Edmonson County To Receive Over $8K From United Way

Edmonson Voice Staff Report:
United Way of Southern Kentucky announced today that it is investing a total of $942,909 in Education, Income, Health, and Safety Net programs and services for its July 1, 2017 to June 30, 2018 funding period. 48 local programs provided through 38 service providers will receive the allocated campaign dollars and donor designations. 

Allocation dollars were determined based on the work of 122 volunteers from Allen, Barren, Butler, Edmonson, Hart, Logan, Metcalfe, Monroe, Simpson, and Warren Counties.

Edmonson County is set to receive a total amount of $8,325, broken down into the following areas:
EDUCATION: $832
                                   Kindergarten Readiness:
                                   Community Action of Southern Kentucky Head Start $832
INCOME: $3,746
                                    Workforce Development:
                                    Edmonson County Adult Education Adult & Family Education $3,746
HEALTH: $2,498
                                    Access to Affordable Health Care:
                                    Kentucky Legal Aid Barren River Long Term Care Ombudsman $1,000
                                    Kentucky Legal Aid Benefits Counseling $249
                                    Safe Home & Community:
                                    Hope Harbor Community Education and Prevention $500
                                    Kentucky Legal Aid Emergency Shelter & Crisis Aid to Protect & Empower $749
SAFETY NET: $1,249
                                    Access to Basic Needs:
                                    Feeding America Kentucky’s Heartland BackPack Program $1,000
                                    Kentucky Legal Aid Emergency Legal Assistance $249

Through the 48 funded programs, United Way will provide the opportunities for services to individuals for the following building blocks for a good quality of life such as:

1. Education
   1. Create career pathways for students through a state-of-the art learning environment
   2. Increase access to high-quality licensed childcare
   3. Train parents to be their child’s first and best teacher
2. Income
   1. Provide training skills to increase wages of single parents while simultaneously providing low cost afterschool programming for their children
   2. Assist adults with obtaining academic skills and credentials needed to transition to post-secondary education, function productively in the workforce, and support their families
3. Health
   1. Provide victims of domestic violence and their children a safe environment in order to focus on treatment options, safety planning, and eventual recovery
   2. Educate and advocate for elderly long-term care residents to improve health and well being
   3. Educate school age children about the dangers of bullying, sexual harassment, dating violence, and stalking
4. Safety Net
   1. Provide a source of food to children who are at-risk for lack of access to healthy meals
   2. Provide emergency housing to individuals who are homeless or in crisis

​In September of 2016, organizations with programs impacting UWSK’s strategic imperatives in each of the defined Community Impact issue areas (Education, Income, Health, and Safety Net) were asked to submit a Letter of Intent indicating their desire to complete a full application request for funding. 85 total Letters of Intent were submitted requesting $2,575,000 in funding. Upon review by the Letter of Intent Committee, 70 of those that were submitted were invited to complete the full application. In February 2017, Warren County full applications were submitted for pre-review by the Pre-Review Committee with the remainder of the county applications being submitted in March. The Pre-Review committee evaluated the applications submitted based upon three pieces of foundational criteria: the program’s meaningful impact on the identified strategy; if UW has the means to fulfill the funding request; and that the funding would expand or improve the program for existing programs.
 
Those who were invited to move forward upon Pre-Review had the opportunity to complete the full application and be evaluated by a more detailed set of criteria. Programs that cleared this phase of evaluation moved forward to a full review and visit with the Allocations Committee. With the full review by the Allocations Committee and recommendation to and approval by the UWSK Board of Directors complete, funding will now be awarded to the programs selected. 

The full list of counties within the UWSK area and their funding is as follows:
Warren: $636,604
Logan: $119,147
Allen: $77,667
Simpson: $44,451
Barren $33,000
Butler: $19,621
Edmonson: $8,325
Hart: $8,281
Metcalfe: $4218
Monroe: $1925
​
“As we finish the second year of investments in our new Community Impact platform of work, we are thrilled that new partners continue to join forces with us along with the tremendous impact being achieved by current partners,” says Debbie Hills, President & CEO of United Way of Southern Kentucky. “We are now beginning to see the true impact of our efforts with the significant outcomes.  These outcomes, along with our other efforts in the community such as the kindergarten readiness public relations campaign and the MyChildIsReady.com microsite, will continue to impact the positive movement forward in our community’s Kindergarten Readiness and College & Career Readiness.  We look forward to continuing the movement forward through our collaborative efforts.”

For more information on how you can make the choice to LIVE UNITED through giving, advocating and volunteering, log on to the United Way of Southern Kentucky website at www.liveunitedtoday.com.  

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