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
City of Trenton – Mayor’s Youth Advocacy Cabinet
United Way continues to work actively with the Mayor’s office to create ways for Trenton’s 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 the City’s youth to stay in school and grow into productive community citizens.
Back To School Drive
Each year 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. In 2007, United Way provided backpacks filled with new school supplies to over 700 children in Mercer County. This effort resulted 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 about 10 agency programs serving over 400 children receive over $5,000 in grants that equale over 2,300 books. In addition, over 1,200 books were distributed through this program, thus helping 100’s of needy children get a head start on early reading and education.
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Fostering Self-Sufficiency
Mercer Alliance to End Homelessness
With the help of TYCO International, a 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 2006, leaders from the Latino Vision Council and community based organizations met at the Latino Vision Council’s 3 rd 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 will complete their plans this year by rolling out its Leadership Institute and bringing in consultants to evaluate local agencies’ capacities to best meet their neighborhoods’ needs.
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, Pottery Barn Kids, Talbot’s Kids, Talbot’s Petite, and Talbot’s Misses, agencies received free merchandise in 2006 worth more than $250,000. Through this partnership, an additional $55,000 in local unsolicited, in-kind donations was secured for agencies serving the homeless.
Holiday Food & Gift Drive
Our annual drives for the Thanksgiving and December holidays once again received donations from community members and employee groups. Last year we helped over 1,100 people (250 low-income or homeless families) at Thanksgiving, and in December over 60 families were assisted and over 800 children received gifts.
Fighting Hunger
United Way partners with Mercer Street Friends (MSF) to distribute food throughout the year through the MSF 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.
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Caring for Seniors and People with Disabilities
Medi-Cool
In 2007 United Way and the county of Mercer continued the Medi-Cool program to provide over 170 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.
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