Our Work

For over 50 years, United Way of Southern Cameron County has worked to build stronger communities by helping people to help each other. That's what it means to mobilize the caring power of our communities.

Ultimately, our work is about improving lives in measurable ways, making our community a better place to live, work and play. We work on the root causes of our most serious community problems and, together with our partners, develop strategies to produce measurable change - not just for individuals, but for the community as a whole.

How do we get these results?

• Leadership. United Way identifies critical community issues and collaborative solutions for a healthy, thriving community.
• Engagement. United Way works to engage our community to make it a better place through volunteerism, public policy and increased awareness of the issues that matter. We convene community leaders, organizations, businesses and educational institutions around the issues that matter most.
• Empowerment. United Way helps to ensure that community organizations are as efficient and effective as possible. We provide technical assistance, information, training and serve as a resource to the entire community.
• Investment. We make sure the highest quality programs that address needs in our focus areas are funded and are held accountable for results.

Advancing the Common Good: Creating Opportunities
for a Better Life for All

Everyone deserves opportunities to have a good life: a quality education that leads to a stable job, enough income to support a family through retirement, and good health.

That’s why United Way’s work is focused on the building blocks for a good life:

• Education – Helping Children and Youth Achieve Their Potential

• Income – Promoting Financial Stability and Independence

• Health – Improving People’s Health

Advancing the common good is less about helping one person at a time and more about changing systems to help all of us. We are all connected and interdependent. We all win when a child succeeds in school, when families are financially stable, when people are healthy.

United Way’s goal is to create long-lasting changes by addressing the underlying causes of these problems. Living united means being a part of the change. It takes everyone in the community working together to create a brighter future.

Our Work in Education

Education is the foundation for a good life. Access to high quality early childhood education has proven to lead to better academic achievement during the school years. On-time high school graduation opens the door to a world of opportunities in higher education and the workplace. We are committed to:

• Children entering school prepared to succeed

• Elementary school children having grade-level skills in math and reading

• High school students graduate on time
  

Our Work in Health

Good health allows children to be better students and adults to be stable, productive members of society. Access to health care, reducing risky behaviors and decreasing obesity in children and adults are fundamental to improving the overall health of our community by decreasing school and work absenteeism and mitigating the financial risk created by poor health. We work toward:

• Access to health care for everyone in our communities

• Reduction in risky behaviors of children and adults

• Improved health and fitness for everyone
  

Our Work in Income

More than half of the children in southern Cameron County live in poverty. Creating and sustaining financial stability for individuals and families is a goal for United Way of Southern Cameron County. We focus on:

• Helping people work through crisis situations and gain financial stability

• Helping people increase their income and save for the future

• Helping people gain their most important asset—a home of their own.