United Way 2022 Q2 Impact Report 2022 United Way Community Impact Quarterly Report (April-June)

community Impact Report

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Our programs break down barriers to education, housing, health, and employment. We take on the toughest challenges facing our neighbors and the neighborhoods they call home. Take a look at how we’ve strengthened lives and neighborhoods!

guests served at Project Connect

$100m

in eviction prevention provided through STEP program

Reports & Tools: Our commitment to tracking impact ensures we’re able to continue strengthening the lives of those who call Central Maryland home.

media highlights

uwcm.org

Connecting the dots at Project Connect In partnership with the Harford County Government, 180 Harford County residents could access more than 60 vital services and resources:

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Impact

Highlights

Engagement

Media Highlights

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I finished strong due to the Family Center support. My relationship [with my child] and parenting is so amazing because the staff always helped me overcome any hardship! They gave me advice on how to be a great mother in any situation.

Always keep that energy, love, care, patience, etc. with the babies and mommies because that makes us feel amazing. To me, when I saw how y’all treat [my child] and myself, I felt so loved, supported, and motivated!

News about our work was included in nearly 100 media features and stories this quarter. View all coverage on our news page.

april-june 2022

More beautiful days in our neighborhoods Forty-nine grants totaling more than $400,000 were awarded to nonprofits across Greater Baltimore through our Neighborhood Grants program. Grants were awarded for projects that inspire community connection and amplify the efforts of local leaders to build upon, and support, their work happening at the neighborhood level. See all grant recipients here.

Outreach

We knew they could do it! We are bursting with pride for this year’s Family Center graduates! Graduating is not an easy feat, especially in a pandemic. Since its inception, we’ve witnessed 53 student-parents graduate from our Brooklyn Family Center, with five graduating this year as part of the 10th graduating class. As if that isn’t cool enough, these student-parents surpassed the national graduation average by almost 30%. In its first graduating class, three student-parents graduated from our Poppleton Family Center. Three more are attending summer school to receive their diplomas – we’re rooting for them!

The Daily Record Technical.ly

180+

Family Center graduates

$400,000

in Neighborhood Grants awarded

"My daughter has learned so much—from tracing her name to saying her numbers 1 through 10. Wow! This program helps me to be a better woman and a much better mom to my daughter. I am so very grateful for all of you." --Lidia

Scaling the (benefits) cliff United Way partnered with the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta and the Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond to launch its Career Ladder Identifier and Financial Forecaster (CLIFF) Dashboard to help Marylanders make informed career decisions to overcome the “benefits cliff,” a term used to describe the loss of public benefits to working families resulting from small increases in earned income.

It’s okay to not be okay To honor Mental Health Awareness Month, we released our 13th episode of our Barrier Breakers podcast: Getting Real about Mental Health. In this episode, we talked about how everyone deals with mental health challenges differently, the signs of struggle, and the barriers to accessing help. This episode featured Dominiece Clifton, United Way Changemaker Challenge recipient and CEO and founder of Move X Still, and Gwen Schemm, a former Division II athlete who now works at United Way.

Transportation at a Crossroads In a lively conversation moderated by Mike Kelly, Baltimore Metropolitan Council, Leonard Parrish, Harford County Government; Cheri Cernak, CRC Restaurants; and Joseph Jones, Jr., Center for Urban Families discussed how transportation challenges impede access to opportunity and how better public transportation is an investment in the future of hardworking Marylanders and our local economy. Nearly 150 individuals logged on to watch this session of our Realities of Inequity series.

Stepping up for secure housing Our Strategic Targeted Eviction Program (STEP) has prevented evictions in more than 7,500 households to date. With an additional $11 million in STEP funding for Baltimore County and a recent contract with the Department of Housing and Community Development for $21.5 million in funding, we now are managing more than $100 million to address the eviction crisis in our region. In June, Dr. Scott Gottbreht, Vice President of Housing and Senior Program Director, represented United Way at a press conference with Baltimore County Executive Johnny Olszewski, Terry Hickey of the Baltimore County Department of Housing and Community Development, and others to announce additional eviction prevention funding for Baltimore County tenants. See the segment with WMAR here and read the Baltimore Fishbowl article here.

Spark something bigger Donations to United Way are the catalyst that spark positive change for those we serve. In June, we launched our Spark Something Bigger ad campaign to increase awareness of our work to provide better and equitable access to housing, jobs, education, and good health. You may have seen our ads online, on TV and billboards, or in print! Check out the full video here.

Community Outreach: Our partners allow us to expand our reach in supporting Greater Baltimore.

Baltimore Sun Harford County Living

Realities of Inequity: Our Realities of Inequity series examines the barriers preventing Central Marylanders from getting ahead. Our latest session on transportation brought together local leaders to discuss what they’re doing to break down barriers.

Baltimore Sun

Press conference on additional eviction prevention funding includes United Way

New York Times bestselling author D. Watkins speaks at our Annual Meeting

Carroll County RUN Board’s monthly food distribution at Taneytown Shopping Center

Harford County residents receive resources at Project Connect

Honoring Greater Baltimore’s Top Philanthropists, Volunteers at Tocqueville Society Event

Reasons you should volunteer with us: You get to hang out with goats!

local leaders to join board of directors

new CLIFF Dashboard

Approximately 80 guests received eye exams

60 guests will receive prescription glasses

40+ got new haircuts—a sure self-esteem booster!

"A lot of the time, we do have the answers inside of us. Reaching out to a support system — whether that’s family, friends, professionals, people you trust — there’s space for that, but I think that we can also help guide our own healing.”

Vision to Action This spring, our Emerging Leaders United membership group held Vision to Action, a free, innovative conference series designed to support the growth of young professionals and provide ways for them to give back to the community. Nearly 170 people participated in online and in-person events that featured Monica Mitchell (Wells Fargo), Aaron Henkin (WYPR), Boi Carpenter (Johns Hopkins), and some of our Changemaker Challenge recipients, including Araba Maze, E.V. Yost, and Elijah Miles. If you weren’t able to attend, check out the sessions here.

Supporting Stronger Families Our Family Stability Program has helped 2,106 families avoid eviction and remain in their homes since its launch in 2012. Offered at 13 sites across Greater Baltimore, this program helps families stay housed and build self-sufficiency. From January 1 through March 31, 2022:

229 total families participated; 54 new families entered the program

96.6% of families avoided eviction and remained housed

41% of families that successfully completed the program reported increases in income

442 school-aged children were served

99% of the school-aged children remained enrolled in school and avoided a disruptive transfer because their families did not experience homelessness

Awards

Leading The Way United Way of Central Maryland President and CEO Franklyn Baker was honored by The Daily Record as a member of their annual Influential Marylanders list—for the second time! This year, Franklyn was honored in the Civic Leadership category for his sustained achievement, influence, and commitment to growing leaders. Franklyn was also honored with The American Red Cross Community Partner in Excellence Award.

We’re honored—to get the word out about our work! AMA Baltimore MX honored United Way of Central Maryland for our quarterly impact reports. These reports (like the one you’re reading now!), include data and stories about the people we help, and show the significant impact of donations of all sizes. The more people know about and support our work, the stronger Greater Baltimore will be! Our interactive virtual community earned the Gold Award of Excellence in the Communicator Awards for its effective and meaningful communication of the many ways we serve our region. The Communicator Awards are judged by the Academy of Interactive & Visual Arts, whose members include executives from organizations like Amazon, Disney, ESPN, GE Digital, IBM, Spotify, Time, Inc., The Wall Street Journal/Dow Jones, and Wired. THE POWER AND PROMISE OF PARTNERSHIPS Teamwork makes the dream work, and UNITED, we are doing great things! Our partnerships make our critical work possible. Just a few examples of the meaningful, measurable impact our partners have made possible this quarter include:

A partnership with Holly Poultry, Hungry Harvest, and McCormick & Company, Inc. to operate “Dinner on Us”—monthly food distributions at City of Refuge to benefit residents in South Baltimore. Each box of food contains chicken, fresh vegetables, and spices.

The food pantry serving participants in our Veterans Treatment Court in Baltimore City was empty—but thanks to a donation from General Dynamics and food drives from Maxim Health and Cushman Wakefield, it’s now full again!

Bank of America provided a $75,000 grant in support of the 211 Maryland United Way Helpline, which is a lifeline to so many in need of health and human services.

Nine new board members-- Renee Blanding and Noah Chang of Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine; Aaron Church, Ernst & Young; Sean Closkey, ReBUILD Metro; Derrick Dickins, Baltimore Gas and Electric; Greg Farno, Truist; Martin Lemelle, Maryland Institute College of Art; Derek Lynch, Wells Fargo; and Cindy O’Neill, consultant to nonprofits and philanthropists will bring new talents and insights to United Way and our work to promote equity and increase access to life’s basic needs.

The 2022 United Way Frank Miller Spirit of Partnership Awards honored exceptional organizations and individuals who helped us spark something bigger for our neighbors and the neighborhoods they call home. Honorees included the Maryland Department of Housing and Community Development, Corporate Office Properties Trust, Plano-Coudon, and Nette Stokes, Founder, Just Living Advocacy, Inc.

Carroll County RUN Board’s monthly food distribution at Taneytown Shopping Center

Harford County residents receive resources at Project Connect

Honoring Greater Baltimore’s Top Philanthropists, Volunteers at Tocqueville Society Event

Reasons you should volunteer with us: You get to hang out with goats!

Awards

highlights

We knew they could do it! We are bursting with pride for this year’s Family Center graduates! Graduating is not an easy feat, especially in a pandemic. Since its inception, we’ve witnessed 53 student-parents graduate from our Brooklyn Family Center, with 5 graduating this year as part of the 10th graduating class. As if that isn’t cool enough, these student-parents surpassed the national average by almost 30%. In its first graduating class, 3 student-parents graduated from our Poppleton Family Center. 3 more are attending summer school to receive their diplomas – we’re rooting for them!

Connecting the dots at Project Connect In partnership with the Harford County Government, 180 Harford County residents could access more than 60 vital services and resources:

Stepping up for secure housing Our Strategic Targeted Eviction Program (STEP) has prevented evictions in more than 6,500 households to date. With an additional $11 million in STEP funding for Baltimore County and a recent contract with the Department of Housing and Community Development for $21.5 million in funding, we now are managing more than $100 million to address the eviction crisis in our region. In June, Dr. Scott Gottbreht, Vice President of Housing and Senior Program Director, represented United Way at a press conference with Baltimore County Executive Johnny Olszewski, Terry Hickey of the Baltimore County Department of Housing and Community Development, and others to announce additional eviction prevention funding for Baltimore County tenants. See the segment with WMAR here and read the Baltimore Fishbowl article here.

Membership Groups: The work we do is made possible by generous donors, like our Tocqueville Society. They help improve the lives of countless individuals and families through incredible investments.

I95 Business

media highlights

News about our work was included in nearly 100 media features and stories this quarter. View all coverage on our news page.

Reports & Tools: Our commitment to tracking impact ensures we’re able to continue strengthening the lives of those who call Central Maryland Home.

The Daily Record Technical.ly

Community Outreach: Our partners allow us to expand our reach in supporting Greater Baltimore.

Baltimore Sun Harford County Living

Baltimore Sun

Highlights

Media Highlights