How United Way of Erie County is addressing Poverty through Community Schools
Since their inception, United Ways have seen numerous changes not only to the world around them, but also to the way they impact their local communities. Many changes have happened across the United Way network since I worked with my first United Way in 1989. The largest change being the shift away from their role as a workplace campaign fundraiser for carefully vetted local organizations and programs. With online giving and access to online resources like Charity Navigator and Candid, donors no longer need their United Way to collect and pass-through their contributions.
With these changes, United Ways were left to find out where they fit in this new internet age and what their role would be in creating lasting impact in their communities. After working with dozens of United Ways, we created the Issue Focus Model in 2011. Through this model, innovative and progressive United Ways have transformed their work from pass-through fundraising to changing lives by focusing on a single issue like poverty, homelessness, or kindergarten preparedness.
An early adopter of the Issue Focus Model was United Way of Erie County (Erie, PA). In 2011, United Way of Erie County realized remaining relevant would require making significant changes. This led them to adopt their issue focus on crushing poverty in their community. After deciding to focus on poverty, United Way of Erie County began extensive research and convened all types of community organizations: nonprofit, government, education, faith-based, and businesses; to determine how best to impact poverty in Erie County.
Issue focused United Ways recognize that by working together with other community organizations, United Way does not need to fund every root cause of their issue. Issue-focused United Ways carefully study and research their issue to understand which root causes are being adequately addressed by other organizations, and which root causes will be most strongly impacted by United Way.
That is how United Way of Erie County discovered that their greatest impact on poverty would come from addressing education-related root causes, specifically through the Community School model. While the Imagination Library program was identified as a supportive initiative, Community Schools quickly became the organization's primary strategy for systemic impact.
In 2016, United Way of Erie County launched their Community School model with five pilot elementary schools in Erie Public Schools. Today, the initiative has grown significantly to include 17 Community Schools serving more than 11,000 children across four Erie County school districts. The Community School model directly addresses poverty by providing comprehensive supports to students and families, removing non-academic barriers to learning, and fostering long-term academic and personal success.
In addition to implementing innovative programs, issue-focused United Ways also take a proactive approach to funding local nonprofits. Instead of asking local organizations to submit proposals for programs they wish United Way to fund, issue-focused United Ways conduct their own research and determine what programs are critically needed to address their specific issue. United Way of Erie County embraced this proactive funding strategy, intentionally investing the majority of their resources into the Community School model, recognizing it as the most impactful way to "Crush Poverty" in Erie County.
United Way of Erie County stands out among the most innovative local United Ways I have worked with. Through their bold and focused approach, they have transcended their former role as a fundraiser and fully embraced their identity as an impact-focused organization, creating lasting change and transforming lives through their Community Schools initiative.
