At a press conference on Tuesday, United Way of Southeast Missouri (UWSEMO) welcomed ten new partners - as well as 22 returning partners - to their network of local nonprofits who will receive program funding over the next three years.
This year, the United Way had accepted over 50 grant applications from their service area of Bollinger, Cape, Perry, and northern Scott counties. After much consideration, their community investment committee initially identified 24 partners representing 34 programs, which has now increased to 27 and 38, respectively. According to a press release, they cut education funding slightly, and added the difference to their focus areas of health and financial stability.
Executive director Elizabeth Shelton announced they will add Meadow Heights as a partner in education, where they will fund a “backpack” program similar to one currently in Perry County Public Schools. They also added two new mentoring programs: Epic Pals, which utilizes dogs to teach behavior modification, and the Tiger Lilies, which provides extra guidance to female students in 5th and 6th grade at Cape Middle School.
Under United Way’s health initiative, the Oral Health Coalition will receive funding to deliver critical dental care throughout the region. The SEMO Alliance for Disability Independence (commonly known as SADI) and One City will also receive support as new partners.
One City founder, Raelenna Ferguson said the funds they’re receiving will go toward their six-week work-life curriculum, which aims to return unemployed individuals to the workforce. But, she says, it’s not your “typical” job training.
“We’re not teaching typing or welding. It’s for generational poverty and generational unemployment,” said Ferguson. “The people we work with have been unemployed up to ten years.”
She said the program is growing along with the need, so with the help of the United Way, they are funding a part-time coordinator who will teach those classes; up until now, it’s all been volunteer-based. She also thinks they may be the only job-readiness curriculum that is truly run on a classroom basis.
“We teach them how they can take their past experiences and actually make that work experience, even though it might not have been true work experience,” said Ferguson. “We walk through their past, how to talk about their past, and how to build upon relationships. We see people graduate who came in, heads down, couldn’t get them to talk, and now I see them on Facebook posting pictures of themselves with their name badges on. And it’s just because they have value, and they feel like they have dignity.”
Shelton says another new partner in Perryville - New Life Mission Inn - stood out to United Way’s community investment committee in their approach.
“The warming shelter they provide comes with counseling to address factors that create the need to visit the shelter in the first place,” said Shelton.
At the end of the press conference, Shelton said she had a specific client on her mind as she explained that the returning partners in their network could tell both success stories and the heartbreak of turning someone away who needs help.
“We live in a very generous community, but the need here exceeds the needs that we are able to meet,” said Shelton. “There are many families in our region who are just one crisis away from needing many of these services.”
Each nonprofit will provide progress reports to ensure the funds are going where they’re intended to go, and that they’re “making a difference,” according to Shelton.
“Returning measurable results is, in part, why all of our previous partners who requested funding from the United Way are still with us,” said Shelton.
Returning partners include: 4-H Bollinger County, Apple, American Red Cross, Big Brothers Big Sisters, Boys and Girls Club of SEMO, Cape Girardeau Public Schools, Community Partnership, Educare, First Call for Help, Girl Scouts of the Missouri Heartland, Boy Scouts of America - Greater St. Louis Area, Habitat for Humanity, Jackson Senior Center, Little Whitewater Baptist Church Food Pantry, Lutheran Family and Children Services, Read to Succeed, SADI, Safe House for Women, Scott City Ministerial Alliance, the Salvation Army, Voices for Children, and 211.
New partners include: Christian Boxing Academy and Learning Center, EPIC Pals, Hope for One More, Meadow Heights R-II Elementary, Mississippi Valley Therapeutic Horsemanship, New Life Mission Inn, One City, Oral Health Coalition, the SEMO Center for Speech and Hearing, and the Cape Middle School Tiger Lilies.