United Way Of Franklin County Announces Community Impact Fund

The United Way of Franklin County also has a new poverty simulation tool.

United Way of Franklin County photo

(Brookville, Ind.) - United Way of Franklin County (UWFC) has been serving the community for nearly 30 years by providing funding for agencies and programs that work to improve individual lives. Times have changed over the years, and so have the challenges and needs in our community.

Our vision for the 2019 campaign is to help our most vulnerable individuals, families that routinely struggle to afford the basics and have little left over for savings or emergencies. Those families, we refer to as ALICE families (Asset Limited Income Constrained Employed) don’t fall under the Federal Poverty guideline and therefore fall through the cracks. We have the data and know that 34% of families in Franklin County are either living in poverty or are ALICE families.  We are working with community partners and agencies to bring about effective solutions for these families. We would like to introduce our Community Impact Fund-the strategic approach to see these families move towards self-sufficiency and break the cycle of generational poverty. This fund will work to provide meaningful solutions and offer help with basic needs like food, childcare, transportation and employment.

“I know some people don’t quite understand the challenges that ALICE families face so I am excited that we have a poverty simulation tool for people to experience the decisions they are faced with daily,” states Kelly Bulmer, Executive Director. Bulmer highly encourages community members to visit www.indianatoughchoices.org to gain a better understanding of those who struggle to afford the basics. Participants are asked to enter their name, email and zip code for monitoring purposes only.

“Our theme for the campaign this year is the Power of One,” reports Dawn Rosenberger, campaign chair. Rosenberger goes on to say, “We truly believe that it takes just one person to make a difference.” UWFC is encouraging the community to give just one more dollar or hour of community service; be the one that drives the change!

“Our desire is to link arms with the community to bring our campaign vision to light, we would love to have you give to our Community Impact Fund to lend a hand to those families that struggle,” Rosenberger said.

To give to the campaign, simply visit www.uwfcin.org and give securely through Paypal. You may mail a donation to PO Box 105 Brookville, IN 47012. If you work outside the county and your employer hold a United Way pledge drive, you can request you pledge be directed back to Franklin County. Please notate “Community Impact Fund” on your donation if you desire to help families in need, otherwise all donations will go into the general campaign fund. In addition, you can sign up through Amazon Smile and select United Way of Franklin County as the charity of your choice and Amazon will give .5% of your total purchases back to UWFC.

Anyone with questions on how to donate should contact the office by phone 765-647-2789 or email at info@uwfcin.org. To stay up to date on UWFC news, sign up for email alerts on the website, www.uwfcin.org

The United Way of Franklin County seeks to positively impact the lives of those in our community by assessing needs, uniting partner organizations, agencies and volunteers and devoting our financial resources and efforts to the most critical needs.