest citizens have quality opportunities to do what they do best – learn;
- You want to have access to enough healthy food; and
- You want people to be financially stable, Leicht said.
“Like Rachelle said, it’s scary to put a stake in the ground and say we’re going to hold ourselves accountable for creating lasting change in community conditions that real people are counting on,” Blume added. “We had to ask ourselves are we ready? Are we ready to be the backbone? Are we ready to assure all the elements are in place – vision, strategy, public will, shared measurement, funding, public policy and volunteers? We said yes. We said yes because no one in Howard County does what we do the way we do it, because we don’t do it alone.”
There are three building blocks to good quality of life, Smith said: quality education, the ability to make enough money to be financially stable through retirement and being healthy and free from violence.
“Building things – that’s what we do here in the City of Firsts, right?” she added. “We build things, with our hands, with our heads, with our hearts. These are the building blocks of a good life.”
In 2016, United Way will focus on education, and Smith noted community support is vital to making quality education more accessible in all stages of life.
“Our hope is over the course of the next year you will join us,” Leicht said. “You will be a part of something larger than each of us individually to make sure we are hitting every leverage point in education, from the cradle to career.”
Blume also emphasized United Way will continue to serve as a safety net for Howard County’s most vulnerable residents, not abandoning its core mission as it re-aligns its priorities.
While United Way of Howard County expands its goals beyond fundraising, it also took time to celebrate the significant feat of raising $2.19 million in 2015.
Campaign chair Rhonda Heytens pointed out the numerous people and businesses that helped in exceeding the campaign’s initial $2 million fundraising goal. She thanked 10 loaned associates, 15 campaign cabinet members, the Delphi Foundation and her co-workers at Delphi, her family and friends and the United Way staff for their support over the past year and assistance raising the money. Jeff Young, vice president of Haynes International, will lead the 2016 campaign.
“Thousands of people and businesses helped us. I can’t thank everybody individually, but this year was no exception with increases in employee campaigns, corporate increases and new business campaigns throughout the county,” Heytens said. “Please reflect on the power and impact we have on individual lives as well as our community when we all work together to support the United Way.”
Lewis Hall, chair of the United Way board’s fund distribution committee, announced how some of the $2.19 million raised in 2015 will be distributed this year.