United Way of Summit & Medina is calling on members of the community to support its work in Summit and Medina counties by donating to its end of year giving campaign.
“This time of year, when residents face increased needs, like new winter clothes and higher utility bills, is when people-centered, one-on-one care matters most,” said Jim Mullen, president and CEO of United Way of Summit & Medina. “Our programs – from our 211 help line to our Family Resource Centers in Akron Public Schools to Healthy Beginnings at Home – are designed to give people help that’s tailored to their specific needs. And we work with each individual over time, for as long as it takes to help them achieve success.”
United Way of Summit & Medina’s direct service programs, which help local residents 24 hours a day, seven days a week, work to advance the organization’s Bold Goals by 2028. Targeting indicators of community success – like infant mortality, early childhood literacy and youth opportunity and financial empowerment – the Bold Goals guide United Way’s work in the community and serve as measures of its success.
Already, United Way and its partners are showing marked progress on the Bold Goals. For its Bold Goal 1, United Way said it would raise the percentage of Akron Public Schools third graders reading at or above grade level to 65 percent. When the Bold Goals were announced in 2017, 38 percent of APS third graders were reading at grade level. In the 2023-2024 school year (the latest for which figures are available), 51 percent were reading at grade level.
For its Bold Goal 2, United Way announced in 2017 that it would raise APS four-year high-school graduation rates to 90 percent and college/career readiness rates to 60 percent. In 2017, those statistics stood at 75 percent and 21 percent, respectively. For APS’s class of 2023, 88 percent of seniors were graduating in four years and 76 percent were college/career ready.
For its Bold Goal 3, United Way is working to financially empower 11,000 people in Summit County and 2,500 people in Medina County. Since opening its Akron Financial Empowerment Center in 2018, which serves residents of Summit and Medina counties, United Way has helped clients boost their savings an estimated $3 million and decrease their debt by $7 million. With United Way’s help, nearly 5,000 Summit and Medina County residents are on the path to financial empowerment.
But the greatest indicators of United Way’s impact are the stories of clients whose lives were improved by its services. For its Bold Goal 4, United Way is working to lower the Black infant mortality rate to 6 in every 1,000 live births. The latest figures available for Summit County show the Black infant mortality rate is 12.5 per 1,000 live births while the overall infant mortality rate is 5.4 per 1,000 live births. United Way’s Healthy Beginnings at Home program helps people with at-risk pregnancies by providing basic needs assistance and individualized one-on-one care coordination, so that clients remain housed and carry their pregnancies safely to term.
Miranda, who received help from Healthy Beginnings at Home after calling United Way’s 211 while pregnant, credits the program with helping her turn her life around. “It gets overwhelming at times, being a single mom when you don’t have family to turn to,” she said. The program helped her stay housed after she lost her job, and the support she received from her United Way caseworker was instrumental in her recovery from substance use disorder and regaining custody of her two children. Today, Miranda is one-and-a-half years sober and mother to three healthy children.
“This program literally helped change my life for the better and my kids’ life for the better,” she said. To see Miranda’s story, visit youtube.com/watch?v=wcNz2G2rttQ.