Community Building
United Way of Greater Mercer County serves as a neutral convener around which diverse groups can partner, collaborate and produce measurable results. We assess community needs, monitor and evaluate local community based organizations, and build partnerships with government, human service agencies and local companies to address critical human care issues and to leverage scarce resources. The following describes a few of the innovative partnerships
we have formed to meet critical needs in our three defined impact areas.
Helping Children Succeed
Mercer County Youth Services Commission and Gang Task Force
United Way continues to work actively with the county to create ways for pre-teens and teenage youth to avoid falling prey to gangs and gang violence. United Way plays an active role in identifying services and programs that will enable our youth to stay in school and grow into productive community citizens.
Back To School Drive
Community Based Organizations, Civic Groups, Day Care Centers, Churches and concerned individuals contact United Way to request backpacks for needy children in the community whose families lack the resources to purchase needed school supplies. United Way partners with local companies and organizations who engage their employees in a back to school drive. Each year, United Way provides backpacks filled with new school supplies to hundreds of children in Mercer County, resulting in a boost in each child's self-esteem and a more positive attitude toward starting the school year.
Fighting Illiteracy
To help address the illiteracy rates in Mercer County, United Way has a partnership with First Book National, a non-profit organization whose sole mission is to give children of low-income families the opportunity to read and own their first new books. The Mercer County chapter reaches targeted children and their families by working with community based literacy programs in daycare centers and pre- and after- school care programs, as well as soup kitchens and homeless shelters. Each year several local programs receive over $5,000 in grants that equals over 3,000 books, thus helping hundreds of needy children get a head start on their education.
Fostering Self-Sufficiency
Mercer Alliance to End Homelessness
This unique and innovative collaborative effort to end homelessness in Mercer County was launched on June 30, 2004. The Alliance unveiled its 10-year plan to end homelessness in the county by focusing on the root causes of the problem. Linking active community investors with civic-minded corporations, the Alliance is creating awareness of the problem and identifying real solutions like creating more affordable and permanent housing in Mercer County. Each year, the Alliance is instrumental in dramatically increasing the EITC (Earned Income Tax Credit) returns for hundreds of low-income Mercer families and thus improving their financial literacy.
More about the Alliance and its work can be found at www.merceralliance.org.
Latino Vision Council
Recognizing the continued growth in the Latino population in Mercer County, United Way and the Latino Vision Council are working together to identify and to develop Latino community leaders and to improve the capacity of human service organizations in Mercer's Latino communities. In November 2007, leaders from the Latino Vision Council and community based organizations met at the Latino Vision Council's Annual Retreat to explore ways to develop local leaders and to strengthen and support existing programs for Latinos in the Mercer County area. The Latino Vision Council continued their efforts this year by bringing in a consultant to evaluate local agencies' capacities to best meet their neighborhoods' needs and by finalizing plans for their Latino Leadership Institute.
Ex-Offender Reentry Partnership
United Way partners with UIH Family Partners in Trenton, NJ State Corrections, Parole, Probation, and local agencies and faith-based organizations to assess, plan and develop local services for men and women being released from prison to reintegrate back into the community and to become productive family members, obtain housing, and earn a living wage.
Gifts-In-kind International Program
Through a broad outreach to community-based and governmental agencies (assisting low-income or homeless families and individuals, abused women, and foster families), United Way gives organizations the ability to participate under the United Way "umbrella" in purchasing goods for only the cost of shipping and handling. In addition, through a local partnership with Bed Bath and Beyond and Talbot's, agencies receive free merchandise worth more than $200,000 each year. Through this partnership, agencies serving the homeless receive an additional $50,000 in local unsolicited, in-kind donations.
Holiday Food & Gift Drive
Our annual drives for the Thanksgiving and December holidays receive donations from community members and employee groups that help over 1,000 people (250 low-income or homeless families) at Thanksgiving, and over 60 families and over 800 children in December.
Fighting Hunger
United Way partners with Mercer Street Friends (MSF) to distribute food throughout the year through their Food Bank to help fight hunger. We are a sponsor of the annual National Association of Letter Carriers drive and also organize food collections at area companies and organizations as well as community food drives. In addition, we fund local meals-on-wheels programs that deliver hot meals daily to frail and home-bound elderly and disabled.
Caring for Seniors and People with Disabilities
Medi-Cool
In 2008 United Way and the county of Mercer continued the Medi-Cool program to provide over 160 air conditioners to low-income seniors and seniors most in need in the Mercer County area. We partnered with Catholic Charities of Trenton and Princeton Senior Resource Center to ensure that only those most in need received the cooling units.
Mercer County Coalition for Coordinated Transportation
United Way partners with the county's transportation program, TRADE, local agencies, the DVRPC (Delaware Valley Regional Planning Commission), and the county planning office to assess local transportation needs and to plan a coordinated public transportation system for seniors, people with disabilities, and low-income individuals and families.