Berkshire United Way to Invest $1.875M in Berkshires
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"The current economic conditions have made fundraising difficult this year," said Kristine Hazzard, Berkshire United Way's president and chief executive officer, in a statement. "In light of this, we are pleased to announce community investments on par with last year's in terms of total dollars, and better than even in terms of strategic focus."
Hazzard said the community had stepped up this year in its involvement in investing in the social service network. As a result, Berkshire United Way will partner with 26 organizations focused on aiding children and families and promoting financial stability and independence. In particular, the funding will go toward groups working to promote the emotional, physical and mental health of children to ensure healthy environments that help them reach their potential at school and at home.
BUW will track progress toward these goals by using community measures related to education, income, health, employment and housing.
Hazzard said, "BUW is also supporting initiatives that ensure individuals in the community obtain employment and income to support themselves and their families."
The investment marks the continuing effort of BUW to focus on root causes of community problems and to achieve sustainable community change. In March, 2008 Berkshire United Way began to mobilize the community to identify pressing community needs and to develop goals for the county.
Among the partners are Berkshire Children and Families, which will receive more than $250,000 toward specific programs; Elder Services of Berkshire County nearly $65,000, and $10,00 toward the Berkshire County Regional Employment Board's Lenox High School Youth Summer Program.
BUW reached out to diverse sectors of the community including businesses; government and elected officials; educators; health and human service organizations and community volunteers. The first outcome of the community engagement process was the development of a community aspiration for the Berkshires: Making Berkshire County a community of hope and opportunity, where every individual and family lives, works and thrives.
Goals for the community were prioritized into two overarching areas: helping children and families succeed and promoting financial stability. Community conditions will be tracked through a funded partnership with the Berkshire County Regional Planning Commission to ensure accountability and progress toward the identified outcomes.
"Nearly 400 community members assisted in prioritizing education and employment as the keys to a thriving community," said board Chairman John Bissell, senior vice president at Greylock Federal Credit Union. "We will focus our investments of donor dollars in these areas over the next several years."
Berkshire County, he said, is fortunate to have many good organizations doing good work in the community. Groups receiving BUW investments have "committed to carefully plan and measure their work against the goals set by the community."
This year past fiscal year, more than 75 volunteers invested more than 1,000 hours in training and the evaluation of 91 proposals received by BUW from 37 nonprofit organizations. The criteria used to determine funding recommendations included program quality and effectiveness and the organization's ability to demonstrate meaningful and measurable results.
"In these challenging economic times, our volunteers recognized that it is more important than ever to maximize the return on investments made toward long term community solutions and improvement," said Bissell. "Their tremendous work has resulted in funding decisions for programs with genuine performance indicators."
Some of the organizations' results include:
■ 100 percent of the children served in a child-care setting increased skills and development in language and communication
■ 100 percent of adult learners made significant gains of three grade levels
■ 89 percent of teen parents demonstrated successful parenting skills
■ 400 low-income participants were assisted with submitting tax returns; an aggregate estimate of $400,000 was returned to the participants through federal and state tax credit programs
"For many of us who have lived in Berkshire County a long time, the social problems can start to feel like they are going to be with us forever," Bissell said. "We are starting to show that it's just not true. People can better their lives with the community's help."
Go to www.berkshireunitedway.org for a complete listing of funded partners or to find out more about BUW. To find out more about helping in the community, contact Nancy Stoll, director of community engagement and evaluation, 413-442-6948.
